Tuesday, March 13, 2012

"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

6 comments:

  1. Preach it Grandmere. A perfect sermon.

    Joel asks if he can borrow it, for the next time he is privileged to preach on this gospel... !?

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  2. Thanks, margaret. Tell Joel that I would be honored.

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  3. "breaking through the barriers of the law" . . . to love the ones everybody else sneers at and says are unclean, nasty, unmentionable . . . not our kind. Your little meditation reminds me that Jesus broke a lot of laws, didn't He?

    And the Pharisees, the lovers of all those neat, tidy rules and regulations, didn't like it a bit - and they still don't.

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  4. Russ, there could be a lesson in there for a good many of us, right? ;-)

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  5. This is just my own personal take on this story, but I interpret it as "Jesus Heals the Woman Who (He Knew Had) Had a Botched Abortion".

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  6. Thanks so much for the post. I am looking forward to my preschool class tomorrow. Yes, preschool. The art is the best part thanks for including.

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