The Woman and a Sick Girl
Matthew 9:18-26, Mark 5:21-43, Luke 8:40-56
As Jesus made his way through crowds swarming around Him, two people approached. The first was Jairus, the ruler of a local synagogue, who came to implore that Jesus perform a miracle on his dying, twelve year old daughter. The second was a woman considered culturally unclean, outcast for her persistent bleeding, and searching for a savior to make her whole again. Each was seeking for Jesus to perform a miracle, and both did so by having faith in Jesus’ ability to accomplish the impossible.
It was never the perfection of anyone in this story that led to a miraculous healing. The healing of Jairus’s daughter was a product of an imperfect, human faith. Jairus listened and trusted that when Jesus said his daughter would be healed, she would be. Jesus took the faith of a broken man, and used it to display the love and grace He has for His people. The healing of the woman was a result of her believing that merely touching the edges of Jesus’s clothing would be enough to take away her affliction. She saw Jesus as her Savior, the only One able to take away the burden of her broken body; the only One who could provide true restoration. Jesus did not choose to see her as a dirty byproduct of her affliction, He chose to show her love and grace, and she was healed by her faith in the midst of brokenness. As broken people, we will never have a perfect, complete, or flawless faith. By His grace we learn to trust Him more everyday, but our God knows we could never do it on our own. The beautiful part is that He never leaves us, and He has already sent His son to bridge the gap our imperfect faith could never fill.
In our own lives we can look at the healing of this woman and child as a reflection of our own salvation. We are broken, hurting people in need of something beyond ourselves. We could never by our own power change our brokenness, yet we have a Savior who loves us enough to intercede on our behalf. A God who loves us perfectly, and chooses us even when we do not choose Him. Who chooses to heal the imperfect and the broken. We have a Savior who deals with us in kindness and gentleness, who recognizes the imperfect faith of broken people, and fills the gap with his forgiveness.
