BREATHTAKING!
Do you remember the story of the Woman with the issue of blood? You can read it in Mark chapter 5.
In the primitive world in which Jesus lived, women were considered little more than property. They were often viewed as evil, ignorant and immoral. This was often the view taught by the religious leaders, who did not allow woman to enter certain parts of the temple and segregated them from the men in the synagogues.
Rabbi Eliezer who lived in Palestine in the first century wrote this:
‘rather should the word of the Torah be burned than entrusted to a woman’
Women were considered inferior servants. They were not allowed to talk to men in public (except their own husbands) and they were not permitted to testify in a court of law, since the witness of a woman was considered untrustworthy.
Being a woman at that time, was not short of a few ‘challenges!’
However as we read this story, we soon discover that as for this woman, life was even more complicated due to the fact that she was bleeding and had been bleeding for 12 years!
Now a woman who was menstruating was considered to be what they would call ‘unclean’ (even more so than normal) and as an unclean woman she would have been unwelcome in society. Everything and everyone she touched would have been made ceremonially unclean and so everyone, even her own family, would have shunned her. Any form of sexual relations would have been deemed as unclean too and so her husband would probably have divorced her, leaving her with nothing.
I would imagine that she had tried every medical cure she could find, it says she had consulted many doctors, and was seen as hopelessly incurable and I imagine the desperation you would have seen in her eyes, would have been the same as I see everyday in the countless men and women we work with daily in the slums. A look of hopelessness and brokenness.
Then one day she sees Jesus walking along the road and in her complete and utter desperation, she reaches out and grabs the hem of His cloak.
Now when you read the story it says that as she touched him, Jesus immediately feels power leave him and so asks the crowd… ‘who touched me?’
I wonder how she felt in that moment, as Jesus spoke those words?
Culture said that she was an outcast, unacceptable, unclean, unworthy and certainly not allowed to touch a man, let alone Jesus. I imagine she must have braced herself for even more rejection as she took a deep breath and in fear and trembling simply replies ‘I did’
Now Jesus’s response to her is nothing short of breathtaking to me, yet because we now live in a world where at least in our western culture, woman are a valued and equal member of society, it can be hard for us to understand the full extent of just what is was that Jesus did.
As she stands there before him clothed in all her uncleanliness, despised and rejected by the culture of her day, waiting for His rebuke, for His rejection, having known nothing else for so many years, He stops, looks at her and simply says… ‘DAUGHTER’
Now if you take the time to look up the root of the word ‘Daughter ‘ in this context, you will find that it means ‘accepted, protected and cared for one’.
What an amazingly, outrageously, culturally unacceptable, wonderfully, politically incorrect statement He made when he spoke out that one simple beautiful word… BREATHTAKING!
And he is still speaking out that same word today, over the thousands of women we meet in the slums trapped in poverty, shame and prostitution and its what He is speaking out today, over you and I.
No matter what you feel about yourself, what others have said about you, No matter how eaten up with shame and guilt you are over your life, how unclean you feel, How unacceptable you think you are… He calls you LOVED, PROTECTED AND CARED FOR.
There is so much compassion in His heart for you, so much mercy and so much grace available for each and everyone of us. Lets not hide away from it but instead reach out to Him in faith and take hold of it and receive it. Receive Him, receive His love and then go and give it away to everyone we meet.
The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. Psalm 145 v 8 (NIV)
