MARK 5: 26-32 

Rev. Kathleen Rolenz

Scripture Readings: Mark 5: 26-32

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"  "You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?'" 

But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

Focusing Questions: Sit with the phrase "and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering."  Imagine what that would feel like.  Imagine you were the woman who knew her own body so well that she had been accustomed to its sufferings.  Imagine what the change from suffering to health must have felt like for her.  What would it feel like for you?

Prayer: O God, when I am troubled, help me to feel your Presence, and remind me of how you are never far away from me. Let me know the difference between being cured and being healed. I may never be cured of all that has haunted me, of all the troubles that plague me, but with a faithful touch, I am healed. Amen