The Power of a Touch
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Last week we heard how Jesus was on the sea going to the other side, which sounds like a good opening line to a joke, and now this week we have Jesus coming back to the shore he started out from. I wonder if this great crowd we hear about is the same crowd we’ve been talking about for weeks, and if they have been waiting this whole time for Jesus? Either way, Jesus continues to be surrounded by large crowds of people and once again the crowd plays a very important role in the events of t he story.
Had the crowd not been pressing in and following Jesus as he headed to the house of Jairus to see his sick daughter then the woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years would not have secretly touched Jesus cloak. Had that whole incident not happened, then the little girl may not have died and Jesus would have cured a sick girl and not raised a dead one from the grave.
As much a distraction and, as we saw before, a frustration the crowd can be, the crowd in it’s own way in Mark plays a very important role in his ministry.
Because the crowds were pressing in on Jesus there was no way that the woman could have reached him. The other factor that stopped her from speaking with Jesus was that because she was bleeding she was considered unclean and she was not allowed to be near other people. What makes this encounter even worse is that because she was unclean, not only was she not supposed to be near people she was definitely NOT allowed to touch anybody because she could transfer her uncleanness to anyone she touched. Now the obvious offense is that she came up and touched Jesus’ cloak and we’ll get to that in a moment, but what is less obvious is that because the crowds, those darn crowds, were still pressing in and following him, there is a good chance that while she was moving closer to Jesus and weaving in and between the people she likely touched them as well.
She was BOTH near people and touching them causing all of the people that she did that to to become unclean. This woman by being in the crowd alone was putting herself at serious odds with her faith and the established order of the society.
After making her way through the crowds she comes to Jesus and had heard about him, but had also heard a popular superstition that if someone touched the clothing of a person who had powers that they could be transferred to the person who touched that person. So she touches his clothes and she is immediately made well. Jesus senses the transfer of power and wants to know who did it and the woman comes forward and confesses to him what had been happening to her as well as what she did to be made well again.
What is interesting is that Jesus lets her know that it is her faith that has made her well. It wasn’t necessarily the idea that she touched this healer, but that she had faith in Jesus that made her well again. Faith is enough to restore her to health and to her community of faith, and Jesus makes that proclamation pubic to the whole crowd.
How important is touch in our lives? As we read this text from Mark are you not moved by the woman’s statement? She truly believes in Jesus and what he has done so she feels that the only thing she has to do is touch him and she will be made well again. In a way, you could say that she was missing that connection with people and the ability to make physical contact and touch with them.
“If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.”
What times in your life have you wanted or simply needed to feel the touch of someone in your life? Thinking of myself personally I can’t wait until the moment when I will be able to touch our new baby girl. Seeing her will be amazing, but being able to touch and hold her after she is born will be like nothing else. Think about a time when a loved one went away on a trip and you didn’t see them for a week or more and what it felt like to have them back in your life and to be able to hug them and be around them again.
The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Or think about those times when you were sick and you were quarantined to another part of the house or worse you were so ill that you had to go to the hospital. The times when you, for any reason, are not able to be near the ones you care about. Or think about family and friends that live far away and you are finally able to see them again. The first thing you want to do is embrace them and talk with them and be around them. Hugging that person, clasping hands with them, shaking their hands, or however it is that you greet a friend and a loved one are all ways that we connect with other people. On top of that, by being near them and touching them actually causes a reaction inside your body that affects your body chemistry and instantly brings a euphoric feeling inside of our bodies.
In fact during the passing of the peace today I want you to think about two things:
Sharing peace with those around you isn’t just something that we do to say ‘hi’ to each other, but it is a way to greet your brothers and sisters in Christ...
and it is a way to connect through the power of a touch by shaking their hands or giving a hug or through a kiss.
Can you imagine what it must have been like for this woman to have been without touch or community for 12 years? There are several ways that we can see how desperate she was to be able to get back into community with those whom she loved. We hear a very sad and disheartening tale of how during those twelve years she had spent all the money she had to physicians so that she could be reunited with friends, family and community and instead of getting better she only grew worse. Not only had she just gotten worse but she had suffered or endured much by the physicians who were trying to make her better.
With all her options exhausted she throws caution to the wind and she goes near people and touches Jesus so that she can finally be near people and feel the touch of her friends and family once again. Even though the woman was physically healed of her hemorrhages Jesus proclaims it publicly, but he might have also been telling her that that disease of loneliness and lack of touch has been healed also and she can once again be with her loved ones.
Jesus then is able to continue his journey to the daughter of Jairus but they are told that she is dead. Jesus insists on seeing her and tells them to simply believe. I know that the woman and the daughter are rather incredible miracles, but another miracle in my mind is that he is somehow able to convince the crowds not to follow him the house of the daughter.
When they arrive Jesus tells them that she is simply sleeping and everyone laughs at him. I am sure they were sure she was dead, so the idea that she was simply sleeping seems absurd, but I believe Jesus is trying to show us and them that for Jesus death isn’t the end. Death isn’t as final as we all believe it to be. So for Jesus to say that she is sleeping is his way of telling them that this isn’t the end for this girl now or in the future.
Because death isn’t final Jesus again breaks the rules of uncleanness. A person who had died was obviously unclean and no one was allowed to touch the deceased except those in the temple who would prepare the body. Once again Jesus touches that which is considered unclean and reaches out to someone who has been cut off from their community and family and restores them back to where they belong.
Jesus grabs the girl by the hand and pulls her up and says, ‘Talitha cum’. This is the other phrase in our text that has a powerful meaning for me because this is where the girl comes back to her family and to her community of faith.
By the power of a touch the woman with the hemorrhages and this little girl are both restored to health and to community with their families and their faith. What touch physical or other brought you into this community of faith? What touch brought you to your faith and how might we use the power of touch and the words we say to bring others to experience this powerful connection that we get to experience our whole lives? Jesus healed so many different people from blindness, demons, deafness, and other physical ailments, but I strongly believe that beyond all of that the most important thing Jesus did for them, and he did for the two woman in our stories today, is that he cared for them as people and knew that being reunited with other people was just as important, and I would say more important than being cured of their physical illness.
Jesus brings us into community with each other, he brings us into relationship with one another. Jesus cares so much for us that we are brought together as a community, as a family, to experience what it is like to be cared for and loved by others. What it means to be uplifted and supported by one another. May you all be lifted up by the power of a touch and know the peace and love that Jesus brings to us and this world.
Amen.