Weekly Words of Grace

In this Sunday’s Gospel story, Jesus has crossed over the sea to another region, and his reputation has preceded him.  Great crowds gather around him, hoping to see him, hear him, to be healed by him.  The crowd is thick and presses in on him as he tries to make his way to the local synagogue leader’s home.  Now in that area there was a woman who had suffered from hemorrhaging for twelve long years.  She’d spent every cent she had on doctors, but nothing had worked – in fact, it was just getting worse.   In an era when a menstruating woman was considered unclean, this was a significant problem for this poor woman, and she was desperate for healing.  Hearing that Jesus was in town, she said to herself, “If I can just touch the edge of his robe, I will be made well.”  She somehow managed to work her way into the thick crowd behind Jesus, just enough to be able to reach forward and touch his cloak with her fingertips.  The story says, “Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.”

And in the midst of that seething crowd, with people bumping and jostling and pushing Jesus from every direction as he went along, Jesus stopped, turned around in the crowd, and said, “Who touched my clothes?”  Understandably, the disciples responded, “Well, um, everyone Jesus.  There’s a whole crowd around you touching your clothes.”  But Jesus kept looking into the crowd.  The woman realized that he somehow knew about her, and approaching him with fear and trembling, she fell down before him and “told the whole truth.”  This woman was probably very nervous because she knew that she was the least of the least in that crowd – a woman – an unclean woman – someone who shouldn’t have even been in the presence of these religious leaders in the first place.  She knew that Jesus would have great matters to attend to – matters that seemed far more important than her.  She was probably expecting the worst when she came forward.  But, instead of reprimanding her for stealing some of his healing power, Mark tells us that Jesus commends her for her great faith and assures her she has been made well.

 This story implies that Jesus is quite aware of our greatest needs – and perhaps even more keenly aware of the needs of those who are poor, marginalized or outcast.  It also implies that the act of reaching out for healing, in itself brings healing.  In what ways are you poor, marginalized or outcast?   How has that kept you from being whole?  Have you reached out to God for help?  Has the reaching itself changed or healed you?

                                                     ...thoughts on Mark 5:38, “Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’”