story of the bleeding woman.

21When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet 23and pleaded earnestly with him, "My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live." 24So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." 29Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

30At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

31"You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?' "

32But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."
--Mark 5:21-34


This story of the bleeding woman has touched me in so many ways and I feel like God is speaking so much into my life through this Scripture! When I first read this passage over the weekend, it spoke deeply to me regarding physical healing. I got really scared because of something that just cannot be easily fixed (not like if you get a cavity, you can just have it filled) and can only get progressively worse. But in reading this passage... this woman had been suffering for 12 years, and even though she went to doctors she kept getting worse instead of better. It seems like such a long time, but at that one touch of Jesus's clothing she was healed. It showed me how powerful God is, that He is powerful enough to bring us healing, and it just made me think (I had also been reading Daniel 3) that even if God does not heal us right away it doesn't mean that He isn't able or that He doesn't care, but that we should still worship God alone and not bow down to behaviors of this world or idols (I think for me that means not bowing down to fear).

I was then reading it yesterday again, and I feel like Jesus's words to the woman are his words of affirmation to me as well: "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." And just the affirmation of "daughter" speaks against all of the false identities I have recently been seeing about myself.

I think also... the passage speaks into the isolation I felt yesterday. Bizarrely, all of the plans I made with people (even the times that had been scheduled weeks and even months before) didn't work out. It made me feel like (1) maybe I was supposed to spend my day off with God and reconnecting, and (2) that I was forgotten. But I felt God speaking through the passage to me. In the story, Jesus turns around and even though it was such a minor thing and even though she was absolutely nobody, Jesus acknowledges her and essentially tells her that he has not forgotten her, by his words and by his actions. Even when the rest of the world forgets about her, forgets about her in her suffering, Jesus does not. He speaks to her, he loves on her, and he heals her and frees her.

Hmm, I wonder if I said what I meant to say. I guess the conclusion is, there is sooo much power in God's Word!!