A beloved church member is in the hospital with a heart attack. A heart catheterization is scheduled and things are proceeding well. This amazing diagnostic tool will give her doctors the information they need on how to treat her and hopefully correct any defect that might result in another heart attack.
Heaven only knows the bill that will be presented at the end of this medical emergency. It is boggling to the mind when one considers all the many items that get billed. Just look around any hospital Emergency Room and notice all the black and white bar codes on every piece of equipment that gets scanned. Tubes, hoses, medicines, saline bags, needles, oxygen apparatus … and that is just the “stuff.” When you add doctor’s fees, nurse’s time, scans, charges for overnight stays, non-medical staffing costs, the cafeteria bill, etc. you are looking at hefty charges, even with insurance. That is, if you are blessed enough to have insurance.
People who had access to Jesus never got a hospital bill. They never had overnight stays, and the only equipment required for healing was the edge of his clothes.
Matthew 14 (Common English Bible)
34 When they had crossed the lake, they landed at Gennesaret.35 When the people who lived in that place recognized him, they sent word throughout that whole region, and they brought to him everyone who was sick. 36 Then they begged him that they might just touch the edge of his clothes. Everyone who touched him was cured.
We need to just pause there for a moment. Like the bleeding woman who pushed through the crowd to touch the hem of his robe, the people of Gennesaret had such great faith in Jesus’ power to heal, they didn’t need medicine, they didn’t need conversation, they didn’t need a laying on of hands, and they didn’t even need to interact with him; they just needed to reach out an unsteady hand and graze the edge of his clothing.
The power to save was his birthright. The power to be saved is our invitation. We are all people of Gennesaret, standing in the crowd. And we all need to be healed in one way or another.
How do you need healed? Are you burned out by political rhetoric to the point of disillusionment? Are you struggling to keep your head above the water of your debt? Are fractured family relationships making you sick with worry? Have anger and hate become your daily exercise routine?
Have you lost hope?
Take a moment to pray right now. Reach out your hand. Find the edge.
Everyone who touches him will be cured.
Guatemalan Jesus
Looking for an Advent devotional book? ADVENTuring to the Manger is available at Amazon.
