Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 8 verses 40 through 55a:
40 Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. 41Just then there came a man named Jairus, a leader of the synagogue. He fell at Jesus’ feet and begged him to come to his house, 42for he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, who was dying.
As he went, the crowds pressed in on him.
43Now there was a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years; and though she had spent all she had on physicians, no one could cure her. 44She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his clothes, and immediately her haemorrhage stopped. 45Then Jesus asked, ‘Who touched me?’ When all denied it, Peter said, ‘Master, the crowds surround you and press in on you.’ 46But Jesus said, ‘Someone touched me; for I noticed that power had gone out from me.’ 47When the woman saw that she could not remain hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before him, she declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. 48He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.’
49 While he was still speaking, someone came from the leader’s house to say, ‘Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the teacher any longer.’ 50When Jesus heard this, he replied, ‘Do not fear. Only believe, and she will be saved.’ 51When he came to the house, he did not allow anyone to enter with him, except Peter, John, and James, and the child’s father and mother. 52They were all weeping and wailing for her; but he said, ‘Do not weep; for she is not dead but sleeping.’ 53And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. 54But he took her by the hand and called out, ‘Child, get up!’ 55Her spirit returned, and she got up at once.
Earlier this year a Netflix documentary about the stigma of menstruation in India won an Oscar. The film, “Period. End of Sentence”, tells the story of several Indian women fighting to change perceptions that menstruation is an uncleanness and/or an illness. Their work includes efforts to stop making women retire from society during their periods and also to make low-cost sanitary products accessible for all.
I tell you this because in today’s Lesson the woman in the story with the bleeding issue has a menstrual disorder. She has bled for 12 years without ceasing and her condition has left her both financially bankrupt and also socially shunned. She is perpetually unclean. Now, another young girl is ill. She is the daughter of the synagogue leader. She is twelve years old. And because her age is mentioned and because her story is told intertwined with the story of the bleeding woman, many Biblical scholars believe she has begun her own menstruation. And now seeing her own 12-year-old bleeding body and knowing the social shunning the bleeding woman has faced for all those 12 years, the young girl falls into a deep fear-induced, psycho-social illness. Having now entered into the world of ritual uncleanness, she would rather die than be shunned.
Jesus, for his part however, touches and allows himself to be touched by both the unclean woman and girl. Jesus undoes the stigma associated with both and restores them each back into the community.
These stories are about so-called “womens issues”. But the one with the real issue is the community. Like the work of the women in India, the story is told to change perception, to de-stigmatize, and to bring about acceptance. Menstruation is natural. A woman’s body and its functions are natural. They should never be seen as gross, stigmatizing, or socially-excluding. And their functions should never be used as excuses to ostracize, demean, disempower, or control.
Period. End of sentence.
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