December 3, 2007

• Freedom from Suffering

  Mark 5.  Once the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years touched Jesus’ cloak, it says, “Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.“  After the woman publicly confessed that Jesus had healed her, He said, “Daughter, your faith has healed you.  Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

  This woman really suffered.  When I have read this passage in the past, I think I’ve always just glossed over the suffering and focused on the miracle.  It’s easy to do that because it seems to confirm the common belief that good health is the most important thing in the world, and the moral of this story must be that, “If you have enough faith, God will heal you.”  But if any of us has really lived real life, we know that God does not bow to such a simplistic formula.  Sometimes no matter how much faith you are able to muster up, God does not heal physically. 

  Weaved together in the same passage with this woman’s story is a story of a 12 year old girl who had suffered some physical ailment for who knows how long…and she died.  She died without Jesus’ hand to alleviate the physical suffering.  And from reading that, we’ve just gotta stop and wonder why Jesus allowed for that to happen.  Or why, in the same way, He allowed Lazarus to die (in John 11) when He could’ve rushed to Bethany to heal him when He heard that Lazarus was sick.  And why, why! — is it that He only had 3 years of ministry, of healing the sick and lame but left so many people behind who were still ailing physically!

  It seems so much easier to just read on in the passages and then celebrate the fact that in the end, Jesus brought both Lazarus and the 12 year old girl back to life again.  But how do we ignore the fact that Jesus didn’t heal the crowds of people who were looking for Him to heal their various diseases? (Mark 1)  Or what about my missionary friend who was faithful to the Lord but died suddenly a few years ago?  Or my other best friend who has been suffering physical ailments for her whole life and no matter how much she prays, it doesn’t go away?

  God just doesn’t bow to our simplistic formulas — or our simplistic perspective.  When the disciples told Jesus that the crowds were looking for Him, He said, “Let us go somewhere else — to the nearby villages — so I can preach there also.  That is why I have come.”  And we realize as we read this that Jesus’ purpose and mission was not to heal us physically just to give us more years on this earth if it means eternity in darkness.  As hard as it for us to understand, having good health is not God’s top priority.

  When Jesus was giving life back to Lazarus, He said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”  And truly, Lazarus’ suffering meant that multitudes witnessed and then testified about the glory of God — not to mention that Lazarus himself got to know intimately the grace and power of God in His own life.  This too is true of the 12 year old girl.  And though I just can’t understand it completely, and I often wish that it wasn’t true because I want good health and no suffering for anyone around me, I believe that God’s glory and His Kingdom — and not our health — is His top priority.  And this, this, is the priority that we should wish that He would have.  But how much so we need His perspective in the midst of the suffering!

  • 4:40 pm
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