[NOTE: For those who are continuing the 1-year Bible reading plan we started on April 1, 2018, just go to the end of this entry and you will find the Day 280-Habakkuk 1-3; John 5 summary!]
While the “action” in Genesis 17-20 is compelling, let’s focus on our reading from Mark 5 today. I have always loved Mark 5, because it contains three amazing examples of Jesus’ love and power. First, Jesus encountered Legion, a man possessed by “many” demons. We’re told the man had suffered much, and lived among the tombs, because no one could bind him. Imagine the torment. Not only did Legion suffer internally from the demon possession, he also suffered externally, because no one could be near him. In the midst of that pain and isolation, Jesus came and provided wholeness. Legion was so filled with gratitude he asked Jesus to let him accompany Jesus and the disciples, but He told Legion (who probably needed a new name!) to go home and tell everyone what God had done for him. Imagine the amazement of Legion’s family and friends when they saw him sane, dressed, and proclaiming the good news of Jesus.
As Jesus continued on, Jairus, a synagogue leader, came and begged Him to heal his daughter who was dying. That a synagogue leader, a leader among the Jews, would come to Jesus and ask for a healing miracle shows his desperation. The Jewish leaders had already turned against Jesus, but Jairus would have done anything to save his daughter.
Jesus agreed to go with Jairus, but as they walked along, a huge crowd gathered, and pushed against Jesus on all sides. In the hustle and bustle of the moment, a woman who had a terrible bleeding disorder saw her opportunity to receive healing. According to Moses’ Law, she was “unclean” and wasn’t permitted to be near people. She certainly wasn’t permitted to touch them. Yet, in her desperation she conceived a plan: if she could just touch Jesus’ robe, she knew His power would heal her. The plan was sound. She was right. She touched Jesus’ garment, and immediately she was healed. One thing she hadn’t considered, was Jesus would feel the healing power go out of Him. He asked, “Who touched me?”
You have to love the disciples. They looked around, saw hundreds of people pressing in on Jesus from all sides and asked, “Really? Look, Master, with this crowd how would we ever be able to tell?” The woman realized she was revealed. Her plan had worked, but now she would suffer the humiliation of being called out by Jesus for breaking Moses’ Law. Precisely the opposite happened. Jesus not only didn’t reprimand her, He called her “daughter.” This is the only place in the four gospels where Jesus called anyone daughter. Then Jesus affirmed her faith, telling her it was her faith that had made her well.
By this time, some folks arrived from Jairus’ house and told him they didn’t need to bother the Teacher further, because the little girl had died. Jesus looked at Jairus and said, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.” Wow! having daughters of my own, I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for Jairus in that moment. Whatever the distance to his house from where they were, it must have seemed an eternity before they arrived. As they entered the house, family and friends were weeping and wailing as we would expect in such a tragic moment. But Jesus told them the girl wasn’t dead. She was just sleeping. They laughed at Jesus, but He went to the girl, took her hand and told her to get up. She did!
Each of the three accounts isn’t only an account of an exorcism or a healing, but a demonstration of God’s awesome power in Jesus. In each case, the person healed had been separated from loved ones in extreme ways, and Jesus restored each one to life, health, wholeness and community. I’m grateful Mark included these accounts for us, because they show us nothing is too hard for God, and that Jesus cared not only about the physical well-being, or even only about the spiritual well-being of those He healed, but even for their social well-being–their ability to live in and be part of their families and communities.
As we go about the day, let’s remember the same power that came from Jesus is part of our lives as His followers. We have the same Holy Spirit in us who lived in Jesus. Let’s be ready for the opportunities God sends our ways as we go about the day, just as Jesus was ready for Legion, the woman, and Jairus’ daughter.
Day 280-Habakkuk 1-3; John 5
Habakkuk was written immediately before the fall of Assyria to the Babylonians. The theme question of Habakkuk is how could God use wicked nations for His purposes? He had used the Assyrians to destroy Israel, and now would use Babylon to destroy Assyria and Judah. As we live in the midst of wickedness, the key is to live by our faith, as Habakkuk tells us in Habakkuk 2:4. This statement was so powerful, we find it quoted three times in the New Testament.
Habakkuk 1 starts with Habakkuk complaining to the LORD for not answering his cry for mercy and protection. The LORD answers by saying He’s going to use the Chaldeans or Babylonians as a tool of judgment. This raises another complaint from Habakkuk who cannot understand how God can forget His people.
Habakkuk 2 ends Habakkuk’s second complaint. The LORD answers by telling Habakkuk to write the vision on a tablet so large that a rider could see it as he rode by. The LORD tells him that no matter how long it takes for the vision to come to wait for it. Then He tells Habakkuk the righteous shall live by faith. This is the oft-quoted verse, we noted in the introduction. The LORD goes on to pronounce judgment on the Chaldeans/ Babylonians, who were His current “tool” for bringing judgment to other nations. He condemns them for their ruthlessness toward other nations, and for their insistence on worshiping dead idols rather than the living God. He reminds them the LORD is in His holy Temple, and to let all the earth be silent before Him.
In Habakkuk 3, Habakkuk offers a prayer to the LORD, and it concludes with one of the strongest statements of faith in the face of adversity ever recorded: 17Though the fig tree should not blossom,nor fruit be on the vines,the produce of the olive failand the fields yield no food,the flock be cut off from the foldand there be no herd in the stalls,18yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.19GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s;he makes me tread on my high places.Habakkuk 3:17-19 (ESV) As we return to John 5, Jesus encounters a man at the Pool of Bethesda who had been waiting for decades to be healed by entering the pool when it was stirred. Because he was lame, he could never get there before someone else. Jesus asked the man what on the surface seems like an uncaring question: “Do you want to be healed?” Because Jesus asked the question, we know it wasn’t uncaring. He sincerely wanted the man to address the matter of whether he wanted to be healed. Jesus healed the man, and this raised a great debate between Him and the religious leaders, because He healed the man on the Sabbath. The debate covered many areas, but at the bottom of it, Jesus contended He was God, and the religious leaders were having none of that. While we’re only in John 5, we see that in John’s gospel as in the others, Jesus engaged the religious leaders early in His ministry in ways that caused them to be determined to eliminate Him.