Expect the Best from God

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Topical Scripture: John 5:1-9

Dr. David Fite went to be with the Lord last August. He was a former missionary to Cuba and a colleague of mine when I served on the faculty of Southwestern Seminary in Ft. Worth.

Dr. Fite and his father-in-law were both imprisoned in Cuba for preaching the gospel there. They spent forty-two months in prison, where they were often put in solitary confinement or made to stand at attention all day. Dr. Fite’s father-in-law, advanced in years, often fell when standing in the hot Cuban sun. The guards would then hit him.

One day was especially hot. Dr. Fite and his father-in-law stood at attention all through the day; the elderly man never flinched but stood with amazing strength. That night, David asked him how he had done so. His answer: “David, I’m surprised at you. You forgot that my birthday is today! Southern Baptists all over the world were praying for our missionaries. God’s grace was my strength!”

All that God has ever done, he can still do. As we continue our series on Jesus’ healing miracles, we come today to one of the most surprising stories in Scripture. And we will hear Jesus ask us the strange but penetrating question, “Do you want to be healed?”

Listen to his voice

Our story begins: “Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews” (John 5:1). He had to go “up,” because Jerusalem sits atop a plateau whose sides must be scaled by pilgrims coming to the Holy City.

He came for a “feast of the Jews,” but which one? The options are Purim in March, Passover in April, Pentecost in May, Tabernacles in October, and Dedication in December. This episode likely occurred during the springtime, as the lame were lying outside in the weather and Jesus referred to the time of harvest earlier (John 4:35). Thus Purim and Passover are the best guesses.

If this feast was Passover, Jesus attended it out of religious obligation. Every Jew within fifteen miles of Jerusalem was legally required to attend Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Our Lord knew the controversy which awaited him, but he came anyway. The healing of a paralyzed man was worth all the trouble it cost him.

Verse 2 continues the narrative: “Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades.” John used the present tense, “there is in Jerusalem . . .”, even though he wrote these words long after the Roman destruction of the city in AD 70. He wanted us to experience the reality of this miracle as if it occurred in our time, for it still can.

The Sheep Gate was one of the entrances through the walls of the city of Jerusalem. It had been rebuilt by Eliashib the High Priest and his fellow priests during the time of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 3:1), more than four centuries earlier. It was likely the entrance through which sheep and lambs were brought from the neighboring fields to the Temple for sacrifice. Through this gate the Lamb of God came to heal a crippled man, as one day he would die for the spiritual healing of our crippled world.

Here lay a “pool” (this word is found only here in the New Testament). It was surrounded by “five covered colonnades.” These colonnades were covered porches called stoa where people gathered (the “Stoics” are named for the fact that they began by meeting on porches like these). The pool in question was trapezoidal in form, 165–220 feet wide by 315 feet long, divided by a central partition. There were colonnades on four sides of this partition, and one on it. Stairways in the corners permitted descent into the pools.

The Crusaders built a church over this pool, with a crypt framed like the five porches and an opening in the floor which descended to the water. This structure is known as the Church of St. Anne; its remains stand today on the northwest corner of Jerusalem near the gate by the sheep market. I’ve seen it, as do most tourists to Jerusalem. The pool was called Bethesda in Aramaic, a term meaning “House of Mercy.” Jesus fulfilled its name this day.

Beside this pool “a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed” (John 5:3). This was likely not a winter scene, given their exposure to the weather. They were “paralyzed,” withered, atrophied. Why were they there?

Verse 7 supplies the answer: “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred.” There is a subterranean spring beneath the pool which bubbles up occasionally, stirring its waters. The popular belief was that the first person who entered the water after it was stirred would be healed.

And so later copies of the Greek New Testament supplied this explanation, continuing verse 3: “and they waited for the moving of the waters.” Then a fourth verse: “From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had.” The earliest and most reliable manuscripts of the New Testament do not contain these words, so biblical scholars are certain they should be omitted from the text. They appeared in the manuscripts used by the translators of the King James Version, which is why these words were included in that version. But no modern translation of the Bible includes them in its text.

Now we meet the suffering man Jesus came to heal: “One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years” (John 5:5). The length of his incapacity proves the fact that it was medically incurable. Jesus did not provide him a medical solution but a miraculous healing.

So, “When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” (v. 6). Unlike the healing of the nobleman’s son, this miracle was initiated by Jesus himself. The crippled man could not come to Jesus physically, and did not know to ask Jesus to come to him. So Jesus met him at the point of his great need.

But first he asked what seems to us a strange question: “Do you want to get well?” What crippled person wouldn’t want to be healed?

However, Jesus “learned that he had been in this condition for a long time.” This man has spent his adult life and perhaps longer in this condition. He may have become accustomed to living on the donations of others. He may not want to return to the responsibility of an earned income and work to perform. Jesus will only work in our lives with our permission. He always limits himself to our free will.

Where do you need his healing, helping touch today? Jesus knows your pain. In fact, “your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8). Jesus is calling to us in our suffering, for he shares it with us. Even in the valley of the shadow of death, he is with us (Psalm 23:4). He promised that he would never leave or forsake us (Matthew 28:20). He hurts as we hurt, and calls to us in the pain of our lives.

But some of us feel that we are beyond his help, that our sins have exempted us from his grace. The world would have said the same of this invalid. In Jesus’ day, popular theology taught that physical illness was proof of spiritual judgment. A person with a physical birth defect, as may have been the case with this man, was under the justice and judgment of God (cf. the disciples’ question of Jesus, “who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” John 9:2). And those who experienced suffering for other reasons were judged to be sinners as well.

No self-respecting rabbi would have stopped for this man, but Jesus did. Perhaps you think no one cares about you or your pain today. If we knew your secrets we would reject you; if the world knew your problems, it would turn on you. But not Jesus. He initiated this miracle, as he will yours. He went to this man, as he will come to you. He stands ready to meet us where we need him most.

But we must listen. The Psalmist invites us to “be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). We must set aside our own furious activity, the crush of the calendar and the press of the day’s demands and listen to his voice.

One of the most life-transforming essays I have ever read is Mike Yaconelli’s Lost and Found: My Soul. This late, well-known Christian columnist related a time years ago when he retreated to be alone with God, with this result: “It only took a few hours of silence before I began to hear my soul speaking. It only took being alone for a short period of time for me to discover that I wasn’t alone. God had been trying to shout over the noisiness of my life, and I couldn’t hear Him. But in the stillness and solitude, His whispers shouted from my soul, ‘Michael, I am here. I have been calling you. I have been loving you, but you haven’t been listening. Can you hear me, Michael? I love you. I have always loved you. And I have been waiting for you to hear Me say that to you. But you have been so busy trying to prove to yourself that you are loved that you have not heard Me.”

