Saturday, October 25, 2008

Jesus making us acceptable

I was just reading Mark 5:21-34, where there is a woman who was bleeding for 12 years. In those days she would not have been unable to hang around in public unless she told people that she was ceremonially unclean - a very humiliating experience.

It says in v.26 that she
1) suffered much under many doctors,
2) spent all her money on them
3) actually gotten worse (v.26)

What a sad story, and how relevant today, when so many people suffer under the very people who they go to for help. Some people go to false teachers and false religions for help - but they just spend their money, suffer, and get worse.

But then this woman touches Jesus' cloak believing that he can heal her (v.27-28). And he does! Immediately the bleeding stops (v.29).

What a wonderful man Jesus is! What a wonderful God he is! That he does what no-one else can do. That he can make the unacceptable person acceptable, that he can take away pain immediately.

Its also interesting that with her condition she could not go into the women's section of the temple. Like someone being unable to go to church today. But Jesus made it possible. In a similar way, we've seen people who we would never have imagined going to church, then going to church, simply because of God's grace.

Thank you Jesus!