"If I but touch his clothes..."

This week's teaching is brought to us by Sharon:

Leviticus 15:25-30 instructs, “When a woman is afflicted with a flow of blood for several days outside her menstrual period, or when her flow continues beyond the ordinary period, as long as she suffers this unclean flow she shall be unclean, just as during her menstrual period.  Any bed on which she lies during such a flow becomes unclean, as it would during her menstruation, and any article of furniture on which she sits becomes unclean just as during her menstruation.  Anyone who touches them becomes unclean; he shall wash his garments, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.”

 And in v.31 the Lord declares, “You shall warn the Israelites of their uncleanness, lest by defiling my Dwelling, which is in their midst, their uncleanness be the cause of their death.”

(Men were not excluded from these mandates.  If a man had any genital discharge, chronic or not, apart from intercourse, he was likewise unclean.)

Unclean did not imply sinfulness.  Both blood and semen are life fluids and in Jewish belief, the life of any creature was in its blood.  Loss of these life fluids, then, suggested death – which was incompatible with the Living God.  Thus loss of these fluids rendered one ceremonially unclean.

 So, these prescripts were given by God so that his people could render “pure” ceremonial worship to him.  They were also given to protect His people from the spread of disease. 

Now let’s read the Gospel of Mark 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 cloak 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.

First of all, in some versions we read that the woman had “hemorrhages” and in others we read “issue of blood.”  The flow may have varied, leaving the woman at times inconvenienced, at others very weak – but for 12 years unquestionably unclean.   

Perhaps the woman was mid-life, having already borne children; perhaps she was a widow – or not.  Perhaps she was a married woman who had watched her prime child-bearing years pass by barren, consumed with a condition over which she had no control, and that had left her physically, financially and emotionally depleted; unable to worship with her community or have relations with her husband - her uncleanness actually gave him the legal right to divorce her.  She couldn’t even touch her own children, if she had any.  She couldn’t accidentally touch other women or children, as they gathered around each week to do laundry, trade child-rearing advice, etc.  She was, for all intents and purposes, cut off from life, for the Levitical prescripts still governed the life of the Jewish people of Jesus’ time.

So what do you think this woman must have thought at first hearing of Jesus?  And as reports of this great Healer continued, did she begin to form a plan?  She was desperate.  She had tried everything. 

“If I but touch His clothes, I shall be cured.”  Mark 5:28

This quote tells us two things.  One, she didn’t want to make Him unclean, as would have been the result, because she would be chastised and publicly cast away.  So if she just barely touched it, in the anonymity of the crowd, maybe no one would notice.  But this statement also exposes a faith that was willing to risk everything; a faith that believed a mere touch could change her life.

“If I but touch His clothes……….”

St. Mark tells us, “Immediately her flow of blood dried up.  She felt in her body that she was free of her affliction.”

In thinking about this whole scenario, I believe Jesus knew her before she even reached out to touch him.  And basically he said to her, “I take your uncleanness upon myself, and render you spotless in return.  And because of your faith, you are a daughter to God.”  It is the only time in Scripture that Jesus uses “daughter,” a term of endearment, of belonging, to one who had been cast out.  Can you imagine her joy?!

In Ezekiel 16:9-13 the words of the Lord tell how He found Israel, a people who were nothing, and adopted them as His own.  He says,  “Then I bathed you in water, washed away your blood and anointed you with oil.  I clothed you with an embroidered gown, put sandals on your feet; I gave you a fine linen sash and silk robes to wear……you were adorned with gold and silver……..you were exceedingly beautiful, with the dignity of a queen.”

And Jesus says that to us as well.  At our baptism, we became daughters of the Living God, adorned with purity, grafted into the family tree.  And then we grew into children, teenagers, adults…….faced with all the difficulties and temptations the enemy and the world can throw at us.

I remember, and have spoken of it at length in another talk, the crisis I went through in my own life a number of years ago.  My own sin, along with a great deal of stress, brought me to a point of utter brokenness.  I had been away from the Church for eight years, though not un-churched (we attended a Baptist church).  But I had walked away from the fullness of Truth.  Out from under its shelter, and a little confused, I made some decisions that I don’t believe I would have made otherwise.  In a protracted period of anxiety and depression (which tends to run in my family), I would drag myself out of bed in the mornings – only to care for my four children – and throw myself in a heap on the bathroom floor, with my arms around a cross I could not see, and beg Jesus to fill me with himself – which is about the same as thinking, “If I can only touch his cloak………”

At least, like this woman, I knew the only thing that could possibly save me.  And I trusted that somehow, some way, at some point He would speak to me, touch me, lead me in the way I should go, and He did, though all I could see in the moment was darkness.