Yaconelli then testifies: “I heard Him, and my slumbering soul was filled with the joy of the prodigal son. My soul was awakened by a loving Father who had been looking and waiting for me.” As he waits for us.

To feel the touch of Jesus, first listen to his voice.

Trust his heart

The invalid replied to Jesus’ question, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me” (v. 7). He wanted to be well but could not be on his own. He needed help and sought it from our Lord.

Notice how little he asked of Jesus. He believed that he would be healed if he could be the first one into the pool after the spring stirred its waters. And so he wanted the Son of God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, simply to carry him a few feet into the water. Jesus stood ready to heal his body, and the man instead asked him to help him get wet.

Are we so different? Do we ask for all God can do, or merely what we need for the present moment? Do we limit God’s power in our lives by our lack of faith in his power?

We might object that the crippled man didn’t know who Jesus really was. True, and this ignorance is his defense. But we have no such argument. When we give our need to Jesus, we must trust his heart and expect his best. For that is what he waits to give to us.

Our Lord said to the invalid, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk” (v. 8). He called the man to do something he had not done for thirty-eight years. He did not carry the man to the water—he healed him so he could walk there himself. He did not offer him a temporary cure or help for the symptoms of his disease—he worked a miracle which would banish this disease from his life forever. He told him to pick up his “mat,” the light pallet on which he had begged for so long.

And he told the invalid to “walk.” He has not moved the muscles of his legs for thirty-eight years. Even if a physician were to cure the cause of his paralysis, perhaps a rupture in the spine or nerves, his muscles would be so atrophied that years of physical rehabilitation would be required by him. But not by Jesus. He did for the man far more than the man asked of him.

Now the divine-human partnership emerges again. Jesus healed the man, but the invalid had to get up with the power given him by God. Jesus restored his body but told him to carry his own mat. Jesus cured his limbs but required the man to use them himself. And when he did, “At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked” (v. 9a).

When we trust our problem into Jesus’ hands, we must always expect the best from him. He will always do as we ask, or something better. We often misunderstand his ways or timing and feel that he will not hear or help us. But he is giving us what is best for us, whether we know it at the moment or not.

Years ago, I was using a razor blade to scrape paint from a window one Saturday morning when one of our small boys happened by. Attracted by the shiny “toy” in my hand, he wanted to play with it and was not happy that I wouldn’t give him what he asked. But of course, no amount of begging or anger would have persuaded me to give him what he wanted.

When we stand with our Father in glory, we’ll see how many times he met our needs and answered our prayers with what we asked. And how often he gave us even more.

Where do you need his touch? Listen to his voice, and then trust his best. As the song says, when you can’t see his hand, trust his heart.

Conclusion

When we pray, God gives us what we ask or something better. Where do you need his touch? Where is a paralytic lying on a mat in your life? Get alone and still with the Father, so that you can hear him call to you by grace. Trust his heart, believing that he will give you what you are praying for unless he can give you even greater blessing. Seek spiritual health, not just temporal happiness. And join God at work, adding your hands to his, touching the spiritual, emotional, and physical paralytics who lie at your side. Believe that he can use you for great Kingdom work, and he will.

I have seen God do things in Cuba that we seldom see him do in America. Why is this?

I was discussing this question with a longtime missionary friend. She pointed out the obvious but often overlooked answer: the Cubans know they need Jesus. They know they need his power, his presence, his encouragement and joy. So they pray with passion and expectation, and God answers.

Mother Teresa was right: “You’ll never know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.”

God Has No Grandchildren

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Topical Scripture: Judges 2:6-16

A young Malian who immigrated to France will be made a French citizen and has been offered a job by the Paris fire brigade. This after he saved a child dangling from a balcony.

Mamoudou Gassama climbed up four floors of the apartment building in seconds and rescued the child. He has been called a “real-life Spiderman.”

If only such heroes could save us spiritually.

Human nature doesn’t change. The sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is still mine. I want to “be as god” (Genesis 3:5). I want to be president of my own universe. I follow God with failing steps and fall down as often as I stand tall. Your story is much the same.

This pattern of sin comes clear early in the history of the Hebrew people. They have no sooner entered their Promised Land than they begin a downward spiral into immorality which stifles their souls and corrupts their nation. We can find the same pattern in our lives and culture. But the God of grace is as ready to heal and restore us as he was ready to help them.

Where do you need his forgiving love?

Failing to transmit the faith (Judges 2:6–7, 10)

Things start well in the Book of Judges. Joshua dismisses the people from the national gathering which heard his final address, “each to his own inheritance” (Judges 2:6). Throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the elders who outlived him and saw the great works of God, the nation continued to follow the Lord (v. 7).

However, “Another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel” (v. 10). No one told them. No one instructed the next generation in that which the last generation had learned from and about God. The faith is always one generation from extinction, and the worst nearly came to pass here.

It is vital that parents teach the faith to their children. In fact, we who are privileged to be parents have no greater responsibility under God.

We don’t have to adopt Freudian principles to understand that children typically relate to God as they relate to their parents. If our children see us follow Christ at church but not at home, they learn that faith is only for the church building. If they hear us speak in one tone to people but another way behind their backs, they learn that faith is only for public show. If the only time they hear us pray or watch us read Scripture is at church, they learn that prayer and Scripture are only for Sunday.

God’s command is clear: “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:6–9). These were the most public ways they could display the word of God.

The prophet’s edict is still God’s intention for us: “Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation” (Joel 1:3).

Genetic engineering is much in the news. The idea that parents can one day determine the sex, hair and eye color, abilities and capabilities of their unborn children is exciting to some and abhorrent to most of us. It is very troubling to me as well.

But while I don’t believe in genetic engineering, I believe very strongly in “spiritual engineering.” We must do all we can to help our families and friends follow Jesus, to mentor them in the Christian faith, to encourage and influence them for Christ. Eternity is at stake.

In what way will the next generation be strong in the faith because of you and those you’ll teach this week?

Spiraling downward (Judges 2:11–19)

The baton has fallen to the ground, and it will never be carried as well again in the Book of Judges. The next verses provide an umbrella under which the narrative across the following chapters fits tragically well. The pattern is clear:

  • The people rejected God as their Lord and are worshiping other gods.
  • The Lord responded with divine retribution which led to military defeat and “great distress” (v. 15).
  • The people “groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them” (v. 18), so that God had compassion on them.
  • He “raised up judges who saved them out of the hands of these raiders” (v. 16).

This downward slide would continue throughout the Book of Judges, as the conclusion of the book makes clear: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit” (Judges 21:25).

Now let’s examine this pattern in more detail, for it is still the basic sin pattern in our lives today.

