THE BLEEDING WOMAN & THE DISCIPLES SENT OUT

Jesus is on His way to the home of Jairus. The dying daughter, we’re told, is 12 years old. We are very rarely told the precise age of anyone in the Bible; and especially in the NT. But the Holy Spirit inspired Luke and Mark to include it.

And something else in this narrative has been in existence for 12 years.

For any gentlemen that may read this blog, brace yourselves. We have to talk about periods. 🩸

Roughly every 28 days a woman’s uterus sheds its lining along with several tablespoons of fluid and blood. For most women it lands on a scale starting at major inconvenience and going as high as incapacitating. It generally lasts about a week. Every. Single. Month. (With some reprieve during pregnancy and lactation.)

If you’ve never seen the “men try period cramp simulator” videos on YouTube, they’re generally rather funny but include a LOT of swearing as all but a few of the toughest men seem to find what women go through every 4th week to be unbearable. In the video by “The Try Guys” they are first shocked and disbelieving about what their female coworkers go through and are still able to function. By the end, their respect for those women and compassion toward women in general goes way, WAY up.

Even the toughest guys in various videos – like a cop and a bull rider who has had his body beat to a pulp – readily admit, they wouldn’t go to work if they were experiencing that level of pain. The bull rider said, he’d much prefer to ride a bull than experience that pain again.

The woman in this story LIVES with pain. For as long as Jairus’ daughter has been alive, 12 years, she has basically been on her period. She must’ve been constantly exhausted. Anemic. Pale.

There was no such thing as medical insurance. She had to pay 100% of the bill out of pocket. And she had. And she was broke and no better.

When the text says “she suffered many things under many physicians,” I shudder to think what crude ancient treatments may have been tired and how her body was probably violated by it.

I’m sure Google now supposes that I’m dying after my various searches today, but here’s a short summary of what may have caused her condition:

This poor woman has suffered physically and financially but also socially and emotionally.

Leviticus 15:19-24 states the rules around normal menstruation. For the week that it lasts…

• Anyone who touches her is unclean
• Anything she sits or lies upon is unclean
• Anyone who is made unclean by touching her or an object upon which she has sat or lain, must wash with water and be considered unclean until the evening

And then there is this:

“And when a woman discharges a body fluid consisting of her blood for many days, but not at the time of her menstruation, or when she discharges in addition to her menstruation, all the days of her unclean body fluid discharge she shall become unclean as in the days of her menstruation.”
‭‭Leviticus‬ ‭15‬:‭25‬ ‭LEB‬‬

All of the rules above apply. Constantly.

Think about this.

The woman in this story not only lives with pain, she would be barred from going to synagogue or the temple. She has the constant chore of unmentionable laundry. She knows that getting close to others brings inconvenience into their lives. She lives in a just-out-of-reach isolation.

She cannot be touched without making the other person unclean too. Most people who are surrounded by loving friends and family, and who receive regular hugs and handshakes, pats on the back, friendly mussing of the hair, cuddling kids, gentle caresses, and warm embraces… people who are used to so much healthy touch may not have ever thought about what they would lose if it was suddenly gone.

And not for a few days or months. But for years and years on end.

We aren’t told if she was single or married, but she certainly wasn’t an older woman in menopause.

Humans need healthy touch. Here are some of the things that a simple touch can do:

🤓 Wow. I can do all that with a touch?

🤔 Huh… That makes me think differently about the “turn-and-greet-your-neighbor” part of church. I never did like to mingle. Maybe I should start.

Interestingly, this woman had said to herself, “If I could touch even His clothes I know I will be healed.” She may have been thinking that she could avoid making the Nazarene Rabbi unclean if she didn’t actually touch Him, but only the hem or border of His clothing.

She works her way close enough to do just that and she is instantly healed. And Jesus instantly feels it.

When we “do ministry” – particularly ministry that draws deeply on our life, it is depleting in a way that is not merely physical. Perhaps I’m just sensitive to this, but I can tell you that many times I have sung, played an instrument, and prayed for people with such an intensity that I have felt physically weak. Like, “Get me a chair, 🪑 my legs are shaky. I need to sit.” Intense intercession in prayer can make me feel like someone has pulled the plug and drained the pool.

Obviously Jesus is MUCH stronger. What would’ve wiped any of us completely out, He simply “notices” as power going out of Him. The KJV translates it as “virtue” but it’s the same word used when Jesus said that the believers would “receive power after the Holy Ghost comes upon you” in Acts 1:8. It’s the Greek word from which we get our English word dynamite: 🧨💥

🤓 Force? So, was Jesus like Obi-Wan Kenobi? “I feel a great disturbance in the force.”

No. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal cosmic “Force” or power to be wielded or controlled. The Holy Spirit is the Divine Spirit of God and He is to be honored and worshiped together with God the Father and the Christ the Son. The Holy Spirit is not an “it” or a thing. He’s a He and a Who.

Jesus could feel the Holy Spirit’s power go out of Him. And though He hadn’t laid hands on anyone to heal them, the Holy Spirit within Him had responded to this woman. Jesus wants to know who has done this.

🤔 I bet Jesus didn’t have too many “Whoah – What just happened?,” moments.

True. This might be the only one.

