Hope for the Hurting: For the Hurting: Encouragement for Suffering SeasonsSample

It takes courage to admit we need help and to reveal our vulnerability to others. This is especially true if we’ve had our hope dashed way too many times prior, as was the case with the woman Jesus spoke to in Matthew 9.

While He was en route to help an important man and his daughter, a bleeding woman pressed through the crowd to touch the fringe of Jesus’s robe, certain this would bring her healing.

She risked the rejection of the crowd, potential rejection by Jesus, and, perhaps most courageous of all, allowed herself to hope once again.

She’d suffered from bleeding for twelve long, lonely, and isolating years. She’d sought numerous doctors and spent all of her money, hoping each doctor and treatment would provide her the healing she desperately sought. But one by one, doctor after doctor, they failed and dashed her hope.

Perhaps you know what that feels like, to hope and have your hopes dashed, and hope again, only to experience disappointment.

No doubt this was how this woman felt. Yet, her desperation overcame her insecurities, her fears, and pushed her through the crowd to Jesus. She reached out, probably holding her breath, touched the fringe of His robe, and then intended to silently slip away. Unknown, unseen, and although healed physically, still bearing the wounds and shame incurred while living in a hurtful, broken, and sinful world that considered her perpetually unclean.

Jesus wanted to bring her soul deep healing. He wanted to lift her head, look her in the eye, and expel her shame. Therefore, He said, “Who touched Me,” not because He didn’t know, for He knew all things. Rather, He was calling her to freedom.

Scripture says in Matthew 9:22 that “Jesus turned and saw her” (NIV).

Jesus saw her. Really saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” He said, “your faith has healed you.” According to Scripture, the woman was healed at that moment.

Consider also, she was the only woman in all of Scripture whom Jesus addressed as “daughter”. He did so in front of the crowd, thereby declaring her clean and loved, and worthy of love, to them all.

He says the same to us. If we’ve trusted in Christ for salvation, we’ve received a new name to replace all the harmful and hurtful false identities absorbed over the years. Jesus calls us to come out of hiding and to step boldly into His grace.

~Warmly, Jennifer Slattery