Have you ever been that desperate?  Because of a relationship that cannot be healed; or grief over the loss of one dearly loved; or the irreversible effects of your own sin; a tragedy that has been visited upon you; or a relentless illness…….all of these things can render us desperate and broken, unsure of this God we worship and doubting His goodness.

We need to understand that while devastating things can happen to us as the natural consequences of our own sin or someone else’s; while we become ill with terrible diseases and great suffering since all of creation is fallen, God never “gives” those things to us.  He does NOT punish us; but neither will He violate our free will.  Jesus says in John 10:10, “I have come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.”  God would not punish us only to turn around and heal us.  He would be contradicting himself, making a perverted showing of His power.  That is not the God we serve!  He came that we might have LIFE!  About satan, on the other hand, He says in the same verse, “the thief comes only to steal, slaughter (kill) and destroy.”  And in John 8:44, “…..he is a liar and the father of lies. 

We must be clear in our knowledge of God’s character and our image of Him, especially when it comes to the difficulties we will inevitably encounter in life.  God is love.  1John 4:8 and 4:16 tell us this.  

So Jesus comes that we might have life.  He gave back to this dear Jewish woman her life, yet it was a new life.  It was blood-free; no more “death.”  And we can imagine that her life took on a whole new purpose, because if this Man could heal her of this terrible condition, well, He could do anything.  Though the Gospels give us no other information about her, I believe she became a disciple of Jesus that day, witnessing to her friends and family of the God who loves and saves.

Now what about us?  The Lord indeed heals many of our difficulties, through many different means.  Liliana Leal can totally relate to this bleeding woman, as she actually had a similar condition for 2 years.  And, though not cast off from life, she was desperate, as in her own words she says, “I felt like I was going to bleed to death, and finally told the doctor that he had to do something else, because nothing he’d tried so far had worked.”  She had a hysterectomy and that took care of it.  And you can imagine her relief!

The Lord used her doctor to heal her, as he does so much in our time.  But what if she had said, “I don’t need him.  My body will take care of itself.”  That sounds a little ridiculous doesn’t it?!  And yet we say that to the Lord all the time when it comes to our relationships, or our “bad habits.”  Our pride and unforgiveness prevent much healing and peace, blocking God’s grace in our lives.  We say things such as, “I didn’t create this mess,” or “Well, he started this by doing such and such.”  Or about our little habits, we’re so good at deceiving ourselves, “It’s just little thing.  I can stop at any time,” whether it’s anything from spending too much to gossiping.

Like the bleeding woman, we must humble ourselves (she told Jesus the whole truth) and admit that without our Lord’s help, we are powerless to heal the desperate situations in our lives.  This is our hope, for as Isaiah 40:29 says, “He gives strength to the fainting (or powerless); and40:31 tells us, “They that hope in the Lord will renew their strength.”

What about those seemingly hopeless situations?  Yes, there are situations that may never change; there are illnesses that will only be eradicated in heaven.  That is the world we live in.  It is still our choice to trust the God of life and love.  And I have found that He alone can fill our hearts with peace and even hope, the hope that doesn’t give up on this life, but instead trusts God’s wisdom now, and lives with the expectation of the life to come.   When we choose Him, His love and joy permeate every part of our being, regardless of circumstances.

Many of you know this already, and are a light to all of us here.  But if you struggle to trust our Lord, tell Him the truth, tell Him everything that is in your heart and ask Him to heal it.  He will not disappoint you.  And find others with whom you can grow in your faith.  There wasn’t anything this bleeding woman could do about her situation.  She couldn’t even be in fellowship with others.  Only Christ in the flesh could help her.  We have Him present among us in each other, and in the Bread of Life, His body, the Eucharist, that He entrusted to His Church, for our nourishment and healing.  Embrace it with great joy.  And live expectantly, taking full advantage of the Sacraments to aid you in your journey.  Be a light and a witness to the power of the Healer, Jesus Christ, who says to you, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”