Mark 6: 53-56
"All who touched Jesus got well." People came from all over seeking healing from all sorts of ailments, and all who touched him got well. We all become fearful when we are unwell. We are vulnerable, we dislike pain, and we are afraid of death. Being ill reminds us of our mortality, that we will die one day, and it is not a topic we enjoy at all.
But we will all die one day. Whether it be the present illness that befalls us or some other circumstance, we will face death, this event that Francis of Assisi personified as our sister. In seeking to touch the Lord Jesus, we are ultimately healed of our fear of death. For Jesus himself underwent the most painful and cruel death, complete with humiliations and public ridicule, and he did so with courage and humility.
To seek to touch Jesus is to seek to imitate him, to acquire some of his virtue and character in our lives. We do this of celebrities now in our own day. But only Jesus can bring healing to what truly ails us, the fear of pain and death, for he himself gave us an example of how to face these ultimate and inevitable things in our lives. If we but touch Jesus, we too will get well and be well when it matters most.
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