You Don’t Even Know My Name

The title of my message is from a song by Micah Tyler. This song opened my eyes to how many people in the Bible, both men and women, we don’t even know their names, and yet their lives were touched and changed forever by their encounter with the Rabbi, the Teacher, the one they called Jesus.

Recorded in Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:25-34, and Luke 8:43-48, is a story about a woman with an issue of blood that has touched me deeply; it has moved me to tears. I want to be like this woman. We do not know her name, but her faith was so great!

You have to understand what this woman had gone through. It wasn’t just a matter of her bleeding for 12 years. This woman was considered by the Jewish community to be ritually unclean.

This woman was ostracized by her family and society. She became an outcast; she was shunned. She could no longer enter a synagogue or the temple. She could not live a normal life. She had endured much at the hands of physicians and had spent all that she had and was not helped but rather had grown worse…but she heard about Jesus! She heard about Jesus!

And she thought, “If I could just touch his garments, I shall get well.” Now if she had been wrong about Jesus' ability to heal her, she would have been in a lot of trouble for touching a Jewish man, especially a rabbi. She would have broken ritual laws by touching him. She could have been stoned to death.

There is no one to speak for her, so she acts for herself. Jesus did not perform an active healing on this woman. She basically snuck up behind Him and took the healing with her faith. When Jesus confronts the crowd to ask who touched Him, she does not run away. She comes forward with fear and trembling to confess what she had done.

Instead of a reproach, Jesus's response is so sweet. He lovingly calls her “daughter.” This is the only time recorded in the Bible that He calls a woman “daughter.” Jesus says your faith has made you well; go in peace. He does not tell her to go and sin no more; instead, He tells her to go in peace.

Some of us have an issue too. Like the woman with the issue of blood, we’ve been bleeding out from the heart. Often we feel insignificant, even invisible, or maybe unseen would be a better word. You feel that you are not as spiritual as other women. You feel you are not good enough because you can’t pray as boldly as others.

First, you need to stop comparing yourself to others. God made us all unique. In 1 Corinthians 12:14, “For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. Our heavenly Father knew us in our mother’s womb. He saw our unformed substance. The days of our lives are in His book before even one has begun. Do not let condemnation get you down. It is not of God. If you are struggling, God can forgive you. You must find the grace in Christ to forgive yourselves.

This woman, whose name we do not know, never gave up on seeking her healing. So you don’t give up on what you have been seeking from the Lord.

You must begin by saying what God says about you. Joel 3:10, “Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’”

Isaiah 43:1-2 “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine.”

Jesus knows us. He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. We are His treasured possession. Never forget that!

The Word says, “They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength.” So what do we do while we wait? We praise, we worship, faith is rising, breakthrough is coming, and provision is coming. That’s what happens while we wait. We get a little stronger, we get a little wiser. Lord, we have trusted in your promises. We’ve tasted your goodness. 

Our steps are ordered by the Lord. He has always been true!

-Carla Hawkins