Jim Gill July 2, 2006
“The Power of Touch”
Mark 5:24-34
INTRODUCTION
A father was talking with his rather rebellious son one day and said, "Every person who lives in the United States is a privileged person."
The boy answered, "I disagree."
And the father replied, "That’s the privilege."
This coming Tuesday we will celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the genesis of the United States of America as and independent nation. We are indeed a very privileged nation. We enjoy so many benefits, one of which it the freedom to think what we want and to say what we want, to believe what we want without fear of oppression or persecution. One of our greatest freedoms is the freedom to disagree, to disagree with the way things are being done in our government, with the way things are being done in the church and even to disagree with Dad!
This is a day we celebrate our freedom as a Country. But there is a different kind of freedom that we need to talk about this morning. While as citizens of this nation we do have a freedom to disagree, as citizens of God’s kingdom our Peace, Unity and Purity comes when we exercise our freedom AND agree with the Lord and what God’s word says. In Matthew 18:18 Jesus says, I tell you more: whenever two of you on earth agree about anything you pray for, it will be one for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name I am there with them.” The trick is, of course getting two to agree, especially in a land where people have gathered themselves in Red and Blue States of mind.
This morning’s gospel lesson is about a courageous woman who was all alone. She had no one else to agree with her. But she found within herself the courage to reach out and touch the Lord and in so doing found healing a much more. Hear the word of God from Mark 5:24-34.
Let us pray. Dear Lord, thank you for this glimpse into your power to heal. We pray that as we meditate on this portion of your healing ministry that we will be able to reach out and touch you; and draw from you what we need. And now, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
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The Menninger Institute when it was still located in Topeka, Kansas, (before it became the Menninger Clinic and before it moved to Houston to become a part of Baylor College of Medicine,) once had a fascinating experiment. They identified a group of crib babies who did not cry. The fact is, babies cry because they instinctively know that this is the way to get attention. Crying is their way of calling out. These babies, however, had been in abusive situations. Their parents had let them cry for hours on end and never responded. Do you know what happened? The babies eventually quit crying. They had learned that it was not worth trying.
So the Menninger Institute got some people from retirement and nursing homes, and every day these people held these babies and rocked them. The object was to get these babies to start crying again. And you know, it worked. Physical touch had made the difference.
One of the things I believe we value in this church is the power of touch. We want everyone who comes in our doors to feel welcome. That’s why we’ve built into our worship service a time to shake hands or hug a neck or give someone a pat on the back.
As important as physical touch is, there is another kind of touch that is even more important, and that is spiritual touch. It’s that special touch that influences and impacts people’s lives. The telephone company some years ago had a slogan that you may recall: "Reach out and touch someone." The story of the woman who reached out and touched the hem of Jesus’ robe is a vivid example of the power of touch.
Jesus had attained celebrity status. People were coming from all around to hear him teach. Even more to the point, they were coming to him for healing. In those days there were no reliable doctors, no MRIs, no CAT scans, no x-rays, no diagnostic tools of any kind. Only prayer and herbs and doctors of the most primitive skill and knowledge was all they had. So, people who were desperate for help had no reliable place to turn. But then word got out about a man whose very presence brought healing. So, quite naturally, the people rushed to him. They reached out to him. And, of course, he responded. Many were healed. And the net result was that even more people came. By the thousands they came. And they crushed around him, seeking to avail themselves of his healing power.
In the middle of the crowd was a woman who had been seeping blood for twelve years, what doctors today would call a hemorrhage. Even worse, Leviticus 15 denoted such a woman as "unclean.” What this meant was that no one was supposed to touch her as long as the bleeding continued. She was an “untouchable.” Her condition would prevent her from getting married. She was not even supposed to go into the temple for worship or religious instruction. She was a despised and solitary woman.
Mark tells us that "she had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.” The doctors had taken her money, yet had not given her any relief. So, here she is impoverished, an outcast, almost without hope.
This is the woman who came to Jesus. There she is in the crush of the crowd. She is in a delicate situation. She can’t cry out about her condition to get Jesus’ attention. The crowd would push her off to the side. She might even get injured. Who knows what an angry crowd might do? She can’t risk speaking up and having Jesus reach out to touch her, but, she thinks to herself, if I can just get close enough to touch him, just touch the hem of his garment, then maybe she will be healed. She can’t BE touched, but maybe She could touch….not another person but a just a portion of a piece of cloth that was touching a person. Surely that would be safe. Maybe he wouldn’t even notice.
But He did notice. He felt a power surge that flowed out of his body when her faith filled fingers touched the hem. Jesus always knows. If you’ve got a problem, you’ve got a need. Jesus knows. You kneel down by your bed and pour you heart out over some situation that seems to have no solution, Jesus knows.
This woman came up behind Jesus and touched his cloak. Immediately her bleeding stopped and she was freed from her suffering. And Jesus knew. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"
The disciples were mystified by Jesus’ statement. "You see the people crowding against you," they said, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched my clothes?" But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. The woman was mortified. She thought she could hide in the crowd, but it didn’t work. She’s been found out, exposed. Mark tells us, "Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.”
We can feel for her, can’t we? Her condition was humiliating, and socially isolating. She’s probably kept it hidden as best she could for many years. But now it’s out there. No more hiding. No more pretending. Now everybody knows. Why couldn’t Jesus just keep her healing private? Why couldn’t he allow her to keep at least a shred of her dignity?