We reject God as Lord

“The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them” (vs. 11–12a).

Who were these other gods, among them the “Baals” and “Ashtoreths” (v. 13)?

“Baal” was the Canaanite word for “master” or “lord.” The name described one of the chief male deities of Canaanite religion. He was seen as lord of the weather and storms, so that his voice was heard in the thunder, his spear was the lightning bolt, and his steed the storms.

The Canaanites worshiped Baal in a variety of ways, usually on hilltops called “high places” (so they could be as close to him as possible). They sacrificed animals (and sometimes children) and performed sexual dances on his behalf.

The wife of Baal was Ashtoreth. She was seen as the evening star and the goddess of war and fertility. She was worshiped through temple prostitution (involving both men and women). Sacred pillars (perhaps phallic symbols) were placed near the temples of Baal as altars to her. The Greeks worshiped her as Aphrodite, the Romans as Venus.

These deities were enticing to the Israelites as they entered the land of Canaan, for several reasons.

First, the connection of deity with locality was an accepted fact of ancient religion. The Jews were the first people in human history to worship one God and to believe that he was the Lord of the entire universe. Every other ancient people associated individual deities with specific places or functions. Such localized worship was the popular thing to do.

Second, the need to prosper agriculturally was vital for the people as they entered the land. Just as the Pilgrims learned how to farm in the New World from the Indians who already inhabited the land, so these Jews needed to learn how to survive in this new country. If the Canaanites worshiped Baal as a means to their crops’ success, such a practice would be enticing to the Hebrews as well. Religion would serve their quest for prosperity and success.

Third, the sexuality inherent in Canaanite worship would appeal to the Hebrews. They had long been warned against adultery and licentiousness. Now they were surrounded by people who had made sexual pleasure a basic part of their worship. Such lustful religion would appeal to people across ancient history (note the temple prostitutes in Ephesus and Corinth during the apostolic era of the Church).

Popularity, prosperity, and pleasure—are these not still attractive today?

In what ways are you tempted to Baalism today? Human nature doesn’t change. Anything which tempted our parents will also tempt us. Popularity and peer pressure are just as powerful for us as for the ancient Israelites; our desire to succeed can easily corrupt our faith commitments; lust and pleasure can entice us away from obedience to our Father and his word.

Whenever we back down from an unpopular stand for our Lord, or compromise to get ahead, or yield to sinful pleasure, we continue the sin cycle which Judges condemns. Do you have business with God today?

We incur divine wrath

The sin of the Hebrews “provoked the Lord to anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths” (Judges 2:12–13). With this response: “In his anger against Israel the Lord handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress” (vv. 14–15).

God is Lord of our circumstances and times. He permits or even causes suffering in our lives when such pain leads to greater good.

We see this pattern across the word of God. Joseph went through Potiphar and prison on his way to Pharaoh and humble service to the Lord. Moses spent forty years in the wilderness until he was ready to put the Lord’s will before his own. The people spent another forty years in wilderness wanderings until they were ready to enter the Promised Land.

Scripture states: “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). This famous verse does not say that all things are good, but that God will use all things for good. He never wastes a hurt. He is able to redeem any pain which we will give to him.

Our Father deals with us as gently as he can or as harshly as he must. God can and will use people, circumstances, and events to draw us back to himself. Is there a place in your life where the Lord has withdrawn his blessing so as to draw you closer to humility and dependence on his strength?

We repent

The people “groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them” (Judges 2:18). And God had pity on his people and intervened with compassion.

It is a tragic fact of human nature that we typically turn to God only when we must. We want to be in charge of our own lives and destinies; “I did it my way” is the theme song of our culture. We must often get so far down that we can look nowhere but up. But when we do, God hears us.

God wants us to come to him in repentance for our sins: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). In fact, he is overjoyed when we make this decision: “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Luke 15:7).

Such repentance is the necessary condition to grace. Not because our sorrow earns God’s favor, but because it positions us to receive what God’s grace intends to give. We often think that we must feel badly enough for long enough that our pain merits God’s favor. But his salvation is given only by his grace (Ephesians 2:8–9); our response is gratitude, repentance, and commitment.

God heals and forgives

When we return to God, he responds to us in grace. At this point in Hebrew history, he provided a “judge” who would lead them out of oppression to freedom and prosperity: “Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived, for the Lord had compassion on them” (Judges 2:18).

These “judges” were more than legal arbitrators. They were military leaders, redeemers, and liberators. Each was an instrument in the hands of God, intended to call the nation not to themselves but to the God they served. Through them the Lord provided liberation and protection for his repentant people.

Now through the Lord Jesus, the supreme liberator of mankind, he offers the same compassion today.

Conclusion

Are popularity, prosperity, and pleasure temptations in our culture? In your life? If we put them before God, we incur his wrath as a means to our repentance. But if we choose to repent, God heals and forgives.

Where do you need his grace today? Has the ancient sin cycle surfaced in your life? What business do you have with your Father this week?

Many years ago, in the pioneer days of aviation, a pilot was in the air when he heard a noise which he recognized as the gnawing of a rat. For all he knew the rat could be gnawing through a vital cable or control of the plane. It was a very serious situation. At first the pilot did not know what to do. He was more than two hours from the next landing strip, and two hours gone from the field where he had taken off.

Then he remembered that a rat is a rodent. It was not made for the heights; it was made to live on the ground and under the ground. And so, the pilot began to climb. He went up a thousand feet, then another and another until he was over 20,000 feet up. The gnawing ceased. The rat was dead. It could not survive the atmosphere of those heights. More than two hours later the pilot brought the plane safely to the landing field and found the dead rat.

Sin is a rodent. It cannot live in the secret place of the Most High God. It cannot breathe in the atmosphere of prayer and trust and Scripture and worship. It dies when we take it to the Lord.

This is the promise of God.

God’s Peace in Our Pain

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Topical Scripture: Matthew 8:1-17

It has been a stressful week in the news, to say the least.

I flew back from Israel last Saturday night, the day after a US drone killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani. We were all a bit relieved when we landed safely in the US. Airstrikes against our troops on Tuesday were followed by news of the Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 tragedy. No one knows what comes next in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the wildfires in Australia has killed more than a billion animals and destroyed an area more than eight times larger than the region that burned in California in 2018. A million people are without power in Puerto Rico after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck the country on Tuesday. Thousands of people slept outside their homes due to concerns that further tremors could cause other buildings to collapse.

And, of course, Harry and Meghan are stepping down from their role as “senior” royal family. One headline said, “First Brexit, now Megxit.”

When war threatens and airplanes are shot down and fires rage and the earth quakes, it’s normal to wonder where God is. Or why we should trust him with our problems and pain.

