God's healing touch

Both the characters in the Gospel today show us something of ourselves in the face of adversity. Both Jarius and the woman with the hermerorage were desperate to find Jesus. They had faith in Jesus and so they were seeking him. They both made themselves vrunerable in facing Jesus. The woman reaches out to touch him and the father seeks Jesus and wants him to come with him to her daughter. Both look towards Jesus as their final hope. But through this desperation comes something wonderful a great faith that Jesus. 

There are a few things that can help us unpack this story. Jesus when walking through the town gets touched he asks who has just touched him. It is important for him because he has felt that someone is reaching out for him. Jesus does not want to be classed as some sort of walking relic where people just reach out and are cured. Notice that the person they bring forward is scared and frightened but Jesus purpose of his question is not to humiliate but to commended her for her personal faith and to let her go in peace knowing who has healed her cares also for her. 

But we cannot also deny the quality of the faith of Jarius here is also a man who is desperate for Jesus his daughter is dying and in his pursuit of Jesus his desperation is so much that he begs for Jesus to come with him. On that journey of desperation he learns that his daughter has already passed away. There is then the question why bothering the master because there is nothing else that he can do. Jesus reply is “ Do not be afraid, only have faith” 

Jesus goes into the house with his trusted friends and wakes the girl from her long sleep and to prove that she is really alive and not a ghost Jesus told them to give her something to eat. 

The Gospel although long today is worth listening too it teaches us something very important about who we are in the sight of Jesus.  

The first thing that we notice is that Jesus heals us we need to reach out to him. But also that Jesus does not want to treated like what we would class today as a service provider. He wants us to have a personal relationship with him. The quality of the healings is that the people have some sort of faith in Jesus and his desire is that through this faith we come to a personal relationship with him. 

But like the characters in the Gospel sometimes we are scared to allow him in. We hold on to our fears we hold on to our lack of faith. But we need to hear again afresh in our hearts the response of Jesus to his disciples “ Do not be afraid only have faith.” 

Lastly I have one last question that I have pondered her in the Gospel Does God heal today where can we see his loving touch. We see God at work in those little moments of healing of the Spirit when someone is afraid and then is healed because they realise that Jesus is with them. When they come to some understanding of Jesus being with them when they are in grief.