by Kati Kluckman–Ault

"DAUGHTER, YOUR FAITH HAS MADE YOU WELL; GO IN PEACE, AND BE HEALED OF YOUR DISEASE" (MARK 5:34).

These are the words Jesus said to the unnamed woman on the day she boldly touched the fringe of his garment. Her cure was instantaneous as she touched his garment for one brief moment — so brief that only Jesus noticed. And then Jesus told her that it was her faith, not his garment that had made her well. And her life was changed. After 12 years of isolation, increasing poverty, and worsening health, she was made well.

We never hear about this woman again in any of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ continuing ministry. But Jesus promised her that she was made well. I wonder what the next day was like for her? How did being well translate to what was happening in her body, her mind, her heart, her relationships? And when we read this story, do we wonder how might we get a taste of this faith and wellness for ourselves?

Healing and curing
There can be confusion around healing and curing. Clearly, in the Gospel story, the woman with the hemorrhage is cured immediately. Yet Jesus does not tell her that she is cured, but that she has been made well. Cures do happen today, but most of us have never seen an instantaneous cure — in a clinic, in our church, or anywhere else. But the New Testament is filled with stories of Jesus healing many people — can that still happen today?

When we want to be made well today, we most often seek the care of a reliable health-care provider — someone we trust, someone who is well-trained and competent. Most of the time we end up feeling better, but when was the last time your doctor said to you, "Go in peace, your faith has made you well"? We are grateful that our medical system has helped us live healthier lives than the generations before us. We have immunizations that prevent our children from suffering crippling or fatal diseases. We have medicines that enable us to live longer even with chronic conditions like diabetes or heart disease. Surgeons can repair all kinds of physical maladies. But all this has come at a cost.

Modern medicine often gives us the promise of cure by fixing the broken parts of our bodies — that is, once we get all the body parts in working order, then we will be cured or well. We seek care from a system that promises to fix the broken parts of our physical selves but sometimes ignores our emotional, mental, or spiritual selves. All these pieces of "us" are not disconnected. We have been formed by God to be one wonderful and cohesive creation — body, mind, and spirit.

Relieving dis–ease
When we think of being well as having all our body parts in good working order, we might sometimes fear exploring how God offers health and holistic wellness to us — a wellness that is imparted to our bodies, our minds, and our spirits. We long for healing, just as the woman with the hemorrhage did, yet are unsure of what might happen if we were made well. How will we be changed as we are made well? Simultaneously, our longing for wellness comes because we know we are not well — that we suffer from a "less-than" kind of dis–ease that permeates how we live out our day–to–day lives. That dis-ease is shown in places where we are disconnected — disconnected from our selves, our bodies, other people. How then can we receive that same kind of wellness that Jesus declared had come to life in our sister so long ago?

Our dis–ease comes because the world is not as God created it to be — a perfect wholeness visible in harmonious relationships throughout all creation — a harmony contained in the word shalom. When we hear shalom, we often think of a peaceful feeling or even the absence of contention. But this shalom that is God’s intention is more than that. It is a one-word description of the perfection and harmony that permeates all the world and our self that receives wholeness, health, well being, and, yes, peace, in that shalom. When God created this world, and you and me, God desired this shalom for all. In our western view of life and the world, we often hear this great design of shalom in individual terms. That is, God’s shalom was designed so that I personally feel better or that I live in greater peace — but God has designed this shalom for all of creation. Since sin entered the world, it has been a place of brokenness and dis-ease where we are separated from each other and from the full expression of the wholeness that God desires for our body, mind, and spirit.

It is in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that God again proclaims to us that this shalom is not lost. The gift of our salvation is that God again has made us well and whole.

Shalom
Jesus told this woman that it was her faith that had made her well. Where does our own faith come into our journey to wellness? God invites us over and over again to wellness — beginning in creation and offering again in our baptism. It is in the washing of baptism that we are reunited with the shalom for which God created us. Our salvation is lived out in reconciliation between God and God’s creation.

God persistently invites us to greater wellness and health in the transformational grace that is at work in each of us. As creator, God gives and sustains abundant life for us. In reconciliation, God reaches out again and again to connect us with God’s self and with each other. In a continuing work of mercy and holiness, God’s transforming love offers us renewal that is continually re-created shalom for our bodies, minds, and spirits.

Are instantaneous cures possible? Yes. Do they happen often? It doesn’t seem that way. Yet I will say that I have seen God’s healing power at work in many lives. I serve as parish nurse in Baltimore, Maryland, at Amazing Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in a neighborhood that struggles every day with violence, crime, addiction, and poverty. Yet, here too, God is at work in healing ways that offer people new life over and over again.

Amazing Grace is blessed to have a labyrinth behind the church. One of our members lives out her recovery from drug addiction every day. During a recent time of great stress, she woke up one day with a very strong desire to use drugs. She says that this desire was stronger than she had felt in a very long time — and she had lived years without using drugs. She was at a loss as to how to deal with this strong craving. And so she came to the church and she walked the labyrinth. She meditated on God’s healing love for her and how that keeps her clean and sober each day. She says that by the time she had finished walking the labyrinth, the intense desire was gone — and she felt better, stronger, and healthier than she had for a long time. Did God cure her that day? I don’t know. But I do know that God was healing this woman and offering a taste of the wellness that is shalom.

Jesus still says to us each day, "Go in peace, and be healed of your dis–ease," because that is the promise of God to each of us, every day. The many forms of dis–ease that we live with are slowly healed by the persistent love of God made real in Jesus Christ. We still struggle with arthritis, tempting high–fat foods, imperfect relationships, and even a sense of our own unworthiness to receive God’s grace, but none of those struggles is bigger than God’s grace. Our healing takes place every day — as we remember the grace of our baptism that has marked us forever with the cross of Christ — and unites us with each other.

The day after our unnamed sister was healed of her hemorrhage, she woke up and felt slightly strange, I am sure — she was well. But it was more than her body that was different. The healing words of Jesus were at work, and that work did not end the day she touched his garment. The effects of that day went on day after day. She no doubt could go home — she was reconnected with her family and community. She no longer had to view herself as unlovable and unclean — separated from God and neighbor. Jesus had made her well — Jesus does no less for you and for me.

Kati Kluckman-Ault lives in Baltimore, Md., with her husband and children. She serves at Amazing Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church as parish nurse and is a member of the Lutheran Deaconess Conference.