Mk 5:25-34
There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse.
She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak.
She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.”
Immediately her flow of blood dried up.
She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who has touched my clothes?”
But his disciples said to him, “You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’”
And he looked around to see who had done it.
The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.
He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you.
Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”
This reading of the woman with the hemorrhage is one of my favorites. Now that may sound gross, and I don’t like blood. In fact the sight of it can make me queasy. This woman spent a lot of time and all of her money on doctors who tried to cure her, but they only made things worse. She suffered even more. Somebody told her about Jesus. And they must have done a pretty good job because she believed that, if she could just touch his cloak, she would be healed.
When I listen to this reading, I imagine the mob of people around Jesus, I see this woman on the edge of the crowd, looking for him, locking her eyes on him and making her way toward him. I feel her struggle, bumping into and pressing others out of her way, crawling if she needed to, whatever it took to get to him. Until finally, she finds herself right next to him. In my imagination I can feel the peace that comes over her as she reaches out and touches his cloak and is healed instantly, and she knew it. I can relate to how the struggles in my own life often feel like I’m grasping, and struggling to find healing, peace or direction.
I like the thought that no matter how messed up we might think our lives have become, we can put ourselves in this woman’s place, and if we can just make our way to Jesus, reach out and touch him, really touch him, we will be ok. We can overcome. He WILL change our lives.
After she touched him, Jesus knew it and he asked everyone, “Who touched my clothes?” They replied with, what, are you kidding? Do you see all these people around you? Everybody’s shoving and bumping into you. What do you mean, who touched you?
Jesus looked through the crowd and replied, no, really, who touched me? He looked around for who he felt touched him, and the woman came forward afraid and trembling. She was afraid of what Jesus might say to her because what she had done was against the law. Since she was chronically bleeding, she was considered unclean. Being unclean, she was not allowed to touch anyone, or they would become unclean too. Well, she touched Jesus. Would he be upset that she had done so? She was trembling. Trembling because she knew whose presence, she was in. She knew who she had come in contact with. She had touched the Son of God, was healed, and was trembling with awe in his presence.
And what did Jesus do? Did he scold or criticize her? No, the first word he said was daughter. This part of the story touches me. He called her daughter. Being a father of two girls myself, this word has a special meaning to me. I know the deep love I have for both of them. How much more love did Jesus have for this woman, his daughter? How much more love does he have for you?
Healing begins with faith, like the woman in the gospel. Faith to make your way to Jesus to touch him, and more importantly to let him touch you with his love. Faith to know that he infinitely loves you right where you are. Faith to know he can and will bring peace to your life, if you trust in him. If you as him for guidance, protection and direction he will listen.