The Bleeding Woman

Imagine. There you are, surrounded by the masses. The smell of sweat and dirt floats through the air. You can taste the dust in your mouth. You feel the blanket of shame and fear enveloping you. Yet the hope of just one day without this horrible affliction compels you to push through.

You’ve heard rumors, stories. The blind see. The deaf hear. The crippled dance for joy. And you begin to imagine: maybe He could heal you too.

You’ve been bleeding out for 12 years. Your ailment has been so long and so traumatic, that no one even sees you anymore. Your friends were helpful at the beginning; but your trauma outran their compassion. Slowly, one by one, year after year, they grew weary of dealing with your issues. The ones who were supposed to care, faded into the distance.

You haven’t even been touched, hugged, or noticed in over a decade.

After all this time, you’re not sure if you can keep going.
Depleted. Exhausted. Discarded. An invalid. And culturally in-valid.

But what if…What if this Rabbi you keep hearing about can actually change your reality? What if He would stoop down to lift you up. What if He could stop the bleeding and the pain? What if He is your only option?

You decide to take the risk…because you have nothing to lose except despair and disappointment. Even if you were caught and arrested…what does it matter? You haven’t been alive in a long time. But this Jesus claims to be life; to give it out in abundance. Maybe it’s time to press in for a different outcome. To get your hopes up. And to hope for a miracle once again.

Everyone is trying to get to the Rabbi. You wonder how you will ever get close enough to encounter His power. And if you do, how does it work? Will it work?

At last you lunge through the crowd to reach just the hem of His garment and suddenly everything changes. You feel the power of Messiah, Jesus, rush into your body. It’s as if every part of your body feels the electricity of divine power energizing you.

Jesus stops. You wait. Terrified. And the Rabbi sweeps the crowd with His eyes until He locks eyes with you. With one look He sees straight into your soul, into the deepest, loneliest place of your broken heart. Trembling into a puddle of tears, you tell Him the whole truth. You pour it all out in front of the whole town. The weeping. The blood. The anger. The years. The isolation. The shame. It is all washed away in an instant.

The Living Word speaks these living words to you: “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

Now imagine — Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and forever is looking to lock eyes with you. He knows your story. He knows your pain. He’s familiar with all your ways. And He longs to release His healing virtue into you: body, soul, and spirit.

Just imagine.

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