Mark 5:21-43
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Loving God, let your word speak to our hearts. Come and heal our brokenness and restore us to life. Comfort our grieving hearts. Teach us to share from our abundance. By your word, transform us into your holy people. Amen

In today’s text, there are two stories, one is a father who comes to Jesus for his daughter and another is a woman who comes for herself. And they both show us a way to be brave and follow Jesus.

Before we talk more about it, let me ask you. If you meet Jesus, or if you know he is coming to your town, what would you do? Do you think we are going to just watch, be curious from a distance? If I knew I would meet Jesus on the street this afternoon, probably I would bring a long list of requests for help: there are so many people who don’t have spaces to sleep and food to eat. Would you mind cleaning the messiness of our system so that we all can share lives of abundance together? My friends are looking for jobs, would you help them? Thankfully I don’t have anyone in my family who are seriously sick, but it is so painful to see children on the news who are struggling with cancer. Would you please heal them so that no more pain attacks the little children?.. why not. Right? Jesus can do amazing things and we’re not surprised to read the story of the two approaching Jesus. I mean, that’s what you do when you see Jesus. We

will run and ask him for help. How could you not? But in today’s text, it was not how it went. So, let’s see why they might have had a hard time approaching Jesus because it might help us figure out how to approach Jesus in our lives as well.