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Accepted, Protected and Cared For

Mark chapter five tells the well-known story of the woman who had an on-going blood-related illness. According to the purity laws of the Old Testament, a person with an issue of blood was, in effect, permanently quarantined. She would have been shunned by her community, even her own family. A woman with this problem was simply not welcome in society.

One day, likely from the periphery of the crowd, she spotted Jesus walking along. In utter desperation, she pushed through the throng of people surrounding Him and managed to grab the hem of His cloak. Immediately Jesus wanted to know,

“Who touched me?”

I wonder how this lady felt in that moment. Culture said that she was an outcast – unacceptable, unclean, unworthy – certainly not allowed to touch a man, let alone a Rabbi, let alone Jesus! I imagine she must have braced herself for a rebuke and further rejection as she took a deep breath and, in fear and trembling, replied,

“I did.”

Jesus’ response to her is nothing short of breath taking. Reading this event through the filter of the modern Western mind set, it’s hard to grasp the full impact of what Jesus did and said. As she stands before Him in her uncleanliness, despised and rejected by society, waiting for yet more scorn, Jesus looks at her and says simply,

“Daughter…”

The root of the word translated here as “daughter” means “accepted, protected and cared-for”.  What an amazingly outrageous, culturally unacceptable, wonderfully politically-incorrect statement! As well as healing her, with a single beautiful word, Jesus wiped away all of the rejection and shame this woman had suffered.

He speaks the same thing over you and me today:

“Accepted, protected, cared for.”

The truth is, no matter what you feel about yourself, what others have said about you, or what you have or haven’t done with your life – you are accepted, protected and cared for by God. 

Regardless of the situations you’ve found yourself in, and the bad decisions you’ve made over the years – you are accepted, protected and cared for by God.

No matter how much of a failure you feel, and how eaten up you are with shame and guilt – you are accepted, protected and cared for by God.

However unclean you feel, or however unacceptable you think you are ­– He calls you accepted, protected and cared for!