A Girl Restored and a Woman Healed

Scripture Reading: Luke 8:1-56, Leviticus 15:25-30, Hebrews 10:21-23

We’re tracking a few themes together as we read Luke, and I think today’s chapter has a pretty hard-to-miss example of Jesus’s salvation and rescue.

Luke is a writer after my own heart in that he’s never lacking in details, and one in particular makes me ache: Jairus’s daughter lying on her deathbed at twelve years old, the same amount of time the woman with a bleeding disorder has been struggling with her illness. For the length of this little girl’s entire life, another woman has been profoundly suffering.

And this isn’t just a physical ailment. As we see in Leviticus 15, this is an issue in her religious culture as well. Because of her uncleanliness, she likely had not had anyone come close to her in twelve years. She probably couldn’t welcome people into her home for fear of making them unclean with any unpurified areas. In over twelve years of mysterious bleeding, she hadn’t so much as felt the reassuring squeeze of a friend’s hand during a difficult doctor’s visit. With no real answers and a lot of money down the drain, she’s spent every penny trying to get well. She was just a woman who wanted to belong in her body and in her community again.

She didn’t necessarily know this when she touched the hem of His robe, but our Savior is in the business of belonging. He came to make reunification of all kinds possible, particularly when it involves those overlooked and outcast children who need to know the depth of the Father’s love. With that single touch she was rescue her from her troubles, whether or not she knew that part of His heart yet.

That’s where I want to linger in this story today, wondering where I might need some rescuing but don’t really have faith in God’s power or heart posture towards me. Is God’s power that I read about something I truly believe He’s still willing to exert today? What parts of His heart do I not yet know that might help me receive His love more fully in my life? Where am I stretching to simply grasp the hem of His robe when He would just as easily wrap me up in it?

In many ways, Hebrews 10 is a simple how-to for processing these questions. We “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:22). We don’t shrink under the pressing weight of the crowds. We don’t avoid interacting with Jesus for fear of our uncleanliness. We bring our true hearts and full faith to Him. And on the other side, we just might go from that place with the peace we all crave.

—Kayla De La Torre