Faith or Fear

Some have called this the “miracle interrupted.” We have what starts out and ends as the story of Jesus healing Jairus’ dying daughter, yet sandwiched in the middle is the healing of the woman with the relentless flow of blood. At first glance, that “middle miracle” seems random and accidental -- maybe even an annoying distraction. But the Lord works deliberately, not randomly. And it was no accident that these two healings happened on this day, in this sequence, and are forever linked together. No other miracle story in the Bible is quite like this one. This is not a miracle interrupted, it is a double miracle -- and it has a double lesson for you and me.

Luke is writing to remind us that no power on earth can separate us from God’s love and protection. No storm, no demon, no stigma, no disease, can take His love away. Luke is painting a picture and emphasizing the contrast between light and dark, faith and fear. In today’s Scripture we see Jesus set a man free from a legion of woe, and then we see the response of the pathetically fearful crowd contrasted against the passionately faithful man.