Luke 8

I was editing Pr Fabrizius's volume on Luke this morning. One of the questions was about the woman with the continual flow of blood spending "all her livelihood" on physicians. I got distracted from verb tenses and commas, and thought about that phrase. Interestingly (at least, interesting to me), the father of the prodigal son also divided out his "livelihood."

That woman spent all her money. And what good did it do? No good for her. But her expenditures served a purpose in teaching us something about Jesus. Her expenditures thus served me. The father in Luke 15 sacrificed his "bios" (Greek word for "life" or "livelihood"). The woman couldn't buy health. The prodigal father gave to his son who wasted it. But it was all for the purpose of showing us the compassionate heart of the only One who can give forgiveness of sin, and thus also give health and life.

And being a hymn addict, I couldn't help but think of Rist's
"Lo, stained with blood,
the Lamb of God, the Bridegroom,
lies before thee,
pouring out His life that He may to life restore thee."

Granted, it's not the same word "life," but I like the thought nevertheless.

And then the other thing I noticed was something connected to the earlier part of the chapter. The woman with the flow of blood saw (in verse 47) that "she was not hidden." Those same words were used in verses 16-17. What is secret will be revealed; anything hidden will come to light. When she found that she was not hidden, she came to Jesus in fear, love, and trust, and worshiped before Him, confessing her faith in Him, confessing that He is the One who heals all ills, confessing that she wanted what He had to give. Her faith was in Jesus, and He made her well. And this is not hidden from the people around her, nor hidden from us ... because it points us to the lamp (Ps 119:105 and John 1) who is held up on the cross to bring light to the whole world (Is 60).