Tell God where it hurts

Are there hurts beyond healing? Brokenness beyond repair? Misery beyond a miracle? Sickness beyond restoration? When we find ourselves in what I call our Cemetery Season, the answer to these questions remains consistent. With God, all things are possible.

Luke 8:43-48 suggests that a faith that presses on will find the miracle in the most unexpected place. This unnamed woman has gone everywhere, tried everything. Her situation had stigmatized her social standing in the community, as the Levitical laws rendered her ritually unclean, which meant she couldn’t be with her family or friends, join the other women around Jacob’s well to discuss the gossip of the day, or worship at her temple and hear God’s Word proclaimed, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is One!” She was cut off from her community, excommunicated from her ethnic heritage, separated from her spiritual birthright, and it was religion that kept this woman in bondage when she was bleeding.

Can you imagine the isolation? Visualize the victimization. Picture the pain. I’m certain that some of us have been shut out by others who believe they’re better than the rest; more holy, healthy, educated, more successful, powerful or popular. We don’t have to dig deep to understand what this unnamed woman was experiencing. We know what it is like to be treated differently just because of our lack of experience on the job, shortage of degrees, choice of friends, learning differences, addictions, color, yes, and even gender. To deal with people who treat us unkindly and heartlessly just because they have the power to do so.

We also know what it is like to have people who look and act just like us, go to school or work with us, laugh and cry with us, call us their friend, only to make our situation far worse instead of better, just like the unnamed woman.
Suffering. There’s so much pain in our world and in our lives. So what can we do to stop the bleeding and heal the hurt?

I went back to this woman in Luke because she is a living example of survival for those who want to live. She exhausted all her resources and couldn’t be near anyone unless they were willing to be considered unclean. But through one good friend, she heard reports about a man named Jesus who was working miracles. She knew because of her unclean status she wouldn’t be able to come out publicly and state her condition, so she decided to get lost in the crowd, hoping no one would notice.

The day came when the miracle man made a stop in her town, and hundreds gathered around him. She said to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I’ll be made well.” She snuck up behind Jesus and touched the hem of his robe, and in her touch, she was telling God where it hurt.

Are you hurting? Maybe because of a rebellious child or grandchild, a substance-addicted family member, the death of a loved one, or a friend struggling with depression and not wanting to live another day. Hurting because of the injustice in our very own community, let alone our country and the world. Hurting because of neglect or abuse, separation or divorce. Hurting from an illness that’s not getting better but only worse. Or simply hurting because of the loneliness, emptiness and hollowness of your life, and the childhood scars and grown-up wounds that just won’t heal.

There’s no indication that she had ever met Jesus or seen him perform a miracle. But she must have heard reports about what Jesus had done. He spoke the words, “Peace, be still,” and the howling wind and rough sea obeyed. It is said he only spoke the word and the servant of the centurion was healed, and most shocking, he raised Lazarus from the dead.

I wonder, have you heard the reports about Jesus and what he can do? Scripture doesn’t tell us what, but we do know that something deep within her reached out in faith, a faith that allowed her to receive the cure for her condition, the deliverance of her disease and the healing for her heart.

This unnamed woman touched Jesus with such great faith it drew power out of him. She did not let culture confine her or gender ground her. She did not let pain paralyze her or patriarchy pulverize her. She did not let the severity of the situation suppress her or render her invisible. Oh no, she did not. She pressed on through the sweat, the smell and the embarrassment.

Religion kept this woman in bondage, but the Savior made her whole, and with just the touch of the hem of his garment, she found herself cured.

You want to hear today’s message, his word for us across the centuries, five simple words: “Tell God where it hurts.” That’s the message for times such as these. Because God has a miracle for the somebody and the nobody, for the learned and the unlearned. A miracle for the pulpit and the pew. For the one who has three job offers and for the one still unemployed. A miracle for the corporate executive and the one who cleans that office. God has a miracle for each one of us if we just press through in faith.

Jesus looked and saw this no-name woman and called her “daughter.” Her reaching out to touch the hem of his garment healed her bleeding. His words healed her soul.

If we want to be healed, we must be bold enough to tell God where it hurts. And if you tell God where it hurts, heaven and earth will exchange a holy kiss. Divinity will perform a dance on the stage of eternity. And grace and mercy will give thunderous applause.

Rev. Dr. Nannette Pierson, Itinerant Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and Pastoral Associate at Campbell Chapel A.M.E. in Bluffton, SC