Healing Faith

Introduction

Today is a topic and passage which you may be familiar with. It also happens to be a personal area of struggle. While you may be clear on this passage. It raises questions and exposes things that I have wrestled with for year and never had any conclusion or closure on the subject of healing and why some people are healed and others are not. Perhaps you are at peace on this topic or maybe you are like me in the sense that you struggle at times with this subject. Lets dive right into our passage today that highlights two different people and two different set of circumstances, yet one common factor. Today’s passage comes from Mark 5:21-43. If you have your bibles go ahead and turn to Mark 5:21-43 and read along with me or if you don’t, you can listen and read the words along with me on the screen.

Mark 5:21–43 NRSV

21 When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea. 22 Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet 23 and begged him repeatedly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.” 24 So he went with him. And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. 25 Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. 26 She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” 29 Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’ ” 32 He looked all around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” 35 While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?” 36 But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” 37 He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. 38 When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39 When he had entered, he said to them, “Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.” 40 And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha cum,” which means, “Little girl, get up!” 42 And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. 43 He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

Trouble in the passage

Jairus has a daughter who is very sick. He is concerned for his daughter and wants her to be well. There are many things we don’t know and can only make guesses on such as what was wrong with his daughter. What kind of illness had made her so sick she died? What had they tried before turning to Jesus? At some point, for some reason he was motivated to seek Jesus out. What motivated the synagogue leader to see out Jesus?

This unnamed woman has had a bleeding issue for 12 years

What motivated this woman to seek out Jesus?

Healing in the passage

When I was looking at different translations, I came across verse 34 where I noticed different ways in which this healing is described.

NRSV, NLT, NET - Daughter your faith has made you well

NABRE - Daughter your faith has saved you

NIV, CEB - Daughter your faith has healed you

KJV - Daughter thy faith hath made thee whole

When I looked up the original Greek word on Stepbible.org I found word used for the result of faith as such:

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σῴζω (sōzō) 'to save' (G4982)

to save Occurs in the Bible ~114 times

Meaning

to save to bring safely, restore to health

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I find it interesting that all of these translations capture a part of the original word’s mean. Faith heals, faith makes us well, faith restores us. These are the results of faith applied to crisis.

Comparing stories

When I read these two stories faith is what leads to healing and restoration. This woman, has faith, she is convinced if she just touches Jesus garment, then she will be healed. Jesus tells Jairus to have faith and it will be ok. There are times when we know in our hearts what God is asking us to do and being faithful to that calling brings healing and restoration. Other times God encourages us through someone or perhaps directly, encouraging us to hold on to faith that will get us through.

In our stories we read today, the young woman was moved by God that touching Jesus’ clothing would bring healing. It does not share directly that someone told her this. In fact, the doctors and everything she has been told and had done to her up to this point made her life worse. Something in her heart moved her to try this. She knew it was the right thing to do. She knew immediately when she touched Jesus, she was completely healed.

Jairus was moved by God to seek out Jesus for his daughter’s healing needs. Jairus was following God’s direction yet when he received news his daughter died, Jesus told him to have faith and kept moving forward. When the world told him it was hopeless and over, Jesus said have faith and showed him by raising his daughter that faith can conquer even death.

Personal Struggles

On a personal level, I have struggled and wrestled with God for years on this subject of healing. Was it my faith was not strong enough? Did I not pray enough? Did I not pray in the right way? Why did God not restore this person but restored another? Why did my prayers not get answered in the way I prayed? I have wrestled with God on whether I should pray or not because of what has happened in the past. I prayed for a teenage cousin to be healed and restored, yet he went home to heaven. I prayed for healing for a young lady to be able to walk normally again, she did for a couple of hours and then returned back to her broken state. I can’t tell you in one sitting all the times I have prayed for myself or others, and the outcome was not what I was praying for. This leads me to the state of becoming fearful or defeated on how to pray for healing.

