Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.
Hebrews 9:14-15
My humanity is my issue of blood. It’s the same for all of us, and we can’t get away from it apart from Christ. Just like the woman in Luke 8:43-48, we are stricken with an illness for which there is no earthly cure.
The bleeding was not her fault, it was just a fact. The illness was written in her flesh, in the imperfect wiring of her human DNA. She was sick, without hope, and needed a doctor.
The weakness in her body made her “ceremonially unclean,” which in the old testament was not a moral failure, but a fact of life for men and women. Certain skin diseases, bodily discharges, and things like touching a dead body or eating unclean foods, would render a person unclean. These were matters of hygiene and holiness. Symbols of the separation between life and death. God is the author of life, and ceremonial uncleanness, while not sin in itself, was a physical representation of how sin separates us from God.
It was a problem that required a mediator and a sacrifice.
At the onset of her bleeding, the Luke 8 woman would have had to wait outside the camp for seven days, but she wouldn’t have been alone. There were other women with her, going through the same thing. But at the end of that first seven days, those other women would have washed their clothes to restore hygiene, sacrificed two turtle doves to restore holiness, and then returned to normal living. Back to their homes and families. Back to the daily activities and interactions of their community.
Week after week, she would have watched them come in and go out while she waited another seven days… and another seven days, and another seven days, for twelve years… never able to finally wash her clothes and make her sacrifice. Never able to be cleansed.
But Jesus said, “Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.”
Luke 8:46 NLT
The healing of this woman isn’t just a pretty Bible story about a woman with an incurable disease who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment. This story is about all of us.
We are the ones with the incurable disease, but just like this woman, we can’t help it. We are human. Our chronic illness is written in the faulty wiring of our human DNA. Seven days outside the camp will never work for us. Our mistakes and failures and constant falling down just keep coming, day after day, week after week… and not one of us can escape this cycle of blood.
We, too, need a Mediator and a Sacrifice to make things right.
Some feel this “issue of blood” more than others in the weight of their human imperfection, in the face of a holy and perfect God. Our human failures, though we can never get away from them, loom over us in dark clouds of condemnation, guilt, and shame.
We carry our own blood on our hands instead of washing in the cleansing flow of His. We keep our eyes on ourselves, on our own imperfect reflection in the mirror, instead of fixing our gaze upon Him and all He has done for us. In this way, we become stagnant and bound up in strongholds of sin and doubt. We become like a once-beautiful cluster of grapes, now dying on the vine.
But Jesus said, even on behalf of the very ones who were set on killing him, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
It’s that same forgiveness that He offers to us.
Because of the blood of Christ, we are bought and made free from the punishment of sin. And because of His blood, our sins are forgiven. His loving-favor to us is so rich. He was so willing to give all of this to us. He did this with wisdom and understanding.
Ephesians 1:7-8 NLT
Jesus called her “Daughter” for a reason.
She had spent all her money on doctors, but no one could make her well. It’s the same with us. No counseling, or medicine, or self-care technique will ever bring the wellness, healing, and internal peace we truly desire. There is no physician on this earth who could ever make us whole.
But one touch of the Master’s garment was all she needed to instantly make her well and restore her life. When it happened, He felt healing power flow out from His body. “Who touched me,” He said. The crowd was pressing in all around Him. Everyone was touching Him. But in that moment, He knew someone had just been healed. Who was it? Where were they?
It strikes me that He didn’t just keep moving. He made everyone stop until He found the one lost sheep in a crowd of ninety-nine.
He made sure that she knew He saw her. He made sure to make it known to everyone that she was His Daughter, made well by her own faith in His healing power.
He said to her, “Daughter, your faith [your personal trust and confidence in Me] has made you well. Go in peace (untroubled, undisturbed well-being).
Luke 8:48 NLT
Because Christ is our Sacrifice and Mediator, we no longer have to wait through seven days of separation after every mistake we make. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). We can take hold of the hem of His garment and never let it go.
How do we do that? We go to Him every day and ask Him for His help. We not only receive His salvation, but we reach out for His power to make us more like Him. We accept the fact that we belong to Him, and that He is able to keep us and work through us in spite of our human frailty.
We take our eyes off our own reflection in the mirror, and humbly… gratefully… fix our eyes on Him.
So, when condemnation, guilt, and shame come knocking on your door to remind you of your sin and human frailty, remember that you don’t have to just sit there and take it. No, muster up your faith and say it with me today, “I am cleansed by the Blood of Christ. I have been purchased and made free from the penalty of sin. My sins are forgiven, my humanity is constantly being cleansed, and I am becoming more like Christ every day, in Jesus’ name!”
Beloved, you are a Child of God. Do not forget His benefits.
In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.
Ephesians 2:12-13
The "I Am" Series. Based on Scripture, written by Jennifer Roybal. When we pull these truths out of the drawer and put them into action in our daily lives, we are not easily defeated!
Broken & Sown 