I was in contemplative prayer the other day looking at Luke 18 and the woman with the issue of blood. I love comtemplative prayer because you are there and Jesus gives you a 360 view point. Well for me, that is how it is. I end up in these vivid pictures, like movies in my spirit. I love it. I never would have thought that I would sit still enough to contemplate anything, but I have managed so I know there is hope for everyone.
Anyways...
A new truth struck my heart. I love this story because I can relate but also because Jesus is doing something that marvels me. 43 Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, 44 came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped. 45 And Jesus said, “Who touched Me?” When all denied it, Peter and those with him[f] said, “Master, the multitudes throng and press You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’”[g]46 But Jesus said, “Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me.” 47 Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately. 48 And He said to her, “Daughter, be of good cheer;[h] your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”
The woman was desperate, needing something that no one could give her but God. She was willing to risk stoning and public humiliation to get healing. She risked everything just to touch the hem of Jesus' garment. Then Jesus does something that I never thought of twice till the other day. V.45 Jesus asked "Who touched me?" What??? Is Jesus having a duh moment and really isn't aware of the universe around him? The one in whom all things exist isn't sure who touched him. The one that knows every hair on my head can't pick out a face in a crowd? This always puzzled me till last Wednesday. No, no...Jesus knew the woman in the most intimate way, through the sharing of suffering and the vehement hatred of the injustice that sickness is. He knew her as she cried on her bedroom floor from pain and he knew her when she risked everything to touch his garment. Why then did he ask? Because He wanted her to do two things. 1) to step forward and claim her healing publicly. There were several people that Jesus healed that he told not to tell anyone. Not this woman, he called her out in the midst of a huge crowd and let her tell the whole world what happened when she touched him. 2) He wanted to bless her. Jesus wanted to see her eyes meet His so that he could tell her face to face to go in peace. Here is a woman that had suffered for years and had spent all that she had for peace. Nothing and no one could give it to her. Then in a moment everything that was wrong in her body was made right. Peace was given by the one who is named the Prince of Peace. Jesus wanted to look her in the eyes and the sentence her heart heard was, "It is finished". A sentence that He would declare on the cross as His blood was poured out as an offering.
This hit me like a warm breeze on a spring day as I realized that it wasn't just personal for this woman, but Jesus was saying "It is personal to me to." It touched my heart in a new way as I cry out for healing. My, as a woman with an "issue of blood" I have a hope in the Word. It is personal to Jesus. He came and went to the cross because it was personal for Him. Thank you Jesus that you feel those weak prayers, those desperate reaches to touch the hem of your garment.
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