Meditation for the week of March 2, 2008
Mark 5:27-28
When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.”
What was meant by the fact that this woman “touched” His clothes? There had to be people in that crowd who had touched him just because they were thrust up against him by the jostling of the crowd. This is not what was meant. There had to be people who grabbed a hold of Him in some way to get his attention. They certainly made contact with Him but they didn’t “touch” Him. Then there was the woman who knowingly touched just His garment, and Jesus knew right away that someone had “touched” Him. He asks, “Who touched my clothes?” Since Jesus is God and God is all knowing, He obviously knew who had touched Him but He wanted to draw attention to the contact she made with Him in contrast to the contacts that many others likely had made. Because she “touched” Him, she was healed of her illness immediately. What was different about her touch?
She had a need that she knew the Lord could do something about. Her touch was evidence of her sincere confidence that He could do what she knew she needed Him to do. Her touch was not casual or just so she could say she had touched Him and perhaps sell her story to the local gossip columnists. Her contact was the result of her faith.
Our relationship with the Lord is much like that. There are many people who say that they believe in God and what they mean is that they believe that there is a God but they have never “touched” Him. Then there are those who say that God has provided His Son to die for them and to bear away their sin. They know He did it but it is not real to them personally. They have not “touched” Him either. Then there are those who knowing that they are sinners, also know that Christ has the right and power to save them by forgiving their sins and they “touch” Him by faith. They trust Him and they are truly saved. These have “touched” the Lord much like the lady with the issue of blood did in this story.
Some people have a headache and they know that taking an aspirin will cure the headache. Knowing that aspirin works won’t cure the headache, however. Buying aspirin and having it available won’t cure the headache, either. A person might say that they have confidence in the aspirin in both cases. But when one takes the bottle and takes the aspirin tablets out of the bottle and swallows them with a glass of water, that is when the aspirin tablets are able to cure the headache. They are then like people who have “touched” the Lord and by faith have received the benefit of the death of Christ at the cross.
We can believe God is, and we can believe that God is able. But until we have faith in the promise that “he who believes in Him is not condemned (John 3:18),” we haven’t “touched” the Lord and His virtue or power does us no good. And I think it is wonderful that the moment this woman’s actions evidenced her confidence in the Lord by her “touching” Him, He knew immediately that she had touched Him and that His virtue (not hers) had healed her.
I remember when I reached out and “touched” Him, do you? I have also found out since trusting Christ for salvation, that the life of the Christian gives us the opportunity to tap into the power of God for our problems in life. But we can’t just say that we are trusting Him, we need to actually trust Him, that is, we need to “touch” Him, to receive the benefit of the promises He has made.
Bruce Collins