27.06 | Tassels
Luke 8:26-56
‘And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased.’
Luke 8:43-44
Faith is what happens between an idea and an action.
The idea is something of the nature of God, held in a Scripture or truth or concept. And that idea can either be lived towards, or lived away from. It can either be inhabited or rejected. It can put away in a dusty book on a shelf, or it can be lived. But without action, faith lies dead.1
Sometimes our hearts are more clever than this. Because an idea can be held in theory, but only as a concept. We can say the right things, and pray the right-sounding prayers, and attend the right activities. But so long as what we uphold to be true remains only theoretical, it cannot be faith. Faith requires a response. Faith does things. Faith turns knowledge of God into action that inhabits His reality. Faith is an animating agent, transforming us from the deathly ways of cold religion and dead orthodoxy into the vibrancy of the God life.
The woman we meet today is a remarkable example of faith.
Her backstory is gruelling. Twelve years of continual bleeding. Twelve years of deep fatigue. Twelve years of no medical answers. And, in a culture governed by Levitical law, twelve years of being considered ritually ‘unclean’.2 This meant nobody could touch her, and she couldn’t touch anyone else. This is maybe the part of her story that gets me the most. Twelve years of people recoiling from touching her.
There’s a prophet in the Old Testament called Malachi—the last book in our Old Testament. His book is short—just four chapters. And there’s a promise that God makes through Malachi in his final chapter.
The sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings (Malachi 4:2).
You, Malachi wrote, are living in darkness. And yet the light is coming. You are living through the night, but the dawn will come. And this sun will rise upon you with healing in its wings.
The Hebrew word for ‘wings’ is kanaph. One of its translations is, indeed, ‘wings,’ but it is also widely used in the Old Testament to describe the edge or extremity of something. And, specifically, it is used to describe the corner of a garment.3
Healing in its wings.
I wonder what this woman knew of Jesus. I wonder what rumours she’d heard. She’d probably have heard about Him teaching, and healing the sick with a word, and forgiving sinners. She’d likely have heard about Him driving out demons, and raising the dead.
But she’d not have heard of anyone who was healed simply by touching His garment. Wouldn’t asking from a distance make more sense? Wouldn’t sending some friends, like the centurion? Especially when touch had been such an issue in her life.
But the rabbis had taught that the Malachi prophecy pointed to the Messiah. And that when He arrived, He would carry healing in the hem of His garment, in the very tassels of His robe. When the woman heard that Jesus was passing through, so great was her confidence in the person of Jesus and the promise of Malachi that she forced through the crowd so that she could find the healing in His wings.
Jesus’ words to her are so telling.
Daughter, your faith has made you well.
Your faith.
She knew something about God, and she acted in accord with the belief. She lived like it was true. And, truly, she found the sun of righteousness shining morning rays into her weary pain, waking her up to a dazzling new reality in the life beyond.
Reflect:
Think of a challenge you are facing right now.
What truth of God do you know that might help?
What action can you take in accord with this truth?
Pray:
Father,
I’ve a million different reasons not to act in faith.
It’s difficult;
It’s scary;
It’s painful;
I might look stupid;
I’m not sure you’ll show up for me.
But Father,
I also see that this life of unexpectancy
Is small and fearful:
It leaves me hiding in the shadows with my pain and my shame,
While you pass by—
Your agenda with someone else’s miracle.
Father,
Strengthen me today,
By the power of your Spirit;
Animate me afresh in the ways of faith,
That my steps today may be in accord with your reality—
Risking greatly that I may touch His hem,
And find the miracles of the rising sun,
In Jesus Christ my Lord,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Isaiah 24-26 | Psalm 78:56-72
James 2:17
See Leviticus 15:25-30
A few examples include 1 Samuel 15:27; 1 Samuel 24:6, 12; Deuteronomy 22:12; Haggai 2:12, and so on