Daily Devotional for July 28

 

July 28                                                                Mark 5:21-43

Today's Gospel invites us to reflect on two healing events.
Jairus, a ruler in a synagogue, has come to tell Jesus that his
daughter is near death. He makes an anguished plea for Jesus
to come to his home and heal his beloved child.

En route to Jairus' house, they encounter a humble woman
who is sick and hemorrhaging. Her greatest hope is to touch
even his garments. Indeed, while pressing through the crowd,
she is able to reach Jesus and touch his robe. Jesus insists on
knowing who has touched him: he is determined to reassure
the woman that her faith has been well placed. That day she
is not only physically healed, but she receives the inner peace
that only Christ can impart.

But what about Jairus? He had pleaded with Jesus to come and
help his daughter. And Jesus had indicated that he would come;
but on the way, he had begun to take care of someone else!
Jairus' frustration must have turned to despair as messengers
brought to him the news that his daughter had died.

Have you ever had a similar experience? A time when it seemed
that Jesus had forgotten about you, when even though others
were receiving Christ's gifts of healing and peace, your own
life was falling apart? What are we to do in such circumstances?

The response of Jesus to Jairus and to us is very simple: "Do
not fear, only believe." And sometimes Jesus asks us to believe
even the impossible. After all, from a rational point of view,
who would have expected Jesus to raise Jairus' daughter from
the dead? Certainly nothing in the Gospel text indicates that
Jairus had asked for such a miracle. And yet he did trust Jesus
enough to turn complete control of the situation over to him.

In the end Jairus was not disappointed when he put his trust
in Jesus. Nor will we be disappointed when we put our faith
in Jesus. If Christ does delay to answer our prayer, it may well
be only to do a greater work than we had thought to ask. When
bad things happen in our lives, that is the time more than ever
to heed the words, "Do not fear, only believe," and to turn the
situation over to Christ; and then, of course, to expect a miracle.

​

From The Road to Emmaus - An inclusive devotional Edited by Joseph W. Houle

Emmaus House of Prayer - Washington D.C.198