CONTEMPORARY BIBLE VERSION

               Woman thou art made whole

"Haye!!! Don't touch me!!"
Were the sounds of disgust I heard. I couldn't stretch out to touch any one—the law would kill me...i would be stoned. I just couldn't reach out for help—the law made me weak even in the mist of the abundance of people and family,  I just couldn't. The law crippled me.


My heart bled along side my body.
I lost it all... All
No friends, I had a little
hope that was waning.
I remember one day I was so hungry that I had to boil three cockroaches to eat. It got that bad.
I was wealthy. I owned merchant ships and my fame cascaded through Palestine and beyond Samaria in a steady climb until... Until nature took it's toll...
it stole everything... Everything! I bled it all out. Blood for money,  blood for love,  blood for attention...blood I bled...i bled it all!
I had become as thin as a wheat stalk and as dark as the potters char.
My life seemed to end before my eyes... "The life of a man is in his blood" they say, mine I lost—It just went all away!

One afternoon I heard a shop owner speak of one Jesus of Nazareth. The shop owner's discription of him seemed outlandish. "He doesn't act jewish" I thought to myself.
 The description went on...
 "he claims to be the Messiah,  with some strange powers he heals people of their diseases and even raises the dead" said the shop owner.
 For me that was my cue. He what?  Raises the dead?  I have tried everything and it didn't work, surely this one wouldn't hurt. At least I am half dead and he raises the dead—I think he is my guy.

So I journeyed on one of the most humiliating voyages if my life. The fetor that stood prominent from my bleeding caused the street to clear out for me. I smelt like rotten fish,  I was even scared of my own smell at one point.

...He was teaching when I first saw him,  he radiated with beauty and love. Nothing about him suggested to me that I should stay away. Everything in him attracted me to him. I just felt like I knew him and he knew me,  he had eyes like fire and feet like bronze. As I looked upon him,  tears filled my eyes,  I could almost feel my blood dry out. He looked like God!
I fell right where I was and wept at the power of his words... His words made me clean, I felt human again. I believed in me that if I just touched him or so,  every thing will be back to normal or even more, he made my issue look small....but his disciples... There was one that seemed like a trouble maker, talked much too—shushing and hushing the crowd. He had a pocket knife. I heard them call him peter. I didn't like him anyway.
I rolled my eyes and ignored them.

The teaching ended abruptly—something was wrong,  it seemed. Jesus was now walking fast with one rich man like that around him.
Wow,  he is coming my way... This is my chance... If I can but only touch the hem of his garment... My disease is too small to touch him,  his garment is too powerful to solve it. I will touch his garment. It will suffice me. So I pressed and pressed—i got kicked a time or two... But I pressed any way. I defied the odds,  the laws and the religious rulers' quip.

A-ha!  His garment!

... I am still bleeding—I looked up and it was petros' garment I was wielding!!  Arghhh!!  "Get off my way Mr you aren't Jesus" I yelled,  he looked undisturbed by my naughtiness... I pressed again,  this time not too long, I felt it,  like fire shot up into my bones... I fell to the ground,  his garment burned me up.

He turned around and said with authority and love—heaven's paradox—"who touched me? ". I was too weak to move from the strength of his love... I struggled and raised my hand, he dropped down, and pulled me up.

That was the first time in twelve years someone touched me,  and he said "woman thou art made whole!!! " that was it,  I sobbed my heart out,  I was free,  love touched me, I could feel,  I loved again!!!  I am free!!