Redemptive Vulnerability

Editor’s note: 

One of the great blessings we enjoy as an international fellowship of churches in the International Churches of Christ is our special relationship with our favorite charity, HOPE worldwide, and the outstanding opportunities for spiritual growth and meaningful service offered by the Hope Volunteer Corps. The article below is reprinted with permission from the 2018 HVC packet of biblical devotionals, intended to prepare the hearts of the participants for their service to one another and to the afflicted around them. We are grateful to be able to offer these to you. May we all find ways to be Jesus’ hands and feet in service to those hurting and in need all around us, wherever we are. 

Here is the link to this year’s Hope Volunteer Corps service opportunities. We hope you can take a minute to check it out — maybe you or someone you know will have a life-changing adventure! https://www.hopeww.org/hvc

From the H.O.P.E. Volunteer Corps Devotional Series 2018 “In His Steps”

 “Redemptive Vulnerability”

By Eleanor Frost, United Kingdom

How are you doing this morning?

--“Good!”

--“I’m fine!”

How we long for human connection!
Sometimes, our days are filled with these shallow interactions, and we neglect to share the realities of our hearts. Today, we are going to look at the interaction of Jesus and a woman who told the whole truth and received the wholeness that comes through knowing Jesus.

Mark 5:21-34
1. The Whole Truth

Vulnerability, by definition, is “the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally.” This woman fell into both categories of being physically and emotionally vulnerable!

We read that she had been bleeding for 12 years. According to the Jewish customs of that time, if she touched anyone, she would make them ceremonially unclean, and unable to take part in any aspect of Israel’s worship (Leviticus 15:19- 21). Having lived through the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us now understand how traumatic it can be, knowing you are contagious to the people around you. She probably would have spent the past 12 years separated from all of society; lonely, divorced from her husband, not allowed in a home or in the temple courts. Her condition was embarrassing, and she’d tried so many solutions...yet none of them had worked.

It said she had suffered at the hands of many doctors. They did not have modern medicine - we can’t even fathom everything they would have tried, to stop such a specific ailment! This had left her poor and therefore physically defenseless. In this crowd, she was certainly vulnerable.

In verse 30, we read Jesus asking for whoever touched him to come forward.

Despite all the reasons for shame this woman could have had and the embarrassment of being exposed in front of a whole crowd of people, she tells Jesus the whole truth.

What would it look like for you to tell the whole truth?
Telling the whole truth means showing the reality.
This may mean being honest about your sin, the brokenness or weakness that you feel. It may bring guilt about your past; anxiety, loneliness, disappointment, sadness. You may feel overwhelmed, inadequate as a daughter, as a friend, as a HYC participant!

Vulnerability goes beyond openness. In Mark 7:6, Jesus says, “these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me”.
Showing the truth means admitting that we are not perfect people, that we have not yet arrived, that we are unfinished.

To be vulnerable means putting our worst foot forward, the opposite of what the world tells us to do! (It’s an opportunity to share something that you’re weak in now and depending on God for His guidance and grace to make you whole.)
What is your truth (your reality) this morning?

2. God’s Sufficiency

But why should we be vulnerable?

Our story doesn’t have to end with our weakness. Redemptive vulnerability is a vulnerability that leads to life.

In verse 34, we read, “He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering”. Another version says, “Daughter, your faith has made you whole”.

This is the only time Jesus refers to anyone as a daughter, publicly taking responsibility for this broken woman and responding so gently.
According to the law, when this woman touched Jesus, it would have made him unclean. But instead, when she touched Jesus’ cloak, He wasn’t made unclean, but the woman was made well. When we come to Jesus with our sin it doesn’t affect him, but it does affect us; it makes us clean.

While telling the whole truth for the woman brought shame to her, it was met with being made whole. It was only in her brokenness that she could receive complete healing.

We want to receive the fullness of knowing God and knowing each other.
Here on Hope Youth Corps, we want to leave knowing we gave our whole hearts, with the whole truth and nothing less.

Why is vulnerability redemptive?

Because it allows God the ability to change us. In the deep place of truth about ourselves, grace increases all the more (1 Corinthians 7). It reminds us that we are dependent on God, and it is His love and sufficiency that is going to transform us to be like Jesus.

God intentionally uses weak people so that Jesus can receive the glory he deserves. When we recognize that we are weak, we can stop trying to keep up the façade. We can take off the mask, and, instead, look to the sufficiency of Jesus who brings redemption, healing, and comfort to our struggles.

When this woman told the whole truth, her life was transformed, and she was able to go home in peace. Change starts within, it starts with telling the whole truth and it ends with Jesus’ love.

So how can we practically go about practicing vulnerability?

We are blessed to have two weeks of real human connection on HYC together! Jesus chose to share his most vulnerable moments with a few – He had three close friends who saw Him at His weakest in the Garden of Gethsemane. I encourage you to think of a few people with whom you can truly share how you’ve been doing, to share the highs and the lows.

Let’s spur one another on to love and good deeds! Encourage one another! We all fall short of God’s glory, and we all need one another. No judgment.

Let’s not put the spotlight on each other’s sin and be a judgmental crowd like this woman experienced. Instead, let’s help point each other to God’s goodness, his kindness, patience, and love that is ready to meet all of us in our time of need.

What would stop you from being vulnerable? How we can conquer these fears?

- Focus on Jesus, not the crowd
- Have faith and remember what God has done when you’ve asked for help
- Trust that he will claim you as “daughter” and bring healing
- Focus on letting God’s power work in your weakness and let others see this at work! We already have a perfect example of righteousness in Jesus. What this world needs is an example of how God’s power and our repentance can make the broken pieces whole. We all want to make a difference, especially while here on HYC. But you will not convert people or help the people you lead if you are not willing to show that you are broken, and that God is the one working through you.

My name is Eleanor, I'm from London and became a disciple 11 years ago. I currently work as a manager in England's National Health Service. One of the highlights of my time in University was volunteering with HOPE worldwide as a Global Service Intern. During that time I led volunteer trips in Canada and Zambia, and wrote this devotional as a reminder to volunteers of the great blessings that can come from being vulnerable with one another.