And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him. A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse-after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.” Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?” And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?'” And He looked around to see the woman who had done this. But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.”

I love to pause and consider the encounters people had with Jesus, God Incarnate – the same God who was on record saying that he grew weary dealing with the obstinate heart of his chosen people Israel and punished their sin sometimes dramatically. This same God came into this world to look these same people in the eye in order to clarify his heart toward them and reveal just what he was really like.

He is so approachable! He is so open handed. He didn’t come emphasizing this woman’s sin or tracing down the cause of her illness. He simply healed her. He met what she perceived the pressing need of her life had been for 12 years. With no more money, she was at the end of the road.  It was going to be Jesus or nothing else. All things considered, this is not a bad place to be.

While the end of the road can be an advantageous place it is also the last place most of us want to be.  We work overtime to avoid being taken to that place where its Jesus or nothing else. I believe this is what Jesus was getting at when he said we must sell all in order to follow him. Our resources, if not fully relinquished to God, pave a broad highway leading away from this most advantageous place where our Lord would take us.

Taking up our crosses to follow him is the narrow way which scripture tells us that few find. This less traveled pathway on the other hand is paved with abandonment and relinquishing of our wills which allow Jesus to be our Lord – something vastly greater than just saving us from our sins. The travelers on this road are called disciples or apprentices. As they journey down this trail holding no heart-title to earthly goods, they live so to speak at the end of the road where Christ becomes and remains of necessitry their only option.

These blessed travelers make the astonishing discovery that Jesus is so, so much more than just a savior. They find in Christ that exceeding and abundant dimension to life that He promised. They find rivers of living water flowing out of them. He Himself teaches them that He is not just the forgiver of their sins. He is Father and Friend, Healer and Deliverer, Sustainer and Rewarder, King and Co-heir, Creator and Brother. He is Life and Breath and that in Him we live and move and have our being. We personally discover that we are hidden in Him and are the object of his most intimate thoughts and care now and forevermore.

While I haven’t been bleeding internally, this is the 12th consecutive year I have dealt with chronic back problems. Unlike the distressed woman of our story, I have some money left, I’m just not sure quite what the point of spending it on doctors would be who each say, “Mr. Cummins. You are slowly decaying, albeit at a slightly faster rate than your piers.” What they actually say is that I have degenerative disc disease.

In spite of currently having to report some degeneration I also have a testimony of regeneration. My inner man is being renewed daily in the presence of physical deterioration.  As I consider the alchemy of the “all things working together for my good” aspect of kingdom citizenship, I give thanks because in its own way, back pain has provided a kind of an end of the road experience where, I have met the Lord in a way and come to trust in Him in ways that may have only been accomplished along this path.  That is my speculation anyway.

I did determine early in my journey with Christ that I would do my best to not squander sorrow and rough experiences. Whatever the day brings me (if I will only see it) can be an opportunity to trust him. I have come to believe that It is only through this lens, where suffering and trials exist, that we could ever learn to relate to Him by faith, the only way which we can please him. Faith delivers and it sustains. Whether be it be from or through, God is glorified in all things.

So…. To you oh Lord who call the dead to come forth and the lame to rise to their feet and the deaf to hear; to you Lord who reward the faith of those who trust you while not receiving all their inheritance while in their earthly bodies; to you who glorify your name in delivering your children from and through attacks and decay, through trial and storm into a rest that transcends this world and a victory that will be celebrated now and forevermore. Yes Lord, to you be the glory and honor forever and ever. Amen.

 

 

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