Daughter… (Mark 5:34) 260908
And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.” (Mark 5:34)
It takes me quite awhile to ponder and meditate on this verse. It is a very powerful verse. It speaks of the faith healing. It is about Jesus willingness to heal a woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage problem for twelve years (v25) and had spent all she had for a cure but with no avail (v26). She was sick, poor, an outcast as woman with hemorrhage was considered ceremonially unclean, and surely she would be depressed and feeling as sense of hopelessness. She was suffering physically, socially, spiritually and emotionally. She was totally a hopeless person in the eyes of others, maybe even herself. She had probably lost her faith.
When she gathered all the courage which still remained in her to move into the crowd and touch the cloak of Jesus, she was committing suicide. She was not supposed to be in the crowd, she was an unclean woman! She was not supposed to touch a Rabbi, simply because she was a woman. She could have been stoned to death if the people found her doing so, but no one noticed her. No one would notice such a social outcast, no one would bother about the presence of an unclean woman in their midst when they were so overwhelmed with joy of following their new superstar: Jesus – the miracle man.
I think sometime when we are so hyped up with our own spiritual journey, we neglected the down and out of our soul, and sometimes, the down and out in our church and community. When we are thinking that we have sort of made it in our spiritual life, there is a hemorrhage somewhere bleeding slowly, and we just ignore it and chuck it aside in the dark corner of our soul. Yes, we are attending church, we are tithing, we are attending a small group, we are even serving and maybe even preaching like me; we have done all that our ‘religion’ requires us to do. But we close one eye, and perhaps close both eyes to the lust we have when we see a good-figured lady in extremely short skirt, or to the anger breeding in us when someone takes our parking lot and cause you to be late for work or church.
Jesus was not bothered by the religiosity of those days; He did not ignore the woman. When no one noticed the woman, Jesus called her out when He noticed her touching His cloak. He knew the desire of this woman, He knew her deepest struggle. Her struggle was not so much the physical healing, since she had endured it for twelve years, she could live with it. She was not so much concerned about her ‘cleanliness’ religiously or socially, she was probably sick of the people around her. But I am sure that she desired to be called: Daughter. She simply wanted to be recognized as a human being, a beloved creation of our Mighty Creator. And Jesus said to her: Daughter, your faith has made you well. Jesus went beyond recognizing her as a human, but a beloved daughter.
I have no doubt that Jesus had healed her with the power. I am sure that the faith of this woman had begun the healing process and brought to completion when Jesus spoke the word. But it was the recognition of her as a daughter by an important Rabbi of the day, Jesus, brought comfort and faith and light back into the darkness of her life. Jesus called her: Daughter. That woman was more than a human being; she was a ‘daughter’ to Jesus.
Daughter is an intimate term used when a father addresses his daughter. Jesus being God the Father, recognized that woman as His daughter whom He loved and came for. Jesus declared His intimate relationship with that woman, He declared His affection for her, and He announced to the crowd her new identity: She was a child of God. Jesus is also declaring His intimate relationship with us, His affection for us and our new identity in Him. He also calls you: Son or Daughter.
Behold, for those who are sick and suffering from some form illness or diseases; you may have been praying and asking God to heal you or remove the affliction you are having, and it does not seem to be happening. You may doubt if it is because you have not enough faith; your healing does not depend on the amount of faith you have, it depends on God’s faithfulness. You may think that you still have issues in life and God is not willing to heal you yet; your healing does not depend on the things you do and have in life, it depends on God’s grace.
I do not know why you have not experienced the healing you want, but I am sure that God has began His healing process one the very moment you believe that He will heal you. God’s way is higher than ours, we just have to look to Him and clinch on the His declaration to us: we are His children, dearly loved.
HHS…
Abel…
