To Boldly Go...

I have had a bad cough for the past 3 weeks or so.  Have I gone to the doctor yet...nope - although I did finally make an appointment for tomorrow.  Basically - I don't go to the doctor right away because it's a pain to schedule, I wonder if it's bad enough to need medicine, or they won't be able to help, and if they can't then my sarcastic husband calls me a baby.

Vastly different from the people in Mark 5...all the examples of people who boldly reached out to Jesus, at the risk of public humiliation, but with confidence and faith.  The woman suffering from a bleeding disorder...she was considered ritually unclean and would have been excluded from most social contact.  Just her touching Jesus would make him unclean under Jewish Law.  That fear alone should have kept her from approaching him.  The Synagogue leader Jairus, asked Jesus to heal his dying daughter.  At that time, the Synagogue rulers had close ties with the Pharisees...so when Jairus bowed down before Jesus, it was probably a daring act of respect and worship.  When Jesus told the mourners in Jairus' house that the girl was not dead - they laughed at him!  But Jairus didn't lose hope.  Even the man healed from being possessed by demons boldly went to Jesus and begged to go with him.  OH...interesting note.  The name Legion, which always freaks me out, is a term for the largest unit of the Roman army consisting of 3,000-6,000 soldiers) This gives you an idea of Jesus' power to heal - releasing that many demons using the words from His mouth.

I don't have a bold and confident kind of faith in regular doctors...which is why I hesitate to go.  But we don't have to hesitate with Jesus.  Our faith in Him as God's son brings healing and changes lives.  Writing all this reminded me of a verse found in Hebrews 4:16  "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."  That's what each person in today's chapter did...and they received healing "in their time of need".  Look closely at the timeline with Jairus and the bleeding woman...can you imagine your child is dying and, as you rush with the doctor to save her, another less serious patient distracts the doctor, and he actually stops to help?  Wouldn't you lose faith in that doctor?  Sometimes we can feel like our problems can keep us from God...but we learn from these examples that Jesus was there for the woman in her time of need, just as he was for Jairus.  As Jesus said "Don't be afraid; just believe".