Have You Touched Jesus Series

HAVE YOU TOUCHED JESUS

MARK 5:24-34

24 So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed Him and thronged Him. 25 Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, 26 and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. 28 For she said, "If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well." 29 Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched My clothes?" 31 But His disciples said to Him, "You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ’Who touched Me?’ " 32 And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. 33 But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 And He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction."

Mark 5:24-34 (NKJV)

There is a commercial on TV that has two children, a brother and sister, sitting of the beach. The boy is pestering the girl by holding his finger about an inch for the girls back and saying, “I’m not touching you” The girl on the other hand calls out to the parents, “He’s touching me”. That brings back some memories of my childhood. We might get a laugh out of that thinking that is the way children are, but we too can be that way as adults.

Some claim they don’t want to be touched. However, I believe that deep down all of us want to be touched. I don’t mean that in a perverted way, but in a healthy wholesome way. We often hear talk about appropriate touch. We know what that means. I learned early on that I cannot do ministry without touching. I have visited people in ICU who had little strength to move, but when I got ready to pray they reached out for me to take their hand. Now I have never seen anyone miraculously healed by holding my hand, but I do believe it made a difference. We know that touch is powerful.

There are different types of touch. Some are very meaningful while others are meaningless. There is the touch of our loved ones and friends that bring warmth and love and there is the touch when we bump into someone or have to stand real close to them in an elevator.

(** Most of the time when I visit Vanderbilt hospital the elevators are full. I have taken the steps, but that takes a lot of energy. I pack in with people I don’t know, and we can’t help but touch. That usually makes people uncomfortable. Most of the time we will all stand and look at the ceiling waiting to get off. )

In this passage we see how touching the Savior change a woman’s life.

Most of us are familiar with this story. That is good, but I believe we can become too familiar. I am not suggesting that we forget it, but that we can miss out on a lot of the meaning and message of the passage when we become so familiar that we take it for granted.

This woman had a disease that made her an outcast. We could call her an untouchable because anyone who touched her would be considered unclean.

She had been ill for 12 years and had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors.

She had spent all she had. She was bankrupt because of her illness and she was getting worse.

When she heard about Jesus she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. She said that if she could just touch his garment she would be healed.

One thing that struck me about this passage is that it is one of the few times when the recipient of the healing did the touching...

A lot of the healings we see Jesus reaching out and touching someone. He touches the leper, the blind man, the deaf man and several others. Here it is the woman with the illness who does the touching. She seems to sneak up behind Jesus to get a cure. She had to do that because of her illness. She was not supposed to come in contact with anyone because she was considered unclean. She takes a chance and makes her way though to crowd just to get to touch his garment. She did and the rest is history. She got healed.