Voices of Advent: 4 Famous Encounters With JesusНамуна

Have you ever been sick? That’s a silly question. Of course, you have! You’re a person, in a body, in this world with its troubles and viruses and disease. But have you ever been sick for an entire year or more?   

The Woman With the Issue of Blood lived with a terrible ailment for more than a decade. She probably asked herself the terrifying question people ask when sick: “Is God punishing me because he’s displeased with me?”

It was a reasonable question since the law told her she was unclean. Moses wrote about the condition in Leviticus 15: When a woman’s discharge of blood flows many days... all the days of her discharge… she is unclean. Any bed she lies on. Any furniture she sits on will be unclean.

Imagine! Not being able to hold your spouse’s hand, or greet a friend in the street. Imagine not being able to sit down and share a meal, or to touch the face of the child you love. 

Imagine if your child does touch you?  If in a moment of joy or pain your spouse reaches out to touch your hand? If in a moment of forgetfulness a friend greets you and sits down on the same bench you’re sitting on, then they too become unclean, and must wash everything, and isolate, until evening.

She couldn’t buy food in the markets or prepare a meal for the family. Everything she did and anyone or anything she touched was tainted.  Her life, her very presence, was a burden to everyone she knew at first. Then it was a terrible, shameful reminder of sin for 12 years!

But then came Jesus into her world.

Perhaps she'd heard of him. Of his humble birth. Of the miracles he performed. The blind could see! The lame could walk! The deaf could hear and demons raged out of bodies and into the abyss at his command!

Perhaps she heard he taught with authority. Loved little children. Was born of a virgin, in a manger of all places. That he shamed the wisdom and pride of the Pharisees with simple, powerful words. He was the Messiah, sent by God, just as the prophets promised, to set Israel free from the oppression of its enemies.

But The Woman With the Issue of Blood could only hear the stories about Jesus and sit in awe. Alone. Hidden from the world in her wretched condition. 

Christmas, for many, has become this beautiful but strange celebration that so often overlooks the simple and shocking human story of Jesus’ advent into the world.

When she learned he was on her street, the Woman ran to him and reached out her hand. It was a daring act of faith, that touch, which could have made everyone in the crowd unclean. She was breaking the law to be set free from its impossible demands. And, thanks be to God, her uncleanliness was erased. Right there. For all to see.

That was her first Christmas when Jesus walked onto her street; he transformed her darkness and pain in a moment. He brought all her hope to life!

Prayer: Thank you, Jesus, that you came into the world to help us in our pain and helplessness. This Christmas may I see that you are present in my life and body to bring me living hope.