WEDNESDAY (3/3/21)

Hi, my name is Wade Stoller. I am one of the leaders of the West of
Westside home group. We meet on Thursday evenings as a very diverse
group that are learning to live life together while growing in our faith.

  • Stop here and read Matthew 9:18-25

This reading brings together two uniquely different people who are
bound with a common need, the healing power of Jesus. At potential
damage to his reputation and employment, as a synagogue official, this
man personally comes to Jesus asking HIM to come raise his daughter
from death. During the journey to his home, a woman with a twelve-year illness secretly reaches for the hem of Jesus’ garment for her own
healing. The official works in the synagogue while the woman was not
allowed into the synagogue because her illness made her unclean. Both
of them know only Jesus can bring the healing they seek and come to
him in simple faith. The official comes publicly, knowing only Jesus can
bring his daughter back from the dead. The woman in secret because she
felt shame and was an outcast in their society. Jesus healed the woman
and acknowledged her faith, fully restoring her. Jesus also brought the
daughter back to life, restoring her to her family. I wonder if the woman
and the official ever met in the synagogue after these events.

Jesus does not respect one person over another, as this story reveals.
The healing both of them desired was possible by their faith in Jesus.
Experience had shown both of them there was no other way. Today we
are almost overwhelmed by disease, civil unrest, and confusion.

  • As you search for answers I encourage you to mirror these two people. Come to Jesus in simple faith knowing HE can bring the healing we seek.