Peace May Be the Greatest Healing

This is a passage full of healing. First Jairus, whose daughter is dying. Jesus is on his way to see her, presumably to heal her, when their journey is briefly interrupted. A woman who had been bleeding for 12 years—a humiliating and socially ostracizing condition, touches his garment. “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed,” she says. And that is exactly what happened.

Much has been written about what condition the woman might have suffered from; what part of Jesus’ attire she actually touched; and the fact that Jesus felt “power go out from him.” This passage is in fact, probably one of the best-remembered stories of Jesus’ healing power, perhaps because we feel such compassion for the woman, and such wonder that she is “well now because of your faith.”

But Jesus wishes even more for her than healing. “Go in peace!” he says to her. And surely she deserves peace after spending years and all of her resources looking for medical help.

We probably all know friends and family who have not been physically healed by God in a manner that we can see, despite seemingly endless prayers and bottomless faith. Clearly, there is both mystery and divine wisdom in how God’s will is worked out in a broken world.

What is available to every Christ-follower though, is the peace that God freely gives.

It is a peace that follows our declaration of faith in Jesus Christ. It is a gift. Philippians 4:7 (CEV) puts it this way: “Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel.”

Typically, people don’t understand the peace a Christ-follower may exhibit, because of the situations in which they might be practicing it: situations that may be full of danger, disaster, intense sadness, disease, financial ruin, marital breakdown, heartbreak, or any other number of situations that we will find ourselves in during our lifetime. That peace, in the end, may mean more to us than even a dramatic physical healing.

Respond in Prayer

Dear God, thank you that you can heal us, inside and out. We pray for a soul healing that brings with it the incomparable gift of your peace. Amen.

Karen Stiller