Stop Hiding: Reach Out and Be Healed

Mar 15, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: The danger of hiding our brokenness behind politeness.

Our culture often prizes politeness and self-reliance, encouraging us to present a composed exterior to the world. This can lead us to conceal our deepest struggles, pains, and fears, believing they are an inconvenience to others or unworthy of attention. We become experts at looking good while bleeding on the inside, creating a profound sense of isolation even in a crowd. This habit of hiding prevents true connection and, more importantly, blocks the pathway to divine healing that comes through honest vulnerability. [30:18]

“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18, ESV)

Reflection: What is one area of your life where you feel pressure to maintain a polite, "I'm fine" exterior, even when you are struggling internally? What would it look like to begin to be more honest about that struggle in your prayers to God today?

Day 2: Desperation can be the doorway to profound healing.

There comes a point when our carefully maintained composure can no longer contain our deep need. The woman in the story reached a breaking point after twelve years of suffering, where her desperation finally outweighed her fear of being an inconvenience. In that moment, she abandoned the rules of politeness and protocol to simply reach out for help. Her raw need created an audacious faith that believed even the slightest contact with Jesus could change everything. It is often at our most desperate point that we are finally ready to stop hiding and start reaching. [36:15]

“When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, ‘If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.’” (Mark 5:27-28, NIV)

Reflection: Can you identify a time when a moment of desperation or deep need led you to reach out to God in a more honest or raw way? How did that experience differ from times when you approached Him with more composed, polite prayers?

Day 3: Jesus stops for every humble, reaching heart.

The pressing crowd was full of people touching Jesus, but He stopped for the one touch that was accompanied by desperate, faith-filled need. He was not too busy with the important leader’s request to notice the silent cry of a broken woman. This reveals a profound truth about God’s character: He is never too preoccupied to stop for a humble heart that reaches out to Him in faith. He willingly interrupts His schedule to offer not just what we think we need, but the deeper healing we truly require. [38:06]

“Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.’” (Mark 5:33-34, NIV)

Reflection: When you consider the needs and crises in the world, do you ever feel that your personal struggles are too small or insignificant to bring to Jesus? How does the truth that He stopped for this one woman challenge that feeling?

Day 4: God’s healing addresses our shame and restores our identity.

Jesus did not let the woman slip away anonymously with only a physical healing. He called her out to publicly restore her dignity and identity. He moved her from a place of shame and isolation to a place of belonging, addressing not just the symptom of her bleeding but the trauma of her twelve years of being unclean and outcast. His healing is holistic, seeking to make us whole—spirit, soul, and body—and to reaffirm our true identity as His beloved children. [39:42]

“So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:7, ESV)

Reflection: Beyond a specific problem, what aspect of your identity or sense of self-worth might God want to heal and restore through a deeper encounter with His love?

Day 5: We are called to be a community where hiding is unnecessary.

The church is intended to be a hospital for the broken, not a museum for the good. This story challenges us to create a community where people can be real, where no one feels they must pretend to have it all together. It calls us to be a place where it is safe to reach out for help, to admit need, and to find the hope and healing that comes through Christ. As we experience this grace ourselves, we are to extend it to others, becoming a beacon of undeniable hope. [43:34]

“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” (James 5:16, ESV)

Reflection: What is one practical step you could take this week to help make your church community or small group a safer place for others to be honest about their struggles without fear of judgment?

Sermon Summary

A worship service unfolds around a single scene from Mark 5: a crowded, urgent journey toward a dying girl interrupts a woman’s long season of hidden suffering. The congregation moves from call to worship and confession into a close reading of the story where cultural politeness and religious purity laws forced a bleeding woman into silence and isolation for twelve years. The woman spends her resources on physicians and loses access to community; desperation finally drives her to reach through the crowd and touch the fringe of Jesus’ robe. Instant physical healing follows, but Jesus stops the procession and asks, “Who touched me?” to force a fuller, public reckoning.

Jesus’ question undoes anonymity and demands confession so the woman can be restored not only physically but socially and spiritually. When she admits the truth, Jesus calls her “Daughter,” pronounces that her faith has made her well, and sends her away in peace—publicly reinstated into dignity and belonging. The narrative highlights that hiding preserves shame but blocks healing; completeness requires exposure to Christ’s gaze and the community’s grace. The text challenges a cultural habit of politeness that values not being an inconvenience over honest vulnerability, showing how that habit makes the church into a museum of the respectable rather than a hospital for the broken.

