Mark 5:24–34 - When a patient wasn't healed right away
Jesus was on his way to heal someone,
"24 ...and all the people followed, crowding around him. 25 A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. 26 She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. 27 She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. 28 For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition. 30 Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?” 31 His disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” 32 But he kept on looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.” (Mark 5:24-34, New Living Translation, 2015)
That "she had suffered a great deal from many doctors," implies that some physicians may have been less than scrupulous. Then again, sometimes a well-intended or bona fide treatment can be very painful.
This story isn't included in the Bible to say that doctors are bad. In fact, one author of the gospels, Luke, was himself a physician.
Nevertheless, after twelve years of spending all her money on doctors, this patient was still not cured. Had she heard of Jesus' healing power but opted to pay for medical treatment until now? Or had her options run out long before? Regardless of the woman's motives or timing, Jesus ended up being her last resort.
Scientific medicine and divine miracles are not antithetical. It's a blessing when a doctor prays with me before doing a procedure. We ask others to pray when we have a major surgery. We ask God to bless the food we eat, so that it will nourish the body. Why not ask God to bless the pills we take?
Prayer doesn't guarantee healing, but without God there is no healing.
Creator God, the source of all life, keep us mindful of our dependence on you for healing. Give doctors and other professionals the wisdom needed to diagnose and treat the ill. Bless us with humility to experience you as the ultimate physician. In Jesus' name, Amen.
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