Miracles in Process

"God's greatest miracles happen after the pain of uncertainty and disappointment."

At our wedding, we wrote this at the end of our testimony story, relating the struggles of our lives when we were single to the story of Jarius in Mark 5: 21-43.

Personally, this one is my favorite miracles (other than the resurrection). Here's a bit of history of how I came to relate to this story.

My sophomore year of college, the Intervarsity girls bible study discussed the miracles of Jesus. One of them was the story of the bleeding woman, who touches Jesus' clothes and is instantly healed.

I found myself relating to her. Who hasn't felt like an outcast at some point in their lives?

It also struck me that Jesus tells her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you...." It's the only time Jesus calls a woman "daughter", and I wondered why.

Why not the woman at the well, or Mary? What makes this unnamed outcast, who doesn't even have the confidence to ask Jesus directly to heal her, special?

I prayed over this for a few months...I couldn't figure it out! One day, God revealed it to me: Her identity completely changed with her healing.

She had been bleeding for 12 years, which made her unclean, which made her unable to be around anyone. No one smiled at her, no one was her best friend; she was completely alone.

Jesus couldn't let her just go unnoticed anymore.

For social reasons, people needed to know she was different now, and I think Jesus had to acknowledge her need for emotional healing too: she needed to know she was important.

She was no longer the same as before. She went from an outcast to a daughter in less than a second! It's just like when we come to know Christ!

For the longest time, I focused on the bleeding woman. Then, one day I read it again and saw a new story: Jarius.

There's a completely different point of view seeing the story from Jarius' side.

This man is a synagogue ruler and his kid is really sick, enough for him to come to Jesus and beg him to go to his house to heal his daughter. Jesus agrees.

As they walk with this huge crowd around them, all of a sudden Jesus starts asking who touched him. It's a silly enough question that the disciples state the obvious: Jesus, you're in a crowd. There's a bunch of people touching you.

Then, this woman comes, and tells that she touched Jesus' clothes and was healed instantly.

I wonder what Jarius was thinking as he watched this conversation happening: He asked Jesus first. Doesn't Jesus know his daughter is dying? Why did Jesus stop to talk to this woman?

As Jesus finishes his conversation, Jarius' friends tell him his daughter has died. "Why bother the teacher anymore?" they say.

Jarius has to feel heartbroken. He probably asked every doctor for help and Jesus was his last chance. Now, it's gone and he'll have to face his wife and his friends with this disappointment. I wonder if he also felt a bit forgotten.

But Jesus says something that I'm sure was confusing for Jarius to hear, "Don't be afraid. Just believe." And they continue towards Jarius' house.

There, they see a bunch of people mourning, which had to make Jarius feel even worse. He sees his wife, I'm sure her eyes puffy from crying.

Jesus then goes in the house, to the room where the girl is laying, along with her parents, and James, John, and Peter. He tells her to get up and she does! Jesus raises her from the dead! I think this is the first time Jesus ever raises someone from the dead. The other times are a when he raises a man from the dead during his own funeral procession, Lazarus, and himself.

I think many times in our lives we feel like Jarius as he walks back to his house: surrounded by uncertainty, feeling disappointed, and not quite sure what Jesus is going to do.

It would have been easier if Jesus had just told him, "Don't worry! I'm going to raise your daughter from the dead!"

But, Jesus doesn't work that way. He just says, "Don't be afraid. Just believe." And he ends up doing an amazing miracle!

What I like the most is that Jesus is with Jarius during the time he felt the uncertainty of not knowing what was going to happen. Jesus doesn't leave him. I'd like to think Jarius was somewhat comforted by Jesus' presence in the midst of the hurt. I know I am!

So, great miracles do follow great pain. Would we really appreciate it if a miracle just happened instantly?

(Note: Keep your eyes and heart open. There are miracles in process all around you!)
written 10-17-09