Opening illustration: Healing of a Hindu gentleman [in the Middle-East] who opened his house for prayer and became a Christian at his time of deepest need and crisis.
Introduction: The story of this woman has always fascinated me for nowhere else in the scripture can we find a healing literally stolen from Christ. What we have here is the power of faith, the kind that does not wait for approval. Now, I wonder if there is a place of such faith in our everyday lives today when the norm is an endless petition often with intentions of subduing the heavens into giving in to what we want for ourselves. Others, of course, with courage seek to receive the will of God but nevertheless wait for what God will give. The woman literally grabs it from Christ. She took it without Christ’s permission.
I believe that there really is such a place for that kind of faith in our lives today. However, most important is the discernment of what it is that we want for ourselves. It is never an act of pride to believe that we shall receive when what we wish for ourselves is what God wills. In fact, it is humility of the heart that makes us believe, knowing that He truly loves us, we need nothing more from Him for whatever we wish for ourselves is already ours for the taking.
(A) What does it take to touch God?
1. Our DESPERATION/PROBLEM(s) [v. 25]:
Here was a woman who had been hemorrhaging for twelve years (an overdue long-lasting problem). According to Jewish law (Leviticus 15:25-27), she was declared to be unclean. That means, she was to be cut off from attending the synagogue service of worship and also cut off from her friendship patterns. She was to be ostracized from being part of Jewish society. We also learn from Biblical historians that the Jewish Talmud describes eleven different cures for this common disease. We can imagine the devastation of being declared unclean for twelve years. That means, she had been living in isolation for a long, long time.
Many people don’t doubt God’s ability to heal; they doubt his willingness to heal someone as “worthless” as themselves.
Illustration: To illustrate the futility of money to solve our problems, author Harvey McKay says: “If you have a problem that money can solve, you don’t have a problem; you have an expense.” We are talking about a problem man can’t solve but God alone.
2. Life CRISIS [v. 26]:
Many people today have similar experiences. That is, many people visit a great variety of doctors, trying to find a cure. Many people today spend much of their money on doctors and become medically poor. Many people today do not get better but worse. In ancient days with ancient medicine, we cannot even begin to imagine the primitiveness of medical treatment and its consuming costs. This woman had spent all of her earnings on medicine and was worse for it.
“Pliny’s Natural History reveals the generally low condition of medical science in the world at that time. Physicians were accustomed to prescribe doses of curious concoctions made from ashes of burnt wolf’s skull, stags’ horns, heads of mice, the eyes of crabs, owl’s brains, the livers of frogs and other like elements. For dysentery powdered horses’ teeth were administered, and a cold in the head was cured by kissing a mule’s nose.”
From Jewish writings, such as the Talmud, we learn of some of these ‘cures’: “One remedy consisted of drinking a goblet of wine containing a powder compounded from rubber, alum and garden crocuses. Another treatment consisted of a dose of Persian onions cooked in wine administered with the summons, ‘Arise out of your flow of blood!’ Other physicians prescribed sudden shock, or the carrying of the ash of an ostrich’s egg in a certain cloth.”
To add insult to injury (literally) this woman was also subjected to tremendous social pressures. The nature of this woman’s illness fell under the stipulations of Leviticus 15, whereby she would have to be pronounced unclean. As such she had been an outcast for twelve years. She could not take part in any religious observances, nor could she have any public contact without defiling those whom she touched. She was also forced to be separated from her husband and abandoned from society.
Last of all, this pathetic woman has lost all of her financial resources. Mark tells us that she had spent all of her money on doctor bills, with no relief - indeed, with added affliction. And in those days, there was no such thing as a malpractice suit. Her problem was beyond extremity.
The lady came to Jesus as a last resort. She had tried everything, every doctor and every possible remedy on earth to cure her. This was her last chance ~ Jesus Himself. She was never disappointed.
Illustration: Here is a story of faith and need from a monastery in Europe which is perched high on a cliff several hundred feet in the air. The only way to reach the monastery was to be suspended in a basket, which was pulled to the top by several monks who pulled and tugged with all their strength. Obviously the ride up the steep cliff in that basket was terrifying.
One tourist got exceedingly nervous about halfway up as he noticed that the rope by which he was suspended was old and frayed. With trembling voice, he asked the monk who was riding with him in the basket how often they changed the rope. The monk thought for a moment and answered brusquely, "Whenever it breaks."
