"WHO TOUCHED ME?"

Catacombes of Rome

Over 1500 years old art

Mark 5:24-34
  

And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. Now there was a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.’ Immediately her haemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ And his disciples said to him, ‘You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, “Who touched me?” ’ He looked all round to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.’

The Gospel passage above is one of my favorites from amongst my rather large collection of favorites of stories from the Gospels.  In the account, Jesus knew that healing power had gone out from him, but he did not know who was healed.  What a delightful paradox which, to me, shows that Jesus was fully human, just like us, and he did not posses all knowledge.  At the same time, the passage also demonstrates how how closely Jesus was tuned in to the movement of the Holy Spirit, as we perhaps could also be if we were more attentive.

The woman was unclean, an outcast, for 12 years, and when she touched Jesus, he became unclean, too, unfit for company and unfit to enter the synagogue.  Yet, Jesus calls her daughter; he welcomes her as a member of his family.  We see Jesus, in the spirit of love and compassion, once again break through the barriers of the law. 
 
Image from Wikipedia.
Source: http://campus.belmont.edu/honors/CatPix/womanblood.jpg