A woman who has been sick for 12 years, and who has tried everything she can think of to no avail, is desperate to be healed by Jesus. She pushes through the crowd and touches his cloak and is indeed instantly healed. At first this seems just like so many other miracles we read about in the Bible which are hard to explain. How could the slightest touch heal her so quickly and completely? But in taking a closer look, I was struck by what Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” In other words, Jesus is saying, you are not healed by any ‘power’ that came from touching my cloak, but rather because you believed.
Does Jesus mean that if I have enough faith, I can get everything to work out in my life the way I want it to? If I am suffering, will my faith alone heal me? I do know that we are not in control of every outcome, nor can we rely solely on our own plans. We need to rely on our faith to remain spiritually healthy and to understand that God is the ultimate source of power and control. Whether Jesus healed the woman or she healed herself isn’t really the question. What matters is that God’s goodness is always there for us and we just need to reach for it.
I think Lent is the perfect time to strip away the temptation we have to be in control, and rather to focus on those things that bring us closer to God, such as prayer, meditation , and abstaining from the distractions which bombard us each day. In drawing closer to God, we just might feel ourselves restored to spiritual health, much like the woman in this story.
—Catherine Blundell
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