Jesus & Healing, version 1

I originally intended to share this for Devotions at the V.A. this morning, but it got too long. So I changed and shortened it once I got there. This was the original version. It was based off Mark 5:24-33,

What does this passage about Jesus healing a woman with bleeding have to say to us here at the Saint Cloud V.A. today? Just this, Jesus healed not only her body, He healed her spirit as well. He restored her to the community. How is this? Do you have any idea what it would be like to be bleeding for twelve years straight? And not just any bleeding, most commentators tell us that this was an extended period of menstrual bleeding. In that day and age, that kind of deep wound was an emotional and societal one as well. She was ceremonially unclean. No one wanted to go near her. Her own family had probably disowned her long ago. And this day she here’s that a healer is in town. Not just any healer, for she had gone to many of those over the years and found no hope. Yet this man had healed many others, surely he could heal her as well. So off she went. Then she encountered the crowd. She was too ashamed to even approach Jesus up front, but instead crept up behind Him and touched just the edge of his cloak. How scared and astonished she must have been as He turned looking around and asking who touched him. Scared to say that she had made Him unclean and astonished to feel cleanliness coming back into her own body. She was healed! Then, if that wasn’t enough, when she threw herself at the feet of Jesus, I can just picture Him reaching down and bringing her up by the hand and then saying, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” He had called her “daughter” and had restored her ceremonial cleanliness. As Daniel Fountain said in his book God, Medicine & Miracles,

“Even after her internal organs had been healed, this woman was still ill psychologically, socially, and spiritually, because all her relationships remained broken. What Jesus said to this woman spoke to the depths of her heart and healed those broken relationships. With her ears she heard Jesus say, “My daughter.” In her spirit she heard him say, “I love you. I accept you. You are worthy to live in my family you are now healed and made whole.” This word restored her relationship to herself. She knew that somehow, in the eyes of this marvelous man named Jesus, she was worthy. Her dignity was restored and immediately the fear, rejection, and despair that had destroyed her life were removed.”

This is the kind of healing we each can offer as well. Not just physical well-being, but that of the mind, heart and spirit as well. Let us go share that kind of healing with all who are ready to receive it.