I think at this point in the ride, it was a need for prayer. After having a life crisis, you need to…
Application: Most of the time we come to Christ when we have a crisis. All the while when everything was going well, we didn’t need Him. We didn’t even care about anything related to Christ. We try every possible remedy, going to the extent of spending thousands of dollars to sort out the crisis but all in vain and that is the time when we come to Christ. The issue here is, after He sorts out our crisis issues, will we still hang on to Him? Is He convinced about it? Because many leave Him or become casual about Him after their happy and comfort days return.
3. Reasoning (culture) says ‘NO’; Faith says ‘YES’ [vs. 27 – 28]:
According to the ceremonial law, the touch of anyone having the disease which this woman had would have defiled the person she touched. Her case was one of shame in the society and culture she lived in. This woman’s faith was almost superstitious. That is, if she touched his hankie, his garment, the fringe of his garment, his hand, she would be healed. Her faith seems to have been a superstitious faith but that didn’t’ stop Jesus from healing her. Very often, our faith does not measure up to the church’s definition of a high quality of faith. This woman’s faith was not complex, theologically sophisticated, or religiously stylish. Rather this woman’s faith was simple and seemingly superstitious, and that was OK with Jesus.
So this lady slipped up behind Jesus and touched the ‘hem’ of His garment; the Greek word is kraspedon. In the OT this word is translated as ‘fringe;’ in Hebrew the word is ‘zizith.’ These fringes were four tassels of hyacinth blue worn by a Jew on the corners of his outer garment. They were worn in obedience to the injunction of the Law in Numbers 15 and Deuteronomy 22. Matthew refers to them in 14 and 23. They consisted of four threads passing through the four corners of the garment and meeting in eight. One of the threads was longer than the others. It was twisted seven times round the others, and a double knot formed; then eight times; then eleven times; then thirteen times. The thread and the knot stood for the five books of the LAW. The idea of the fringe was twofold. It was meant to identify a Jew as a Jew and as a member of the chosen people, no matter where he was; and it was meant to remind a Jew every time he put on and took off his clothes that he belonged to God. In later times, when the Jews were universally persecuted, the tassels were worn on the undergarment, and today they are worn on the prayer-shawl which a devout Jew wears when he prays. It was the tassel on the robe of Jesus that this woman touched.
Application: We may be in a similar situation. A circumstance of societal and cultural pressures, maybe of shame and something that you don’t want others to know. God knows it all; even before you articulate it to Him. Time to break all walls and obstacles. Time to say ‘YES’ and touch Him in faith.
Note: But in today’s context, how can I touch Him? By your passionate prayers, worship, longing to be in His presence day and night and above all our complete and surrendered obedience and faithfulness to Him. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” [Philippians 4: 6]
(B) What will the faith-touch accomplish?
1. God’s providence ~ brings HEALING [v. 29]:
In spite of the crushing mob of humanity around Jesus, pushing and pulling and touching him, Jesus knew that this woman had touched the hem of his garment and the power of God had gone out from him to heal this woman. Jesus was filled with the power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of the healing and compassion, and this power went out from Jesus. We also hear in Acts 1: 8 that this power will be given to us as Christians, that we too have the power of God inside of us. No, not a power that is the same as the power in Jesus, but a power similar to Jesus. Within us, there is a power to heal, a power to love, a power to help cure the ills of the world.
Also, many of us feel the same way towards other enormously gifted people e.g. wanting to touch Mother Theresa’s hand or shake hands with Nelson Mandela or talk with Abraham Lincoln or a host of other famous and gifted people. It is our desire that the special qualities in those people would rub off on us.
2. Draws God’s attention to your personal PROBLEM(s) [vs. 30 – 32]:
Mark does not tell us that Jesus looked to see who had touched Him, but, “He looked around to see the woman who had done this.” He already knew who had touched him.
“When she touched it, it was as if time stood still. It is as if we were looking at a motion picture, a film, and suddenly the picture stopped and left us looking at one scene. The extraordinary and movingly beautiful thing about this scene is that suddenly in the midst of the crowd, Jesus stopped, and for the moment, it seemed that for him that no one but the woman and her need existed.” “For Jesus, no one ever is ever lost in the crowd.”
