42 lines
2.1 KiB
Markdown
42 lines
2.1 KiB
Markdown
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title = "Luke 8:40–48"
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date = "2022-11-26"
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### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Lk8.40-48)
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Back in Galilee, maybe in the city of Capernaum, a crowd of people are waiting
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for Jesus's return from His trip across the lake. The ruler of the synagogue,
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named Jairus, comes to Jesus with a request to help his dying daughter. Jesus
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agrees, and they set off across town.
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Before they can get to Jairus's house, they are interrupted by a woman trying
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to be healed in secret. To understand the secrecy, it's necessary to understand
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the ritual purity laws in the Law of Moses. In order to come before God in
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worship and offer acceptable sacrifices, one must be clean of a whole host of
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impurities. Touching a dead body, having various skin diseases, or having some
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bodily discharge can all make a person unclean. Now, being unclean wasn't
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sinful or caused by committing sins, _per se_, but it did represent sin and
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death and therefore cut a person off from their relationship with God.
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Uncleanness is also infectious according to the law, so in severe situations
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the unclean person was excluded from the camp and lived in isolation until they
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were made clean again.
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The woman who touched Jesus's cloak had been discharging blood for twelve years
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straight. Normal menstruation caused a woman to be unclean for seven days, but
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not only herself but also her bed and her chairs and anyone who touches her or
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those things. This woman had spent all her money on physicians to try to get
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well, but nothing had worked. She saw an opportunity to be healed in Jesus, so
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she touched His cloak believing it would help her.
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And it does, but Jesus catches her. She explains why she grabbed His cloak,
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which may have disturbed some of the people who heard her. ("She might have
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made this holy prophet unclean!" 😱) Jesus treats her gently and declares
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before everyone that her faith has made her well. Now she can go make the
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necessary sacrifices to atone for her uncleanness and rejoin society, and now
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everyone knows that she can.
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* * *
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Show us how pervasive our sin is; wash it from us and make us clean.
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