But he went on asking, looking around to see who had done it. The woman, knowing what had happened, knowing she was the one, stepped up in fear and trembling, knelt before him, and gave him the whole story. [34] Jesus said to her, “Daughter, you took a risk of faith, and now you’re healed and whole. Live well, live blessed! Be healed of your plague.”
Mark 5:32-34 MSG

Here is another invisible woman…this time one who wants to stay that way so that no-one notices her! I’m sure you know about the purity laws of the Old Testament (you can read the relevant bit in Leviticus 15: 25-27). Her prolonged bleeding made her ceremonially unclean; she wasn’t able to mix freely in her community and join in public worship. Anyone she came into contact with was also considered to be ritually impure. In short she was excluded from her community.

She was probably fairly well-known, so she took a big risk being in a crowd of people. She took an even bigger risk when she touched Jesus. She must have known that touching him would mean that he shared her impurity.

However, Jesus didn’t just share it…he took it! He sensed that healing power had gone our from him an she was healed.

He wanted to meet her. He was surrounded by crowds and on his way to the home of a synagogue leader who had begged him for help, but he wanted to meet her, to hear her whole story and to commend her risky faith.

She was frightened that he would be angry, would despise and exclude her like everyone else. What a surprise she got!

Sometimes we have things in our lives that trouble us, that maybe we’re too ashamed to bring to Jesus, that we want to stay hidden. And the fact that we know that he knows anyway doesn’t help us to stay close to him in our prayer lives. Sometimes Jesus even responds to our unspoken and silent prayers when he sees our need, senses our tentative reaching out and hopeful touch.

And we too are surprised by the grace and love of Jesus, who far from excluding us, welcomes us back.