What do you wish God would do in your life today? This morning, we’ll meet three people whose stories can be our stories. The choice is ours.

Three wrong answers

Where is God when life hurts? In our text we find three wrong answers to our question, followed by three right answers.

One: Limit God’s power. The first character in today’s story is a leper. There were several skin diseases classified as “leprosy” in the ancient world. The most common was Hansen’s disease, a disorder that affects the skin and nervous system. Over time the person loses the ability to feel his fingers or toes. He wears them off, bloodies them, infects them, and they rot and die.

The disease was incurable until the late 1940s and was an impossible disease to treat in the first century. At least, for everyone but Jesus. He touched this untouchable man and healed him. If he could heal leprosy, he can heal any disease, any body, any problem. The wrong answer is to limit God’s power.

Two: Limit God’s love. Our second character in the story is an even more unlikely candidate for a miracle from a Jewish rabbi. He was a Gentile, considered by the Jews to exist only so there would be firewood in hell. And he was a “centurion,” a Roman military officer in charge of one hundred soldiers. Part of the force occupying and enslaving their land. Part of the army which forced them to pay exorbitant taxes to Rome and subjected them to pagan, idolatrous oppression.

Imagine an impoverished Jewish rabbi helping a Gestapo officer, and you’ll have the picture. But Jesus answered his prayer and heals his servant, to the shock of the incredulous crowd of hostile Jews. The wrong answer is to limit God’s love.

Three: Blame the person who suffers. Now a third person enters the story. Peter’s mother-in-law is so sick that she cannot get out of bed. But Jesus heals her so fully that her strength is instantly restored and she makes them all a meal.

There is no indication of any sin on her part, anything wrong that she has done. We live in a fallen world, where disease and disaster are inevitable. Some suffering is our fault, as with an alcoholic with liver disease. But the wrong answer is always to assume that the person who suffers is at fault. We often make their pain worse.

Three right approaches

What are we to do when it doesn’t seem that God has answered the prayer we prayed, that he didn’t heal when we asked his help, when our leprosy did not get better, the servant did not recover, the mother-in-law died?

One: Judge the dark by the light. The leper and the centurion both called Jesus “Lord,” as they should. The word translates kurios and was used of Caesar, kings, owners, those in control. Jesus is Lord. And he didn’t change when my father died, or my high school friend committed suicide, or my hero in seminary was fired. He is still on his throne. He is still Lord.

What do we know about God? He is love; he is the creator of the universe; he does not want any of us to perish; he gave his Son to die for us. Remember what Jesus has already done for you. Think about the ways he has already proven his love for you. His Son endured crucifixion, a form of execution so horrific it is outlawed all over the world today, just for you. He has forgiven every failure you have ever confessed to him and will continue to do so. He knows every sin you’ve ever committed, and what’s more, he sees every sin you will ever commit in the future. But he loves you anyway. He likes you. He finds joy in you even as you read these words.

Think of all the ways he has already blessed you. Does your family love you? So many are trapped in loveless, abusive homes. Has he provided for your material needs through physical abilities and vocational opportunities? So many are trapped in endless poverty. Has he given you the privilege of life in America’s freedom? Who of us earned the right to be born in this country and not in North Korea?

Remember his grace in your life and judge the dark by the light. I’ll never forget a seminary student of mine named Walter. The year his wife and several children died, his pastor called every day to say, “Walter, God is still on his throne.” Then Walter told our class, “God is still on his throne.” Judge the dark by the light.

Two: Understand that his ways are higher than ours. The leper has it right: “If you will, you can make me clean.” But God’s will and ways are not always clear to us: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8–9).

At the time, Joseph didn’t understand why he was enslaved in Egypt. Moses didn’t understand why he had to spend forty years in the desert. Joshua didn’t understand the flooded Jordan River and fortified city of Jericho. Daniel didn’t understand the lion’s den, or Paul his thorn in the flesh, or John his Patmos prison. But we do.

Three: Trust God to give you what you ask or something better. Here we come to one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith. When we prayed for something God did not grant, we can know that it was best that he acted as he did. Even when we do not understand why. The person did not get well. The house burned down; the divorce became final; the car wreck happened. And we do not understand why God did not grant us our prayer.

Dr. E. K. Bailey was the Senior Pastor of Concord Missionary Baptist Church in Dallas and one of the finest ministers of the gospel I have ever known. Our friendship was priceless to my soul. Several times, God healed my dear friend of cancer. Then he did not. I still don’t understand why.

I must assume that it was not best for him to be healed. Dr. Bailey is with the Father in glory, in a paradise we cannot begin to imagine. One second on the other side of death, he was glad he was in heaven. In the providence of God, his contribution to God’s kingdom on earth must have been completed, his reward prepared, his eternity made ready. Even though I don’t understand it or like it.

That’s the faith assumption I must make when God does not grant what I ask: he is doing something even better. Though my finite, fallen mind cannot begin to imagine how that could be so, I must trust his love and compassion enough to accept it by faith.

Not until I became a father did I understand some of the things my father said and did. Not until we are in glory will we understand completely our Father’s will and ways (1 Corinthians 13:12). When we cannot see his hand, we can trust his heart.

Conclusion

Sometimes Jesus heals us physically. But sometimes he works an even greater miracle—he heals us spiritually. He gives us the strength and spirit and courage to bear up under life’s sufferings. Sometimes he removes the pain, and sometimes he does the even greater work of giving us the strength to endure it. Either is a miracle of the Lord.

In such times, God’s greater miracle is to enable us to withstand such horrific pain and loss. He can heal our bodies, and what’s more, he can heal our souls. Which do you need him to do for you today?

Jesus is Still the Great Physician

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Topical Scripture: John 5:1–9

The coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, China, continues to dominate the news. The death toll stands at fifty-six this morning, with confirmed cases now in Washington State, California, and Chicago. Sixty-three Americans are being monitored for the illness. Chinese officials have enacted travel restrictions affecting nearly sixty million people, roughly the population of California and Texas, combined.

You may not be worried about the Wuhan virus, but there is something in your life that you wish God would change, or heal, or remove. I have prayed for years for God to heal my back, for instance, but so far, he has not done so.

How do we trust God when his timing is not ours?

As we continue watching Jesus change lives through his unique power and love, today we’ll meet someone who was sick for thirty-eight years before he was healed by our Lord. We’ll learn from him to trust the timing of God even when his timing makes no sense to us.

It’s been well said: God is seldom on time, but he is never late.

Seek his help

Our story begins: “After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem” (John 5:1). What follows is a miracle story found nowhere else in Scripture.

