Daily Excerpt: Jesus Is Still Passing By: With Secrets for a Victorious Life (Easterling): The Woman Who Touched Jesus

 

Excerpt:

THE WOMAN WHO TOUCHED JESUS
(Gospel account in Matthew 9:20-22; Mark 5:24-34: Luke 9:43-48)

 

A large crowd was following Jesus, pressing around him. A woman crept up quietly, trying to touch him. This dear lady had an internal bleeding disorder. For twelve years, she’d suffered under the care of many doctors and spent all her money to pay them. But, instead of getting better, she grew worse.

She’d heard of Jesus. So, she pressed through the crowd and slipped up behind him, thinking, “If I only touch his clothes, I’ll be healed.”

As soon as she touched his cloak, she felt the bleeding stop.

Background

This brave lady risked public humiliation by approaching Jesus unbidden. Women of her day were often not treated with dignity. She knew she would likely be ridiculed, but she was enough desperate to choose to face the consequences.

The disciples would not be sympathetic. They fancied themselves to be Jesus’ palace guards, shooing the riffraff away, especially women and children. In their minds, Rabbi Jesus was too important to be distracted by the likes of this poor bleeding woman. Still, she had to try. What a heartwarming lesson! She risked disgrace to reach out and touch Jesus.

Really, in her mind, the choice was clear. After years of disappointments, of trying and failing, she realized doctors could not cure her. Yes, her doctors took away her money but not her chronic bleeding. If doctors couldn’t help her, who could?

We don’t know how she found out about Jesus. Maybe she witnessed one of his miracles, heard through word of mouth, or met an eye witness. In any case, she became convinced Jesus had been given a mysterious heaven-sent power. Her heart told her that he was the answer to her woes.

So, she pressed through the crowd, slipped up behind Jesus, and touched the edge of his cloak. Her bleeding stopped, completely and instantly. No more drugs, follow-up visits, doctors’ bills, relapses, or embarrassing episodes. This precious lady was free at last!

Jesus asked, “Who touched me?” Everyone denied doing so. Peter pointed out the obvious, “Master, the people are pressing all around you.” In other words, “How could we possibly know who it was?”

But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I knew it when power went out of me.”

Jesus wasn’t the only one who knew it. Something deep within this faith filled lady told her God had healed her. The Spirit whispered blessed assurance. God confides deep secrets to believers, not revealed to others.

Her secret out, her cover blown, the trembling lady came and threw herself at Jesus’s feet. She sensed the crowd’s anger, knowing she’d violated all their highly valued traditions—a mere woman and worse yet, unclean, appealing to Jesus.

There in front of a horde of hostile, impatient, preoccupied self-seekers, she laid her heart bare. She told Jesus of her incurable bleeding, her years of pain. She confessed her desperation and her trust in his power to help her, hoping he would understand why she had touched him. She told him she felt her bleeding stop when she touched him. Then, she waited breathlessly for his response.

Instead of incurring his wrath, she heard these words of affirmation, “My daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”

She might have avoided ridicule by slipping away quietly. However, from deep inside she summoned the courage to go public—to thank the Lord and give God the glory. By so doing, her story has inspired millions.

Clearly, God rewards those who seek him. This woman likely spent the rest of her life telling people of her personal encounter with the Savior who heals. God, bless his holy name, has equipped you to do the same. You’re not a helpless weakling.

Life Applications

FAITH IN ACTION

Rosa Parks lived in Alabama at a time when segregation was the law of the land. Blacks were forced to drink from separate water fountains, use separate bathrooms, and attend separate schools and churches. Rosa knew it wasn’t right, but what could one lone lady do against the law of the land? Yet, one fateful day, she couldn’t take it anymore. She would not go silently into the gentle night. She took a middle seat on a city bus and refused to give up her seat and move to the back when a white person demanded it. Her brave act set off a powder keg of hatred, fear, and bigotry. She was arrested, insulted, reviled, and abused for refusing to play by the discriminatory rules of the day. Her bravery triggered the famous Montgomery Bus Boycotts where blacks were beaten and abused, but she had shined a bright light into one of America’s darkest caves since slavery. People slowly began to realize the evils of forced segregation. Bloody civil rights marches followed, with participants getting killed. Yet, brave souls like Rosa Parks changed the world. Today, across America, streets, schools, and parks bear her name. School children studying the history of the civil rights struggle revere her and are inspired to demand their God-given rights of liberty and justice for all. Rosa paid a heavy price, but her courage changed our world.

James said it best: “Faith without action is dead.” Rosa’s faith was very much alive.

For reflection:

When have you overcome your fears and acted in faith? How did that turn out?

FAITH UNDER FIRE

My father was a circuit riding minister in Mississippi during the Depression and WW II era. Since rural clergy were not paid a salary in those days, he supported his family of eight by farming 80 acres of black fertile land during the summers, plus trapping and selling the hides of fur-bearing animals in winter. Once, when a nearby land owner could not pay his taxes, Daddy was given an opportunity to add another 40-acres to his farm. Not being able to pay one’s taxes was common during the Depression. So, Daddy went to the courthouse, paid the back taxes, and was given a Quit Claim Deed.

Years later, a neighbor looking through court records discovered that Daddy had neglected to convert his Quit Claim Deed to a regular deed. Seizing this opportunity, the scalawag falsified and signed an affidavit swearing the land was unclaimed, knowing Daddy had fenced it and was paying the taxes.

When Daddy told the tax assessor of the man’s scheme, a court date was set to hear the case. On the day of the hearing, Daddy failed to show up. The swindling neighbor’s lawyer convinced the judge to award the land to his client.

The man was a respected member of our community. One day he drove up to our house to make peace with Daddy. Mom refused to let him come inside the house so Daddy went out and sat in the man’s car to talk. He claimed it was all a misunderstanding. Daddy knew better but let him have his say. When they parted, he even shook the scoundrel’s hand. Mom was furious, but Daddy explained, “The Lord wants us to live in peace with our neighbors.”

He believed that all vengeance belongs to God—and that God settles all accounts. And, the preacher slept well that night. (From the author’s memoir, Of God, Rattlesnakes and Okra, a preacher’s boy tells his growing up story, MSI Press.)

For reflection:
When has your faith been severely tested?

How would you describe your response?

 

THE POWER OF FAITH AND TESTIMONY

A friend worked for the US government, where separation of Church and State is strictly enforced. Her conditions of employment prohibited her from providing testimon, though her behavior served on many occasions as testimony.

One time, though, it seemed that God was asking her to show great courage, to take a more overt step, like the woman who touched Jesus did. She owned a little vial of holy water brought back from the baptismal site in the Jordan River, where she had once visited, and every time she looked at it, she saw the face of one of her employees. Finally, unable to resist, she summoned up the courage to do as God seemed to be directing her and took the holy water to her office.

She called the employee, a quiet man in his early thirties, whom she did not know well. When he came to her office, she said to him, “Please close the door because I’m not going to separate Church and State.”

He closed the door, then sat down at the conference table in her office. She reached out and handed him the holy water, explained what it was, and told him about seeing his face whenever she looked at it.

He started crying. He told her that his daughter was just a few months old, in ICU, and on the verge of death. The holy water represented a sign of hope to him. (Oh, yes, the daughter lived; she is five years old this year.)

For reflection:

Have you ever felt intimidated when it came to providing testimony?
What did you do about it, and how did it turn out? How can you prepare for the next opportunity?

 

This book won the Pinnacle Book Achievement Award for religion.

A study guide exists for this book.

For more posts about Easterling and his books, click HERE. 

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