Mark 5:21-43New International Version (NIV)
Jesus Raises a Dead Girl and Heals a Sick Woman
21 When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. 23 He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” 24 So Jesus went with him.
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
35 While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”
36 Overhearing[a] what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.”40 But they laughed at him.
After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. 43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.
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Hope can be a funny thing. Hope can be a last resort. Hope can be all sorts of things for different people. The one common theme in Hope is for the looking forward of something. Have you ever gone to a funeral? There is a great likelihood that you have if you have been reading this blog for quite some time. Funerals can be very sad or in some cases (where there is Hope) can be a celebration and a mourning. The mourning, is common in all funerals, in that we miss the loved ones that have left this earthly realm and have moved on to another. It is common for us to mourn that which we once had have and now no longer do. There are some funerals, however, where there is no hope and more like a statement of "if", that is, "if" there is an afterlife, "then" maybe this person will be in Heaven. And then there are funerals where you go to and there is mourning, but there is also a celebration because you and I, who profess the Lord Jesus as Savior and have repented of our sins and our transformed into His new creation, have this hope. For those of us that have the Lord, as Savior, no longer have to say goodbye to our loved ones. Rather, we should be saying: See you later!
Hope can be seen throughout history. In war, in peace and even in movies we see the thread of hope intertwined in all of these events. Hope is looking forward to. Hope, as Christians, comes with a promise:
- It is all about Jesus
- The Word was with God and the Word is God
- Jesus was raised from the dead and now sits on the throne at the right hand of God
- Jesus will return
- We have the Holy Spirit in each of us who are saved
Faith without works is dead. Without hope what is there to look forward to?
I am not sure about you, or where have come from, but I am sure in the Bible. I am sure in my salvation. I am sure that Jesus will return and I have faith and hope in my future with Him.
What about your hope?
Blessings,
Dante