Jesus had to go “up,” because Jerusalem sits atop a plateau whose sides must be scaled by pilgrims coming to the Holy City. He came for a “feast of the Jews,” but which one? The options are Purim in March, Passover in April, Pentecost in May, Tabernacles in October, and Dedication in December. This episode likely occurred during the springtime, as the lame were lying outside in the weather and Jesus referred to the time of harvest earlier (John 4:35). Thus Purim and Passover are the best guesses.

Verse 2 continues the narrative: “Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.” John used the present tense, “there is in Jerusalem . . .,” even though he wrote these words long after the Roman destruction of the city in AD 70. He wanted us to experience the reality of this miracle as if it occurred in our time, for it still can.

The Sheep Gate was one of the entrances through the walls of the city of Jerusalem. It had been rebuilt by Eliashib the High Priest and his fellow priests during the time of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 3:1), more than four hundred years earlier. It was likely the entrance through which sheep and lambs were brought from the neighboring fields to the Temple for sacrifice. Through this gate the Lamb of God came to heal a crippled man, as one day he would die for the spiritual healing of our crippled world.

Here lay a “pool” (this word is found only here in the New Testament). It was surrounded by “five roofed colonnades.” These colonnades were covered porches called stoa where people gathered (the “Stoics” are named for the fact that they began by meeting on porches like these). The pool in question was trapezoidal in form, 165–220 feet wide by 315 feet long, divided by a central partition. There were colonnades on four sides of this partition, and one on it. Stairways in the corners permitted descent into the pools.

The Crusaders built a church near this pool, with a crypt framed like the five porches and an opening in the floor which descended to the water. This structure is known as the Church of St. Anne; it stands today on the northwest corner of Jerusalem near the gate by the sheep market. I’ve visited it many times over the years. The pool was called Bethesda in Aramaic, a term meaning “House of Mercy.” Jesus fulfilled its name this day.

Beside this pool “lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed” (v. 3). Why were they there?

Verse 7 supplies the answer: “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up.” There is a subterranean spring beneath the pool which bubbles up occasionally, stirring its waters. The popular belief was that the first person who entered the water after it was stirred would be healed.

We meet the suffering man Jesus came to heal in verse 5: “One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.” The length of his incapacity proves the fact that it was medically incurable. Jesus did not provide him a medical solution but a miraculous healing.

So, “When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be healed?’” (v. 6). The crippled man could not come to Jesus physically and did not know to ask Jesus to come to him. So Jesus met him at the point of his great need.

But first he asked what seems to us a strange question: “Do you want to be healed?” What crippled person wouldn’t want to be healed?

However, this man had been in this condition for “a long time.” He has spent his adult life and perhaps longer in this condition. He may have become accustomed to living on the donations of others. He may not want to return to the responsibility of an earned income and work to perform.

Jesus will only work in our lives with our permission. He always limits himself to our free will.

Where do you need his healing, helping touch today? Jesus knows your pain. In fact, “your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8). Jesus is calling to us in our suffering, for he shares it with us. Even in the valley of the shadow of death, he is with us (Psalm 23:4). He promised that he would never leave or forsake us (Matthew 28:20). He hurts as we hurt and calls to us in the pain of our lives.

But some of us feel that we are beyond his help, that our sins have exempted us from his grace. The world would have said the same of this invalid.

In Jesus’ day, popular theology taught that physical illness was proof of spiritual judgment. A person with a physical birth defect, as may have been the case with this man, was under the justice and judgment of God (cf. the disciples’ question of Jesus, “who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” John 9:2). And those who experienced suffering for other reasons were judged to be sinners as well.

No self-respecting rabbi would have stopped for this man, but Jesus did. Perhaps you think no one cares about you or your pain today. If we knew your secrets, we would reject you; if the world knew your problems, it would turn on you. But not Jesus. He initiated this miracle, as he will yours. He went to this man, as he will come to you. He stands ready to meet us where we need him most.

Scripture says, “You do not have, because you do not ask” (James 4:2). To feel the touch of Jesus, seek his help.

Trust his heart

The invalid replied to Jesus’ question, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me” (v. 7). He wanted to be well but could not accomplish this on his own.

Notice how little he asked of Jesus. He believed that he would be healed if he could be the first one into the pool after the spring stirred its waters. And so, he wanted the Son of God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, simply to carry him a few feet into the water. Jesus stood ready to heal his body, and the man instead asked him to help him get wet.

Are we so different? Do you come to worship to hear a “good sermon” and music, or to meet the Lord of the universe? Am I speaking these words to give you my wisdom or God’s? To explain the text or lead you to the One who inspired it and wants to repeat its miraculous power in our lives today?

We might object that the crippled man didn’t know who Jesus really was. True, and this ignorance is his defense. But we have no such argument. When we give our need to Jesus, we must trust his heart and expect his best. For that is what he waits to give to us.

Our Lord said to the invalid, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk” (v. 8). He called the man to do something he had not done for thirty-eight years. He did not carry the man to the water—he healed him so he could walk there himself. He did not offer him a temporary cure or help for the symptoms of his disease—he worked a miracle which would banish this disease from his life forever. He told him to pick up his “mat,” the light pallet on which he had begged for so long.

And he told the invalid to “walk.” He has not moved the muscles of his legs for thirty-eight years. Even if a physician were to cure the cause of his paralysis, perhaps a rupture in the spine or nerves, his muscles would be so atrophied that years of physical rehabilitation would be required by him. But not by Jesus. He did for the man far more than the man asked of him.

Now the divine-human partnership emerges. Jesus healed the man, but the invalid had to get up with the power given him by God. Jesus restored his body but told him to carry his own mat. Jesus cured his limbs but required the man to use them himself. And when he did, “At once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked” (v. 9).

When we trust our problem into Jesus’ hands, we must always expect the best from him. He will always do as we ask, or something better. We often misunderstand his ways and feel that he will not hear or help us. But he is giving us what is best for us, whether we know it at the moment or not.

Many years ago, I was using a razor blade to scrape paint from a window one Saturday morning when one of our small boys happened by. Attracted by the shiny “toy” in my hand, he wanted to play with it and was not happy that I wouldn’t give him what he asked. But of course, no amount of begging or anger would have persuaded me to give him what he wanted.

When we stand with our Father in glory, we’ll see how many times he met our needs and answered our prayers with what we asked. And how often he gave us even more.

Where do you need his touch? Seek his help, then trust his heart.

Wait for his best

Let’s consider one last fact. This man had been an invalid for thirty-eight years, likely lying beside this pool for all this time. Jesus had been coming to Jerusalem since he was twelve and was now in his early thirties. Thus, there had been two decades when the Son of God probably passed by this man in his infirmity.

Why did Jesus wait so long to heal this man? Why now?

