Luke 8:43-48New American Standard Bible 1995
43 And a woman who had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and could not be healed by anyone, 44 came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His [a]cloak, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped. 45 And Jesus said, “Who is the one who touched Me?” And while they were all denying it, Peter said, “Master, the [b]people are crowding and pressing in on You.” 46 But Jesus said, “Someone did touch Me, for I was aware that power had gone out of Me.” 47 When the woman saw that she had not escaped notice, she came trembling and fell down before Him, and declared in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched Him, and how she had been immediately healed. 48 And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has [c]made you well; go in peace.”
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Our world can feel mighty big.
There are billions of humans with a unique story covering this planet.
It’s easy to feel that we are insignificant when we compare ourselves to others.
The length, breadth and depth of social media has grown this idea that I can’t compare myself to others; I’m not good enough, talented enough, rich enough, successful enough, fit enough, a good enough parent, cook, and on the list goes!
From a young age, we are inundated, socialized, with unrealistic images of perfection perpetuating the idea that we should bow out before we even begin because overall its about equality, we have nothing unique to offer our world.
This goes socially constructed image of equality is entirely against the message of the Gospel, and it is a lie the evil one uses to take us out of the game of life.
Each and every life is unique and absolutely and uniquely matters to God.
We are all ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ as his Word tells us (Psalm 139:14).
You are profoundly important not because of what you can do but because of who you are! You are a one of kind child of God (John 1:12-13).
The world wants us to believe that production equals value, but God’s economy is entirely different.
God says identity defines our worth; the best news is that, thankfully, as his Creation, our identity is secure!
Why and How He Healed
Luke 8:43-48 The Message
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!”
When Jesus came to live among us, he brought healing.
The woman we read about today is an example of that healing power. She risked everything, it was her only option left, touched Jesus and was instantly healed.
Jesus turned around and asked who had touched him.
He had felt healing power go out from him.
The woman came forward trembling, and “in the presence of all the people, she told why she had risked everything touched him and how she had been instantly healed.” She testified to her unrelenting trust and the healing power of Christ.
If you are a Christian, you too know what it means to have trust, you too know that even though you did not touch Him you been healed by Christ in some way.
Even if you haven’t been healed physically, you have been healed spiritually.
The Bible tells us that at one time we were all dead in sin and blind to the truth of God.
As the hymn Amazing Grace states, “I once … was blind but now I see.”
We were all spiritually blind without Christ.
But he touched, healed, the eyes of our hearts (Ephesians 1:18) so we can see.
Christ also calls all of us who are Christians to give testimony to his healing power in our lives.
That isn’t always easy.
Who is it nowadays who testifies to anything but how horrible the world is?
We may be ashamed or embarrassed by the sins and character flaws that infected our hearts before Christ healed us.
But without pointing to what was wrong with us, we can’t point to his greatness and healing power.
Who is it who brings their testimony of all the ways God has always been there for them, who brings their stories of the miracles they have witnessed God do?
God calls us to live as a living sacrifice to him (Romans 12:1), which means we don’t have to offer him perfection – we just have to be faithful and hopeful too.
We just have to make ourselves available to him.
Thank God perfection is not a qualifier for him to work!
We’d all be doomed, most of all me. My sin haunts me, but God’s grace covers me.
It’s a miraculous cycle that humbly keeps me on my knees, constantly thanking God that he can do great things with what little bit of perfection I have to offer.
You matter more than you could ever imagine to your Father God.
1. We Know We Matter Because Jesus Died for Us
What would you die for?
To save your car?
Your kids’ toys?
For the ants?
Most likely, you would not die for those things because they don’t matter enough to give your life for.
We die for things that matter, or we would deem our death to be in vain.
That list gets even shorter when we consider giving up our child to die on behalf of another.
Do we believe that Jesus died in vain?
That his death lacks purpose because we are inconsequential?
When we doubt our worth, we doubt God’s Word and the work that he did on the cross.
John 3:16 clearly tells us that God so loved us that he gave his Son so we would live eternally with Him!
The cross is a mystery.
How death, in this case, means life for me is something I continuously struggle to fully comprehend, but I do know that death is not something any living thing approaches flippantly.
