In our scripture today we find Jesus surrounded by a large crowd on His way to the home of a synagogue official named Jarius’ whose daughter is dying. Now in the whole of the scripture today we learn of two separate miracles but I want to focus on just one today. I want to focus not on the daughter of Jarius but on a woman who is hopeless and the hope found in her encounter with Jesus. Let’s look at our scripture for today. (Luke 8:43 – 48)
Soo this lady has spent twelve long years looking for a cure for an incurable condition. More than likely she had given up all hope and knew that she would spend the rest of her life with this ailment. Think about the hopelessness she must have felt, was life even worth living if it had to be continued living with this sickness. Then she heard about this man called Jesus and thought, maybe if I can just bump into Him I will be cured. But when she arrived at the place Jesus was she saw that He was surrounded by people and she realized she wasn’t going to just haphazardly bump into Jesus, I think she realized if there was any hope at all for a cure that she would have to intentionally reach out to Jesus. So in desperation she pushed her way through the crowd, doing all she could to encounter this man called Jesus and finally she was close enough to reach out and touch the hem of His cloak and immediately her hemorrhage stopped , immediately she was cured. All of the sudden in the midst of her joy she hears Jesus say “Who touched Me?” No one admitted touching Jesus at first not even the woman. Peter tried to get Jesus to just shrug it off as someone in the crowd just bumping into Him. Jesus wasn’t having it He said “Someone touched me because I felt the power go out of me” Jesus knew that this was more than just a chance encounter, He knew that what He felt and what had happened was intentional and real and that someone had made it a point to encounter Him in order to find hope in a hopeless situation and He wanted to know “Who touched me.
Knowing that she wasn’t going to be able to get away the woman trembling, fell before Jesus and told Him and everyone else about her hopeless state and how now because of her encounter with Him she was healed. Jesus simply tells her “your faith has made you well.” This woman was healed not because she bumped into Jesus but because she believed in Him and intentionally encountered Him and through that faith she found healing.
Let me tell you, there is a difference between bumping into somebody and reaching out to touch them with a purpose. A lot of folks have bumped into Jesus, a lot of people know who Jesus is and have made an acquaintance with Him but they haven’t encountered Him. Nothing has changed in their lives because they have only bumped into Him and not gotten to know Him, many people pretend they are saved but remain lost because they have only just bumped into Jesus.
Have you reached a point in your life where you feel like your hopeless? Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired?
If so it’s time to realize that we need to do more than just bump into Jesus, we need to realize that in order to turn our hopelessness into hope, our pain into joy or our hurting into healing we just need to reach out to Jesus with faith and when we do we need to be intentional in our encounter with Him.
We must reach out toward the hem of His garment in faith expecting something to happen, expecting redemption, expecting healing and expecting a miracle. Jesus told the woman “your faith has made you well”, her faith is what activated the Power of Jesus. If we want to see Jesus moving in our lives, in our church and in our world we must use our faith to activate the Power of Jesus. We need to reach out intentionally expecting a miracle. We cannot continue to live a life of just bumping into Jesus we must reach out and touch Him.
Ask yourself a question am I just bumping into Jesus or am I actively seeking Him with faith. “Daughter your faith has made you well; go in peace”
