Show Up To Hope
I have to tell you about one of the most powerful collisions in Scripture because I think you and I might draw from it for our own lives.
In Mark 5, a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years goes out of her way to collide with Jesus. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. In this culture, this woman would have been considered unclean, and that would have affected all aspects of her life. Relationally, she was completely pushed out of community. No coffee shops, no church, no parties, no job. She was surrounded yet all alone. Physically, she was tired, weak, and hurting from chronic pain. She had been experimented on by a jillion doctors but had gone untouched by loved ones for over a decade; no hugs, no high fives, no kisses, no atta girl taps on the back. Financially, she was broke. Emotionally, this woman had to have felt defeated, stuck, lonely, and hopeless. And spiritually, she could have easily thought some of the same things we do:
God doesn’t care about me. God has abandoned me. God doesn’t see my life and dreams as worthy to save. God plays favorites and I’m not one. God thinks I need to learn another lesson. God is powerless to help. And like us, if these things be true, to hope in God for a different outcome will only set us up for more disappointment.
You know these feelings…I mean how many times can you keep trying for the baby? And how many times can you show up as the third wheel hoping to be the first choice? And how many times can you pray for the cancer to go away and it keeps coming back? And how many times can you hope they quit drinking but they never do?
This woman could’ve said “I’ve prayed a million prayers, followed all the doctors orders, and woken up for ten long years hoping it was just a dream, but this nightmare continues to be my reality.” When the story doesn’t go the way we want it to, it’s so easy to give up on hope.
But look at what this woman does…
This woman could have easily second guessed reaching out for help because if she touched Jesus, she risked a riot. She would make Him and everyone else surrounding her “unclean.” That risk had the potential to make her feel even more alone. She had to have thought, “Why bother, God hasn’t helped me yet? Why would He today? And besides He’s busy doing important things like healing sick kids.” For whatever reason, she does what we least expect. She fought the crowd to get what she wanted.
When is the last time you fought the crowd to get whole?
This woman moved toward Jesus, reached out and participated in her own healing.
She came up behind Jesus in the crowd and touched His cloak…because she thought, “If I just touch His clothes, I will be healed.” Apparently, it was taught that there were 11 ways to cure her kind of sickness. They were weird, like “carrying the ashes of an ostrich egg in a linen rag in summer and a cotton rag in winter.” (Barclay, W. (2001), The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Mark (p. 148), Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press)
My guess is, she tried every one of them because that’s what we do when we get desperate for change. We think “if I just” get a man, go to a naturopath, lose 20 lbs, snarf on spinach, apply essential oils to my ear lobes, and pray using bigger words… We will try everything before we try Jesus. We will even try the Keto diet before we try God. All of this woman’s “if I justs” left her worse off…except this one…
The Bible says her bleeding stopped and she was freed from her suffering. At once, Jesus realized power had gone out from Him, onto her. Jesus turned around and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
I think Jesus asked this because He wanted her to know that He sees her and always has. She fell at his feet and trembling with fear, she told Him her whole truth and He responded by calling her “Daughter.” Jesus then said to her “You’re faith has healed you.” That’s fascinating.
What kind of faith did this woman have that God honored it with a healing?
She had faith by showing up to hope. Some of us gave up hoping in better health, we gave up hoping in safe friendships, we gave up hoping in meaningful work, we gave up hoping to be treated the way we deserve, we gave up hoping we could use our talents.
It’s time we show up to hope.
She had faith by redefining strength. The thing that kills me is that she could have kept it all to herself in that crowd. She could have stayed strong and held it in for everyone else including the sick girl. But she chose not to be alone at the risk of looking weak. That’s strength. The strongest women I know can say “I’m not ok. I need something I don’t have.” It’s in our moments of surrender that true strength is born.
We need to redefine strength and it’s then that we’ll experience power.
She had faith by reaching out and grabbing hold of power before she could see it. She couldn’t see the healing, the freedom, or the life she wanted before she reached out and grabbed hold of it. We’re waiting for God to show us the miracle, the plan, the happy ending before we grab hold of Him for it. That’s not faith in God. That’s faith in what we can see. This woman had faith in what she couldn’t.
It is when we reach for a power we can not see that we see it.
Reach for Him, friend, He is as near as the stretch of your hand.
