When the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.
Matthew 14:35-36
The gospels regularly highlight the miraculous nature of Jesus' work on earth. It would be hard to overestimate the dramatic impact Jesus had on the lives of the people He healed. Think for even a moment about the woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years (Matthew 9:20), or the woman who had been crippled by demonic possession for eighteen years (Luke 13:10-13) and it's impossible to deny the amazing life change Jesus wrought for them. Even more, if you pause to consider that the man Jesus healed by the pool of Bethesda had been invalid for thirty-eight years (John 5:5-9) or that the blind man He healed in John 9 had never known sight at all, then it's impossible to miss how completely their lives were turned around.
Today's passage, however, highlights for us just how easy it was for Jesus to bring about these major changes. All it took was one touch of the garments He wore and the course of a person's whole life was changed.
This should bring us hope. It tells us that our problems and our struggles are not beyond God's power! Whatever you are anxious about today, whatever you are stressed about, whatever keeps you awake at night is easy for God to handle. But this truth that ought to bring us joy and cause us to reach out to God in faith like the people in this story reached out to touch His cloak, instead often causes us to doubt and to question.
"If it's easy for God to solve my problems, then why doesn't He?" We ask. "Is God punishing me? Does He enjoy the fact that I am suffering? Why isn't He helping me?"
As believers we know that God is good and loving and that He doesn't take joy in our suffering. He has promised us that although not everything that happens to us will be good, He will work all things together for our good (Romans 8:28). And so, we choose to trust that God hasn't solved our problems yet because there is some good for us in them. There is some good in us learning to hope in Him, in learning to wait on Him, in learning to reach out to Him and pray to Him. Sometimes there is even good in persevering through the trial. (According to II Corinthians 12:7, Paul's thorn in the flesh was ordained to help keep him from pride.)
It's hard for us to imagine that the things which pain and challenge us have been allowed or even ordained by God for our good. But if we are to believe in a good and a sovereign God, then we must accept this truth. If you are struggling to do so today, then I commend to you Psalm 13. Make it the cry of your hurting heart. Make it your prayer.
How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.
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