Advent is a season set aside for contemplation - for pondering the mysteries of God’s story in our hearts. Accounts of Christ’s birth and prophecies of His coming are the special focus of this season. But the Spirit blows where it will. All gospel stories are stories of the Incarnation, and previews of the Kingdom to come. This is the story I have been pondering…..
There once was a woman with an issue of blood – a condition which made her unclean according to the law. Not only did she suffer physically, she was isolated in her pain. This woman spent all her money seeking a cure, but no doctor could bring her relief. After twelve years of suffering, she held little hope of healing. Then Jesus came to her village. I do not know how she heard the news, but the Father made sure she did. And when she heard that Jesus was near, she knew in the depth of her soul that she could be healed.
The woman did not plan to speak to Jesus. She could not bear the thought of exposing her illness in public. If it had been possible to see Him privately, perhaps she could have found courage. But that was not an option. So she pressed into the crowd, jostled to and fro by the crush of bodies, making everyone she touched unclean. She was not a careless person, I think. She did not treat the law lightly. But she was desperate.
She pressed harder and harder until the Teacher was in reach. She bent low to the ground and let her fingers graze the hem of His garment. Immediately, power surged through her body and she was healed.
Jesus felt the power as well. He stopped, looked around, and asked, “Who touched me?” Peter and the disciples were baffled by the question. The whole village was pressed around Him. Countless people had touched Him, the way one would touch a celebrity. But someone had touched Him in a different manner. Someone had reached out in faith, and that faith had united a human with divine power.
The woman’s faith had indeed made her well! Jesus was not using poetic language. There was no willful choice in the matter for Jesus. It was God’s design – a spiritual law as certain as gravity – that when a human soul trusts in the mercy of the Son, it receives the love of the Father. This was, in fact, the reason the Father sent His Son – to draw men into Their eternal love. The woman’s faith had joined her to Jesus, thus His power flowed into her being and she was healed – not just from her disease, I believe, but from the shame and the sin which had plagued her.
When Jesus stopped and looked for the one who had tuoched, of course she was afraid. What she had done by touching a rabbi in her state was beyond bold! But the healing she received in her body was already at work in her soul. She knew she had been seen - noticed by the Almighty.
O Lord, what I love most about Your touch in my body is knowing that You see me, that Your eye is upon me! I believe this is what my Jewish sister felt on that day. The awe of grace! The wonder of being seen by God! Jesus was glad that power had gone out of Him because it meant someone there believed! Someone had recognized the gift which He carried within His Person. Your Spirit summoned her to speak the truth.
She was the one. She dared to touch Him because she wanted to be well and the moment her fingers reached His robe, she was healed. The healing was instantaneous and complete. So immediate that she had never touched Jesus in uncleanness!
It was impossible for the woman’s uncleanness to touch the one through whom Life was given! It was impossible for her to taint Christ’s holiness. Rather, His holiness flowed into her. She had touched Jesus in a state of faith, and in the state of faith, she was completely united with Him.
The truth is that everyone surrounding Jesus that day was unclean – unclean from sin. No one in the crowd was worthy of touching Jesus. But few understood, perhaps not even the disciples, that Jesus had the same authority over sin that He held over illness. I believe this is why there are so many stories of demonic deliverance in the scripture – to help us see the invisible reality that Jesus is Lord over the darkness in our heart. If we reach out to touch Him in faith, He will drive out the sin which plagues us. It is a spiritual principle written before time began – those who trust in the Son see the Father in glory!
I am grateful for this woman who suffered for twelve years in Palestine long ago! I am thankful for her faith in much the same way I am thankful for Mary’s faith. Both stories help me understand the “incomparably great power towards those who believe.” Mary in a unique way believed the word of God and was united with Him. Through her belief our Savior entered the world.
The woman with an issue of blood is more like me. She bore a shame which isolated her. Like that woman, I bear a history which I cannot change. But through her witness, I know that my history will give glory to God if I reach out to Jesus in faith. His power will flow into me, healing my soul so completely that it truly becomes spotless. This spotless glory is hope I could not imagine for years, though it is clearly written in scripture. I thought, perhaps, Jesus merely decreed us spotless in His mercy though facts bore witness otherwise. But Jesus cannot lie! We will truly be spotless because we will be filled with His holiness.
We are indeed saved by faith, but not the kind of faith I imagined as a child. Faith is not a mere assent to certain doctrines. That kind of faith has no transformative power at all! True faith is living and active. It is a call to our Creator which He cannot resist. God’s power will always flow into the heart which trusts in Him. Faith makes us brave, like our sister of old, bold to speak of our Savior. And best of all, faith causes the loving eyes of our Lord to gaze on the one who touched Him!