We should not overlook the connection between healing and the gospel of the kingdom of God that Jesus and His disciples proclaimed from town to town. See Matthew 4:23-25, Matt 9:35, Luke 9:1-2, Luke 10:9, Mark 16:15-18.
When the kingdom of God is present, people are restored, repaired, given new life and a fresh start.
Jesus was not simply saying believe and things will be better for you in the next life. It was more like: God's power is available to you here and now. Allow God to rule and reign in your lives now, enter the kingdom of God. And along with this message came visible and tangible signs where people were being set free from the powers of the kingdom of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light.
So back to the text at hand. Jesus spoke of the kingdom in Mark 4. Although Mark 5 does not mention the word 'kingdom', I believe he is giving a demonstration of the kingdom of God at work.
Jesus heals a demon possessed man. A man whose life was in ruins, is restored to "his right mind" by the authority of the King of Kings.
Jesus heals a woman who had been sick for 12 years. "She was free from her suffering." (vs 29)
And Jesus brings back to life a 12 year old girl who had died.
In this text are some words of comfort and challenge that mean a lot to our family: “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” (vs 36) Ten years ago our daughter was really sick, in intensive care at the hospital for a week. The doctors said it was an atypical form of Kawasaki disease. I still can't look at the picture above without being flooded with emotions. We didn't know if she would make it. These words spoke to my wife during those days. And we just hung onto these words as if it was a promise to us. Don't be afraid. Just believe. We thank God for the healing He brought to our daughter.
Another important part of healing is this:
“Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” (vs 19)
Please don't ask me why God doesn't heal everybody. I assume there were some people in Jesus' day that still got sick and died. The same is true today. It is part of the human condition. I can't explain why God chose to restore my daughters health. I am thankful for all that the Lord has done.
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3 comments:
Thank God your daughter was healed.
You are so right about healing in Jesus' day. The vast majority of people were never healed. He healed only a very small portion of people.
And He surely could have healed everyone, with the snap of his fingers. But that wasn't His mission. He had bigger fish to fry. To go to the Cross. To forgive. So that some might believe. And when we need life again, He will raise us from that grave.
Thanks, Jon.
Our son was hospitalized for Kawasaki disease 4 years go this Thanksgiving. I completely understand that feeling of watching your little one suffer and feeling so incredibly helpless. And yet I had great peace knowing the Great Physician was with us. The Lord was merciful to us as well and our son did not suffer permanent dammage to his heart. It was Providience that we took him in to be seen by the doctor when we did, and it was also Providencial that she was able to quickly diagnose him because another patient of hers had more than one bout with the disease.
Thank you for sharing from your own experience, Jon. It is always good to remember what the Lord has done.
Thanks for the comments. Genoise, wow, I don't know too many that have even heard of Kawasaki disease. Our daughter was not diagnosed early. She was actually sent home the first time we took her to the hospital after a few days of a high fever. The next day she was so pale and limp I thought we had lost her. It was a long hard week. But it was a week where we felt God's presence with us each and every moment. Many prayers went up, and we thank God for restoring her health. 10 years have past, and I don't talk about it much... thanks for sharing your story too.
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