Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.”
NL Daily Devotion for Thursday, February 1, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Why do we come to Jesus? What brings us with the crowds to the lakeshore for healing? Every one of us has challenges in our lives. No matter how good we’ve had it, we all carry sorrows and scars; some of us carry trauma. Yet we know it’s not as though Jesus will wave a magic wand and all our pains will be removed and we’ll live happily every after, the way the Bible stories so often seem to go—the way some modern Christians promise us.
I go to that shore because I know Jesus will stand with my in my pain—experience it with me. Even Jesus felt abandoned by God; he knows what that’s like. Jesus walks with me through the long and non-linear process of healing from grief and trauma. Jesus’ love and solidarity help me when I am ‘troubled by (the) unclean spirits’ of my emotional challenges.
Maybe the best news of all is that we don’t even need to travel to the shore to meet Jesus. He’ll always meet us wherever we are, and journey with us wherever we’re going.
Why do I go down to the shore to meet Jesus?
