40 DAYS - DAY 9 - 3.1.21

Love Goes the Distance - Day 9 – Monday, March 1st – Pastor Chris
Scripture Reading – Read Mark 5:21–43 and focus on 5:25–34 below
Remember to Pause | Read | Reflect | Listen |Pray | Journal |Practice | Encourage/Share |Fast

"A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.

Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?” His disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” But he kept on looking around to see who had done it. Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”

In ancient Greek the word “suffered” is the word “paschō” (παθοῦσα) which means more accurately “to endure.” The woman had endured pain, bleeding, loss of money, doctors who couldn’t help, and most likely rejection and ostracization for being “unclean” because of the medical condition. Touching a Rabbi would have been a dangerous movement which could result in her death as punishment. The Hebrew people believed The Rabbi’s robe with tassels at the bottom contained healing powers, thus the woman’s desire to touch the robe. The woman was desperate to end her condition's enduring agony, which was physically, emotionally, and spiritually causing her to suffer.
 
The bigger picture is that the woman declared by her actions that by reaching out and touching the tassels of Jesus’ robe, the woman believed in FAITH Jesus to be the Messiah. She risked everything, even her very life, to touch Jesus. Jesus’ response is two-fold. “Go in peace” means “Go in safety and security,” and then “Your suffering is over.” The Greek word for “suffering” there is “mastix” (μάστιξ) which means more accurately “affliction.” Jesus “endured” and was “afflicted” on the Cross for our sins, so that through “Faith” in Jesus as the Messiah, we never have to endure the affliction of eternal torment in hell but only the “Peace” that comes from Heaven itself. 

Prayer Focus – Pray for our Prayer Team Ministry that they will remain steadfast and faithful as they are a crucial engine that moves all the work done by Real Life.