To Touch the Cloak of Jesus
For the last week our TV has been selecting the channels we are able to watch! I turn to BBC and it says “no signal” and yet when I go through the channels Spark TV is fine….great news for Harriet, but not so wonderful news for me, whose Luganda is basic to say the least. But the other night both BBC and Spark had “no signal” and so we trawled channels which I hadn’t even realised amongst our package. At last, there was a flicker on the screen and “Record TV” burst into our living room. It was showing a drama about the women who had been bleeding for many years, and had ultimately been healed through touching the cloak of Jesus…. The subject of our message today! But actually, the story on the TV was not so much about the healing from her bleeding, but rather about how this sickness had caused her to separate from her husband and be ostracized by her wider community…. Nobody wanted to associate with her! Chantal, my daughter, was transfixed and, despite it being past our 10pm bedtime… we stayed up a little longer to watch the end. We all know the healing story…. she touched the cloak of Jesus…. and was healed. BUT alongside this physical healing was also the relationship healing between herself, and her community, her family, and indeed her husband, with the drama closing with the couple hand in hand watching children playing.
OK, all a bit mushy and sentimental, but I had been praying about what to share in this message… and God said…. I’ve shown you this story… read the passage and then talk about it… and so here I am talking to you about “Touching the Cloak of Jesus”
Matthew 9 v 18 - 26
18 While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.
20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”
22 Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.
23 When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, 24 he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. 25 After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. 26 News of this spread through all that region.
If we look back in the chapter, we see that all this started as Jesus was finishing a meal at the house of Mathew – the writer of this gospel – just after he had left his tax collectors booth to follow Jesus. Of course, the associates of Mathew at that time were not the sort of people the “proper” religious people, and even the other disciples of Jesus, felt he should be mixing with:
Mathew 9 v 10 - 11
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
And Jesus gives the wonderful answer:
Mathew 9 v 13b For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners
But this is a text for another sermon.
Anyway, at the end of this nice meal a synagogue leader comes in and knelt before Jesus to ask Jesus to bring his daughter back to life, as she had just died. Quite a request, but it shows you the faith and expectancy that was already building amongst people in regard to Jesus.
Jesus got up, left and went following the Rabbi, but as he was moving through the street a women came up behind him and touched his cloak. In the description of this event in Matthew, Jesus just turns around and tells the women she has been healed because of her faith. BUT, in the Luke narrative of the same event we get a little more detail of what actually happened.
Let’s read all the Luke narrative so that we are fully informed:
Luke 8:43-48
43 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years,[a] 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.”
From Luke we find out that the crowd was pushing against Jesus and many people could have touched Him, but Jesus knew that one person had touched him with a purpose…. “He had felt the power go out of him”.
Luke 8 v 47
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.
I think there are a few important facts to notice in this extra detail which Luke gives:
The women realized that she could not go unnoticed – This was an important fact for the women because of the rule given in Leviticus 15 v 25: 25 “‘When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge, just as in the days of her period. This poor lady had been bleeding for 12 years and hence, by Jewish law had been unclean and untouchable for all this time. It must have been a very hard and lonely existence.
And because of this law and her long isolation she was well known within the community and hence the writers of the gospel knew what problem she had. Hence both start their stories with the fact that…. “There was a women who had been suffering from bleeding for 12 years”
This is also why she came with “trembling” and fell at the feet of Jesus. She had touched him, made him unclean(?), and this confession in-front of all the people. What would be the consequence?
But, as always, Jesus seeks to draw in, and love, those who would normally be rejected by people. I love the way his response is stated in the Matthew passage
Matthew 9 v 22
22 Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.
To look into the face of Jesus is always such a life changing experience. However, you are feeling today…. On top of the world….or passing through the deepest valley….. close your eyes…. and in your “minds-eye” look into the face of Jesus…. You may see joy…. You may see sadness…. But you will always see LOVE
Luke 22 v 61
61 The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter.
All Peter could see in that face was LOVE, a love he had just denied 3 times… and he wept bitterly.
This is brilliantly put in the old hymn written by Helen Lemmel over 70 years ago:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace
The lady was instantly healed, and in both passages Jesus states that it is due to her faith that she was healed.
And this is where I want to close, as both people in our Mathew passage, the synagogue leader with the child who had died, and the women who had been bleeding for 12 years, both sought to contact Jesus in FAITH that He could change a hopeless situation in their lives. Both had to overcome their fears – the synagogue leader kneeling before a man who was mixing with sinners, and the women risking that she would be noticed and even attempting to touch Jesus’ cloak as she was unclean.
Yes, faith does require us to step out from our comfort zones at times, but as we do this with Jesus as our focus, we have nothing to fear. People may look, people may point, gossip may start….but it is our faith in JESUS CHRIST AS OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR that will see us through.
Matthew 9 v 24 to 25
He (Jesus) said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they (the mourners) laughed at him. 25 After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up.
Matthew 9 v 22
And the woman was healed at that moment
From Peter’s message last week concerning the timing of God, we know that the workings of God in response to our requests, might not be instant, as they were in the case of the two people in our passage today. But this should not stop our FAITH FOR THE MOMENT
NOW is the time to reach out and “TOUCH THE CLOAK OF JESUS”!
PRAYER
Questions to ponder
Let’s start with the difficult one – why do you think God allows people to suffer through illness and loss? – There is not a simple answer, but thinking about the problem and sharing with others will help to clarify our thinking.
How do we respond to people who have been ostracized from community life for one reason or another? Can we show love to the unlovely?
Share testimonies of prayers answered in your lives – small things, big things, it doesn’t matter, and what roll did faith play?
Thanks and God Bless!
