Reflecting on Mark 5:21-42“Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” (Mark 5:34)
As a Jesus follower, I am drawn to Jesus by simple faith.
Like so many who came to Jesus, my hope in Jesus is simple.
I have a need, I’ve considered the options, and Jesus meets my need.
I am aware of all the complicated doctrines about who Jesus is.
I’ve studied the trinity, incarnation, atonement, homoousias of Christ.
But these are human explanations for the mystery of Jesus.
My hope does not lie in these, but in the person of Jesus.
Like this woman, who did not know any of these doctrines.
Her faith was simple, desperate, unorthodox, and real.
Yet her simple faith was enough for Jesus.
Our job as Jesus followers is not to defend doctrines about Jesus.
We are called to witness to the person and life of Jesus.
How and what He taught, and how He modelled that teaching.
How He lived, how He loved, how, He suffered, died and rose.
I am a witness to the radical love of Jesus.
I am a witness to the hope and new life He brings.
I try to live and love like Jesus, so others can experience Him too.
I am not trying to get them on my side, how I understand Jesus.
I am trying to get them to His side, so they can experience Jesus.
I know people who have really simple faith.
Some are children, some have cognitive challenges.
Some are long time Christians who think in simple ways.
Their beliefs, if tested, would not be accurate.
Their behaviours, if evaluated, would fall short.
But their simplicity is sincere and real.
I fear that we have complicated believing in Jesus.
We have added layer upon layer of complexity and confusion.
We’ve tried to explain it all, turn it into a logical system.
We turn God’s story in the Bible into a systematic theology.
And of course ours is the right one, the ‘true faith’.
I take comfort in Jesus’s words to this woman.
“Your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
I have peace with God, and hope for healing, because Jesus says so.
Not because I am Reformed, or a Pastor, or hold the ‘true faith’.
Not because I understand doctrines and theology correctly.
(Many people will tell you that I do not).
But my only comfort in life and in death is not because I am right.
My comfort in life and in death is that I belong to Jesus.
This simple hope and comfort is for all who reach out to Jesus.
Faith like a little child, simple yet real.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, just as I am without, with all my fears and failures, I come to You, I cling to You, I trust in You. There is so much I do not know or understand. But one thing I do: You are good, and You love me, and You will not condemn or reject me because of my imperfections and misunderstandings.
I come to You in simple faith, and hear You say: 'your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.'
So often I feel my simple faith is not enough. I feel I do not know scripture or doctrine well enough. Yet my faith in Jesus is real to me and gives me strength and comfort. Is that enough?
Yes, it is enough. From this Jesus works with our mustard seed of simple to help us grow in faith, hope and love.
I too need to be like a little child – who believes. Born again. As a small child trusts in his father to catch him when he jumps, I too need that trust in my Saviour Who says, come to me all you and laden and heavy burdened and I will give you rest. Just come to the Saviour now.