A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years
with constant bleeding, and she could find no cure. Coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of his
robe. Immediately, the bleeding stopped. “Who
touched me?” Jesus asked.
Everyone denied it, and Peter said, “Master, this whole crowd is
pressing up against you.” But
Jesus said, “Someone
deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.” Luke 8:43-46 (NLT)
Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his
spirit. At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of
the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had
died were raised from the dead. They left the cemetery after Jesus’ resurrection,
went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people.
The Roman officer and the other soldiers at the
crucifixion were terrified by the earthquake and all that had happened. They said, “This man truly was the Son of God!”
Matthew 27:50-54 (NLT)
I never thought about the
connection before this morning. These
two events are so connected; they show what happens in the presence of Jesus.
A woman, desperate to end a twelve-year
struggle to regain physical health (as well as social and spiritual wholeness),
touches Jesus; in the faith that reaches out to touch, power is released and
the woman is made whole.
Sometime later, at the cross,
Jesus released possession of the life of his incarnate body and it touched everything
in sight; the earth shook, rocks split and tombs could no longer contain the
long-dead bodies…they got up and walked the streets of Jerusalem!
In the case of the woman, there
is one final, desperate attempt to find life again. In that ancient culture it was unacceptable
for a woman to simply touch a man in public.
And with her continual bleeding, she was “impure,” an outcast, unfit to
worship or interact with others. She was
risking everything to touch a rabbi, a “holy man”. But she was releasing it all in faith to
touch Jesus – and she received; his healing power was released.
On Golgotha’s cross, Jesus did
the releasing (of his spirit into the Father’s keeping). That so-affected the surrounding natural
environment, rocks couldn’t hold together, the temple’s curtain-wall split and
graves vacated. And the guards trembled!
The
Connection
In both events people involved, the
woman and Roman guards were trembling; the woman, before being
touched, was trembling in faith; the soldiers afterward were
trembling in fear.
And that is always the difference
between faith and sight. When you
tremble in faith, it is the expectant, desperate need to be in Christ’s will
and care that results in being touched by His power – that’s when joy turns
trembling into healing.
When you tremble in fear it is
because you’ve not entrusted yourself to His power, and you’re simply
overwhelmed by how wide the gap is between the power you thought you had,
and what you’ve witnessed is God’s reality.
For You, Today…
Here you are at
another moment of choice – life is full of ‘em, eh?
Which to you
want to be today?
Like
the woman: powerless, but touched by
infinite power;
Or
like the soldier: in-charge, but
ultimately powerless to do anything but watch?
Should be a no-brainer if your heart belongs to
Jesus.
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