Devotion - Monday, March 8

I was asked to make a guest appearance at the Confirmation Ministry Class. The previous week, they had been discussing miracles, and one question remained unanswered, “Why does God perform some miracles but not heal everyone who asks?”

This morning’s appointed Gospel lesson would have been a good story to repeat. In the middle verses of Mark 5, Jesus is on his way to the home of Jairus. Jairus’ daughter is ill, and he comes to seek Jesus’ aid. As they are making their way, a woman with a flow of blood makes her way up behind Jesus and touches the tassels on his garments. Immediately she is made well.

What happens next may be familiar to you. Jesus stops, and begins to ask “Who touched me?” There is a great crowd pressing from every side to the disciples remind him, “Everyone is touching you.” But Jesus is looking for the one who touch was different. When the woman comes forward to tell what has happened to her, Jesus speaks to her. He points out to her; he instructs her as to why this thing has occurred.

She might have thought of those tassels on his garments as some sort of magic potion. She might have believe that the power was in those corners to Jesus’ prayer shawl. But Jesus tells her the power is somewhere else. “Your faith has made you well.”

Jesus is not some magician, capable of putting on a show for all to see. Jesus is the one in whom we have faith. It is in order to instill faith that Jesus performs his miracles. The end result of every miracle is a deepening of faith.

I do not mean to imply that requests for God’s intervention which go unheeded are somehow an indication of insufficient faith or a block against faith. Rather, I would like to shift the focus away from concern with our physical selves to a better appreciation of that part of us which reflects the image of God.