Along came Jesus, surrounded by a crowd. Something within the woman told her the answer to her need was Jesus. If she could just get close to Him, if she could reach out and touch Him, she'd be healed. So, that's what she did. She pushed and forced her way through the crowd and reached out for Jesus, refusing to be stopped by the people who stood between them.
But I think we, in the day and age we live in, lose sight of part of what happened here. We get the crowd aspect to an extent. The gathering was so packed and full that when Jesus asked who touched Him, the disciples were like, Are you kidding? Everyone is pushing and jostling us and each other and there are so many people we can't turn around without bumping into someone, and You are seriously asking who touched you? It must've been somewhat like attempting to identify which rain drop got you wet in a particular spot or moment.
So, yes, it was a major accomplishment to push through such a crowd and get to Jesus. But it's also much more than that. First, she didn't start from the middle of the gathering or as part of the throng This wasn't like having a fourth row spot at a concert and pushing your way to the stage. It was more like walking into the building during the encore song and pushing from the far end of the crowd all the way to the stage, past security (the disciples), and onto the stage to touch the star. She was not a part of the crowd. She wasn't allowed to be. She started this journey from the outside, and her time was short, because Jesus wasn't standing there preaching. He was passing by.
But here is the main thing we miss. Those religious folks in that crowd didn't want her there. If they noticed her pushing past them, they would curse her, hurt her, grab her and rebuke her for daring to rub shoulders with them. She knew her place, and in the midst of their crowd was most certainly not it. They were clean. She was not. She shouldn't be there at all, much less trying to push her way into and through their very midst. If they cast her back out, what would she do then? Still, with the desperation of the drowning, she sought Jesus.
Maybe, if you are like me, you can identify with her a little more now. Something within us is broken, and we are in need. Our soul cried out that we need Jesus, but when we look for Him, it seems He is surrounded by people who don't, won't, perhaps can't, accept our presence, much less us. We've been in the gutter. We are nasty and dirty and unclean. We know the disease of self and the stain of sin has made us unworthy to be in the presence of good people. We don't belong there with them. And those are our feelings and thoughts that keep us outside the crowd around Jesus.
We haven't begun to address the crowd. Those religious folks who just know they are clean and better than us. The people who judge us and condemn us for not healing ourselves, for not just grabbing our boot straps and pulling ourselves up and fixing ourselves. Those people who look at us like we're abominations that shouldn't be breathing the same air as them and who begin to look at each other with whispering eyes the moment we draw near.
Those kind of doubts and fears, those kinds of people and attitudes, and worse, are what that woman pressed through that day. And the coolest thing to me is that out of all those people, she was the only one who got healed, the only one who received a special touch from Jesus. Who knows how many people got to say later that they touched Him in the crowd? I have no idea, but only one went on from there to be able to say she were touched by Him.
If she had kept her place, if she had allowed the people who stood and gathered between her and Jesus to keep her from drawing near, if she had tried to wait until she could figure out how to make herself clean enough to approach Jesus, she would never have been healed and never made clean. We can't fix ourselves. We can't make ourselves clean or whole. We need Him to do it. And like the woman who bled, we need to dare to pursue Jesus, pushing past our doubts and fears and insecurities and awareness of our uncleanness and unworthiness, and refusing to let the religious and the self-righteous be a barricade between us and Him. It's not about who we are, or who we've been, or about what the so-called good people think about us, or how they react to our presence and treat us. It's about reaching Jesus. It's about being the one He responds to and touches because He touches those who understand they need Him, who see their own need, and He gets close to those who are desperate for Him. Those others? The ones who mistakenly think they are good, or good enough? The ones who think they are OK. Those folks are the ones He is passing by.
Today, let us not stand on the outside wishing to be made whole but allowing our need to become the reason we can't go into the presence of the Lord. And let us not ever be one of the crowd who fails to see their own uncleanness and need. But let us be the ones who push through every obstacle, within and without, to get to Jesus. Let us be the ones desperate for Him. Because when we are, He will stop and take the time to touch us, to single us out as special to Him and to make us clean and whole.
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