Recognizing Jesus

Mark 6 : 53 - 56

.....immediately the people recognized Jesus....

Needy people recognize the Lord easily. This passage seems to illustrate how dire need impels people to seek out the One who can help and heal them. They approached him with expectant faith. What did they recognize in Jesus? They certainly saw that Jesus had power to heal and make whole those beset by diseases and all kinds of afflictions. Do we easily recognize the Lord's presence in our lives? If we look back over the years, those times when we had needs we searched harder for him and would run to him for help.

In my time at the CPE training, I meet people who are afflicted by all kinds of diseases. However, the majority of those I visit have not met the Lord. In my first couple of sessions, I longed to give people the hope that we as believers have. Yet, that would be a 'short cut' (even if I were allowed to share my faith). It would bypass their recognizing their true needs, emotionally and spiritually. Giving answers to people without helping them live through their questions first is not helpful in the long run.

Perhaps many who sought out Jesus in his time on earth were led by needs to their "answer", rather than to a growing relationship with him. Yes, they were healed and freed of afflictions. But as we read on in the gospels, the number that would remain faithful to him was undoubtedly small......especially when it seemed clear that he was a 'failure', after all; that he would not be the Messiah who freed them from Roman rule.

We pray to "recognize" Jesus for who he truly is: suffering Savior and Lord. He grants healing and restoration to us, yet achieves that victory through the paradox of the Cross.