Death is scary.
It’s final.
It entails suffering and loss.
It’s meaningful and serious.
While I don’t understand all of how God works, I know that giving your life for someone else is the ultimate love act here on Earth.
We can rest assured that God made us to love us because he engaged in the ultimate act of love by sacrificing himself on the cross.
John 15:13-16 New American Standard Bible 1995
13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
2. We Know We Matter Because God Tells Us He Has Plans For Us
Jeremiah 29:11 is one of my favorite verses.
It tells us clearly that God has planned a hope-filled future for us!
He desires to see us prosper!
Psalm 27:13 tells us that we can expect to see God’s goodness here in the land of the living.
Matthew 6:10 declares God wants to bring Heaven down to Earth through us!
All of these Scriptures and so many more shout the truth that God has good plans for his Creation.
Unfortunately, because of the power of sin that has infiltrated the Earth, we must choose to partner with God in order to see his goodness unfold in our lives for his glory, but the invitation to enjoy his goodness now extends to everyone.
Once we are his, nothing can separate us from God’s love (Romans 8:31).
Don’t let shame, past mistakes, or self-doubt take you out of God’s plan for your life.
None of those things are too great for God to overcome!
He is able to do more than we could ask, think, or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).
It’s pride that says we are too broken to be used. God is able! He has a plan for you. Trust him and watch him work miracles in your life over and over again.
3. We Know We Matter Because We Are All a Part of the Body of Christ
1 Corinthians 12:12-27 explains that we are each a part of the body of Christ.
We all have a unique role to play that complement each other.
We are called to work in unity through the Spirit.
Just as we all have different roles, no role is less valuable!
My work as a stay-at-home husband can feel insignificant, but if I was not faithful to serve my wife and my stepson, then how would their God-ordained futures be impacted?
My wife worked in preschool with four and five year old’s for over thirty years.
While this job may not feel as holy as being a clergy or a judge or an airline pilot, if she did not rely on the Spirit to guide her at work, she would have missed out on the wholly unique chance to be a light to her young students, co-workers.
Our job is to be faithful and obedient to the call of God in our lives.
Success in any specific terms is God’s job and is out of our hands.
Remember, you matter because of who you are, not what you do.
Even if you stay home alone and do nothing all day, you matter to God because you are his.
You may get bored and repeatedly miss out on your potential, but you are still inherently valuable because you were created in the image of God, born out of his great love for us.
John 1:11-13 New American Standard Bible 1995
11 He came to His [a]own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were [b]born, not of [c]blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
No role is too small because your just being is the gift.
Your presence is what God and those who love you long for.
As a husband, I am constantly baffled at how much my wife just want me to be around me.
It doesn’t even matter if I’m impatient or overwhelmed; she still wants to be with me as my wife.
When we are hurting at night, trying to go to bed in the dark, one thing that offers us comfort is just two of us sitting and snuggling in our room together.
Our safety or sleep conditions haven’t actually changed, but our being there together, looking at and hugging each other changes everything for us both.
That’s how it works with God.
Our being there, our remaining together, our loving each other together, for each other together with God, husband and wife absolutely changes everything.
He made you because he wants to be together with you and so to know you, me.
Just existing as his children is enough.
What is the lesson of Luke 8 48?
Jesus himself lets her know that her faith is the reason she is healed; she is not as helpless or hopeless or faithless, untouchable too as she may have thought.
Even more, her peace with God is restored.
This is the only time in Scripture where Jesus calls a woman His daughter.
The word connotes a familiarity she could never would have imagined.
The absolute truth of the Gospel is that everyone absolutely matters to God!
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 8 New American Standard Bible 1995
The Lord’s Glory and Man’s Dignity.
For the choir director; on the Gittith. A Psalm of David.
8 O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth,
Who have [a]displayed Your splendor above the heavens!
2 From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established [b]strength
Because of Your adversaries,
To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.
3 When I [c]consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have [d]ordained;
4 What is man that You [e]take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?
5 Yet You have made him a little lower than [f]God,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!
6 You make him to rule over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
7 All sheep and oxen,
And also the [g]beasts of the field,
8 The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea,
Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth!
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 