The Beauty Of The Prayer Shawl (Part 3) Series

If I were in a crowd of people and someone just happened to touch the hem of my blouse or coat – unless they gave it a good tug, I probably wouldn’t even have noticed they touched my clothing. But Jesus not only noticed, He asked who had touched Him. As if someone had touched His physical body. How could he ask such a thing?

Recall, if you will, exactly what the woman touched. She didn’t just touch any part of His prayer shawl. She touched a special part – the tzitzit. Last week we learned something special about those tassels. In the coils is the very name of God (Yahweh Ekhad) – God is One.

When she stretched forth her hand to touch the fringes of His talit, she wasn’t just touching twisted cording, she was reaching out to touch the very name of God – JEHOVAH. (The God who was, who is, and who will be forever.)

When Jesus asked, “Who touched Me?” He wasn’t referring to His physical body – she didn’t touch that. He was asking who had touched Him in His divine form of Jehovah.

And after the woman had admitted what she’d done, look at what Jesus said to her. “They faith hath made thee whole.” Her faith in what? In the tassels?

No. I believe this woman knew Malachi 4:2 which promised healing in the wings of the Messiah. She reached out, not in faith of the healing found in the tzitzit, but in the faith of healing found in the tzitzit of the Messiah. She didn’t reach for John’s tassels or Peter’s tassels or for the tassels of any other man present. She reached for Jesus – and in so doing she was claiming her faith and belief that He, Jesus, was the Messiah.

B. God’s Power Over Death

Now let’s take a look at how God revealed His power over death through the talit and the tzitzit.

After Jesus is touched by the woman with the blood issue, He makes His way to the house of Jarius, a ruler of the synagogue, because Jarius’ daughter was gravely ill. In fact, she was so ill, that by the time Jesus reached the house, she had died.

Let’s look at the Mark 5:39-43 telling of this event. ( In Bible)

Verse 41 is the important verse, because it is here that the words Jesus spoke are written. Jesus’ words are recorded as “Talitha cumi!” Two words generally translated as “little girl, or damsel, arise.” But while studying for this teaching, I came across at least 3 different sources that say this translation is faulty.

Verse 42 tells us that the girl was 12 years old. If Jesus were to tell a 12-year-old girl to “get up” the correct wording is YALDAH KOOMEE. Or if the translation of “damsel” is correct, He would have said ALMAH KOOMEE. But that’s not what He said.

Scholars have looked at the word talitha and believe that it was recorded wrong. They claim it should be two separate words: talit ha. If this is the correct interpretation then the whole meaning of Jesus’ command changes. “Talit Ha Cumi” means “Little girl covered by the talit, arise.”

From other issues of Biblical culture we learn that Jesus would have had to have taken His own talit off and covered the girl with it.

Remember when we looked at the definitions of the word talit? One of them was that the talit was “the covering of the Lamb”, because the word talit is derived from the word for lamb. So, if Jesus covered the girl with His talit, symbolically, He was covering her with Himself as the Lamb of God.