Matthew 9:20 A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years approached him from behind and touched the tzitzit on his robe. 21 For she said to herself, “If I can only touch his robe, I will be healed.” 22 Yeshua turned, saw her and said, “Courage, daughter! Your trust has healed you.” And she was instantly healed.
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Mark 5:25 Among them was a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years 26 and had suffered a great deal under many physicians. She had spent her life savings; yet instead of improving, she had grown worse. 27 She had heard about Yeshua, so she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his robe; 28 for she said, “If I touch even his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Instantly the hemorrhaging stopped, and she felt in her body that she had been healed from the disease. 30 At the same time, Yeshua, aware that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 His talmidim responded, “You see the people pressing in on you; and still you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 But he kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 The woman, frightened and trembling, because she knew what had happened to her, came and fell down in front of him and told him the whole truth. 34 “Daughter,” he said to her, “your trust has healed you. Go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
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Luke 8:42 As he went, with the crowds on every side virtually choking him, 43 a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and could not be healed by anyone, 44 came up behind him and touched the tzitzit on his robe; instantly her hemorrhaging stopped. 45 Yeshua asked, “Who touched me?” When they all denied doing it, Kefa said, “Rabbi! The crowds are hemming you in and jostling you!” 46 But Yeshua said, “Someone did touch me, because I felt power go out of me.” 47 Seeing she could not escape notice, the woman, quaking with fear, threw herself down before him and confessed in front of everyone why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. 48 He said to her, “My daughter, your trust has saved you; go in peace.”
Here we have a woman that has poor health and no money. Doesn’t this vaguely sound like most of the people you know?
She had sought out everyone she could to get some relief. But here we are, 12 years in and she’s still looking. She had surrendered all of her money to find a cure but every day, the blood came.
Now this miracle has received a lot of coverage about the healing from the garment, the amount of time she was ill, and her bold faith reaching out and touching a man in a culture that forbade that type of thing.
Instead of climbing down those veins, I’d like to consider another detail: the crowd.
Yeshua had clearly reached rock star status. The stories were flooding into every nook and cranny in the entire land. Think about that.
How long does it take for a nice juicy story to make its way into your ears? If you’re “well connected” you’re one of the firsts. Then how long does it take to leave your lips? About half the amount of time. But that’s only when it’s gossip. You know, when you’re tearing somebody down.
If it’s life though, we’re a bit slower to move. Telling a good story about someone just doesn’t have the weight that gossip has, does it? You may not mind speaking it but you’ll do it when we're sitting around in a casual setting. “Oh, by the way, did you hear that George got accepted for that missions trip?” but then we follow up with, “Yeah, I don’t know how he can afford to just take off like that.” Never miss a good opportunity, right?
You get the idea. Ok, back to our story.
Word is spreading like wildfire and this gossip is rooted in life. Specifically, healing -- getting us out of the negatives and back to zero on the health spectrum. From zero we are to then embrace true life and move well into the positives. This is the “go and sin no more” domain. People were desperate to get to zero, though. And zero is usually enough.
How did this “positive” gossip spread so quickly?
First, let’s sidetrack a little. Consider a sale that is happening at everyone’s favorite store. You don’t immediately tell others about it, right? You go down and buy all you want before letting other people know. You get to pick through the best deals then “gladly” share your amazing find. Similarly, if you knew this Guy could heal your ailment, wouldn't you want to get there before the line forms and you get shuffled to the back, maybe even missing your chance for healing altogether?
But it appears everyone knew about that amazing sale and all rushed down to the store to get theirs right away.
But was it the news of the sale that people were talking about? Maybe not.
Ok, so why would the idea of healing spread? Seems obvious on the surface: people want to get better. True. But this is also scandalous. Word has likely spread a little more quickly about the Torah-teachers that sat back and said nothing all these times. Or when they did speak, they were ticked that it violated their rules. Like I said, scandalous.
This information about healing was perhaps the side story to what really made its way throughout the land. Keep in mind there was no Instagram or Twitter. Word traveled by foot, not by light.
Which do you think spreads more quickly?
“You can go get healed by this Guy with no medical training whatsoever, no Rabbinical certification, and oh yeah, He’s from Nazareth.”
or
“Hey, there’s this Guy that has the Torah-teachers left speechless! They say He spoke up to them and embarrassed them in front of a whole crowd. Want to go see Him?”
I’m not saying this is what happened, but people do find more satisfaction in other people’s troubles than their own successes so I don’t think this is a far reach.
So word is out and the people have arrived.
Just a few weeks in, the crowd is so large and powerful it is creating a pressure from all sides:
“As he went, with the crowds on every side virtually choking him…”
Packed!
In America, people love their personal space so we don’t have much context for what this was like. But if you’ve been to a German Christmas Market, you may have a slightly better idea.
This may not look all that crowded to you but we were at a market once where you wedged into the flow of people and it took you where the crowd went. This was an incredibly odd experience.
The point here is that being tucked tightly into a massive crowd means just about every inch of your body will be in direct contact with someone or something. So when His garment is touched, Peter tries to run a sanity check on his Master:
“Rabbi! The crowds are hemming you in and jostling you!”
But as we know, it wasn’t an exchange of nerve-endings between two people Yeshua is addressing. He’s addressing an exchange of something completely different.
Think about all those people that wanted to be healed. The ones bumping into Him didn’t get what this woman got. Why?
Weren’t they all just as excited and trusting? Word is out and it’s confirmed to be true (for some, at least). They were all waiting for their turn to get in front of this Man, and waiting somewhat impatiently. Couldn’t they be healed just by bumping into Him? Of course. But they weren’t. Why?
They thought they understood the process. Checkboxes, if you will. The idea of having faith was nowhere in their understanding of how Abba works. The religious leaders had done a fabulous job “teaching” people how God worked. And all roads lead to Rome -- meaning all engagement with Him had to go through them. Besides, what do stupid lowly people know about God? Don’t they know it takes wise and learned men to come before Him?
Many years of conditioning has these people eager but completely unaware that simply trusting was enough. Which means you end up with people that are desperate but have no idea how to trust. They can come alongside Him and even get close enough to rub against His robe -- but never reach out to touch it.
Flocking to Him can bring great joy and excitement but waiting in line for Him to pay attention to you isn’t really part of the formula. Unless, of course, you are content waiting (or afraid to be healed).
Most of us think Abba is as busy as we are. You know, running hurricanes, tornadoes and all in order to bring judgment on people. And when He gets a moment, He just wants to be left alone. He needs to play some video games and scroll Instagram for a while just to unwind.
But He’s nothing like us. He knows what is actually important. Genesis 2 says that His creation itself will produce on its own so He isn’t managing those natural disasters full-time. He also has no interest in wasting His time on things that don’t matter. He’s looking for only one thing: you.
The trouble is that we love hiding in plain sight. Someone looking from the sidelines will see us supposedly walking closely with our God.
But are we truly seeking Him or just following the crowd? You also don’t need to wait for the religious professionals to grant you permission.
It’s ok if you reach out and grab hold of His garment. The blood, uh life, may stop leaving your body if you do.