Interrupted 3

How do you like it when you go to the doctor and you see a Nurse Practitioner, or Physicians assistant?  Or you go in for major consultation and the doctor talks to you for 2 minutes… tops!  No one likes that. Neither did the lady in our story. She was not interested in talking to nurses; she was hunting for the Great Physician.

In our discussion of ‘Interruptions’ from Matthew 9.9-26, we now find Jesus going to Jairus’ home, now interrupted yet again. This interruption was by a woman in great need.

Pressed in an intense crowd of people, was one woman who was there for quite a different reason. We are told that for twelve years she had been suffering from a bleeding hemorrhage. Some modern scholars have theorized that this was a bleeding cancer. If this were the case she was, of course, beyond all medical help. Mark tells us that she had already been to all of the doctors and yet had only gotten worse. Besides, they had taken all her money. Interestingly, Luke, who was a physician, tells this story as well, but he could not bring himself to tell that side of the story. Call it professional pride possibly, but he is not about to say that she was taken for all her money by a long string of doctors.

How could she get the attention of Jesus in a throng of people like that? He’s busy and plowing his way to the next ministry need pressing His schedule… at least that’s how we would view it today. Her problem was of a very personal nature and she did not want to discuss the issue publicly. Can you blame her? According to Levitical Law, a woman who was bleeding was considered unclean and under the law could touch no one. She did not want to have to go through the disciples (the receptionist) to see Jesus (the Doctor).

So she devised a plan. Having heard the stories of Jesus’ power, she declared: “If I but touch the hem of his garment I will be healed.” Most Christians smile at that and say, ‘How innocent, how naive.’ But it is a truck-load of faith! She reached out from the crowd and touched the garment of Jesus. Immediately he stopped, bolted upright, and asked: “Who touched me?” 

The disciples were taken back. Was this some kind of rhetorical question? Who touched you? Why master, look around, everyone is touching you. 

Jesus replied with one of the most mysterious lines in the Bible: “­Somebody hath touched me.” What exactly happened in that moment? Did the lady drain his spiritual battery? Is that even possible? It sounds as though He is almost describing a power surge, as if to say…’I felt power flow from me.’ It’s not so much a surge or a drain; but a recognition and touch of a single individual in need. He felt the touch and need in this woman instantly. Do we? 

In the midst of the crowd, Christ felt the touch of a single person. The importance of a lone individual in need cannot be overstated. Don’t ever say that in the enormity of the cosmos God cannot care about my concerns and me; your concerns and you; it’s individual impact on an individual basis. Not only does Jesus care, He actually solicits our concerns— “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11.28)

“Daughter”, said Jesus (and I might add at this point that that is the only recorded time in scripture that Jesus used that term) “daughter be of good comfort: Your faith hath made you whole.” 

Suffering? Need to be made whole? Know someone else in need? Maybe just a personal touch of the Master is all that’s needed. Maybe He has chosen to send you into the throng of this world and minster to the individuals in desperate need, lost in the crowd. Don’t be too busy for them, Jesus wasn’t.