Matthew 9:18-34

Be Still: Lord, please speak to us as we spend time meditating on these verses, individually, and as your body, the Church. Amen. 

Read: Matthew 9:18-34

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.’ Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.

Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, ‘If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.’

Jesus turned and saw her. (vv18-22)

Encounter: Two people come to Jesus with desperate needs. The man is important and well-thought of in the community: he comes and kneels before Jesus to make his request. The woman, long an outcast according to Jewish purity law due to her bleeding, sneaks up behind him to touch his robe. She does not speak, yet we read ‘Jesus turned and saw her’. In both cases, regardless of their physical posture, Jesus saw them and met their needs: the man’s daughter is miraculously resurrected, and the woman’s bleeding immediately stops. 

We cannot physically kneel at Jesus' feet or reach out to touch him, yet we still demonstrate our personal stance in the way we approach Jesus in prayer. Today we might feel like the man, aware of our value and able to come boldly before Jesus with our requests. Or we might feel like the woman, fearful to come before him with our needs, even though we know he has the power to change us; instead, we ask him in trembling faith. We might feel like others – the passers-by, or fringe members of the crowd, who don’t have the courage to bring themselves to him at all.

The message of these verses is that if we do approach, Jesus will always turn to see us. He longs, like the father of the prodigal son, to run towards us when we make the slightest move in his direction. The only warning here is not to be the people who are forgotten to history – those who make no move in his direction at all. 

Apply: Spend a moment exploring what’s on your heart at the start of this week. What needs do you have? Be emboldened to bring them to Jesus and be encouraged that he will see you if you approach him.

Devote: Jesus help me to be open with you, withholding nothing of my heart and allowing you into places where I feel guilt, embarrassment, and shame. Please also teach me to show the same love to others.