God’s Power Over our Shame - Luke 8: 43-48

 Luke 8:  43-45, “In the crowd that day there was a woman who for twelve years had been afflicted with hemorrhages. She had spent every penny she had on doctors but not one had been able to help her. She slipped in from behind and touched the edge of Jesus’ robe. At that very moment her hemorrhaging stopped. Jesus said, “Who touched me?”

When no one stepped forward, Peter said, “But Master, we’ve got crowds of people on our hands. Dozens have touched you.”

⁴⁶ Jesus insisted, “Someone touched me. I felt power discharging from me.”

⁴⁷ When the woman realized that she couldn’t remain hidden, she knelt trembling before him. In front of all the people, she blurted out her story—why she touched him and how at that same moment she was healed.

⁴⁸ Jesus said, “Daughter, you took a risk trusting me, and now you’re healed and whole. Live well, live blessed!”  (The Message)

Last week we talked about God’s guidance in and how to find it.

The first step is to know your desire.  Ps 37:4

“Delight yourselves in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” 

Delighting is a feeling we have towards God. To delight in Him is to recognize that His thoughts towards us is not judgment, but love and warmth. He doesn’t judge or hate the believer, but He likes us just as we are. We are His children and He wants us to be happy.  When our relationship with Him is based on love and delight, He gives us what we desire. 

Our lack of receiving is not because God won’t give, but because we’re ashamed to ask. Our misconception of God as a tyrannical ruler makes us afraid to talk to Him. He’s a scary, distant king--not a playful, tender Daddy. That’s why we are afraid to express our inner desires. 

This misconception means that we can’t accept the compassion and the love that’s behind everything He does. We don’t want to come to Him—we want to get away from Him! But when we bring Him our brokenness, He heals us.

Look at this woman He healed in Luke 8:43-48. He healed her body, but even more, He healed her shame, embarrassment and broken relationship to God. 

We read Bible stories like we are sitting in Sunday school. We think we are supposed to sit, listen and not ask too many questions, but this story invites us to ask questions. For example, if she was bleeding for twelve years, how was she still alive? She must have suffered from constant anemia. 

A more important question is this-- if her condition was not life threatening, then why worry about it? Why spend every penny you have to fix a problem that is just a minor inconvenience, especially if no one else knows you have it? 

It was important to her, because this physical problem interfered with her relationship to God.  Leviticus 12:7 and 15:25 mention what should be done with women who had an issue of blood. In Lev.  12:7 we read that because of the blood of childbirth, where the woman who had just had a baby was held in seclusion for forty days. Anyone or anything that touched her during the time of her bleeding was considered unclean. Leviticus 15:25 referred to a woman’s monthly discharge.  Made her unclean, untouchable. She could not attend worship or come out in public.  

That’s what was to be done with women who bled. Now, imagine bleeding for twelve years. According to the Law, she could never leave the house.

But she didn’t stay in the house. No one knew her secret. By being outside her house, she was technically breaking God’s Law. She might be the nicest, most God-fearing woman in church, but inside she was unclean and couldn’t help it. She was living a lie. 

Could you be living a lie?  Are there things that you keep hidden because you would be ashamed to have others know? It may not be your fault. People who have suffered physical, mental, or sexual abuse often carry shame that they can’t shake. They believe they can never be healed or forgiven, so they live in shame. We keep our shame locked away inside, in the darkest recesses of our heart, like the woman with her issue of blood--constantly bleeding on the inside.  The legalistic, moralistic, and literalistic reading of the Law that this woman had absorbed since childhood made her ashamed to even walk down the street.

But God isn’t as condemning us.  He doesn’t hold things against us that aren’t our fault.

 This woman felt defeat as well as shame. She had spent everything on doctors and they couldn’t help.  She had given up on being fixed. 

A great failure of modern Christians is that we think the human heart is unfixable.  When we can’t fix ourselves, we think that even God can’t fix us.  We accept depression, anger, fear, worry, and loneliness as things we must live with. Because we are broken we think that God has forsaken us. 

