The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Friday, 5 August 2016 - "Human need: more important than human schedule"
Daily Scripture: Mark 5:25 Among them was a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years 26 and had suffered a great deal under many physicians. She had spent her life savings; yet instead of improving, she had grown worse. 27 She had heard about Yeshua, so she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his robe; 28 for she said, “If I touch even his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Instantly the hemorrhaging stopped, and she felt in her body that she had been healed from the disease. 30 At the same time, Yeshua, aware that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 His talmidim responded, “You see the people pressing in on you; and still you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 But he kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 The woman, frightened and trembling, because she knew what had happened to her, came and fell down in front of him and told him the whole truth. 34 “Daughter,” he said to her, “your trust has healed you. Go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
Reflection Questions:
As Jesus moved through an unwieldy crowd to respond to one appeal for help (cf. Mark 5:22-23), he sensed that another desperate person had touched him in a way that drew on his healing power. It was a woman whose problem would be serious today, but was worse then. Jewish law (cf. Leviticus 15:25-27) saw her as permanently “unclean,” like a leper. She was forbidden to touch anyone; hence her furtive touch of Jesus’ garment. But “Jesus recognized that power had gone out from him,” and confirmed that her faith had made her whole.
- What a burden of shame this woman must have carried, along with her physical issues. Many people saw ailments like hers as judgments from God (see John 9:2) and treated her as an unclean outcast. Was Jesus being unkind when he called the healed woman forward—or was he freeing her from shame as well as from her physical disorder? Are there things in your life, or some of your neighbors’ lives, that people try to keep hidden?
- Commentator William Barclay noted that the Jewish Talmud offered cures for this woman’s condition like “carrying the ashes of an ostrich-egg in a linen rag in summer and a cotton rag in winter; or carrying a barley corn found in the dung of a white she-ass.”1Have you tried to deal with your own shame, guilt or pain, or that of others you know, on your own, using various self-help “folk remedies”? How can Jesus' love reshape your efforts in more effective directions?
Lord Jesus, it was your mission to move the world back towards its intended wholeness. Show me how to join in that mission, in big or small ways, to bless others. Amen.
1 William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: The Gospel of Mark (Revised Edition). Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1976, p. 129.
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Insights from Ginger Rothhaas
Ginger Rothhaas is a seminary student at Saint Paul School of Theology and is serving in Congregational Care at The Church of the Resurrection.When we moved to Kansas City nine years ago, I said to my husband, “Rob, let’s keep multiple sclerosis out of our story as we meet neighbors.” He understood that I wanted a new start. I didn’t want to be known as the woman who moved into the corner house with two babies and a chronic debilitating disease. I simply wanted to be known as the woman who moved into the corner house with two babies.
I think the bleeding woman in Mark’s gospel would understand this. She remains nameless to us today. We only know her by her disease. During her lifetime, this woman’s identity was defined by disease for 12 years because religious laws labeled her unclean, thus isolating her from society.
The labels we give people are not just ways to describe them. For that person they become a deep source of identity and often shame. We fear that if people know our story it may scare them away or bring unwanted attention. This is why we hide our messy truth. However, this bleeding woman had faith that rose above fear and called her out of hiding. Her story today is more than a story of disease; it is an inspiring story of faith and healing.
In our first few years in KC, I made many great friends in our neighborhood and at church. But I had never talked about being sick. I covered up the 24 hours a week that I was flu-ish from side effects of my weekly injection. I made excuses when I was too tired to stay out late. I was afraid to commit to social plans because my health was unpredictable. In a way, I began to isolate myself by hiding my full story.
And then I had a bad relapse. Suddenly, it was obvious in my inability to walk that something was very wrong. Rob had to explain to my friends what I was too scared to disclose. Meals were showing up at the door. Notes were coming in the mail. Friends asked why I hadn’t told them about MS. My responses went something like this: “It’s a long story and we never had enough time; The night was so fun I didn’t want to bring it down; There isn’t anything you can do; I didn’t want to burden you with my illness.”
What I have learned from my experience and the woman’s story in Scripture is this: We all have something we are living with that is painful, embarrassing, messy, a long story, complicated, or disappointing. That’s life. All of us, at some point, meet suffering head-on. Why not let our guard down, be seen, get vulnerable, and share what’s really going on in our lives?
This story of a suffering faithful woman teaches us that coming out of isolation and faithfully stepping forward brings profound healing. She regained her freedom and became a teacher that day. Her story was used immediately and is still being used 2000 years later.
Once I allowed people into my story and allowed them to love me, our relationships grew deeper than ever. Many of them then shared their untold stories with me. Together we found freedom and healing in sharing our full story. This lesson in vulnerability six years ago was the beginning of a deep spiritual journey which ultimately led me to seminary.
Part of the lesson in loving your neighbor is allowing them to love you back. Vulnerability is scary stuff, but take a deep breath, trust God to use your story in beautiful ways, and go share it with your neighbors!
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The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, Kansas 66224, United States
913.897.0120
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