Touching Jesus

A retelling of Luke 8:43-48

One day Jesus was on His way to the house of a man whose daughter was gravely ill. As usual, a crowd followed and pressed around Him. In the midst of the throng was a woman who had been sick for 12 years with a constant flow of blood. All that time she had gone from one doctor to another, but without success. She had spent every bit of her money on doctors and had suffered much from their treatments, yet the bleeding continued.

Desperate, the woman thought, Oh, if I could touch Jesus, I know I would be healed!
Then, seeing Jesus afar off, she anxiously made her way toward Him. It wasn’t easy to get through the pushing, shoving mob of onlookers who were all trying to get as close to Jesus as they could, but she was driven by that thought. She just had to touch Him!

Finally she came within reach, stretched out her hand, and was able to barely touch the edge of His robe with her fingertips. Immediately the bleeding that had plagued her for so long stopped completely. A warm and wonderful feeling of health and well-being swept through her body. She knew that she was healed at last!

Jesus paused for a moment. He had felt healing power pass from Him. Turning to the crowd He asked, “Who touched Me?”

“With this crowd pressing around You,” His disciples replied, “You ask who touched You?”

But Jesus already knew who had touched Him. He turned to the astonished woman.

Still trembling with the realization of what had happened, she fell at His feet and told Him her story.

“Your faith has made you whole,” He told her. “Go in peace and be healed of your disease.” Touching His clothes hadn’t made her whole—her faith had.

That woman had put her little bit of faith into action, and the result has echoed down through the centuries: “Yourfaith has made you whole!”

There were probably several hundred people in that crowd, and surely many others also needed healing. What set this woman apart from them was that she believed with all her heart that Jesus could help her when all else had failed, so she acted on her faith. And the instant she made contact with Him, she was wonderfully healed.

“If I could touch Jesus, I know I would be healed!”

—

Matthew 20:25 NIV Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.

Matthew 20:29 NIV [Two Blind Men Receive Sight] [20:29-34pp — Mk 10:46-52; Lk 18:35-43] As Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him.

Matthew 20:30 NIV Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”