Reach out and touch Jesus
It is amazing to read how much Jesus could accomplish in a Gospel chapter. . . Luke 8 is a perfect example.
The story of two lives dramatically healed and changed, not connected at all, but somehow intertwined. One was a 12-year-old girl dying, whose father, Jarius, openly begs Jesus to come with him. The other an outcast woman in the crowd who secretly reaches out by sheer force of will. Both are desperate, both need a miracle. Jesus, moving to meet one need, ends up meeting two.
The woman in the crowd fought for her encounter, pushing her way to Jesus. She had been marked “unclean,” forbidden to touch anyone because she had been hemorrhaging for 12 years. Yet, somehow, she knew if she could just touch this man, even the hem of his clothes, her life would be saved. In that part of the story, the writer talks about how many there had been pushing in for the same kind of touch, but somehow, this unnamed woman was different.
I wonder why that woman was highlighted above others? Why her touch was recorded? Could it be the years of shame, hidden and alone, separated from those she loved? Is that what made her touch set apart? Was it her isolation? Her desperation? Both? One thing for sure, it was her determination that risked pressing into the crowd.
When she finally reaches Him, it says, “She came from behind and touched the border of his garment.” Sounds just how shame moves, doesn’t it? It doesn’t walk beside us, doesn’t look us in the eye, but looks down. It walks behind. Shame doesn’t openly ask for healing, but Jesus responds and heals His daughter publicly.
I want to know how the woman in crowd pushed through, how she touched that hem. How do we press in and draw virtue from the King of Kings? Like this woman, I think it means taking seasons of isolation and desperation, and letting it grow our determination. Knowing if we can only touch Him, everything will be okay.
Lord, help us to be able to press through all that hinders us from touching you. Help us to have the faith to know that it only takes one encounter to change everything.
By Pastor Dori Bannister