But see, here is the point: It was because the community had shunned her due to her condition that made it necessary to call her out so that the community would know that she was now free from that condition. Confession is not only good for the soul, it helps us to be restored to our rightful place in the community. Jesus was not exposing her so she would be embarrassed; he was giving her the opportunity to come forward and to truly be set free.
He speaks to her. "Daughter," he says. This is the only time recorded in the Scriptures that he ever used this term "daughter." "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."
"Be freed from your suffering." Be freed physically. Be freed socially. Be freed spiritually. Be freed! That’s the kind of freedom we can celebrate every day and not just on the birthday of the country in which most of us here happened to be born.
There may be some of you in this room today who are feeling hopeless about some situation in your life. Maybe you’ve kept it a secret from your family, even your closest friends, but Jesus knows. Maybe it has to do with your health, or your marriage or your job. Maybe there is a situation in your family that needs healing. Perhaps there is a son or daughter, or a grandson or a granddaughter or niece or nephew or coworker or neighbor about whom you are concerned. Maybe you are concerned about you! Maybe your business is failing and you are at your wit’s end to know how to reverse your financial slide. Maybe there is a secret sin that has you in its grip. You think to yourself, if only there was something I could do. If I could touch even the hem of his garment, I would be set free.
First of all, Christ knows about your concern. If you have any question that Christ knows and is concerned about your situation, let me put your mind at ease. He knows. The depth of his knowledge is unsurpassed, and what he knows best is people.
Jesus is the supreme lover of people. "He can sense a person's true needs immediately and speak just the right word to heal a hurt." He knows your situation. But there is a second thing to be said: It is very difficult to carry a heavy burden alone. Is there a trusted friend or counselor with whom you can talk? Yes, you can talk to Jesus, but sometimes it is helpful to have a human being to whom we can unload our troubles. That’s where the church comes in. That’s why Jesus wanted the woman’s healing to become a matter of public record, so she could be restored to the community…so her secret could be exposed and her healing widely known…so she could be restored as a member of a faith community.
Though I have never seen the Sequoia trees of California, known as Redwoods, I am told they are spectacular, towering as much as 300 feet above the ground. That’s one of my families dream vacations to go “drive through a tree.” Strangely, these towering trees have unusually shallow root systems that spider out just under the surface of the ground to catch as much of the surface moisture they can. And this is their vulnerability. Storms with heavy winds would almost always bring these giants crashing to the ground but this rarely happens because they grow in clusters and their intertwining roots provide support for one another against the storms.
When we are together, either as a family or a church, we provide this same support. Pain and suffering come to all of us. But, just like those giant Sequoia trees, we can be supported in those difficult times by the touch of one another's lives. The knowledge that we have someone; that we are not alone; that there is someone who is willing to touch us, hold us, keeps us from being destroyed.
The woman who reached out to touch Jesus needed the support of her community. That is why Jesus had her confess her situation. Is there someone you can turn to? Someone who will not break your confidence? Someone who will listen sympathetically without judging? Jesus knows about your situation, but sometimes it helps to share the hurt with at least one other person. Sometimes God even calls us to reach out and touch another person.
Fred Craddock, tells the story of a young man in his early twenties who was dying of AIDS in an Atlanta hospital. This man had no church connection, but someone said he had relatives who had been in a church, so they called a minister of that church, and the minister went to the hospital. The young man was almost dead, just gasping there, and the minister came to the hospital, stood out in the hall, and asked them to open the door. When they opened the door, he yelled in a prayer. Another minister heard about it and rushed to the hospital, hoping that he was still alive. She got to the hospital, went into the room, went over by the bed, and pulled a chair by the bed. This minister lifted his head and cradled it in her arm. She sang. She quoted scripture. She prayed. She sang. She quoted scripture. She prayed. And he died.
This was before people realized you can’t get AIDS just by holding someone, so when some of her colleagues asked, “Weren’t you scared? He had AIDS!” she said, “Of course I was scared. I bet you I bathed sixty times.” Well then, why did you do it?” And she said, “I just imagined if Jesus had gotten the call, what he would’ve done. I had to go.” Ruth Preston Schilk, Who Touched Me
Babies coming into this world, like those babies that needed to relearn how to cry need to experience the power of touch. Teenagers, like those at Camp Cho Yeh for Celebration #1 this weekend who far too soon have been introduced to the hard knocks that life has in store for them, need to experience the power of touch. Grown people who have long been in this world and been isolated by one condition or another on their way out of this world need to experience the power of touch.
May we have the courage of the woman in our gospel story to reach out and touch the Lord. May we have the courage of the woman in that Atlanta hospital to reach out and touch another person who need to experience the power of touch. May we even become agents of reaching out to people who have gathered themselves in Red and Blue States of mind to find the Peace, Unity and Purity of touching and being touched by Jesus…and hear him ask, “Who touched me?” and then hear him say, “Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
Let’s pray. Dear Lord, may we touch you in faith and receive the cure of our spiritual and physical maladies so that we may live at peace and in freedom from what troubles us. No matter how alone we may feel, because of your love we are not. Give us the power to touch others, and to allow ourselves to be touched by the community of faith you have drawn together here.
