Fully Restored
Opening Prayer
I come into Your presence, ready to hear Your voice and follow.
Read Matthew 9:18-26
[18] While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” [19] Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples. [20] Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. [21] She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” [22] Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment. [23] When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, [24] he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. [25] After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. [26] News of this spread through all that region. Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Are there people who are "untouchables" in your life?In Jewish law, there were illnesses or conditions that made people ritually unclean: leprosy and bodily discharges (Leviticus 13-15), and contact with a corpse (Numbers 5:2). Being ritually unclean meant exclusion from worship and alienation from the community. Today’s passage features two “unclean” people: a woman suffering from a chronic gynecological condition and a dead girl. According to the law, Jesus would be contaminated by contact with them. Most rabbis would have avoided such people. Not Jesus! He does something new (as we saw yesterday in vs. 16 and 17). Not only is he willing to associate with the ritually unclean but he also has power to restore a marginalized woman and a dead girl to life in all its fullness: physical, social and spiritual. Jesus’ touch brought them both back to the heart of community life and worship. Jesus still brings spiritually alienated people home to God. From our human perspective we may give up hope, thinking that some people are beyond help (20,23,24), but with Jesus, no one is hopeless or helpless (Col. 1:21,22).
Apply
Think of someone you know who is alienated within society. Ask God how you can show his love to this person.
Closing prayer
Father, help me to be Your hands to touch those who are rejected within society. Let me love them with Your heart.
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