Illustration: And God is like that. Barclay goes on to tell a story about the sinking of the unsinkable ship, Titanic, in April of 1912. “The next day, the headline of a famous newspaper was devoted entirely and exclusively to the death of the multimillionaire, John Jacob Astor. At the end of the article, the newspaper almost casually mentioned the other 1,800 people who died. The other 1,800 were not that important. Such is the attitude of the world and many public media, but not God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is concerned about every single person and no person is lost in the crowd, however unimportant that person may be in the eyes of the world.”
Even being in a humungous crowd, Jesus knew the woman’s extreme intimate problem ~ healing of her unceasing menstrual flow.
Application: God knows our very intimate, private, special, delicate and individual problems. No matter where we are or what He may be surrounded with, He responds to it without hesitation. The big step we need to take. Touch Him!
3. Bears a TESTIMONY [vs. 33 – 34]:
There are times in life when we hear about Jesus and what Christ can do for us. This woman had heard reports that the power of God in Jesus could heal her. Jesus was not angry with her. He already knew who had touched him and was ready to pour Himself out for this unknown lady.
Daughter - A word of kindness, tending to inspire confidence and to dissipate her fears.
(a) Our Lord delayed in order to give the woman the opportunity to give testimony to her healing. Had Jesus not stopped and asked who touched His garments, no one would have known of the miracle save Jesus and the woman. When she saw the eyes of Jesus fixed upon her, she knew that He knew everything. She had taken nothing from Him, but He had given healing to her. She now poured out her sad and miserable life story, telling how Jesus had done what all of medical science could not.
(b) Our Lord stopped in order to correct any misconceptions on the part of the woman. If there were any elements of magic in the thinking of this woman, Jesus swept them away by making it completely clear that it was her faith that had saved her, not her grasp on His clothing. Jesus touched many as He went about, but few of these found in physical contact with Him a wonder such as this. It was her relationship with Jesus by faith that made her whole.
(c) It has also been suggested that this was a gracious act of our Lord to make it publicly known that this woman had been made whole, so that she was no longer to be considered ceremonially unclean. If her cure had taken place without the Savior making it known publicly, she would have had the utmost difficulty in removing from the inhabitants of the town the prejudice and scorn that she had met with for years. For this reason the Savior, who knew her in all her need and sorrows, and understood her circumstances ‘makes her appear before the whole multitude to testify publicly that she has been healed.’”
You and I also need to spread reports to our family, friends and communities about how Jesus has healed us in our situations. When other people may hear those reports, they may come to Christ, the Presence of God, and Christ may heal their lives as well.
Application: When you stop trying to cover up and hide the truth, and you openly confess your weaknesses before God, you begin to experience his power in your life.
Illustration: Healing of a dysmenorrheal lady who taught ESL deep in the interior of the Middle-East. Initially she was a nominal Christian and crisis brought her closer to God. She had slowly started to walk by faith which gathered momentum as years went by. Who would know her living in a place called nowhere? God knew and showed up in her time of need and deep crisis. He can do the same for you and for me. Are you ready for touching Jesus with unreserved faith in Him?
Application: A question almost always rises: “How about people who have deep faith in Jesus and his healing power and those people were not healed? How do you explain that?” We have dealt with this question many times in our lives, and we deal with it especially during those times when our family member or friend is sick and they are not being healed physically.
Or, maybe that person is yourself or myself who is not being healed. We often ask: “What is wrong with my faith? How come I am not being healed? How come my loved one is not being healed? Do I not believe enough? Do they not believe enough?”
As human beings, we are forever asking those questions, even when we are older and supposedly more mature. It is a condition of our humanity to ask such questions because all human beings ask them at some time or another.
And we all know the answer. That is, not everyone is emotionally or physically healed, regardless of the depth and sincerity of our faith and our prayers. Life does not work that way. Nor did it work that way in Jesus’ day either.
When a person is not healed physically, we ask others to prayer e.g. “God, give that person (or myself) the strength and wisdom we need for living with this infirmity. Help us to handle this awful situation. Please God, we need your strength and wisdom to face what life is giving to us. Please God; we need your strength, presence, and wisdom to die peacefully.”
Will our persistent problem and crisis in our lives bring us to the point to touch Jesus? Could we do it even without having a need or crisis?
Our reaching out and touching Him can profoundly change our lives and the lives of those around us. Would we care to step out of our circumstances, cultural and societal pressures, relying on God in faith to do the impossible for man?