But He hasn’t. We don’t have to be healed to come to God, but we come to God to be healed. We don’t wait until we are clean to take a bath and we don’t wait until we are well to go to a doctor. We go to Jesus when we are sick and broken.

Inner change is hard, but it isn’t impossible.  God can remake our inside and heal the pain of our inner person.

The woman in this story didn’t really believe that anyone could help her, but even so she took the risk and reached out to Jesus. 

This incident happened when Jesus was in the middle of another miracle. The president of the local synagogue called on Jesus to heal his daughter. He was traveling across town to this man’s house, followed by a crowd of people. This woman lost herself in the crowd and tried to get close enough to touch Him. When the people crowded in, the woman saw her chance. In a crowd, no one would see her touching Jesus’ garment.  

In those days, people believed that kings and other famous people had the power to heal just by a touch. The Roman and Greek records record people buying sweat and spittle from the emperors as medicine.  The Jews believed the Messiah would have healing powers.  Even a touch of his robe was supposed to be able to heal.

It might not work but it was would worth a try. She reached through the crowd and touched Him.  Immediately, the bleeding stopped.   

Jesus stopped and said, “Who touched me? I just sensed power going out of me!”

The disciples didn’t understand. “What do you mean ‘who touched me? We’re in the middle of a crowd!”  But this wasn’t an ordinary touch. It was a holy touch.  Jesus felt power flow out of Him.

The woman’s reaction was a mixture of elation and terror.  Elation--because her biggest problem just went away. Terror--because in the process her most embarrassing problem was exposed. She was afraid that God would be angry with her. 

Not only was a woman with an issue of blood unclean, but everyone who touched the woman was unclean, too. By touching Jesus, did she make Him unclean? No wonder she was terrified!

Fear overcame her, and she blurted out, “I did it!” By admitting to touching Jesus, she was also admitting she had a problem. It would come out now that she’d been living a lie for twelve years.

But Jesus wasn’t angry. He praised her for her faith. Her desire to be clean was a holy intention. Her simple action be a reminder and example to others for thousands of years. 

Unless we admit to having a problem, God can’t fix it. The exposure of our brokenness is part of the process of our healing. But those who admit their struggles find God’s redemptive love.

Lately, I have been contemplating what Christ did for us on the cross and have come to believe that our current picture of Christ’s work on the cross is true, but inadequate. Christ did more than die for our sins. He also healed inner hurts.

Remember, how we said that in ancient times people believed even the spittle or sweat of a king had healing powers?  If the spit and sweat of a king could heal, what power would there be in the blood of the King of Kings? Caesar’s sweat was supposed to heal, but it really never healed anyone. But Christ used His spit to heal a blind man. The hem of his robe healed this woman. If his spit and His robe could heal, what could His blood, shed on our behalf, do for us? He didn’t just die for our sins, He shed His blood for healing our inner hurts. His blood was shed to mend our inner pain, close our inner wounds, and reshape our inner memories into something beautiful. In His blood virtue flows from Jesus into us.  His blood is strong enough to heal our own inner hurts and pains. 

All you have to do is ask and Christ’s healing will come to you, and work inside you. 

 Maybe there are hurts in your life that you are ashamed of, something no one else can know. Maybe they’ve come about because of something you know you have done wrong, or maybe they have been inflicted on you by others. It doesn’t matter. Jesus can heal them. No one else has to know them but Jesus. God’s power flows from the cross and into us. 

Anxiety, depression, worry, doubt, and other mood issues are not all from sin. We live in a broken world, and the brokenness inside of us isn’t just because of something we have done personally.  It may come from what others have done to us, due to abuse or neglect. It may come, because of a physical problem, like this woman experienced.  Chemical imbalances inside are often the reason for depression and anxiety.  Don’t be quick to call things sins that aren’t. 

But we don’t need to know where our brokenness comes from—all we need to know is what can end it. Christ can heal our brokenness through the power of His blood shed on the cross. That power can and will work miracles.