Day 15 - Our Compassionate Savior

Today's reading is from Mark 5.

Try closing your eyes and imagining the scenes that occur here.

There's a man possessed by demons: Mark 5:1-2 (NLT)
1 So they arrived at the other side of the lake, in the region of the Gerasenes.
2 When Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from a cemetery to meet him.

There was a woman who had been suffering with a bleeding disease: Mark 5:25-28 (NLT)
25 A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding.
26 She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse.
27 She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe.
28 For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.”

And there was a daughter of the leader of the local synagogue who had just died: Mark 5:35-36 (NLT)
35 While he was still speaking to her, messengers arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. They told him, “Your daughter is dead. There’s no use troubling the Teacher now.”
36 But Jesus overheard them and said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.”

The first one is screaming insanely, cutting himself, a frightening creature who everyone was both afraid of and stayed away from.

The second one was a woman who has womanly problems - hemorrhaging in a way that must have kept her constantly away from the temple since she would remain ritually unclean all of the time.

The third one seemed too far gone. The girl had died in between her father leaving to find Jesus and before they could arrive.

All three represent great needs...and each, while different outwardly, have the same profound result - the corruption of sin is overcome by the compassion and love of the Savior. This is Jesus, our Savior. He comes not only to die on the cross for our sins, but he comes as one who restores the creation to what God had designed it to be. In him, the Kingdom of God has come. There are no demonic beings, no evil forces free to work; there is no suffering and debilitating disease that keeps one in a state of pain and depression; there is no death and family grief...there is only LIFE.

While we won't see this in it's fullness and beauty until Christ returns, it is encouraging to see the compassion of our Savior...this is who we worship and follow.

Peace

If you're reading along in the bible through a year, the reading today is Judges 19, 20, 21. These are some of the most "sad" and difficult passages to understand. Not because they are not understandable, but because they are sickening aspects of sin that occurs because a people choose to do their own thing instead of choosing the Kingdom of God. Read it, but you won't enjoy it.