"Who Touched Me?" (45)

If I asked you to bring up an image of Jesus in your mind, what would be the first? Would it be a recent one like an image at church or an image when you were young like a picture in your children's Bible? The image that comes to my mind is a very large image, a crafted mural-like masterpiece that Mom put together. I would see it often when I visited the fellowship hall in the lower level of Open Bible. It wasn't an action image nor an image of Jesus showing his suffering. It was only his face.

But reading Luke 8, my image of Jesus begins to move and take new shape almost in every sentence. It becomes an image that almost can't take shape in one frame but must be shot multiple times, just starting to break the surface of what the true image of Jesus is. Read Luke 8:40-56.

40 Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him. 41 Then a man named Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house 42 because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying.

As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. 43 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. 44 She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.

45 “Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”

46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”

47 Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. 48 Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

49 While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher any more.”

50 Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.”

51 When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother. 52 Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,” Jesus said. “She is not dead but asleep.”

53They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. 54 But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!” 55 Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. 56 Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.

While reading, what questions did you ask yourself? The crowds nearly crushed Jesus? Why did Jesus really ask 'Who touched me'"? What was Jesus' reaction to the people laughing at him? What gets to me the most is Jesus is the one who does the touching, healing, laying on of hands, but this is the only time that Jesus offers involuntarily healing and questions someone touching him.

The Word of God is amazing, so much that I had to read this several times. Continue to read and refocus on the true image of Jesus and not a man-made image of what we want Jesus to be or to look like.

45 days!