Luke 8:40-56
It was Monday, August 23 when I started to feel like maybe I was coming down with a cold, I just didn’t feel right. By time I got home from work Tuesday evening the 24th, I knew something was up. When I woke up Wednesday morning, I had a fever. I can’t even remember the last time I had a fever. I went first thing to get a COVID test and by time I got my results Wednesday night – POSITIVE – I was pretty much feeling like I’d been run over by a bus.
And yet, I was blessed in a couple of ways. First, I didn’t have any serious respiratory issues. My blood oxygen levels remained normal. I ran a low-grade fever, had tremendous body aches and heavy-duty fatigue.
I’m not going to take up space here discussing my course of treatment other than to say it required more effort than it should have. What I will share is that during the ten or so days that I was sick, Jesus worked me over a little bit. In a good way. In a needed way. In my sixty years on this earth, I’ve been blessed with remarkably good health. Except for the years when I was determined to drink myself to death, I’ve always taken good care of myself physically. And yes, I admit it here. Although I know it makes good sense to take care of yourself, I’ve always been a bit vain along those lines too. Big biceps have always been a priority.
Although I’ve never underestimated the gravity of COVID, I also never believed for a minute it would touch me. It had nothing to do with my opinions on masks and vaccines, I just felt in my heart that I wouldn’t get it. And I would prayerfully thank Jesus for allowing me to feel that way. And that’s when Jesus saw fit to humble me.
I struggled spiritually those first few days. I was afraid. I was frustrated. I insisted on reading all the articles that told me my mild case could become severe in the blink of an eye. I drank in all the news reports that not only told me I was going to die because I hadn’t gotten the vaccine, but that in fact I deserved to die for that same reason. And, truth be told, I lay awake one night thinking about the fact that I had this illness that could in fact take my life.
That’ll get you thinking about the depth of your faith. I realized that I was pretty good at preaching to people about the importance of trusting Jesus in all things but now that it was hitting so close to home, I was struggling with that trust. I needed a health care specialist to perform a miraculous healing in me and I would thank Jesus for it later. After a few days of that, I caved. Laying there on the sofa I prayed for Jesus to take it all, to give me the heart to trust in Him and let it all play out according to His plan. And wouldn’t you know. Not too long after that, I was presented with a course of treatment that got me feeling better.
Medicine helped, but Jesus healed. Shame on me for not relying on my faith at the outset, but like I said earlier if there was an upside to all this, it came from the fact that Jesus humbled me. I realized my good health, at the end of the day rests in the hands of my Heavenly Father which means that when my health goes off track, if He’s not the first person I turn to, chances are I’m impeding my ability to get well.
Faith and prayer aren’t meant to supplant a doctor’s care, but faith and prayer need to be the first things we go to for the wisdom we need to work in conjunction with the things medical science has going on. Trust Jesus first and everything else tends to fall into place.
Case in point is found in Luke’s Gospel, 8:40-56. It’s Luke’s account of Jesus healing the woman with the bleeding disorder. The same story is also found in Matthew 9 and Mark 5. Basically, what we have is this. Jesus has just arrived in town and is surrounded by a massive crowd thronging around Him.
A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding, and she could find no cure. Coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of His robe. Immediately, the bleeding stopped. (Luke 8:43-44, NLT).
These two sentences tell us all we know about this woman. Precious little, right? But what set her apart from everyone else trying to get close to Jesus that day was this. Faith. The doubt free, fearless belief this woman had that if she could just touch Jesus, she would be okay. And it was clearly a pure faith because her healing was immediate and Jesus, when you read all the verses, was instantly aware of the healing power that left Him the moment she touched Him and how He knew her touch was not something resulting by chance. Jesus says, “Someone deliberately touched Me, for I felt the healing power go out from Me.”
That healing power would be transferred from Jesus only if it was sought by a heart possessing pure faith. As desperately sick and afflicted as this woman was, she had a deep seeded understanding that if she drew near to Jesus, He would draw near to her. And that’s exactly what happened.
So, I close with this. I thank my Lord for healing me and for reminding me that my life is in His hands. As a result, it only makes sense to turn to Him first in my affliction. Let’s pray that if this virus teaches us nothing else, it is that. And rather than letting this thing divide us, let’s pray for Jesus to spare the world from COVID and glorify and celebrate Him in the process!