Mark 5:25-29
“A woman who had suffered a condition of hemorrhaging for twelve years—a long succession of physicians had treated her, and treated her badly, taking all her money and leaving her worse off than before—had heard about Jesus. She slipped in from behind and touched his robe. She was thinking to herself, “If I can put a finger on his robe, I can get well.” The moment she did it, the flow of blood dried up. She could feel the change and knew her plague was over and done with.”
“Jesus went with him, and all the people followed, crowding around him. A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but shea had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. For she thought to herself. “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed for her terrible condition.”
This woman was an outcast as surely as any leper. Only those who also experience menstruation can appreciate how terrible this dysfunction of her uterus was. In addition to chronic pelvic pain, continual bleeding would have caused skin breakdown. Menstrual odor in that warm climate must have been terrible. While the bleeding could be hidden the odor could not. This, and the continual washing of menstrual clothes was an advertisement. Unclean! The psychological pain must have been severe. Yet instead of being angry at God she pushed through the crowd to be near him. He answered her muted cry.
Lord, thank you for delivering me from this same ailment. May I ever follow this woman’s example of pushing through the crowd and the pain, reaching out to touch you. Please don’t ever let me go.