DD Day Twelve Report

The Nameless Daughter

 

Mark tells of a woman who suffered greatly with an issue of blood. For twelve years she had to endure this trial. She saw many doctors and suffered many things in hope for a cure. She spent all her money but she didn't get better. Year after year she grew worse. We aren't given her name or age. We don't know anything about her family or friends. There is no history of her childhood. All we are given to know is that she suffered greatly. For 12 long years.

 

I can only imagine what it might be like to have an "issue of blood". The footnote in the Bible is hemorrhage. Some of the affects of blood lose are fatigue, pallor, dizziness. When I was pregnant with Nicole I was anemic and tired. I can see how dealing with just the physical symptoms could be overwhelming. How could she accomplish all she needed to on a daily basis.

 

As Mark tells us things "rather grew worse" for she lived in a culture that deemed her issue of blood as unclean. If her issue "be blood, she shall be put apart seven days" (Lev. 15:19). If someone touches her they are unclean. If she lies on anything-- unclean. Anything she sits on-- unclean. No matter how long "all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation: she shall be unclean" (Lev. 15:25). Only after she has been rid of her issue for seven days can she begin to be clean. So this woman was considered unclean for roughly 4,380 days.

 

How awful is that? I don't know if she had a family, husband, children, parents but if she did can you imagine how hard it would be to know that your touch could make them unclean. What must it feel like to live a life of separations for 4,380 days. To make matters even worse, she was not allowed in the tabernacle. She was cut off spiritually. Wait, it does grow rather worse-- she has spent all she had on doctors to try to get better. But again, she only grew worse. Her life must have been engulfed in complete darkness.

• Financially-- she has nothing
• Socially-- she is cast aside, separated, marked as unworthy
• Spiritually-- she is cut off

And she just gets worse.

 

For 4,380 days she must have felt so unloved. So unworthy. So unclean. So "un-". Meanwhile she keeps hoping. Maybe this technique will heal me. Disappointment. Maybe this physician has the cure. Disappointment. Maybe tomorrow, next week, next month. Disappointment after disappointment. Yet she had to keep hope. Besides the hurt it was all she had.

 

Then she hears of a man from Galilee. A man who is reported to be able to heal. She hopes again. It's all she has. So she joins the crowd around him. When she sees him he is on his way to the home of Jairus to heal his daughter. Jairus, ruler of the synagogue. Jairus, well respected member of the community. Jairus who has a house full of people who care for him and his family. Jairus, financially fit. Jairus who is not "un-" anything.

 

I think I know how she felt right then because I have felt it too. She likely began with the enduring mortal trap of comparison. I goes something like this:

Me

• unloved
• unwanted
• unworthy
• unnoticed
• unneeded (I can do nothing)
• undesirable (with me nothing is clean)
• unnamed (the scriptures do not supply her name. I wonder how many people knew it or if she was just referred to by her illness)
• unclean
• unclean
• unclean
• 4,380 days unclean

Jairus



• so loved his house is full of supporters
• leader of the synagogue
• well respected in the community
• the most important official
• sought out by others
• an example of cleanliness
• worthy

At this point she would feel completely unworthy to interrupt Jesus' quest to heal the daughter of Jairus. They were worthy. They mattered. They were something. And here she was... nothing. She had nothing for she spent all she had. She had no one for she made them unclean. She didn't even have the support of her religion for she was unworthy. I have been here. At this point where I just knew  I was not worth the attention of the Savior. I don't have an issue of blood, but I do suffer from depression. There are times I live in the same darkness this unnamed women must have lived in. I have experienced the cycle of hope and disappointment. Though our reasons are different, I feel a kinship with this woman. Sometimes I don't feel like I can interrupt the Savior's important work for my unworthy problems.

 

This woman who has only her pain, her hope, her faith did something amazing. Something so small. She reached out to touch the hem of his robe. Just that. Just a small reach. just a brief touch. Just a tentative little action on her part. Then something wonderful happens. Something that is only recorded as having happened once in the scriptures. Unbidden, the Savior heals her. Never before and never again does this happen in recorded scripture. She didn't ask to be healed. He didn't instruct her to wash or arise or be healed. She just was. Immediately the "fountain" of her blood dried up. Without words. Without deeds. With only hurt and faith and a simple touch. She was healed.

 

What an amazing reminder! Sometimes all I have is pain. And all I can manage is a small and tentative reach. And my prayers have no words-- only tears. Through this story, the Lord reminds me that the meager offering of my pain is enough. That without words his virtue can leak out to heal me.

 

The story doesn't end here. There are still more miraculous things to come. Jesus, having felt virtue leave him, inquires as to who has touched him. Remember, according to Jewish law she was unclean and everything she touched became unclean. The laws of the land demanded that they "put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean." (Lev. 10:10). Just her act of touching Jesus could make him unclean until "the even". If she comes forward, what are the consequences? Will the throng of people desire punishment because she being unclean was among them and touched one of them? What would the man who she has placed so much hope on say about being touched without permission? Would he be angry? Would he ridicule her? Would he remind her who unworthy she was to touch him? Plus, after roughly 6,307,200 minutes of suffering she has finally experienced all of two minutes of relief. By coming forward would she lose that? Would she lose her life? It must have been very tempting to fade into the crowd. To hide. To live pain free. Even his apostles gave her an out by noting how many people were around.

 

But she couldn't. Her relief from the suffering she experienced was so remarkable that she had to come forward. She had to tell her story. She needed to testify of this great miracle. So she came forward. Again, she reached out. This time all she had to give was her faith. Once again she was blessed. Once again something miraculous happens. And once again, the things that happen have never happened before and will never occur in written scripture again. He calls her "daughter". Her, me. Daughter. The one who is perfect calls us daughter. We, the unclean, unloved, unworthy, unwanted, undesirable, unnecessary, "un-" women? He says daughter. He uses other endearing terms throughout the scriptures but this is the only time he uses daughter. After twelve years of being worthless, she was esteemed to be called daughter by this great man. Then he praised her. On his way to what all others deem an important task, he stops to commend he. The unnamed daughter.

 

When I feel unwanted. When darkness falls upon me. When I am trapped in a cycle of hope and disappointment. When I feel unclean, unnecessary, unworthy or any other "un-". When my own AM thoughts try to tell me I am unnamed, I need only reach out and remember-- He calls me daughter.