Year 5, Day 152: Mark 5

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Grace

• Grace: Grace comes to us when we make mistakes and have a failing of character.  Grace comes to us when we have a typical D₂ moment.  Grace comes to us when we need space to recognize a mistake, repent of it, and allow God to redeem it while calling us back into His will.  Grace is partnered by Time and Vision.

Three stories.  Three points of grace.  Three people who know what they want but are human in their approach.  Three times God comes to them because they can’t make it the whole way to faith on their own.  That’s what grace is all about.

Let’s start with the demoniac.  Here is a man with a thousand demons within him.  Yet, he comes before Jesus.  The man knows that the only way to be free of the demons is in Christ.  So he comes, even in the condition that he is in.  When he is before Christ, the demons resist.  They struggle and do not want to be freed.

But finally Jesus is victorious over them.  Here is a man who wanted freedom, but his oppression fought back violently.  Christ comes to Him and in grace brings him the whole way to liberation.

Then we have the woman in the crowd.  She knows that Jesus can heal her.  But she doesn’t have the strength to ask.  She merely touches her cloak believing that it would be enough.  She doesn’t boldly enter into the presence of God.  She merely comes to the fringe.  I have to believe that she is afraid of being rejected and this is why she does what she does. 

But look at what Jesus does.  He demands to see the woman who touched His fringe.  Jesus isn’t looking to punish her or chastise her.  Rather, Jesus is looking to bring her fully into grace.  He is forcing her to be bold.  He is forcing her to coming knowingly into the presence of God.  Once she is there, she sees that she is received and welcome.  Jesus gives this woman grace in knowing that she is accepted and welcomed in the presence of God.

Finally, we have the incredibly faithful Jairus.  Here’s a man with much to lose from associating with Jesus.  After all, he was a ruler of the synagogue.  He was a significant man in Jewish circles.  Yet after he risks it all and comes to Jesus, he then receives word that his daughter has died.  I can only imagine what goes through Jairus’ head.  His daughter is dead and he’s risked offending the leaders of his culture by associating with Jesus.

What does Jesus do?  Jesus gives grace to him.  Jesus turns to Jairus and says, “Do no fear, believe!”  When Jairus is at his lowest and weakest, Jesus comes to him and lifts him up.  That’s what the grace of God is all about.

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