Time to believe

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

TIME TO BELIEVE

Matt 9:18-22

18 While he was saying this, a ruler came and knelt before him and said, "My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live." 19 Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples. 20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed." 22 Jesus turned and saw her. "Take heart, daughter," he said, "your faith has healed you." And the woman was healed from that moment.

NIV

This whole incident is recorded in much greater detail by Luke and Mark, while Matthew seems to just present the raw facts. From the other accounts we are given enough information to know this man was Jairus, one of the rulers of the Synagogue. When he gets to Jesus he pleads him to come to his house because his daughter is near death. Here Matthew seems to omit that and goes straight to her being dead. But the other accounts indicate that after Jairus has asked Jesus to come heal his daughter, he receives news she has died and thus no longer needing to bother Jesus with coming to his house. We will get to the conclusion of that narrative later, but in the midst of it we have this woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. Again the other accounts share information that she had spent all her money over the past twelve years on doctors, but instead of getting any better, her bleeding became worse.  She had spent all she had on trying every medical solution possible and all hope of a cure was gone. But now enters Jesus. She certainly had heard about his healing power. News of such miracles travels fast. Travelers, merchants, traders, would have spread such news to every town they passed through. Of course this place where he was presently was his own town, which was according to the other records, Capernaum. This was where he was more or less using as a base of operations. This woman had lost all hope but her hope was raised with the presence of Jesus. The reason she would not come forward right off, was her bleeding, according to the law, made her unclean and thus not able to address Jesus directly. Yet knowing his power, she thought if she could just touch the hem of his garment, and sure enough the power flowed from him and she was instantly healed. Again Matthew tells us just the facts, but there was more of an exchange between Jesus and this woman. At first he felt the power flow from him and looked to see who had touched him. No one came forward but upon repeating his question, she finally confessed and he assured her that it was her faith that healed her, which Matthew makes sure to include. So then what do we learn? Do we forget about spending all our money on doctors when we have Jesus? Maybe it is about faith, rather than anything else. Faith is defined according to the Greek word Jesus used, as a persuasion, give credence to, moral conviction. It has been assigned religious applications of moral conviction of a religious truth or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher. It has specially been assigned as reliance on God for Salvation. However most of that has been assigned by the translators, rather than by the actually Greek word. Faith is simply the complete trust or confidence in someone or something. What or who do we have complete trust and confidence in? Surely no doctor can provide us with salvation, therefore we trust completely in Jesus. Yet here we see this woman first must have had all her faith in the doctors for healing, but was left worse off for putting her confidence in them. But when she placed her complete trust and confidence in Jesus, she was healed. Surely that was just for then because the doctors of that era were certainly archaic, perhaps even barbaric in their practices. Today the medical profession has become so knowledgeable about so much that we should be putting our trust in them. Yet there are still many infirmities the doctors are still trying to figure out how to heal, but yet have had any real success. We had been admonished to do something else then go see the doctor when we are sick.

James 5:13-16

13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

NIV

The prayers offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. He will awaken them from illness, heal them. But it would seem it is dependent on the prayer offered in faith, complete trust and confidence. Perhaps that is the whole clue here. Who do we have faith in for healing, the doctors or Jesus? Have we rationalized that Jesus now uses the doctors to heal us? So then we have no need to call for the elders of the church, we have no need to seek the prayers offered in faith. Do we not believe anyone has enough faith to pray that kind of prayer? Maybe no one does. Maybe we all have been hoodwinked into believing in doctors instead of Jesus. This woman tried them all, spent everything, but to no avail until she went to Jesus. Should we not learn something here? Should we not believe Jesus? Maybe we just think we have too much sin in our lives to ask him to heal us. Yet we also see that as the prayer of faith is offered when we are sick, our sins are also forgiven. But there also seems to be some transparency required, confessing our sins to each other and praying for each other so that we may be healed. Who wants to hang out our dirty laundry before each other and pray for each other, believing, having faith, total trust and confidence in Jesus? Maybe it is just easier to go to the doctor. Is he telling us, “Oh you of little faith?” Maybe it is time to believe.