Jesus Reaches the Canceled
His touch is all we need
Decades ago, I read Rabbi Harold Kushner’s book, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People.” Disease exists in the world and it is through healing journeys that we may be drawn closer to Him, and we show others how to traverse a devastating diagnosis with dignity and, perhaps, through our walk of faith.
I’ve written a lot about my husband’s cancer in the past two years, and my lack of ‘healing faith’ appeared in a piece I wrote just over a year ago. In it, I said this,
The husband and I heard a sermon on television (from a local Baptist church) about healing. Afterwards, I confessed my inability to pray for a cure for him. I wept. He cried too. It was one of the rawest moments we’ve had in our 16 years together.
I certainly struggle with the kind of faith the woman with the bleeding issue had. We see her incredible belief in the Gospel of Mark:
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately…
