Tag: Mark

Digging in Deeper: Mark 5:35-36

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“While he was still speaking, people came from the synagogue leader’s house and said, ‘Your daughter is dead. Why bother the teacher anymore?’ When Jesus overheard what was said, he told the synagogue leader, ‘Don’t be afraid. Only believe.’”‬ ‭(CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

In the enormous library of real estate series on TV right now, perhaps the one I like the least is “My Lottery Dream Home.” The basic format is the same as all the rest of them: a homebuyer is shown three different homes by a real estate agent and then chooses one of them to purchase. The twist for this version of that plot is that the homebuyers have all recently won the lottery and are using part of their winnings to buy a new home. Not all of them have won huge jackpots, and some of the lottery dream homes have been pretty humble, but every episode leaves you wondering, “Why won’t that happen to me?” Jealousy doesn’t sit well with me personally, so I don’t watch the show. But I can’t avoid the Scriptures, and this passage feels like an episode of “My Lottery Dream Home” that I don’t want to watch. Let’s look anyway.

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Morning Musing: Mark 5:32-34

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“But he was looking around to see who had done this. The woman, with fear and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. ‘Daughter,’ he said to her, “‘your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be healed from your affliction.’”‬ ‭(CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

Have you ever been in the spotlight when you didn’t want to be there? Some people seek the spotlight relentlessly. They thrive off of people recognizing them. They really don’t care whether the attention is for good reasons or bad ones, they just want to be noticed. More—and I’d argue many more—are content to not be noticed. Sure, getting their 15 minutes of fame sounds thrilling, but only if it lasts 15 minutes. Other than that, they’re just fine being mostly invisible. This becomes especially true when they have some reason to hide. Well, this woman Jesus healed wanted to hide. Jesus called her to the spotlight. Let’s talk about why this was the best thing He could have done for her.

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Digging in Deeper: Mark 5:30

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“Immediately Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’”‬ ‭(CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. In fact, that’s often the case. And when it happens, we have to simply sit back and marvel at it. Trying to understand will just make our heads hurt. When it comes to the Scriptures, sometimes the things we find are too strange not to be true. This is especially the case when it comes to Jesus and the Gospels. Sometimes the stories the authors tell are so unexpected or seem so different from what we might expect that they have to be true. This is one of them.

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Digging in Deeper: Mark 5:25-27

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“Now a woman suffering from bleeding for twelve years had endured much under many doctors. She had spent everything she had and was not helped at all. On the contrary, she became worse. Having heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothing.”‬ ‭(CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

Have you ever been desperate? I mean, truly desperate. The kind of desperate where you’re willing to do anything—even things you wouldn’t have considered before hitting that point—in order to get what you are convinced you need? That’s a scary place to be. It’s a place where hopelessness and despair can easily take hold of our lives and not let go. For this particular woman, it led her to reach out and do something most people would have considered crazy. Let’s dig in to her story together.

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Morning Musing: Mark 5:22-23

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“One of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet and begged him earnestly, ‘My little daughter is dying. Come and lay your hands on her so that she can get well and live.’”‬ ‭(CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

When was it that you finally cried out for help? For me, most recently, it was when we purchased a new TV stand for our living room. Looking at it on the Sam’s showroom floor it didn’t look all that big. It was swallowed up by the room. I figured I could manhandle it into the house. Once it was loaded in the back of my van straight from the forklift and in a box that filled every square inch of the cargo space, though, it became clear that was not going to happen. I cried for help. That was a pretty insignificant cry for help in the grand scheme of things. Sometimes in life we run up against walls entirely more intimidating than that. Who we reach out to in those moments matters.

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