When We are the Crowd... (July 8, 2009)

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

"You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?' "

But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." (Mark 5:24b-34; NIV)

How many are there within the walls of the church who listen to the sermons, sing along with the worship music, and bow their heads for the prayers, yet who are not present in faith? How often do we who profess to follow Jesus "press around" and "crowd against" him (see verse 24 and 31), yet fail to touch him in faith?

I don't think this is just a story about the woman; I think it may be a story also about the crowd. So many are present with Jesus in this scene - perhaps jostling him, bumping up against him, and gathering around him, thrilled by his miracles. And yet in this part of the account, one woman is especially highlighted who was most truly present, who truly touched Jesus.

A multitude was crowding around Jesus, but the healing that this passage recounts comes when one woman touches him in faith.

Let us not simply crowd around Jesus in our churches, prayers, or Bible studies, but let us touch him in faith, knowing that in him is healing; in him is life!