A Girl Restored to Life and a Woman Healed

Matthews Gospel is all about relationship with a very real and ever present God, who walks besides us and is waiting to interact with us. Then why do we not see him and are not able to interact with Him. The key is provided in today’s Gospel. Matthew highlights the key by sandwiching it between the story of raising of the synagogue officials daughter. He wants to tell us when we believe, like the woman with the haemorrhage, then we too will rise up from our spiritual death (the death that God spoke about to Adam), and live again. And what is spiritual death? It is to be disconnected from, exiled from, to be far away from our Father in Heaven. But this is a self-exile, which has over the years made us forget the truth of who we are, and what is our purpose of life.

Jesus invites us today; for a long time we have been outside the presence of God, like the woman who because of her bleeding, was required to live outside society. He invites us to come taste for ourselves and see His goodness. Having tasted and seen His goodness, to remain and believe. But there is an important lesson of how to believe; in King Ahaz of the Old Testament. King Ahaz’s country was surrounded by his enemies, so he thought to take help (alliance) of the Assyrians. The Prophet Isaiah came to him and invited him to get into a relationship with Yahweh. Ahaz was like a nominal Christian of today, he had grown up hearing about Yahweh, but had not made the effort to know Yahweh. So when troubles came, he choose to do what came easy to him. Isaiah invited him; come ask of the Lord and see He will provide reasons for you to cling to Him. But Ahaz, said that he will not put the Lord God to the test. This was false-modesty. A false sense of how one should not engage God.

What I am saying here is ask our Father and Jesus to prove/show their reality by some test etc. But once you see them showing to you their reality, cling to them. And don’t make testing God the reality of your relationship with Him, but mature to trust Him and dare to walk with Him, the way He is leading you, because He is a good God, and the path He will take you will be for your fullness.