In Luke 8:43-48, we read about a woman suffering from a hemorrhage for 12 years, whom no one had been able to cure.  She had undergone long and painful treatment from various doctors and spent all she had, but her condition continued to worsen (Mark 5:26).  The woman came to Jesus and touched the fringe of his cloak, thinking, “if I can just touch his clothes, I shall be saved” (Luke 8:44; Mark 5:28).  

Immediately, the hemorrhage stopped, and Jesus said, “who was it that touched me?” (Luke 8:44-45; Mark 5:29-30).  The woman came forward and, falling at Jesus’s feet, explained why she had touched him and how she had been cured (Luke 8:47), telling him the “whole truth” (Mark 5:33).  Jesus replied, “my daughter . . . your faith has saved you; go in peace” (Luke 8:48).

The Gospels are beautifully full of accounts of Jesus’s healings, of our Lord saying, “I am willing.  Be cleansed” (Luke 5:13).  Although we sometimes focus only on the physical nature of these healings, there is an important spiritual dimension to the healing narratives of the Gospels.  

In our lives, for example, we may experience spiritual blindness; paralysis from fear, sin, or the snares of the devil; or a hemorrhage or draining of life from the wounds of our heart.  Like the woman, we also may try to address our condition in many ways, finding that it only continues to worsen.  

But our Lord Jesus came so that we may have life and life in fullness (John 10:10).  He wants us, his beloved sons and daughters, to come to him for healing.  “Healing itself comes from the Most High, like a gift received from a king” (Sirach 38:2).  As the Psalmist says, the Lord heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds (Psalm 147:3); “he sent out his word and cured them and rescued their life from the abyss” (Psalm 107:20; see also Wisdom 16:12).

In this healing journey, the Lord is calling us to discern the “whole truth” (Mark 5:33).  Which sins or doubts or lies of the devil (John 8:44) do we repeatedly come back to?  In which situations do we find ourselves, time and again, not loving as we are called to?  Essentially, why do we do what we do? 

I once heard a quote that the Lord reveals in order to heal.  In Jeremiah 33, verses 3 and 6, the Lord says, “call to me and I will answer you; I will tell you great secrets of which you know nothing . . . Look, I shall bring them remedy and cure; I shall cure them and reveal a new order of peace and loyalty to them.” Bring everything to the Lord in prayer (Philippians 4:6), and may he fill us with the Spirit of truth that will lead us to the complete truth (John 16:13), which will set us free (John 8:32).

Sometimes the process of healing is a slow one, and we may not be able to see exactly how the Lord is working through our current circumstances.  But he is working!  “We are well aware that God works with those who love him, those who have been called in accordance with his purpose, and turns everything to their good” (Romans 8:28).  And when we do find ourselves healed, let us never forget to thank God!  

Now as they were going away [ten lepers] were cleansed.  Finding himself cured, one of them turned back praising God at the top of his voice and threw himself prostrate at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.  The man was a Samaritan.  This led Jesus to say, “Were not all ten made clean?  The other nine, where are they?  It seems that no one has come back to give praise to God, except this foreigner.”  And he said to the man, “Stand up and go on your way.  Your faith has saved you”  (Luke 17:14-19).