God alone can go all the way; God alone can take us there. We are limited. Mark 5: 21-43 teaches us the limits of human authority, expertise, and doings. A government official’s little daughter was ill; in parallel passage it was the slave of the centurion with power and had soldiers under him, but was helpless in spite of the human authority and influence. When Jesus along with the government official and disciples reached the house, there was a huge commotion, perhaps there must have been other physicians, shamans, and sorcerers were at work and not able. Sandwiched within this passage we have the story of the woman with haemorrhage, who had suffered a lot at the hands of many doctors and had spent everything she had but instead of getting better, she had only grown worse. Both, the government official and the woman with bleeding were people of strong faith, and had the grace of meeting Jesus: the woman was healed, and the little girl returns back to health and life.
A Parsi doctor in Thrissur Mission Hospital had a self-mortifying habit that was reassuring and soul boosting for the patients. After the consultation, tests, and diagnosis, when he gave the prescription to the patient he also made it a point to tell them, 'doctors and medicines may go only half the way, god alone can take you all the way,’ meaning, have enough faith to hear the gracious words of Jesus, “Talitha Koum, little girl, I say to you, arise.” To be assisted by the divine, to be spiritual is to have that edge of having energy, power, and resources to go till the end.
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