A pastoral vision emerges: a church where honesty replaces performance, where people name their wounds and reach for Christ without fear that their brokenness will contaminate God or community. Practical life intersects with spiritual truth in announcements and prayers—celebration of generous giving, corporate intercession, and an invitation to touch the hem of grace. The closing benediction reaffirms a simple gospel promise: God calls people by name, and faith that risks honesty meets healing that includes restoration of relationship and identity. The conviction anchors both personal confession and communal reform: healing begins when hiding ends.

Key Takeaways

1. Jesus stops for the overlooked Jesus refuses to let anonymity be the endpoint of a miracle. By pausing the crowd and asking who touched him, the narrative insists that true healing requires being named and seen. The public encounter undoes shame by bringing the wounded into relational presence, where dignity can be restored. This interruption models a God who values persons more than schedules. [38:06]
2. Politeness can hide deep wounds Cultural manners can function as a barrier to healing when they become a rule of survival. Maintaining a “no-bother” front often masks financial strain, marital fracture, anxiety, or chronic illness, leaving people isolated in crowded rooms. Recognizing politeness as a survival strategy opens a path to gentler honesty and mutual care. Naming the cost of politeness breaks its cult of silence. [30:58]
3. You cannot be healed while hiding Physical cures answer symptoms; full restoration requires exposure to truth and relationship. The woman would have left physically well but emotionally fractured if she had slipped away in secret; confession invited deeper healing. Vulnerability before Christ and community transforms identity from unclean outsider to beloved child. Healing demands both touch and testimony. [43:06]
4. Public restoration restores dignity Jesus’ calling her “Daughter” turns a private miracle into social rehabilitation. Restoration in view of the crowd undoes the religious categories that made her unclean and excluded her from belonging. Healing that reinstates status repairs the relational wreckage of long-term suffering. The gospel aims to reframe persons as family, not as problems to hide. [39:42]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[07:28] - Call to Worship and Opening Song
[11:05] - Prayer of Thanks and Transformation
[12:55] - Confession: Politeness and Brokenness
[14:17] - Children’s Time and Transition
[27:22] - Politeness as a Barrier to Help
[32:06] - Crowd, Jarius, and the Woman
[34:45] - Twelve Years of Suffering Explained
[37:12] - The Touch and Instant Healing
[39:20] - Public Restoration and “Daughter”
[43:06] - Call to an Honest Church
[58:02] - Closing Prayer and Benediction

Bible Study Guide

Based on the sermon summary and transcript provided, here is a Bible study discussion guide.

Bible Reading
Mark 5:24-34 (ESV)
And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

Observation questions

What were the physical, financial, and social consequences of the woman’s condition as described in Mark 5:25-26?
What was the woman’s specific thought process and action that led to her physical healing?
Why did Jesus stop and ask, "Who touched me?" when He was already aware of what had happened and who was responsible?
What specific words did Jesus use to address the woman after she came forward, and what is significant about that term of address?

Interpretation questions

The cultural habit of politeness can function as a barrier to healing when it becomes a rule of survival [30:58]. In what ways did the laws and customs of that time encourage the woman to remain hidden and polite, even in her desperation?
Jesus’ refusal to let anonymity be the endpoint of a miracle insists that true healing requires being named and seen [38:06]. Why was a private, physical cure insufficient for this woman’s complete restoration?
The sermon states that "healing demands both touch and testimony" [43:06]. What is the difference between the touch (the act of faith) and the testimony (the confession), and why are both necessary?
How does Jesus publicly calling her "Daughter" [39:42] undo the religious and social categories that had defined her life for twelve years?

