One woman’s touch

S: Mark 5:24b-34

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 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.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

At once Jesus realised that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’”

But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 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.”

O: So many people were touching Jesus, bumping into him, jostling, etc. in the crowd as Jesus made his way from the shore to Jairus’s house. Yet one woman’s touch was different. One woman’s touch made Jesus stop in his tracks! One woman’s touch, in faith, brought healing. One woman’s touch.

It’s not that the people crowding around Jesus were not interested in Jesus. They obviously were – otherwise, why would they have come crowding around him? But there was a qualitative difference between their interest in Jesus and that one woman’s. They were interested in Jesus – she put her faith in Jesus.

The crowd pressed against Jesus with curiosity and excitement. She reached for Jesus with desperate faith. Many touched him accidentally; she touched him intentionally. For twelve years she had lived with shame, weakness, loss, and isolation. And yet Jesus didn't simply let the healing happen quietly. Instead, he called her forward so that the one who had been known by her condition would now be known by his compassion.

A: Daily I encounter Jesus. Most days, I pray and read the Bible. But often, it’s just part of my routine. Many days, I touch Jesus… like the people crowding against him as he walked from the shore to Jairus’s house. How often do I touch him like that woman touched him?

P: Psalm 27:4 says “One thing I have asked of Yahweh, that I will seek after: that I may dwell in Yahweh’s house all the days of my life, to see Yahweh’s beauty, and to inquire in his temple.” I admit, Father, that I do not often feel like that. I’m filled with other things I’m seeking than to spend quiet time with you. Father, forgive me. May I learn to be content with you above all else. In Jesus’ name, amen.