Who touched me?

 In both Luke 8 and Mark 5 we read the story of the woman who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years who came and touched Jesus’ clothes for healing.  Bleeding of this nature is deeply embarrassing even in this day and age but in Jesus’ time it was not just embarrassing but also meant that she was unclean. She would have been shunned by society as no one would have wanted to go to her house or have her come to their house as anything she sat on would be unclean and if you then touched it you also became unclean (Leviticus 15: 25 – 30).

She had suffered like this for 12 years and had spent all she had on trying to get well and Mark says she had suffered a great deal at the hand of doctors but had only got worse not got better. 

Jesus was on his way to raise Jairus’ daughter from the dead and both Mark and Luke record that the crowd pressed or crushed around him.  It must have been like getting out of a football match!  People pressing in everywhere and only one way to go – Jesus’ way! The woman seeing that Jesus was passing her way and having heard all about the healings that he had done, knew that this was her moment.  She was far too embarrassed to come to him directly for healing so she just thought that if she touched his cloak she would be healed and she was. 

No doubt she hoped that she could quietly slip out of the crowd, wait 7 days and then confirm her healing with the priests and offer her sacrifice (Leviticus 15:28 – 30) and she would be pronounced clean again.  However Jesus wanted testimony of what had happened and also I think re-instate her in society.  When Jesus asked who had touched him, the disciples looked at the crowd and then Jesus with disbelief.  Everyone was touching him but Jesus persisted; he knew healing power had gone out of him. Eventually the woman knew she could no longer hide but came and fell at his feet, trembling with fear. She was excepting to be rebuked for making him unclean and ‘stealing’ a healing.

Jesus though, with great compassion, wanted to commend and confirm her faith and I believe also wanted to release her from shame and embarrassment. Before the whole crowd pressing in he said, ‘Daughter your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering’ Mark 5:34 Instead of just having a private healing she also had a public commendation. 

Jesus has such compassion for the sick, hurt and abused; for those on the margins of society and those who have suffered greatly at the hands of others. He wants us, his church, to minister to people with the same level of mercy, love and compassion.   Offer yourself to be used by God to bring his healing and release to others who may have suffered much. Let God stir your heart with the same compassion Jesus had as he uses you to minister his healing power into their lives with his love.