Question:
How do you touch Jesus today? How can He help
us when He’s in heaven?
Answer:
By Faith ONLY!
Example: Mark 5: 25-34
A certain Woman, that is, a woman who was well known, had been
suffering from chronic bleeding for 12 years. In that day and culture
and in the Hebrew religion, the woman was not allowed out in public.
She
could legally be stoned to death for being seen out in public. We can
deduce that everyone knew her and knew about her problem.
But this woman had been ill and ostracized from society all those
years and she had spent all her money going to one doctor after
another,
trying to find a cure. The Bible tells us in one short sentence, when
she had heard of Jesus, she came into the crowd behind him and touched
his garment. This woman risked death to get to Jesus and with all the
courage and resolve she could muster, she reached out and actually had
the temerity to touch Jesus.
Today, in modern society, that doesn’t seem like much of a problem.
Today’s woman goes where she wants and has no qualms about reaching out
to touch whatever she cares to touch. But for that Jewish Capurnaum
woman, going among a crowd of people and touching a man while suffering
from her particular afflication was more horrible than anything the
most
reprehensible deviant today could ever dream up.
The woman must have truly been desperate. Jesus, according to what
she had heard of him, was her only hope. She knew only one thing and
focused on that one thing in her mind and said it out loud, "If I may
touch but his clothes, I shall be whole." And that is exactly what
happened. Without Jesus needing to exert any effort or even seeing the
woman, that certain woman was healed and made whole from that moment.
For us to experience that type of miracle today should be much
easier. We don’t have the religious taboos and paralyzing traditions
and
superstitions which were in place then to stop that woman. We have
Jesus
at hand in almost every household, encompassed between the leather
covers of our Bibles, because (as the Bible speaks of itself) Jesus IS
the Word. We have Jesus’ Holy Spirit which was given to us when He
could
no longer remain physically here on earth. We have the precious Name of
Jesus which Peter and John and Paul proved to us was enough to heal. We
have Jesus’ Blood, shed by the laying on of stripes - whipping - and we
know now from The Word written in Isaiah and Peter both that "By His
Stripes, we are healed."
The one thing which we lack, which should be simple to us, is our own
belief - FAITH - which we should have in all that which has been
provided for us by our Father, God, and which has been secured for us
by
our Lord, Jesus.
How do we touch Jesus then? We must first define exactly what Jesus
means when He says, "touch".
During the time all of this was happening, Jesus was surrounded by
people. For whatever reason each of those individual persons were
there,
curiosity had to have been a prominant factor. After all, this man had
been reported to have performed miracles! Regardless of how we may
picture the historical days of Jesus, miracles were not an everyday
occurrence. Whether or not anyone else in that crowd needed healing,
they would certainly have enjoyed seeing a miracle happen, so they
could
have a story to tell.
So Jesus was being jostled and bumped into from every direction. The
apostles probably did as much as they could to protect him, but they
certainly couldn’t have been as efficient as the body guards of the
president or one of today’s rock stars. Also, Jesus was the walking
epitomy of what we know now as the "fruits of the spirit" (Galatians
6:22) He was gracious, merciful, kind and patient. He didn’t mind being
touched or jostled by those poor lost people he had been sent to save
and whom he regarded as His own children.
When Jesus stopped and asked, "Who touched my clothes?" You can
imagine the astonishment of his disciples. This is one of the places in
the Word where I always enjoy a spiritual chuckle at the disciples’
expense. What could they say to Jesus’ question? "Ah - Master, there’s
about 100 people who have managed to get to you in about the last
minute
alone!" Obviously, Jesus knew that. He was probably bruised from all
the
"Touching."
We have to conclude that Jesus meant something else by the word,
"Touch." As the writer of the book of Mark tells us, Jesus immediately
knew that someone had drawn from his power, his annointing, in some
other way. Someone - he didn’t know if it was man or woman yet - had
touched him, not by any physical means, but by their own annointing -
their belief in God - their FAITH.
As always, when we go to the Word, we have to guard against
interpreting events on a physical basis. As we learn and grow in the
Word, we become more and more aware of the ability to "See", "Hear",
"Taste", "Smell" and "Touch" with the Spirit. Whether or not the woman
who was healed was aware of it, she had allowed her spiritual body to
have control of her physical body through her belief in God and through
her resolve to focus entirely on Jesus and through her words. This
woman
then became a disciple of Jesus by His own guidelines. In Matthew 7, we
learn to our horror that not everyone who calls Jesus, "Lord" will
enter
into the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of the Father in
heaven.
What is the Father’s will? We have it all conveniently written down
in both the Old and New Testaments of God, but Jesus put it this way in
Matthew 7:12 "Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should
do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the
prophets."
Then Jesus went on to further explain, in Matthew 7:13 "Enter ye in at
the strait gate…" In other words, the way to the kingdom of heaven is
hard. Obeying and Believing and Receiving are HARD! You’ve got to be
willing to risk your very life as well as your dignity, your
reputation,
your money, your social standing, your comfortable way of life, your
family, your earthly idea of happiness. Just as that Woman in Capernaum
did, you’ve got to be willing to put it all on the line in order to get
to Jesus.
But what is your reward? Wholeness. Your reward is the wholeness and
peace that only God can give.
In Hebrew, the very word, "Peace" - "Shalom", is taken from the
Hebrew word, "Whole" - "Shalem" The two words are essentially
synonymous. God intends that we be made whole, that we obtain
completeness, peace, spiritual maturity, perfection, by giving
ourselves
totally to getting to Jesus - Any Way we Can. Then we can see the
miracles manifested by "touching" Jesus, our spirits with His, by
Faith.
Jesus doesn’t even have to look at us or speak to us. We’ve experienced
the Joy that comes from OUR belief in the very presence of Jesus,
through His Word and His Holy Spirit. We KNOW when we open our Bibles
to
honestly seek Him- God’s Word to us - that we are touching even more
than the hem of his garment. In our own moment of Faith, we are
touching
Jesus’ heart.
In obedience to the Holy Spirit and to the Glory of God,
Merrellee Moore - July 4, 1999
