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The Whip

trib-al's picture
Submitted by trib-al on Thu, 09/17/2009 - 11:17

 

The Whip
 
     Her eyes brimmed over with tears. She had tried everything known to modern medicine and when that failed she had turned to superstition and what could be called holistic medicine. Her most recent attempt to be free of her affliction had been an expensive endeavor and only filled her heart with shame. The so-called doctor, who due to certain regulations, had cleared his schedule for a single day and charged her for the lost business revenue, had convinced her that to be healed she had to find a white she-donkey, dig through the droppings it left behind until she found an intact barleycorn*. Then she was to take that barleycorn and wrap it in white linen and carry it on her person until she was healed. (She suspected that the doctor just happened to own such an animal and included the discovered barleycorn in the bill.) She remembered the humiliation. Leaving the house was hard enough without having to dig through manure like some kind of animal. Society’s dictates required her to announce that she was unclean and diseased. It didn’t matter where she went. To the market, the doctor’s office, an early morning stroll along the waterfront, it was all the same. There were some places she wasn’t allowed to go at all. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been to church or simply sat with a friend and chatted over a quiet dinner or a cup of tea. She lived a life of quarantine and isolation. Purification laws, enforced by the church government, had required her to adhere to the same rules that governed lepers. She was convinced that God, Himself, had abandoned her. After all, leprosy was considered to be the finger stroke of judgment from God. Was her disease any different? Her body, heart and spirit were as broken as her bank account and she had truly lost all hope. At the moment she began to cry, He passed by. Was this the one she had heard so much about from those passing by her home? All ready He had healed many; a leper, a paralytic, Simon Peter’s mother-in-law and numerous others. He was so close! She couldn’t believe it. Maybe…,she thought. But, the crowd is so large. I’ll just slip through and touch Him, maybe no will notice.
     When she was close enough to touch Him she almost decided against it. Jairus, the chief church executive officer of the local district, the very one who was responsible for upholding the church laws and requirements, was leading Jesus to his home. She remembered then that Jairus’ daughter had been very ill. I don’t want to bother anyone. Just one touch, she thought. I know I’ll be healed. With faith and courage giving her strength, she reached out and lightly touched His robe.    
      Mark tells us she had been bleeding for twelve years. He goes on to say that she had spent all her money on possible cures and treatments and had only gotten worse. Let us pick up the story in Mark 5:29, “Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.”   The last word in that sentence is most amazing. The root word for suffering, in this case, means whip. I doubt that Mark chose this word by accident. For twelve years she felt as though she had been whipped, beaten down emotionally and physically, and all of a sudden that was gone.
     The next text is even more surprising.
     “At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, ‘Who touched my clothes?’” (Mk. 5:30, NIV)
      That tells me that Jesus made no conscious effort to heal her. It was her faith alone that healed her. It was her faith that caused her to think differently than the crowd, believing that even she had the right to at least be close enough to reach out and touch the Master Healer. Jesus, Himself, pointed that out when telling her it was her faith that healed her. In essence, He even went on to tell her you are freed from the whip. Imagine what her life would have been like had she not reached out to Jesus. Her whipping would have continued and she never would have heard the Son of God tell her she belonged or claim her as family. Note the following:
     “He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.’” (Mk. 5:34, NIV) 
~ Pastor Al
*This was an actual cure recommended for those suffering as she did.