Finding Our Way Together- Holy Disruption
Finding Our Way Together-Holy Disruptions
Luke 8:40-48
Recap
Holy work usually starts with holy disruption.
We tend to imagine that making a difference begins with having a plan, discovering a calling, or finding the perfect place to serve. But sometimes it begins much more simply: we see something we weren't prepared to see.
In Luke 8, Jesus is already on his way somewhere important. Jairus has asked Jesus to come because his twelve-year-old daughter is dying. The crowd is pressing around him, and then another person enters the story—a woman who has been bleeding for twelve years. Her suffering isn't only physical. Her condition has pushed her to the margins socially and religiously. She reaches through the crowd and touches Jesus.
And Jesus stops.
The crowd sees an interruption. Jesus sees a person.
Jesus doesn't allow her healing to remain anonymous. He sees her, hears her story, and calls her “Daughter.” Her condition may have defined her life for twelve years, but it does not define her to Jesus.
This is part of what it means to follow Jesus: learning to see what Jesus sees. Holy disruption happens when God interrupts our normal patterns of attention and opens our eyes to something—or someone—we can no longer ignore.
We can't do everything. But every one of us can do something. First we see. Then we care. Then we participate.
---Go a Little Deeper
There's an interesting detail in this story that is easy to miss: Jesus asks a question he already seems to know the answer to. “Who touched me?”
The disciples think it's a ridiculous question. Everyone is touching Jesus. They're in the middle of a crowd.
But Jesus isn't looking for information. He's creating space for a person.
The woman has already received what she came for. She touched Jesus, she was healed, and she could have quietly disappeared back into the crowd. But Jesus stops everything and invites her to step forward and tell her story.
Luke says she tells why she touched him and how she had been instantly healed. In other words, Jesus refuses to let her remain invisible.
For twelve years, her condition has likely determined how people saw her. She has been someone to avoid, someone considered unclean, someone whose body created complications for everyone around her. But Jesus stops the crowd and gives everyone an opportunity to see her differently.
Then he calls her Daughter.
Jesus doesn't just heal her body. He publicly gives her back an identity and a place among the people.
Maybe this gives us another dimension of what it means to “see” people like Jesus does. Seeing someone isn't merely noticing that they have a need. It is refusing to reduce them to that need.
People are more than the worst thing that has happened to them. More than the problem they're facing. More than the category we've placed them in. More than someone who needs our help.
They have names. They have stories. They have dignity.
Following Jesus means learning to ask more than, “What does this person need?”
Sometimes we also need to ask:
“Who is this person?”
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Discussion Questions
1. What part of Sunday's message stayed with you the longest? Why do you think that was?
2. Jesus was already responding to an urgent need when this woman interrupted him. What usually happens inside you when your plans are interrupted? What makes it difficult to be present in those moments?
3. The crowd was physically close to this woman, but Jesus was the one who really saw her. Where do you think it's easiest for us to be around people without actually seeing them?
4. Jesus refuses to reduce this woman to her condition. What are some ways we unintentionally reduce people to categories, problems, circumstances, or needs?
5. Sunday's message described a movement from seeing → caring → participating. Where do you sense that movement happening in you right now? Is there something you've begun noticing that is becoming harder to ignore?
6. “No one can do everything, but every one of us can do something.” What might your something be right now?
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Suggested Practice
Practice holy attention this week.
Instead of beginning by asking, “What should I do?” begin by asking: “God, what do you want me to see?”
Pay attention as you move through your ordinary routines—to your neighborhood, workplace, school, social media feed, conversations, and the places you normally pass without thinking.
Don't pressure yourself to solve everything you notice. Just refuse to look away.
And when something catches your attention, get curious. Learn a name. Hear a story. Ask a question. Do some research. Have a conversation.
Let seeing come before doing. Then ask God whether what you've seen might be an invitation to participate.
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Closing Prayer
God who sees us, open our eyes.
Interrupt the ways we move through the world without noticing. Help us see the people others overlook, hear the stories hidden beneath the surface, and recognize the places where your kingdom is longing to break through.
Give us the presence of Jesus—the ability to stop, to listen, and to see people as more than problems to solve.
Keep us from being overwhelmed by everything we cannot do, and give us courage to faithfully do the something that is ours to do.
Amen.