Here we learn that God’s timing is seldom our own. He tells us, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” (Isaiah 55:8). We see the parade through a hole in the fence; he sees it from the grandstand. He has a plan we cannot fathom which is relevant to the entire universe for all of eternity. And he works this plan in ways that are best, though we seldom understand that fact at the time.

When Joseph was languishing in Potiphar’s prison, he could not know that God was orchestrating events that would bring him into Pharaoh’s palace. When Paul was imprisoned in Philippi, he could not know that God would send an earthquake that would lead to the jailer’s conversion. When John was exiled on Patmos, he could not know that the risen Christ would meet him there and give him the Revelation.

Where does it seem to you that Jesus is passing you by? That he knows your need but has not met it? That his timing is not yours?

The simple fact of Scripture and providence is that God does what we ask or whatever is best. And when his timing is not ours, there are reasons we cannot understand but can trust.

Conclusion

What infirmity has found you? Would you seek Jesus’ help, trust his heart, and wait on his timing?

Charles Spurgeon was the greatest preacher of his generation, but he was no stranger to pain. He battled a burning kidney inflammation called Bright’s Disease as well as rheumatism and neuritis. And he suffered from depression for many years.

Here was his response: “All our infirmities, whatever they are, are just opportunities for God to display his gracious work in us.”

It’s been stated, “The sun never quits shining. Sometimes, clouds just get in the way.”

What clouds would you trust to the Son today?

To Open Blind Eyes, First Open Yours

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Topical Scripture: John 9:1-7

Last Monday, President Trump awarded our nation’s highest military honor to a Special Forces combat medic named Ronald J. Shurer. In April 2008, Shurer and his team of commandos were attacked in Afghanistan by an enemy force of more than two hundred.

Shurer treated five wounded soldiers, evacuated them down an almost vertical sixty-foot cliff under fire, loaded them onto a helicopter, then took command of his squad and returned to the battle. His actions saved the lives of his teammates.

Such bravery deserves our greatest commendation and deepest respect. For a person to risk his life to help others is the highest form of bravery.

All through his earthly ministry, Jesus demonstrated such courage. While his enemies mounted their opposition and eventually planned his execution, he continued to heal the sick and share God’s love.

This week’s healing miracle is a remarkable model for us. If you’ll follow our Lord’s example, your courage in helping a hurting soul may not win national recognition, but it will be rewarded for eternity in heaven.

See the need (v. 1)

Our story occurred on a Sabbath (John 9:14). Jesus has returned to Judea, where he has been teaching in the temple courts (John 8:2). Here he noticed a man who could not see him: “As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth” (John 9:1).

Jesus had not begun the day intending to heal this man. He was “passing along,” walking through the day before him. So much of his ministry was done by “walking around,” helping the people he chanced to meet, seeing their pain and offering his hope.

So it was that he “saw” this man. The Greek word translated “saw” here means to fix the gaze, to look earnestly. Jesus gave him more than a passing glance—he paid attention to his predicament.

When he saw the man, he saw his need: he was “blind from birth.” Simple observation could not have told him this. How would anyone know when the man’s blindness had begun? It’s possible that the man told him, or that his reputation preceded him (cf. v. 8). But the syntax suggests to me that the instant Jesus saw the man he knew that his blindness was congenital. If he could heal this man’s blindness, he could determine its source.

This insight gave the Great Physician enough information for a diagnosis: his illness has persisted for many years, caused by a physical abnormality which could not be treated by first-century medicine. There was no medical option for this man. He needed not a physician, but a miracle.

What Jesus knew of this man, he knows today of you:

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious concerning me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand (Psalm 139:15–18, NIV footnote).

The Physician who saw this man and his need sees yours. The blind man could not see Jesus, as we cannot see him today. But the one who cannot see is visible to the One who can.

Now Jesus calls us to see others as he sees us. We can tell how close we are to Jesus by the degree to which we love those he loves.

The first “fruit of the Spirit,” the first result of the Spirit at work in our lives, is love (Galatians 5:22). The first commandment is that we love God, and the second is that we fulfill the first by loving our neighbor (Matthew 22:37, 39). When was the last time you stepped out of your routine to see someone as Jesus does?

Be practical (vv. 2–3)

The disciples followed their Master’s gaze, but for a very different reason. He saw a man in personal pain; they saw a theological question. He stopped to heal this man; they stopped to use him as an example for their theological discussion: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2).

Before we listen to Jesus’ answer, first let’s explore their question, lest we ask it ourselves. The rabbis taught that suffering is the result of sin: “There is no death without sin, and there is no suffering without iniquity” (Rabbi Ammi, in Shab. 55a). First-century Judaism assumed that suffering was proof of divine wrath, and prosperity proof of his pleasure and reward. Such logic is not confined to ancient Judaism—every world religion holds an aspect of its claim.

Hindus believe in the law of karma, the idea that our present suffering is punishment for wrongs we committed in a previous lifetime. According to Gautama Buddha’s “First Sermon at Benares,” all suffering is due to wrong desire. Newspaper accounts following the Columbia tragedy quoted al-Qaeda sympathizers as attributing the disaster to America’s sins against Allah.

In Christian theology, the disciples’ question has been most fully formulated by St. Augustine. His “theodicy” (an account of evil in the light of God’s goodness and power) attributes suffering to the misuse of our free will. God created us to worship him; worship requires freedom; when we misuse this freedom, the consequences are not God’s fault but ours.

Often Augustine is right. I’ve seen marriages end because of adultery; I’ve buried alcoholics who died of cirrhosis of the liver; I’ve known drug users who contracted AIDS; I’ve watched students who didn’t study fail the test and then blame God or me. I know of suffering in my life which has come from my sins. You know of the same in yours.

The disciples didn’t doubt that the man’s congenital blindness was the result of sin. They only want to know who to blame: “who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2).

Jesus cleared up their confusion: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life” (v. 3). Some suffering is the result of sin, but such was not the case here. Much of the world’s grief and pain is not the result of anyone’s sin or failure. Remember Job’s plight; remember Jesus’ innocent crucifixion. To attribute all suffering to sin often increases the suffering of the innocent.

In this case, the man’s inherited blindness was no one’s fault. He had certainly not sinned, and neither had his parents’ sin caused his handicap. Rather, “this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” The word translated “so that” can also be rendered “with the result that.” Jesus’ answer can therefore be translated, “this happened with the result that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”

We can also change the punctuation (which was not in the Greek original) to read: “Neither this man sinned, nor his parents. But that the works of God should be made manifest in him, we must work the works of him that sent me.”

