Mark 5:21-43
I realized (in my preparation this week) that every sermon I have ever heard on this text has been vague about the actual ailment of the woman who reached for the hem of Jesus’ garment.
- So…to be clear…the woman in our Gospel reading today…
- Who was healed when she touched Jesus’ cloak had her menstrual period for 12 years.
- For 4,383 days in a row.
- Take a moment and consider what that was like back 2000 years ago.
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
And worse…back in her day such women were considered impure.
- They were treated as so unclean that they could not be around other people.
- They could not enter the synagogue until their bleeding had stopped.
- Why? Because their impurity was considered contagious.
- Like a woman could catch it from another woman.
- And so…for 12 brutal years…our sister was segregated from the…so-called…good healthy people.
But…the Gospel tells us…she had heard about a man…a teacher…a prophet…a healer…
- Who did not recoil from women like her.
- She heard about a man who touched the unclean.
- Who did not seem to mind being close to lepers and prostitutes and mad men in tombs.
- She heard about a man who caused a stir.
- A man who caused religious people to clutch their pearls.
- A man who caused the blind to see.
She had heard about Jesus…and in a heroic act of self-respect…
- She pressed through those holy people…who if they knew it was her who was touching them that day…would have reported her.
She had heard about Jesus…and breaking all the rules…
- She came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak…and said:
- “If I but touch his clothes…I will be made well.”
So…she reached with everything she had…
- She reached past her fears.
- She reached past her limitations.
- She reached past the dirty looks.
- She reached past 4,383 days of isolation and disappointment and despair.
- She reached past the hateful things said to her by those who were supposed to help her.
- She reached past her past.
Our sister reached for her own healing and her own dignity and her own wholeness and said:
- If I but touch his clothes I will be made well.
- That is to say…if I but touch his clothes I will be made me.
- I will be made me again and not what everyone has labeled me.
And immediately her bleeding stopped.
- And she felt in her body that she was healed by the power of Jesus of Nazareth.
- Her Yelp review read:
- Healing was immediate and thorough…5 stars.
Immediately…aware that power had gone forth from him…Jesus turned about in the crowd and said:
- “Who touched my clothes?”
- Jesus was looking for the one who reached for her healing and received it.
- He wanted to look this woman in the eye.
- A woman who for 12 years never received a whole lot of eye contact but Jesus knew it was HER he felt.
- And Jesus’ disciples are dumbfounded and say:
- “Get real…everyone is touching everyone’s clothes…it’s a huge crowd.”
But Jesus kept looking for her eyes.
- And the woman…who knew what had happened to her in that moment of her healing.
- And who knew very well what had happened to her in her 4,383 days of confinement.
- Came in fear and trembling…fell down before him…and told him the whole truth.
- She did not hold anything back.
- She told him the whole truth and nothing but.
Jesus said to her: “Daughter…your faith has made you well…go in peace…and be healed of your disease.”
- Everyone else may have called her impure…unclean…and unholy.
- But he called her daughter.
- In that one-word Jesus tells her who she really is.
- A beloved child of God.
- You are well…you are a daughter of God…go in peace and live as a healed woman.
I love this story but I have questions.
- I wonder if that word “daughter” …caused pain…as it surged through the parts of her that had been deprived of love and life for so long.
- I wonder if it hurt to be healed even though it is what she wanted.
Because sometimes it is more comfortable to allow parts of ourselves to die than to feel them have new life.
- Because then we must face the pain of the whole truth.
But mostly…I wonder what her life looked like after that moment.
- Because 12 years is a long time.
- And it is not like there was some kind of re-entry program she could participate in.
- No halfway house between clean and unclean.
I wonder if…for our sister…the bleeding woman…
- There were times it felt more comfortable to cling to the identity of being unclean.
- Because at least it was familiar.
- At least then she knew where she stood.
- I wonder if there was an adjustment period for her before she could really live her new identity.
Here’s the thing:
- She may have been healed and returned to her community and family again.
- But she may not have really gotten well until she could accept both who she had been…
- And who she was becoming and accept the distance between the two.
And ultimately…when the pain of trying to lead the same life when she was not the same person was severe enough…
- She became willing to re-think old ideas about herself.
- Because she desperately needed relief from a life in which she was impersonating an old version of herself.
- She needed to repent of all the ways she had defined herself for so long.
- She did not know why losing things that hurt her…also causes her to hurt…but it did.
OK then…here’s the thing.
- Whatever it is that we do not want to let go of:
- Status…fear…bad relationships…victimhood…political correctness…moral superiority…resentment.
- Name your poison…whatever identities we think will keep us safe.
- Are not safe at all.
- They are just familiar and that is not the same thing.
Because when these flimsy designations touch even the garment of God…
- They fall away.
- And then Jesus looks us right in our eyes and tells us the truth when he declares:
- Daughter…you are well…go in peace and live as a healed woman.