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A Bible story of Jesus being interrupted by a desperate women with a poem written to tell the same story as well.
The Bible, Mark 5:24-34 - Bleeding women risks faith to meet Jesus
Jesus went with Jairus, the whole crowd tagging along, pushing and jostling him.
A woman who had suffered a condition of bleeding for twelve years had heard about Jesus. A long succession of doctors had treated her, and treated her badly, taking all her money and leaving her worse off than before.
She slipped in from behind and touched Jesus' robe. She was thinking to herself, "If I can put a finger on his robe, I can get well." The moment she did it, the flow of blood dried up. She could feel the change and knew her plague was over and done with.
At the same moment, Jesus felt energy discharging from him. He turned around to the crowd and asked, "Who touched my robe?"
His disciples said, "What are you talking about? With this crowd pushing and jostling you, you're asking, 'Who touched me?' Dozens have touched you!"
But he went on asking, looking around to see who had done it. The woman, knowing what had happened, knowing she was the one, stepped up in fear and trembling, knelt before him, and gave him the whole story.
Jesus said to her, "Daughter, you took a risk of faith, and now you're healed and whole. Live well, live blessed! Be healed of your plague."
Poem - the bleeding women meeting Jesus by Kezia and Phil
I was a no one until I met you
A nobody, a nothing
People ignored me
Avoided me
Didn’t meet my eye
Shuddered if they touched me
Backed off and closed down
‘Business has finished for the day’
their faces would say
I was unclean and untouchable
For twelve years I bled
Carried my secret shame publicly
Wore it like a badge
A cursed medal
A big neon sign flashing:
Stay away from me!
Run for your lives!
Don’t even stop to think I might be lovable!
Desirable, worth knowing, a human being.
I was a no one until I met you.
I used to hate myself into the ground
Used to be my own accuser
Hassled by the endless questions
Dogged by self-loathing
And so desperate!
I sought out doctors high and low
They all clicked their tongues and shook their heads
No one could help me
Because
I was a no one until I met you.
I’d heard your name on people’s lips
Jesus
They said that you say things, change things, make things different
Heal people
Could you heal me?
No. Not me: the unclean, the untouchable
Too much to hope for after all these years
Of hoping and then failing, of nothing changing
But they said that you say things, change things, make things different
Heal people
Could you heal me?
And then you were coming, you were here
And I thought, why not? Why not me?
What if it’s true, what they say about you?
So I joined the crowd
hanging back at first but then jostling, pushing, pressing through
just to catch a glimpse of you, to touch your clothes…
I was a no one until I met you.
Now I’m someone.
Small group resources to download which explore this and other stories
Click below and look for week 2.
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