Hearts gently pounding.
Foreheads getting warmer.
Breath becoming more shallow.
Got… to… make… it…
One more step.
And there he is.
Fighting hard what holds us back.
Pressing through our mind-killing fear.

This Sunday’s gospel says something very profound about fear.
The synagogue leader beat back fear of public shame, embarrassment, not to mention the political fallout, for approaching Jesus.
The woman with the issue of blood beat back fears of rejection, humiliation and all sorts of social taboos when she burst through the crowds and touched Jesus.
Fear, about what people think about us, about what could or couldn’t happen, about our own mortality, routinely handcuffs us and keep us from being our best selves.

The opposite of faith is not unbelief, it is fear – that which keeps us from being who we want to be, who we are called to be, who we can be.

When Jesus said, ‘your faith has healed you’ he wasn’t commending some mystical and mysterious gift that only the few and the chosen are given-
-and routinely brag about on religious cable TV shows-
Jesus was commending determination in overcoming fear-
-in trusting that God is who God claims to be-
-in believing in the impudence of a love-stained Savior who does not hesitate to leave behind the riches of heaven for the poverty of humanity in order to show love, to share love, and to be love in our midst.

It is the shortest and most concise sermon Jesus ever preached:
“Do not fear, only believe.”