Don't Believe Your EyesSample

Luke went pretty far out of his way to show the chaos of this scene in today's Bible reading. There is a desperate man whose daughter was dying. There’s a crowd so thick and so close together that they were “nearly crushing” Jesus. 

So when a sick woman who had been bleeding for twelve years reached out and touched Jesus, no one should have noticed. But Jesus did. 

In her day, if someone was bleeding or had a skin disease, they would be considered “unclean” and kept away from others because they could spread the disease.

Her sickness was a serious problem for her health, but also for her place in society. Try to imagine how frustrating and isolated she had felt for these twelve years. No doctor could help her. No family could touch her. Mark 5:26 tells us she had spent everything to try to get better, but it was all for nothing. Nothing could fix her. 

But then she heard about Jesus. She heard what people were saying about how He could do amazing things like make diseases go away just by touching them. Think about how wild this is for a second. An incurably sick woman was at the end of her rope. Neglected, forgotten, invisible. 

But she knew that they were calling this man the Son of God. So she did something amazing: She put as much faith as she had in as much of Jesus as she knew. And that was enough. She was cured immediately. 

Jesus shows us what kind of faith He is looking for. He’s not looking for people who have it all together—He’s looking for people like this woman. People who are hurting, broken, scared, but who are brave enough to squeeze any amount of faith out of their tired hearts and throw it all to Him. 

He also shows us is that there is no such thing as invisible when it comes to Him. Anyone who seeks Him will find Him. He will see them. Lift them up. Make them whole. And then He will remind them: 

You are not a disaster. You are not broken. You are not invisible. You are loved.