Jesus was constantly being touched. It reminds me of a mom with like 4 children ages 6 and under. They’re constantly hanging on mommy, trying to get her undivided attention. But this woman just touching the hem of His garment was different. She wasn’t demanding attention. She was just desperate to be healed and knew that Jesus could do it.

That’s what biblical faith is, by the way – when you KNOW something is so.

It’s not talking yourself into a believe-ism.

It’s knowing like you know when you put a properly-addressed and stamped envelope in the mail that it will get to its intended destination. This knowing is based on fact and evidence even though you can’t watch the envelope through the entirety of its journey and don’t exactly know what happens to it after you drop it in the post box. You regard it as a settled thing that it will get to the addressee. Regarding something as good as done – that’s faith.

Jesus said it was her FAITH that had made her well.

I have a suspicion that faith arises when something is to be.

🤔 Is to be what?

Just… is to BE.

I can try with all my might to believe that something will BE but if the Lord has not ordained it to BE, then all I have is a lot of spiritual burnt rubber and smoke from my faith tires spinning out on the asphalt of reality.

I remember the first time I became aware of this. I was a teenager at church camp. Perhaps there was already a bit of the gift of the prophetic at work. But we had gotten an urgent request to pray for a woman. I cannot remember anything about her except that she had a major health emergency and the camp director had gotten the message during the morning lesson time and asked everyone to stop and pray. Well, as we were praying I became inexplicably happy. I KNEW, without knowing how I knew, that this woman was going to be just fine. And upon that information, my soul – all on its own accord – shifted gears from petition to praise. And indeed, later that day (or maybe the next) we got an update that the woman was going to be fine. And my thought was, “Yup. I knew that.”

Same thing happened when my Grandpa was healed of cancer. I knew instantly. I didn’t “believe” it. I KNEW it. And I was absolutely joyful. The doctors later confirmed it.

I have never been able to make that happen at will. Maybe that’s a level I have yet to unlock. I have no idea.

Biblical Faith is (I believe) different than biblical hope. Faith is knowing a thing is done. Hope is knowing a thing will be done.

🤔 Ok. If that’s faith and hope, what’s the word for when we’re not sure if a thing is going to be so, but we really really want it to?

That’s desire.

And we take desires to the Lord in prayer.

“And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
‭‭Mark‬ ‭11‬:‭22‬-‭24‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4‬:‭6‬ ‭ESV‬‬

I’m still working on this one.

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MATTHEW 10, DISCIPLES > APOSTLES

The word “apostle” just means one who is sent. Jesus had a limited number of Apostles. More were added to the church as they were sent out to preach the Gospel and establish gatherings of believers. I think that if there are still pastors and teachers in the church, then there are still supposed to be apostles, prophets, and evangelists. You can’t just arbitrarily pick out 2 or 3 of the 5 leadership roles given to “equip the saints for the work of the ministry” (Eph. 4:11-12) and say the other ones no longer exist.

Just because people abuse an office, or misappropriate a title, or the church (widely) has forgotten what certain roles are for doesn’t mean that God toggled the switch “off” for those roles.

I suspect that the title of apostle is wildly misappropriated today. I’m going to (mostly) forego that rant – except to say that if the fancy-pants “Apostles” of today in their designer suits and luxury cars were treated like actual, biblical Apostles – half starved, always on the move, beaten, jailed, etc – they would all suddenly have “revelations” from the Lord that they were called to something else and would drop the title “apostle.”

I don’t know if “the 70” were in addition to “the 12” or if it was like “the 12” plus 58 = 70. However it was, Jesus sent out both “the 12” (Mat. 10) and “the 70” (Luke 10) to announce to the descendants of Abraham that the Kingdom of Heaven was about to arrive.

It reminds me of how God took a portion of the Spiritual power that was on Moses and gave it to the 70 elders of Israel so they could help him with the work of leading the people, (Num. 11:17, 24-30).

The sent-ones were to exercise the power of Jesus in casting out demons and healing the sick. They were instructed to travel light and depend upon hospitality for meals and lodging. And they were to be a blessing to any home in which they stayed as guests.

Jesus warned them that not everyone would receive the message. They would be the opposite of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. They would be like sheep in the middle of a wolf pack.

Much of what Jesus tells them would have (and still has!) a fuller application after His ascension as the Church began to spread.

And this is where reading the WHOLE of scripture is really important. If you asked the average Christian on the street “Did Jesus come to bring peace on earth?” I bet you would get a near 100% response of “yes.” I mean, didn’t the angels announce “peace on earth” when Jesus was born? But look what Jesus actually said:

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭10‬:‭34‬-‭36‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Peace has come into the hearts of those who have received the Prince of Peace. And peace will come and be established in the earth when Jesus reigns as King. But until then, no. Jesus is highly controversial.

And Jesus calls for the highest loyalty – beyond loyalty to family and beyond even loyalty to life itself.

The songwriter Lanny Wolfe wrote a song Jesus Be the Lord of All, with this line:

“If You’re not Lord of everything

Then You’re not Lord at all”

Jesus doesn’t give His disciples a slick sales pitch. He is honest about the hardships and the rewards of joining His Heavenly team. But He who knows the whereabouts of every sparrow and who numbers the hairs on your head values us deeply and will be with us every step of the way.