Peace Memorial Church

SCRIPTURE OF THE WEEK

Mark 5:21-34

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea. Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.”

So he went with him. And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’” He looked all around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

PASTORS’ BLOG

For me one of the most powerful aspects of the healing story that we read of in Mark 5:21-34 is the reality that the woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years recognized that Jesus could be the one that would finally be able to heal her. Certainly she had been to countless healers and physicians over those twelve years, but finally when she reached out to Jesus she discovered one who knew her better than anyone else.

If we are honest with ourselves, there is only so much that we allow others to see. Many times it is a defense mechanism because we are afraid of what others might do with the whole truth, because we know too well what people can do with only a portion of the truth.

The fact is most in the crowd that day only knew a portion of the truth about the woman’s life–that she had a bleeding condition. For many, that was all they needed to know and all they wanted to know. They had classified and defined her by her condition. Which I imagine in itself caused her a great deal of pain—knowing that others really didn’t want to know her.

In Anna Quidlen’s novel Blue and Black, the main character is a woman who escapes an abusive marriage through an organization that worked much like the underground railroad of slavery days. As she begins a new life, she has to come to terms with the pain and isolation she had endured living a life with a secret that had defined her.

I hid my wounds because I was ashamed, ashamed of Bobby and ashamed of myself for staying with him, but now I know I was also afraid of being reduced, of becoming in the midst of all who knew me that poor woman whose husband beats her. Or used to. I have begun to think of myself as someone who used to get beat up by her husband. I am a recovering battered woman. I hate that term, all those classifications that seem to reduce our wounds to the same statues as eye or hair color, that make us a type, a color line in a magazine.

Her fear was the fear that many people have.

What if others knew the whole truth?

What if we were reduced in the minds of others as…

the one in the bad marriage

the one with cancer

the one with financial problems

the one with the kid who is out of control

the one whose worries plague their days and nights

and the list could go on and on.

I wonder if the woman who had suffered from hemorrhages for twelve years stood trembling before Jesus and was momentarily afraid that once again she would be reduced to her condition, her illness.

I would imagine the joyous thing she discovered on that day was not only did Jesus already know the whole truth, he knew her better than anyone else. Jesus saw much more than a woman with an illness standing before him. He saw the beauty, the hope, the dreams and possibilities of her life and that is what set her free.

“Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

May we too have the courage to reach out to Jesus when we need him.

May we take comfort in the knowledge that Jesus already knows the whole truth about us.

And may we live in the joy that Jesus knows us better than anyone us—as a beloved child of God.

Reach out to him today and hear Jesus’ saying to you—

My Daughter…My Son…

your faith can bring wholeness and healing in your life.

Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.

Blessings,

Pastor Shana