When she did so, she risked everything, for she violated the taboo of touching others thereby making each of them ‘unclean’ for a period of seven days.  [See references to the Levitical laws as noted in our former post.]  When she did so, however, “Immediately the fountain of her blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction” (v.29).  Jesus also felt power flow out of his body, and when He saw her, she fell at His feet and told Him the whole truth.  This event occurred while Jesus was on His way, thronged by a great crowd, to the house of a prominent leader of the synagogue to raise up his daughter who was a the ‘edge of death,’ and who, due to the delay this woman’s brash action had caused, did, indeed die!  If you are anything like me, such an interruption, such an untoward distraction, would cause feelings of irritation, frustration (even hot anger) to rise up from within.  Jesus, however, in total empathy with this dear poor wretched outcast, showed her compassion, love and acceptance, and He said to her words of affirmation and praise:  “Daughter, your faith has made you well.  Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction” (v. 34).

There are a couple of things of note here: 

(1) Jesus did not rebuke this woman for “breaking the law.” 

His response was based on His compassion for her suffering.

(2) Jesus recognized the courage, born of extreme desperation, that it took for her to defy the traditions and religious stigmas of her society.

(3) Jesus acknowledged her action – her act of faith – to press forward and to lay hold of the tassels of His garment, believing, yes – knowing – that, if she could but do so, she would be healed – and she was!

Jesus declared that it was her faith that had made her whole.

In our next post, we will examine more closely this “hem of His garment,” that is, the “tassels” this woman was so determined to take hold of.  Then we will explore the healing  of blind Bartimaeus.  For now, enjoy a little (maybe very little! :0) humor and some “Food for Thought.”

~~~~~~~```

An elderly couple, married for many, many years were lying in bed, and just as the old gentleman was dozing off, his wife said, “You know, when we were lying in bed together when we were a young married couple, you would reach out and take my hand in yours and hold it so lovingly.”  So, the husband gently reached out, took his wife’s hand in his and held it warmly.

Just as the old fellow started to doze again, his wife said, “You know, when we were younger, you often rolled over, spoke softly into my ear that you loved me and kissed my cheek.”  So, once again, the husband followed his beloved’s prompt and rolled over, whispered in her ear softly, “Sweetheart, I love you so much,” and then he gently but lovingly kissed her cheek.

Yet one more time, just as the old boy was about ready to drop off to sleep, his beloved nudged him with her elbow, giggled, and said,” And then, you would often bite my neck!” – and she trembled a bit as she recalled those earlier exciting moments.  Her mate growled somewhat and struggling out of bed, he started to shuffle off to the bathroom.  “where are you going?” she called out to him.

“I going to get my teeth!” said he.

~~~~~~~```

“Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets.  So love the people who treat you right, and forget about the ones who don’t.”

