As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.
"Who touched me?" Jesus asked.
When they all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you."
But Jesus said, "Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me."
Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace." – Luke 8: 42-48
Here’s the thing that slapped me in my face.
"Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."
Let’s break down this story so that it is properly and sufficiently broke. A woman has been constantly menstruating for twelve years before the age of tampons…
Not fresh.
She also believes that through Jesus she can be healed. So here’s what happens.
First she believes. That is the key. Without faith we cannot take action. What would you do if someone gave you a rickety, dusty old chair to sit in. Would you sit down? Probably not, because you think that it might break under you. You’d hesitate. This is a simple illustration of what we do when we don’t believe. Doubt stops us in our tracks.
Second, she seeks him out. She hears that he is going to be in her town and she finds him. This is the first proactive step. We must take action to achieve what we believe we can achieve. It doesn’t get done if we are just sitting around and waiting for it.
Third, she has to fight through the crowd. The crowd represents the obstacles that stand in the way of our purpose. Sometimes the obstacles are like the crowd. They are other people in our way trying to block our path. But often times we are our own obstacles. This manifests as fear. When we live in fear we create barriers and walls that separate us from the best we can be.
That’s no bueno.
Breaking down those walls and maneuvering through the obstacles takes perseverance. The woman in the story had to duck, dodge and push her way through, but she wasn’t going to give up until she reached him.
The last thing she did was take a leap of faith. This is when she touched his cloak. Think about the audacity she had to have to do this. She was a lowly “unclean” woman and she dared to reach out and touch a man who she believed to be a great prophet at the very least, if not the Messiah. But she risked public ridicule and rebuke because she believed that just touching him would heal her forever.
The result is interesting… the power flowed from him naturally. Jesus didn’t will it to happen. He didn’t decide to heal her; but rather, her faith was so strong that His power moved automatically.
This suggests to me that faith is a universal law of some sort, like gravity. If you believe in something and do the work that you can do to make it happen, it will happen.
As a good friend told me today, “faith is something you really have to work for.” It doesn’t come easily.
But when it does come… it is beyond magical.
Today’s Reading: 1 Samuel 1-3; Luke 8:26-56
