Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell the same story of Jesus and the woman who had suffered for 12 years with the “issue of blood.” [Matt 9, Mark 5, Luke 8]
According to Leviticus 15, this woman would be unclean, and would continue to be unclean until her issue stopped. Anything and anyone who touched her would be made unclean. She would be isolated, unable to enter the temple. The Gospel writers tell us that she tried everything known to physicians of her day. The only thing accomplished was that she became poor in the process … all her livelihood went to finding a healing that was never found.
Until the day she heard about the man of God, Jesus of Nazareth. She determined to venture out into the crowd and get close enough to touch Him (a daring adventure for one unclean). “She thought, ‘If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.’” [Mark 5:28 NIV]
That is exactly what happened. She touched Jesus and she was made clean. The word used for “touch” is haptomai (hap’-tom-ahee) and means “to attach oneself to.” Her touch was intentional, not accidental. Jesus recognized that and immediately began to question who touched Him. The disciples, of course, thought He was crazy. He’d been jostled by the crowds all day and now he was asking, “Who touched me?”
Jesus recognized and responded to this woman’s desperate, deliberate touch. Are we as desperate as this woman to “attach [our]self to” Jesus? Are we deliberately reaching out to touch Him? Maybe we should be even more desperate, even more deliberate as we seek the Presence of our Lord!