I do not understand Jesus’ statement to teach that God created this man’s blindness. He permitted it, as a consequence of the natural, fallen world in which we live. When mankind fell, all of creation was affected by the fall (cf. Romans 8:22). Blindness, birth defects, cancer, and other diseases are often the result of our fallen world, not our fallen actions. So it was here.

But the Lord would redeem this suffering for his glory and the man’s good: “The work of God might be displayed in his life.” Jesus came to do the “work of God” (cf. Matthew 12:28, Mark 2:7). The healing to come is a miracle to us, but it is merely the “work” of God, his normal activity and ability.

Jesus turned the disciples’ speculative question into practical truth. He did not tell them why the man was blind, but what God intended to do about his blindness. He did not explain the source of the pain, but its solution. In the hardest places of life, his answer is what we need.

Are you hurting along with the blind man? Are you or others asking why? Sometimes knowing the cause is important to the cure, especially if your suffering is the result of sin which must now be confessed to be cleansed (1 John 1:8–9). But often our speculative questions cannot give practical help.

So, we should focus on the practical. Now that we are in this place of suffering, what are we to do? How will God help us? How would he use us to help someone else? Jesus redeemed this man’s blindness by displaying his own miraculous glory, and then by leading the man to spiritual sight as well (v. 38: “the man said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him”). He will redeem our pain for his glory and our good. And he will use us to do the same for those we can help.

Become Jesus’ hands (vv. 4–7)

Now you and I join our story: “As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me” (John 9:4a). Note two words: “we must.” All of Jesus’ followers must “do the work of him who sent” our Lord. We are engaged in the same ministry which brought him to our planet. We are now the presence of Christ on earth, his ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20). How do we become Jesus’ hands?

With urgency: “Night is coming, when no man can work” (v. 4b). Night was coming for Jesus: “I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one who sent me” (John 7:33). It is coming for us as well. None of us is promised tomorrow. We have only today to join Jesus at work.

When the night comes, “no man can work” (cf. John 11:9–10, 12:35–36). One day will be the last day. One hour will be the last hour. “Night is coming,” and all work is done. Love your Lord by loving your neighbor, with urgency.

In his power: “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:5). The New Testament repeatedly testifies that Jesus is the spiritual light of a world darkened by sin (John 1:4–5, 9; 8:12). He is the light—we are his reflection: “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

We cannot heal blind eyes, of course. But Jesus can. And so we share his power, his love, his hope. We pray for the one in pain. We share God’s word with the one who needs hope. We bring God’s love to the one in despair. We become Jesus’ hands, in his power.

At the level of need: “Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes” (John 9:6). We know why a first-century physician would do such a strange thing. Ancients like Pliny, the Roman scientist, believed that spit would cure snakes’ poison, epilepsy, lichens and leprosy, and neck pains. Saliva was highly esteemed as an ancient cure for illness.

Of course, Jesus did not need to use mud to heal the man. He healed other blind eyes without using spit and mud (cf. Mark 10:46–52; Matthew 9:27–31; 12.22; 15:30; 21:14). I think he used mud in this case because the blind man needed such assurance.

He probably knew Jesus’ action to be accepted medical practice. To our knowledge, he had no previous information regarding Jesus’ healing powers. Had the Divine Physician not acted as a human doctor, it is likely that his patient would not have accepted his cure.

The application to us is simple: meet need on its level. It’s hard to talk to a hungry man about his soul before we feed his body. Win the trust of the person you are called to help. Develop relationship—establish common ground—earn confidence. Connect with their suffering before you try to bring it to the Savior.

Call to faith: “‘Go,’ he told him, ‘wash in the Pool of Siloam’ (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing” (v. 7). Here we find the divine-human partnership at work once again. We do what we can do, and God does what we cannot.

Conclusion

Now it’s our turn to be the presence of Christ to our hurting world. Through this story, Jesus invites us to see the need and be his hands in meeting it.

Believe that God will use you, no matter how long takes. And he will.

John Patton was a missionary in the South Pacific in the early 1800s. After working for a year, not a single person had come to Christ. People attended his Bible studies and nodded approvingly but would not respond to his invitation to faith. He began to consider a move to another mission field, and prayed that the Lord would give him just one convert. If one man came to Christ, he reasoned, he could move on while knowing that the work would continue there.

For eight years he worked and prayed for that one convert. Then one morning, Patton awoke to see the entire population of the island, Twelve hundred people, assembled near his home. The chief said, “We are all ready to receive Christ.” Patton was stunned. He learned that tribal culture required that no one receive Christ until all were ready. He spent three days baptizing the twelve hundred converts. He had prayed for one to be saved, but God saved them all.

To open blind eyes, there is only one requirement: We must first open ours.

Touching the Garment of God

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Topical Scripture: Mark 5:24–34

A woman finished shopping, went to her car, and found four men sitting inside. She dropped her bags, pulled her handgun, and yelled: “Get out of the car. I have a gun and know how to use it!” The men scrambled out of the car and ran off.

Relieved, she set her bags in the back seat, sat down behind the wheel, and pushed the button to start the car. But it wouldn’t start, no matter how many times she tried. She then looked around and realized this was not her car. It was the same color and model as hers, but four cars down the row.

Chagrined, she got in her car and drove straight to the police station to turn herself in. She explained to the sergeant what had happened. Laughing, he pointed to four men at another desk who were reporting that their car had been stolen by a lady with a handgun.

No charges were filed.

The woman thought the car was hers when it was not. This is a parable for creatures who think that the creation belongs to us when it does not.

Self-reliance is the path to success in our culture, or so we think. We are rewarded for initiative and self-sufficiency. The more we can do for ourselves, by ourselves, the more our culture applauds.

By contrast, the Bible commends the person who trusts God to be God, the sheep who follow their Shepherd, the sick who seek the Great Physician.

Why do you need to believe that “the deepest desires of your heart will be fulfilled” when you trust them to the Lord? Is there a problem you’ve been trying to solve yourself? Pain you’ve been trying to heal? A burden you’ve been trying to carry?

Today we’ll meet a woman who turned to everyone she could find before she turned to the one Person who could heal her.

Let’s learn how to make her faith our own.

“I will be made well” (vv. 24–28)

Our story begins: “A great crowd followed [Jesus] and thronged about him” (Mark 5:24). In their midst was “a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years” (v. 25). “Discharge of blood” translates rhysei, the typical word for menstrual flow. Hers had not stopped in more than a decade, however, leaving her anemic and severely weakened. Mark will later describe her condition as a mastix, which means “scourge, whip, lash, torment” (v. 29).

In addition, she “had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse” (v. 26). She “suffered much” (polys pascho, to experience much evil) and “spent” (dapanesasa, to waste, destroy, wear out) all her money, but her health continued to decline. The cures prescribed in the Jewish Talmud—carrying the ashes of an ostrich egg in a cloth, for instance—only made things worse.

