In 1988, I moved to
THIS WOMAN, according to Mark, spent all her money for healing. She probably tried the twelve different types of cures[1] the Jewish Community had experimented with for women in this condition. There were countless trips to the doctor’s office. Yet nothing worked. They had neither OBGYN nor any examinations to help determine what was wrong with her hormonal system run amuck. She couldn’t have a hysterectomy. She had an issue of blood that made a woman unclean and anything she sat or anyone she came in contact with would be considered unclean. According to Leviticus 15:20-23, Everything upon which she lies during her impurity shall be unclean; everything also upon which she sits shall be unclean. Whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until the evening. Whoever touches anything upon which she sits shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until the evening, whether it is the bed or anything upon which she sits, when he touches it he shall be unclean until the evening (Lev. 15:20-23). They didn’t even understand the cycle and had made up laws making women unclean during that time of month. In that form of legalism, what could be worse for a woman than having a preexisting condition that was incurable[2] for twelve years.
Yet the Jewish man could come right up to Jesus to ask for help with his daughter. Jesus responded by getting up to go and restore. God had created and now God would restore. On the way, the preexisting condition of grace in Christ just flowed out of him and she noticed. She had heard and watched him before. Now when Jesus walks by, she is waiting. She shouldn’t have even been close to him nor would she approach him lest the community tell her to get away. She lived in a constant stay of defilement, experiencing an excommunication from the temple to worship and family. She could never be touched by Jesus because that would make him unclean. Yet her claim to the preexisting promises of God established in creation and the covenant with Abraham and Sarah was a thread she still held onto. She was a daughter of Moses and Sarah.
She was on the fringe of society and the FRINGE is all she will need. As Jesus passes by, she is keeping her distance. She waits out on the fringe. There he is, the one who knows the law and desires MERCY and not LEGALISM. IF I can only touch him; just the tassel, the fringe will heal me. In first-century Palestine, it was a custom for most Jewish men to wear fringe on each corner of their garment, in accordance with the prescription found in Numbers 15 that reads, And the Lord said to Moses, 'Speak to the Israelites, and tell them to make fringes on the corners of their garments, and to put a blue chord on the fringe at each corner. You have the fringe so that when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and not follow the lust of your own hearts and your own eyes (Numbers 15:37-39; cf. Deut. 22:12).
THIS WOMEN HELD OUT A FRINGE OF HOPE that the God who gave this law could heal her. This woman was reaching for just a sliver of grace. What she ultimately grasped, was in fact a symbolic reminder of the very law that had in its application abused and excluded her for the last twelve years. She didn’t look outside the tradition to bring her healing. She now saw a new thing in this teacher of the law who taught as one with authority. God still heals and restores, for GOD’S preexisting condition is to make promises! God’s CONDITION was to restore the relationship. Even if she wasn’t perfect, she clung to the covenant God establish with their ancestors. She ultimately grasped a sliver of God’s grace.
JESUS: "Take heart, sister, your faith has made you well". He acknowledges her as a person and calls her daughter! Jesus' proclamation of God's mercy over sacrifice was indeed a covenant that she could hold on to, a law that could make her well, and she sacrificed all she had to make it her own.
But what is the nature of this wholeness? Was it just the healing in her body or was it something deeper and complete? Mark says she was cured. The text never said she was cured, it just said she was made well! She was restored into community with family and others. She was a daughter again and not just that woman people stayed away from for over twelve years.
Tony Campolo tells a story about being in a church in
That next week he got a telephone call from the man’s wife. She said, "You prayed for my husband. He had cancer." Campolo thought when he heard her use the past tense verb that his cancer had been eradicated! But before he could think much about it she said, "He died." Compolo felt terrible. But she continued, "Don’t feel bad. When he came into that church that Sunday he was filled with anger. He knew he was going to be dead in a short period of time, and he hated God. He was 58 years old, and he wanted to see his children and grandchildren grow up. He was angry that this all-powerful God didn’t take away his sickness and heal him. He would lie in bed and curse God. The more his anger grew towards God, the more miserable he was to everybody around him. It was an awful thing to be in his presence. But the lady told Compolo, "After you prayed for him, a peace had come over him and a joy had come into him. Tony, the last three days have been the best days of our lives. We’ve sung. We’ve laughed. We’ve read Scripture. We prayed. Oh, they’ve been wonderful days. And I called to thank you for laying your hands on him and praying for healing." And then she said, "He wasn’t cured, but he was healed."[3]
Jesus is passing by again with the unconditional love and we are invited to grab for that string. We gather with our preexisting condition of sin and we enter the admitting room where we admit we need forgiveness from sin. We sit in the waiting room and hear God say, “be still and know that I am God”. We say “Ah” and receive the body and blood of Christ! We read the prescription in the word and see that the bill is “Paid in full” by Christ! Jesus is passing by again for us to touch! LET US PRAY: Gracious God, we come to seek your forgiveness and restoration of relationship between you and us and with one another.
[1] The Gospel of Matthew, Barclay Commentary, page 354ff
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