I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 4-5.

    Today I am going to start by touching on several of the parables in a more rapid fire way than I usually would. There is significantly more depth to these than I plan on exploring today. The first parable is the parable of the lamp. There is no value to having faith in Christ if you attempt to hide that faith. Instead, you should act so that the greatest benefit can be had from your faith. Jesus followed that one with the parable of the growing seed. We do not know how God’s word will change people. Our job is to plant the seed and let God’s Spirit work from there. Finally, He gave the parable of the mustard seed. A small, seemingly insignificant action can have results all out of proportion to the effort we put into it, never pass by the small things we can do for others.

    We often separate the tow healing stories here as teaching different lessons. There is nothing wrong with doing so, but we also need to pay attention to the lesson that they both tell. They are both stories about not losing hope. Jairus came to Jesus because his daughter was sick and dying. He believed that Jesus could heal her, so he begged Jesus to come and do so. On the way, the woman who had suffered for years touched Jesus’ robe and was healed. Then Jairus got word that his daughter had died, there was no more hope that Jesus could heal her. First, let’s look at the woman. She had suffered for twelve years and tried everything anyone could think of, to no avail. Yet, despite all of this she still had faith, and hope. After twelve years you would think she would have given up. She did not. On the other hand, there is Jairus. He had come to Jesus hoping and believing that Jesus could heal his daughter, but now she was dead. What hope was there? Nevertheless, he trusted Jesus when He told him to have faith. Even in the face of the ridicule of his friends and neighbors, Jairus continued to have faith and to put his hope in Jesus. Let us not lose hope, even when we can see no way for things to get better. We need to continue to have faith in God, no matter how hopeless things may seem.