Application questions

What is your "twelve-year struggle" [40:46]? What is the thing you have been carrying that you feel is too messy, shameful, or inconvenient to bring into the light?
Maintaining a “no-bother” front often masks financial strain, marital fracture, anxiety, or chronic illness [30:58]. In what specific areas of your life are you tempted to say "I'm fine" when you are not? What is the cost of keeping up that appearance?
Imagine what the church would look like if we all decided to drop this politeness thing [43:34]. What is one practical step you could take this week to be more honestly vulnerable with a trusted brother or sister in Christ, perhaps by answering "How are you?" with more authenticity?
The woman’s desperation finally made way for the death of politeness [36:33]. What would it look like for you to reach a point of holy desperation where your desire for wholeness outweighs your fear of being an inconvenience or being exposed?
If you bring your uncleanness to Jesus, he doesn't get dirty. You get clean [42:49]. What false belief are you holding onto that makes you think your brokenness could contaminate God or His people? How can you actively reject that lie this week?
Jesus stopped the whole world for one desperately broken woman [40:13]. How does this truth challenge the feeling that God is too busy with bigger problems to care about your personal needs? How can you remind yourself of His personal care for you?

Sermon Clips

55s

#BringYourBrokenness

“Jesus isn't looking for acquaintances who come to him with their Sunday best. He's looking for desperate children. He's waiting for you to break the rules of your own self reliance. He's waiting for you to push back your fears of what other people think. He wants you to reach out to him and risk the interruption and admit, Lord, I can't fix this. I need you. If you bring your uncleanness to Jesus, he doesn't get dirty. You get clean. You cannot be healed while you're hiding.”

56s

#ChurchForTheBroken

“We become experts at looking good while bleeding on the inside. When our politeness becomes our religion, the church becomes a museum for the good and not a hospital for the broken. You cannot be healed what you're hiding from God. And that's what this chapter five in the chapter five in Mark's gospel is really getting at. Jesus is trying to get at this truth, and and and we're looking at a woman who's been polite all her life, and she is hiding in the shadows until she reach she reaches a breaking point where she can no longer be polite.”

51s

#CalledFamily

“It's the only time recorded in the gospels that Jesus uses this word to address this woman. It's a specific term of endearment. He doesn't call her woman. He doesn't call her unclean. He calls her family. He forced her out of the shadows so he could publicly restore her dignity. He stopped the whole world. He delayed an important leader. He made Jarius wait just to look at a desperately broken woman eye to eye and say, you belong to me. You cannot be healed while you're hiding.”

43s

#CourageToBeSeen

“But in this very moment, the parade stops, and Jesus stops walking. He looks around, and he asks what seems to be a most ridiculous question. Who touched me? His disciples laugh at him and say that all these people have been crowding in. What do you mean? Who touched you? And we ask, why does Jesus do this? And he already healed her. Why force this terrified, previously unclean woman to stand in front of this whole crowd and risk the judgment? Because Jesus had more healing to do.”

57s

#HealTheWholePerson

“Because Jesus had more healing to do. Jesus wanted to heal her from the shame, from the trauma, from the isolation, not just her physical suffering. If she had sneaked away, she would have been perfectly physically well, but she still would have viewed herself as a thief who stole a miracle. She would have acted like an outcast. There was so much more to heal. The trauma, twelve years, the pain, emotional, spiritual, poverty. Who touched me? We're told that she comes forward. She's trembling with fear.”

36s

#AloneInACrowd

“We can hide the financial stress that keeps us up at two a in the morning. We can hide the fact that our marriage is just hanging on by a thread. We can hide the fact that we have anxiety or depression, that we've got a medical diagnosis that's absolutely terrifying us. We can hide it, and we we just think, you know, if I just put my head down and just keep on keeping on, it's gonna be fine. I don't need any help here. But that just leaves us in a crowded room being absolutely isolated.”

55s

#NoProblemTooSmall

“So let me ask you. What's your twelve year struggle? What's the thing that you've been carrying right now that you have been too polite, too ashamed, too afraid to bring to Jesus? Maybe you think that Jesus has way more important things. I mean, there is a war going on in Iran. Maybe you think that Jesus has more important people to deal with. People at Dravinsky or bigger problems. Maybe he doesn't have time to talk to you about your failing marriage or your anxiety or your secret addict addictions.”

45s

#AuthenticChurch

“Imagine what the church would look like, Grace United Church would look like if we all decided to drop this politeness thing. What if the people in Caledonia knew that this was the place where they could be real, where nobody had to pretend to be alright and have it all together. It's the place of imperfect people. When someone asks you how you're doing, you could absolutely be honest and say, you know, I'm not doing so well. Would you pray for me? If it became a a place where people boldly reach out to Jesus with our deepest wounds”

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