A common theme appears in three of today’s One Year Bible readings. In the Old Testament reading we’re introduced to Jacob’s wives, Leah and Rachel. Jacob, usually the one to play the role of deceiver, is tricked into marrying Leah. In fact, it’s Leah’s younger sister, Rachel, whom Jacob’s had his eye on. But their father, Laban, is pretty sure he’s never going to marry off his older daughter, so dresses her up on the wedding day. Jacob figures out, not nearly soon enough, that he’s been fooled, and demands Rachel as his bride as well. And, we’re told, Jacob loves Rachel far more than her older sister Leah. In an interesting twist, God is sympathetic to the plight of the unloved Leah, and eases her pain by giving her an abundance of children while Rachel is barren.
In the New Testament reading Jesus encounters a woman whose pain is similarly overlooked. The woman “subject to bleeding” is unclean by virtue of a medical condition that has been unsuccessfully treated for 12 years. For 12 years she has been isolated – barred from public life, corporate worship, and human intimacy of any kind. By healing her Jesus, essentially, restores her to life and personhood.
These two passages are rounded out by Psalm 11, a song of praise to a God who sees all and hears the prayers of the vulnerable and downtrodden. Our God is a God who notices – who knows our secret hurts and sees the injustices we’ve experienced. This God promises us the justice, healing and love that often seem in short supply. Take heart.
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