Opportunities for Mercy

Veronese's "Christ Healing the Woman With the Issue of Blood"

from the National Gallery, London

The recommended Bible reading for Friday looked like it was a typo to me at first.

Luke 8:40-42
So it was, when Jesus returned, that the multitude welcomed Him, for they were all waiting for Him. And behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. And he fell down at Jesus’ feet and begged Him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter about twelve years of age, and she was dying.
But as He went, the multitudes thronged Him.

That’s it. Stop right there.

I mean, seriously! Doesn’t that look like a mistake? We’re right in the middle of the story of Jairus’ daughter and making our way towards the woman with the issue of blood, and we stop here at the end of verse 42 with people crowding around Jesus?

So I looked back at my book and noticed that the theme was on “Waiting to Receive Instructions.” Could they have stopped at verse 42 on purpose after all?

Let’s look at the story a little more closely.

Circumstances were preventing Jesus from reaching His goal as quickly as He probably would have liked. So what did He do?

He didn’t order His disciples to clear these annoying folks away so He could go about His important business.

He didn’t whine about the fact that He wasn’t ever going to get anything done if people didn’t get out of His way.

He didn’t yell, “Everybody MOVE! Son of God coming through here!”

Instead He had patience. He knew that His Father was in control of circumstances, and He just watched to see what opportunities this delay would bring.

Enter the hemorrhaging woman. Now you’ve probably read this story before so I don’t have to copy verses 43-48 here. We all know the woman touches the hem of His garment and is healed. But the important thing was that Jesus took the time to notice her and have mercy on her.

That’s something He would not have been able to do if His focus had been on all the stuff He wasn’t getting done because of the annoying crowd all around Him.

In other words, we should never get too busy to pay attention to others and have mercy on them. We should never see the people around us as a bunch of obstacles in the way of all the things we need to get done.

As a mother, I am completely guilty of this. The constant interruptions my children bring usually drive me insane. Quite often I am too focused on all that I’m not getting done, rather than on the people I’m actually doing all this stuff for, namely those same annoying little interrupters.

Instead I should be taking the opportunity to show mercy in the way Jesus did.

Following are two more verses about keeping mercy at the forefront of our minds:

Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Proverbs 3:3 Let not mercy and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.

As a side note, my kids interrupted me approximately 4000 times while writing this. (Numbers are not exact.)

Maybe binding a reminder to be merciful around my neck is a good idea...