Being Rickulous

Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you.  Go in peace, and be freed from your suffering.”  That’s Mark 5:34.  “Daughter” means Jesus changed her identity.  To a woman who had been systematically disconnected from relationship for years and years, He said “daughter.”  He said, “You and I belong to each other.”  He restored her to community. “Your faith has healed you” means Jesus gave her credit.  This is like exclaiming, “You did it!”  When was the last time she had done anything that had worked?  When we trust Jesus, He likes to congratulate us. “Your faith has healed you” means Jesus made her whole.  When she snuck up behind Him she was thinking, “If I can just touch the back edge of His robe, I will be healed.  The word Mark used for “healed” is sodzo.  It’s the Greek word for salvation.  It can be translated as “whole.”  When she touched Jesus and her bleeding stopped, the word sodzo was not used.  When she was healed from her disease, she was not made whole.  She was physically repaired, but she was still a very sick person, which was why Jesus looked around and pursued her.  He had more for her, but it required that they be face to face.  And in that face to face interaction, Jesus made her whole.    “Go in peace, and be freed from your suffering” means Jesus called her to live differently, to go in the momentum of her wholeness.  No longer would she have to avoid people.  No longer would she have to experience the corrosion of shame.  She could live as the person Jesus had re-created. Good thing she allowed Jesus to call her out.  Otherwise, she would have been fixed still broken.  Jesus always has more for us than we are currently experiencing.