Scripture Focus: Mark
5:21-43
Preparation: Get
an alb or robe sized for a child. It
doesn’t have to be a perfect fit, the child will just stand in one place.
Faith+Open: Invite
the children to gather together and ask for a volunteer to wear the robe. Once they have it on have them turn and face
the other children and away from you.
Ask the child to tell you when you touch robe.
Faith+Share: That
was pretty tricky, wasn’t it? In the
gospel story that we hear today, Jesus does something even more amazing! But first, let’s finish talking about the
robe. Jesus is surrounded by a crowd of
people, all of them are trying to touch him because they believe that Jesus can
heal them and make them feel better.
Jesus notices when one woman touches him, and he stops to look for
her. Pretty amazing, but not as amazing
as what happens next.
You see, Jesus was
walking through the crowd to get to someone’s house, his name is Jairus. Jairus’ daughter was dying and Jairus knew
that if he could get Jesus to come to his house that Jesus would save his
daughter. He had faith in Jesus. Well, at the same time, a woman who had been
very sick for years and years knew that Jesus was going to be walking through
the town. She knew that if she could
just touch Jesus’ robe that she would be healed. She had faith in Jesus, too. She pushed her way through the crowd and touched
his robe, and Jesus stopped, not because he felt her touch the robe, but because
he felt power go out of him. He felt the
woman get healed! She was very scared to
talk to Jesus, because she thought that she had done something wrong, but Jesus
was kind and blessed her. But, in the
time that Jesus stopped to talk to the woman, Jairus’ daughter died. Jesus continued to the house anyway and
brought her back to life.
Now, all that sounds
pretty amazing, and it is amazing, but there is still something even better in
the story. It doesn’t matter how we come
to Jesus, he still takes time to listen to us and care for us! Jairus was afraid for his daughter, but was
not afraid to ask Jesus for help. He
went right up to Jesus and asked . . . well, maybe he more pleaded and begged,
but he was not afraid to talk to Jesus.
The woman, on the other hand, thought that she was not worth Jesus’
time, and thought she would just sneak up without being noticed. Then she was afraid when Jesus turned to find
her. Jesus cares for each of us in the
same way. He listens when we pray and
ask for help. He looks for us when we
need help and don’t know how to ask.
Faith+Prayer: Loving God, thank you for listening when we
pray, and thank you for loving and caring for us even when we don’t know how to
pray. Give us faith like Jairus and the
woman so that we are never afraid to come to you when we need help. Amen
- GB
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