In addition, her condition rendered her ritually unclean (Leviticus 15:19–27). She had not been to a house of worship in twelve years and likely had never been able to marry or have children. Imagine her feelings of isolation, helplessness, and hopelessness.

While she could not go to the temple of God, she could go to the God of the temple: “She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment” (v. 27). Some see this as a sign of humility, not wanting to stop or disturb the Master. More likely, it was the only way this “unclean” outcast thought she could approach a noted rabbi and healer.

She was confident in Jesus’ abilities: “For she said, ‘If I touch even his garments, I will be made well'” (v. 28). Her intention was to touch just the edge of his garment (Matthew 9:20; Luke 8:44), perhaps one of the four tassels at the corners of his prayer shawl (the tallit). She knew that by touching Jesus, she would defile him as well (Leviticus 15:26–27); perhaps she believed that she could brush the hem of his cloak in the crowd without detection.

The unnamed woman did the right thing—she brought her pain to Jesus. Like any physician, he can heal only those who submit to him. James warned us that “you do not have, because you do not ask God” (James 4:2 NIV). What pain is he waiting to touch in your life today?

“Your faith has made you well” (vv. 29–34)

Mark’s narrative continues: “And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease” (v. 29). “Immediately” (euthys) is one of Mark’s favorite words, indicating the swift action for which his Gospel is known. The woman’s “bleeding” (pege, spring, menstrual flow) “stopped” (exeranthe, dried up, withered, analogous to a spring drying up) and she “felt” (ginosko, knew, comprehended, understood) that she was “freed” (iaomai, cured, healed) from her “suffering” (mastix, whip, torment). Mastix was used to describe the whip which Paul endured (Acts 22:24).

The woman probably wanted to fade into the crowd, but “Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my garments?'” (v. 30).

Interpreters over the centuries have wondered about the meaning of this question. Some suggest that the Father healed this woman without the knowledge of the Son, whose knowledge of some issues (such as the timing of his return; cf. Matthew 24:36) was limited during his incarnation. More likely, he asked the question in order to engage the woman in further ministry. Just as God asked Adam and Eve questions to which he knew the answer (Genesis 3:9, 11, 13), Jesus asked for the woman to identify herself.

In a moment, we’ll see why.

His disciples did not understand his motives, however: “And his disciples said to him, ‘You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?'” (v. 31). Perhaps they were remarking at his sensitiveness in feeling a touch in such a crowded situation, but more likely they were objecting to the logic of his question. With so many pressing around him, why would he ask his question?

Jesus ignored their response, perhaps indicating that his question was not directed at them: “And he looked around to see who had done it” (v. 32). He “kept looking around” (periblepo, looking after, to hunt) for the person who had touched him and been healed.

As a result of his persistence, “the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth” (v. 33). She was “trembling with fear” (tremousa, to quiver with awe) as she fell at his feet and told him what she had done. Perhaps she was afraid that he would be angry with her for touching him and rendering him ritually unclean. Perhaps she was even more afraid that he would take back her healing.

Now our Lord came to the gift he had wanted to give the woman: “He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease'” (v. 34). “Daughter” translates thygater, found only here in the New Testament. Her faith had “healed” (sozo, to save) her; whenever this word is found in conjunction with “faith” (pistis), it conveys spiritual as well as physical healing (cf. Luke 17:19) and is the normal word for saving from sin.

Jesus had healed her body, but he wanted to heal her soul. When she came to him in honesty and humility, her faith positioned her to receive the eternal gift he wanted to bestow.

Note that the spoken Hebrew and Aramaic term translated by Mark into sozo was yashaw, a variant of Yeshua, Jesus. He had fulfilled his name, the One who would “save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). He then told her to “go in peace,” a blessing which meant that she was right with God, others, and herself. After twelve long years, she had been restored to life in all its fullness.

The woman’s faith did not save her. Rather, it positioned her to receive what Jesus intended to give by grace. This pattern is repeated throughout Scripture: The priests’ faith in stepping into the flooded Jordan River (Joshua 3:15–17) did not cause the river to stop; it positioned them to receive the miraculous grace of God. The Jews’ marching around Jericho did not cause the fortified city to collapse; it positioned them to experience the power of God in its destruction (Joshua 6:20).

So it is with us: we are saved not by faith but by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8–9). When we bring our pain and problems to God, believing that he can help us, we then receive all that he intends to give.

Is God waiting on a step of faith in your life today?

Five obstacles to God’s best

So long as the woman trusted in the doctors or in herself, she remained sick. When she turned to Jesus in faith and dependence, she received his best for her.

What is keeping you from bringing your pain to him today?

One answer is pride, our desire to do for ourselves what we need done. From the proverbial men who won’t ask for directions when we’re lost to the patient who trusts a self-diagnosis based on the internet rather than her physician, we all want to solve our problems ourselves. We don’t want to admit that we need what only God can supply.

Conversely, shame is a second answer. We’re not sure God would want to hear us or help us. Especially when our suffering results from our own sins and failures, we’re not sure that God wants to forgive us and heal us.

A third obstacle is a lack of faith. Perhaps God doesn’t work miracles anymore; perhaps he never really did. We live in a scientific day that dismisses the supernatural. It’s easy to wonder whether God will do what we cannot.

A fourth problem is a lack of persistence. Perhaps we’re different from the woman in that we’ve been touching the garment of God for days and perhaps even years, but he doesn’t seem to have helped us. Power has not gone out from him yet. He hasn’t turned and taken notice of us. Or so we think.

A fifth obstacle is insistence on our way. Perhaps God’s best for us is not what we wanted. Rather than healing our body, he seeks to heal our soul. Rather than give us what we want, he is giving us what we need.

When the Apostle Paul prayed three times for God to remove his “thorn in the flesh,” the Lord refused. Instead, he taught Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul testified: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Sometimes God calms the storm, and sometimes he lets the storm rage and calms his child.

The solution is to do what this unnamed woman did—bring our pain to our Lord and trust him for what is best. Keep praying, trusting, and depending. And know that he hears us and loves us and grieves with us and will always do what is for his glory and our good.

His timing is seldom ours, but his grace is amazing and his love is undefeated.

Conclusion

An anonymous Confederate soldier wrote:

I asked God for strength that I might achieve; I was made weak, that I might learn to serve. I asked for health, that I might do great things; I was given infirmity, that I might do better things. I asked for wealth, that I might be happy; I was given poverty, that I might be wise. I asked for power, that I might earn the praise of men; I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life; I was given life, that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing I asked for, but all I hoped for. Despite myself, my prayers were answered. And I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

So can we be. This is the promise, and the invitation, of God.