In reading over this passage, God shared something special with me. God showed me in each case of healing, it starts with God moving. There are times in my life when God has told me to do something and when following through, something special has happened. In other times, God has moved others in my life to speak or do something that has again, resulted in something special. In the end, whether God is moving me or God is moving someone else it always has to starts with God initiating what happens.

I have a pastor friend (Kevin Little) that experienced something similar to this story. He was an atheist for many years of his life. He was diagnosed with throat cancer and after a few years of treatment, his body was done and the cancer was still there. His mother had been begging him to let this couple pray over him and when his body was too weak to run away he finally relented. His experience was that as soon as they finished praying over him, he had this feeling in him that he could not explain where he just knew the cancer was gone. His next appointment with the doctor confirmed that in fact it was gone and to this date has not returned.

In some ways you look at his story and think well God used healing to convince him that God exists. In other ways you can see that it was God who moved others that they needed to pray for him even though he didn’t want them to. In short, there are many ways in which we can rationalize this healing and think we know why God did this. In the end, as the prophet Isaiah was told by God and recorded in Isaiah 55:8-9

Isaiah 55:8–9 NRSV

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

We don’t control God nor do we have God’s vision in our heads when praying. Paul reminds us of this fact in 1 Corinthians 2:16

The New Revised Standard Version The True Wisdom of God

16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord

so as to instruct him?”

and again in Romans 11:34

The New Revised Standard Version All Israel Will Be Saved

34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord?

Or who has been his counselor?”

We are not able to instruct or counsel the Lord because God’s thoughts and ways are beyond our ability to comprehend. This is not an insult to us but a reminder God is the Creator and we are the created.

What we struggle with is when we see pain and suffering in our loved ones or in the world, we want God to act and fix it. How cruel and unfair does it sound to us if God is not willing to do so? Yet, God is not cruel and unfair but understands each person and their life. Again, maybe I can find rational reasons whey God heals this person but not another and again maybe I can’t find any rational reason. Whether we think it fair or not, in the end, it all depends on God’s will and God’s plans. We need to fulfill our part but also need to accept what is not in those plans. We cannot change God but God can certainly help us to change.

Conclusion

While this may be little consolation to any of us in the moment of a loved one who is sick, God’s already laid out plans. This is not saying nothing we do matters, but that God is already ahead of us. We are not bringing something to God’s attention that was not already known. Secondly, and this is the hard part, it is in God’s hands to move and affect the situation. What is this woman who had been sick for 12 years doubted the feeling that she needed to seek out Jesus? What if she simply kept trying with the physicians who were trying but ended up harming her more? God moved her to seek our Jesus. In, my friend’s story, what if he never relented to his mother’s pleading to be prayed over? What if the people who were determined to pray over him ignored God or gave up because he didn’t want it? In the end, it was God who moved them and helped them. In some cases it was themselves who were moved by God and in other cases, God moved people on their behalf. In both cases, God moved people and God brought healing.

Where does that leave the rest of the people? This is the hard part. What if God is not moving people because there are other plans being fulfilled? What if their body will be wasted away from the disease and or treatment? What if their body being healed will delay their being given the new body in heaven? What if they have fulfilled their purpose in this life? You see the hard part is trying to rationalize why healing doesn’t happen the way we ask for it. I have a cousin who passed from this world into heaven when he was barely 18 and spent his life loving the Lord and sharing the gospel news. How do we rationalize the young child passing away unexpectedly or the still born or all of these other unfair events in life? In the end, you and I will drive ourselves crazy trying to figure it all out so we must let it go and place it in God’s hands

Today, I want you to pray silently for 60 second. I want you to ask God to help you let go of trying to understand why your loved one or loved ones passed away. Ask God to help you let go trying to understand it. Maybe that is not your situation. Maybe you have witnessed or been part of a healing that restored you, brought you back to life. Spend the next 60 second praying to God, thanking God for this healing. Let us now stop and pray for a minute for these things. If you need to come to the altar it is open, if you are comfortable in your pew praying, that is fine too. Do not skip over this opportunity because each of us can pray one or both of these prayers.

[Silently pray for 1 minute]