Luke 8

I have had an amazing day so far today. It's been filled with a lot of conviction, tears, worship, and love for my incredible Savior. I want to share my simple reflections on one of my readings this morning: Luke 8:42b-48

As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. 43 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. 44 She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. 45 And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” 46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” 47 And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. 48 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” (ESV)

I was incredibly struck by the woman and Jesus' response to her. The response she had to her healing and her nakedness before Jesus (in that she couldn't hide from his knowledge about his healing her) was simply to fall trembling before him, declaring her need for Jesus, and what Jesus had done for her. It is the response that we all should have. She was marked with impurity - a discharge of blood that lasted for 12 years. In that culture she was unclean. She was impure. She had spent all of her livelihood looking for a cure that couldn't be found, until she came to Jesus and he had the cure offered as a gift, needing no payment to be secured. Upon humbly seeking and touching Jesus in faith, she was made clean. We are impure in every way. We are dispicable, depraved, and deplorable sinners. We have no cleanliness in our being. We have gone out and sought every "cure" under the sun. We have tried to cleanse ourselves through moralism and leagalism. We have tried to cure it by denying our own uncleanliness and living sinful hedonistic lives. We have tried to drown it out with entertainment of the basest and finest forms. We have tried other religions that tell us how to be clean and lay heavy burdens on us and in the end all we have are empty promises that kill us more than they ever hoped to heal us. In the end, we come to Christ. In faith we reach out and touch him and cry out for him. In power, he applies his blood to our sin and makes us clean. In the words of C.S. Lewis' "Till We Have Faces" we are made to be like Psyche - clean and beautiful and pleasing to God. Then, when all is stripped away and we are made to stand before God and the world we fall on our faces before our risen Christ and declare our sins and his power to heal us. We declare Christ to the world. We are naked and unashamed before Him and we show the world what it is to be clean before the all-knowing God. This is evangelism. This is the gospel. I was lost and now I'm found. I was blind but now I see. I was a wretch and now I'm clean. I am a sinner and now I'm saved. And we fall down at his feet and worship. We confess, we worship, and we proclaim. This is our God. What God is there like Him. All other gods load us up under burdens that can never be met, or they take away our inherent offense to God. Our God knows our sins and He knows our impurity and He gives us grace through the power of His cross and makes us clean so that we can be unashamed before Him knowing the burden of the law has been met by Him. This is our God.