So....I'm studying Mark right now, right? So...the pastor I've been listening to pointed out something interesting.
You know that lady with the "issue of blood" in Mark 5? Yeah . . . well . . . I'd never considered this before. Like, you know how the point of the story is that Jesus tells her that her faith made her whole and stuff, right? But I hadn't thought of what her faith really meant until going through this study.
Okay, so listen to this. The passage says that this woman had been EVERYWHERE to try to get healed of this disease. Nothing had worked, so she sees Jesus and touches the hem of His garment.
Now . . . let's think about what that faith entailed. It can't have been very big, because this woman had tried EVERYTHING. You know? Like, Jesus seemed like a good idea too. Of course she must have been ashamed of doing this, because when Jesus asks "Who touched me?" (in order to get her to fess up) she doesn't volunteer herself right away. This was probably because of Levitical Law and stuff about women who have blood problems being unclean. How dare she touch this Rabbi, right?
But anyways, think about how little faith she actually had. She was desperate. She'd been to all the doctors, healers, etc. that the area had to offer. Jesus must have been just one more try. I mean, what would it hurt? I think too often we attribute some kind of holy status to these people because of their being in the Bible. Like, that they were all great "Faith Warriors" or something when they were probably just people like you and me. She probably didn't have "beyond a shadow of a doubt" kind of faith.
Besides, "beyond a shadow of a doubt" faith is impossible for us anyway. Of course, a person may THINK they have complete faith in God, but . . . an HONEST person would say, "I WANT to have perfect, complete faith in God, realizing that I'm fallen, but also realizing that the process of sanctification draws me closer to Him" . . . but . . . mathematically speaking it's--at best with extreme optimism--like a point that approaches infinity. Until we get to heaven, we aren't going to love and trust God the way we completely should, and even then the Scriptures tell us that we will marvel about God for the rest of eternity. Not that marveling has to do with faith, but . . . He will still be awesome to us and we will never completely understand Him.
I guess for me this story really showed me two things. First of all, Jesus wasn't lying when He said you need faith like a mustard seed. Secondly, that we are TOTALLY without excuse to trust Him. We don't even have to be 100% SURE, you know? We just have to be willing to accept His gift--even if we don't understand what that gift totally means.
The woman in Mark 5 was willing to let Jesus heal her. That's all it took.
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1 comment:
It's excellent that you were able to expand on this passage and point out the fact that we will never have 100% faith because we are human, but all that we need is to have faith like a mustard see. But more importantly, that we really have no excuse to not trust Him.
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