My Healer

I am still kind of in a haze. This weekend at church, we had amazing services focusing on Jehovah Rophe - Jesus is my healer. It's been a while since I was in a service like that - so moving. As we prayed for healing for people at the end of service, because I was standing on stage, I got the rare privilege of seeing their faces as they were being prayed for. I saw people weeping and broken. I saw parents running to get their kids out of the nursery so that they could be prayed for. At that moment, I thought to myself, "This is what Jesus was all about." If you look at his entire ministry - it was reaching out to people at the point of their suffering. Touching those who were vulnerable with pain and loss. I would say that when we are praying for the sick and broken, we are closer to the mission and heart of Jesus than any other time.

All week, Jeff and I had been praying for the services. We both were so expectant and filled with faith that God wanted to do miraculous things in the hearts and bodies of people in our church. Then - as you all know! - Nancy shared so eloquently on the woman with the issue of blood last Tuesday at Bible Study. She talked about how the woman probably had anemia, no energy, and was risking so much by pushing her way through the crowd to touch Jesus. I pondered her story all week long - picturing a frail woman, at the end of hope, years of pain and suffering etched onto her weary face - laying her hand on Jesus, knowing that He was in fact God incarnate.

There weren't many people at that time who believed that Jesus was the Messiah. But she knew. I heard an interesting thing about this story. In the Old Testament, there is a reference to the Messiah - the one that God was going to send to save his people. In that prophecy, found in Malachi 4:2, it says, that "But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture."

In those days, the fringe in the bottom of their robes was actually called the "wings" of the robe. In Mark, when this sickly woman was trying to get to Jesus, it says "She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched the fringe of his robe. For she thought to herself, "If I can just touch his clothing, I will be healed."

She knew that because he was the Messiah, there would be "healing in his wings." Amazing faith! Not only did she have the determination to push through the crowd. This woman believed in Jesus. She knew the scriptures. She knew that He was indeed the promised one.

When Jesus replied to her, he said, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. You have been healed." I think the faith that Jesus was referring to was not only her belief that she could be healed, but the faith she had that HE was the one who could heal her. He was moved by her recognition of who He was.

I realize so often I am scared to pray for the sick. I don't know how and why God choses to heal some and not others. But I am inspired by this story. It wasn't about mustering up enough faith in the healing itself, it was about recognizing who the Healer was and reaching out to him.

This weekend, I was moved that so many people were reaching their hands out to touch the "wings" of Jesus. They were saying, 'I believe that YOU are my healer." "I believe that YOU are all I need to be free and whole."

Beautiful.