She was an outcast, an undesirable, someone to stay away from. For twelve years, unexplained, non- stop menstrual bleeding had been her curse. Religious law stated that a bleeding woman was not to be touched in any way – no hugs, no good morning kiss, no snuggling close, no sexual contact. Stopping for afternoon chats with friends would never happen, sitting under the stars at night to visit was out – a life of isolation. Her only place of refuge was "the tent" of the women. In those twelve years she had lived without the love language of touch. How did she survive that? When a great healer came to town, in her desperation for a cure, she risked mingling in a crowd, so she could touch Jesus and see if He could make a difference in her life.
I suffered from the painful condition endometriosis, and went through many surgeries. That was a place of isolation. I get a glimpse of her suffering.
I love this description from Eugene Petersen in the Message of her risk taking:
But he went on asking, looking around to see who had done it. The woman knowing what had happened, knowing she was the one, stepped up in fear and trembling, knelt before him, and gave him the whole story.
Jesus said to her, Daughter you took a risk of faith, and now you’re healed and whole. Live well, live blessed! Be healed of your plague.
End of story – as we read it. But I am certain that is not the end of the story. In fact so often in the church we want this to be the end of the story. “Oh good, that person has been healed and I no longer have to put in the effort to walk with them in their suffering.” Is everything instant? I recognize it can be but in reality it rarely is.
Here was a woman who had to go home and begin building friendships. People who had shunned her would find it hard to believe she was healed. And how would she prove it to them? Wouldn’t that be embarrassing too? Her very personal intimate part of life was well known and what isolated her, not because of “sin” but because of a health issue. How much do we do that? And how do we stand and judge “sin” and not look at ourselves? The healing process for this beautiful lady would have been a long road, full of tears, frustration, and maybe even at times she would have wondered why she had bothered at all because of how people would still treat her.
Sometimes I wonder if instant healing for a person is our selfish way of saying we no longer have to walk that long road to wholeness with them. We want them to have the instant fix so we can turn away from our own need of healing, and continue to ignore it.
This woman was incredibly courageous to reach out to Jesus, and He affirmed it when he publicly spoke of her risk of faith. Then he said not only was she healed but that she was whole. Live well and be blessed! He KNEW the tough road ahead, the road of getting back into community, back into relationships. And so Jesus clearly spoke into the fact that she was body, mind and heart whole and complete, nothing missing, nothing that left her as less that a beautiful vibrant feminine woman. And oh how I would love to sit with her and hear her story after she felt the change and knew her plague was over and done with.
When any healing happens there is always more to the story, a deeper piece that we don’t often take the time to hear. Risk taking and vulnerability is the story that lies behind or beneath the one on the surface. In the telling of that story, the holding of it in the Light, comes the true holistic healing that Jesus talks of.
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