                                                                                                ~ Carol Manning

[I would exchange the words “pray for” in place of “forget about.” ~ Bob]

~~~~~~~```

Dear Lord,

I kneel down before you at this moment.

Please enlighten what is dark in me,

   Strengthen what is weak in me,

      Mend what is broken in me, Bind what is bruised in me,

         Heal what is sick in me, and Revive whatever peace and love that died in me

This is also my prayer for my loved ones – my family and my friends, and

   Even for those who hate me.

In Jesus’ Name ~ Amen!

Jesus Honors Desperation Wed With Faith Wed With Action!

In Mark 5, we read of more astounding miracles, but we want to focus especially on the woman who had suffered from a profuse menstrual bleeding condition for twelve (12) years and been bankrupted in the process by physicians who could not help her.  Therefore, we note the first element working mightily in this dear woman’s heart – Desperation!

Next we note that she determined in her heart that if she could but touch the ‘hem’ of Jesus’ garment (the tassel – the tzit-tzit on the corner of His prayer shawl or of His tunic) she would be healed.  [More information on the  biblical roots pr the tzi-tzit to follow.]  For now, we shall just mention that this was a commonly held belief among many of the Jewish people of the Second Temple Period, the time when Jesus was actively ministering.  We see an example of this in Matthew  14:35-36:  “And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent out into all that surrounding region, brought to him all who were sick, and begged Him  that they might only touch the hem of His garment, and as many as touched it were made perfectly well.”  The people believed that the righteous rabbis and Pharisees among them would sometimes be given by God the power to heal, and this power so permeated their being that even their clothes became a “point of contact” with this divine healing power.  This poor, desperate woman exercised this second element so critical to her being healed – Faith!  Whether we agree with this or not, or whether or not we fully understand it, we must acknowledge that in this passage in Mark 5 that Jesus did, indeed, feel the healing power flow out of Him at the woman’s touch! – verse 30:  “And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched My clothes?’”  And so, we note the third element in this woman’s healing – Action!  She put her faith into action.  The Apostle James later would explain to us:  “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works (deeds), is dead. . . . Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works (his deeds, that is, his faith put into action!)” (James 2:17,18b).

Our next post: Jesus honors desperation wed with faith wed with action!

          (continued . . . . )

Some Food for Thought ~

 “Our words reveal our thoughts.

            Our manners mirror our self-esteem.

                        Our actions reflect our character.

                                    Our habits predict the future.”

                                                                                                ~ William A. Ward

 

Be Willing to Pay the Price to Show Compassion

This did not come without a price for Jesus.  He had just shared with His disciples, immediately before this encounter (v. 38) that they needed to go to the ‘next towns’ in order to preach the gospel of His inauguration of His kingdom in their midst.  Although He instructed the cleansed leper to keep the event of his healing and deliverance a secret, the poor man, of course, just ‘had to’ go out and proclaim it everywhere!  (Wouldn’t we have done likewise?  Of course, we would!)  The dilemma this now created for Jesus , however, is that He was ritually unclean and could not enter the towns, let alone the synagogues to preach!  But, Praise God, the power of Romans 8:28 was just as alive then as it is today, and when Jesus went out into the ‘desert places, the people came to Him from every direction’ (v. 45). Therefore, instead of preaching to small assemblies in the local synagogues, Jesus was preaching to the multitudes!  Hallelujah!

Does this “price,” this “cost,” resonate with you?  Jesus had just declared His clear intention – His agenda, if you will – “But He said to them, ‘Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth” (Mark 1:38). Now, because He had displayed such compassion to a poor leper, He had become ritually unclean (see, for example, Lev. 5:2; 7:21, et al.) and His plans were, temporarily, at least, “derailed.”   He would have to wait for at least seven days, cleanse Himself and His garments, show Himself to a priest to be declared clean, and then resume His plans.

How about you, and me?  When we have our plans all laid out, scheduled and confirmed, and an opportunity to reach out with compassion to minister to another, knowing that it will throw our plans out of sync and disrupt our schedule, possibly costing us a lost business opportunity, or causing us to be misunderstood and/or criticized and possibly lose the esteem of others for “wasting” our time by “touching” someone “like that,” will we take the time to touch a “leper?”  Think about it.  Think long and hard, and then, please, have an ear to “hear what the Spirit says” (Rev. 2:7, e t al.), do not pass that leper by!  Seize the moment and the opportunity to be “the hands and the voice of the Master,” and ‘touch’ that person in His name.  You will surely be rewarded to a far greater degree than any cost you may experience or price you may pay, “do not be deceived; God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7).

Our next post: Jesus honors desperation wed with faith wed with action!

Some Fresh Bread: 


Compassion

A beautiful new song by Casting Crowns, “Jesus, Friend of Sinners,” has a chorus that ends with this refrain: “Jesus, break my heart for what breaks yours.”  I sincerely believe that we will touch the hearts of more people and “win” more people to the Lord if we have a deeply compassionate heart for them, right where they are, rather than if we should have an attitude of superiority and a “know-it-all” judgmental demeanor, looking at others, as another line of that song declares, “at the end of our pointing finger!”

The word compassion: com (with) passion (from the root word meaning “suffering,” – or, by extension, “the deepest of feelings”) – Jesus had this ability to connect with people by being with them in their sufferings.  It is the same clear distinction as we find between “sympathy” – alongside of one in their ‘feelings,’ i.e. their deepest pain – and “empathy” – in(side) of their pain with them.  Let us think for a moment about this distinction.  If a person comes to me and shares the pain they are experiencing due to the suffering of their child, I could, as a brother in Christ and as a friend who cares about both parent and child, ‘feel,’ in a sense, their distress and be moved by it.  However, as a father who was held his little boy and walked the floor with him and rocked him and prayed for him for hours on end as he screamed with the agony of a double ear infection which he could not escape, and who only knew sleep from exhaustion, a father who cried out to God to please deliver his little boy from his suffering, who even vainly cried out for the Father to allow him to bear his child’s pain, if He would only please deliver that precious child from his, I could truly empathize with the parent and his/her child.  You see, these precious ones who came to the Master were His children, for as their Creator, they were His own.  Jesus, then, had the ability to “step into” their pain and to suffer with them.  That is empathy; that is true Compassion!

Our next post: Jesus “goes the extra mile.”


A Little "Food for Thought" 

At the Feast of Ego everyone leaves hungry.

DON'T SWEAT THE PETTY THINGS AND DON'T PET THE SWEATY THINGS
 

Pun-ishment: A backward poet writes inverse. (Hmmmm . . . . .)