Think back to the pandemic. It seems a life time ago and hard now to ponder what we gave up. Rightly gave up. But such a sacrifice – and possibly for many the greatest sacrifice was the loss of touch. Yes we could hug those we shared our homes with, but many do not share their homes. We could share the Peace in Church when it was opened for worship, but only by waving or signing – not by touching.
Indeed some churches have never gone back to shaking hands or hugging in church – not altogether a bad thing for those of us who are not ‘touchy-feely’. That said, there are many in our community who live alone and maybe see or hear from no-one outside of church. For them, to lose that physical contact must have been a dreadful thing. To be never touched in love.
The woman in the story touched the hem of Jesus’ robe – that’s all – but how immediate and how sensitive his response, physically and emotionally. Physically Jesus felt the power go out of him. Emotionally he responds to an outcast in need. The sensitivity of touch. The touch of God.
In some translations it’s actually the tassels she touches. The tassels of the rabbinic prayer shawl were believed to hold magical qualities. Either way – robe or shawl – Jesus was there on his way to see Jarius’ daughter, and the disciples were forming I guess a protective barrier around him as best they could; this woman, she feels her moment come, and she says ‘if I but touch his clothes, I will be made well;’ and she takes all her courage in her hands and reaches through the crowd, through the barrier of other people which is also a kind of protection for her – because no-one notices her, she’s just a poor woman – and she risks everything just to touch him – not even him, just the hem of his garment. The healing is immediate.
The world is full of people in need, full of people who are bleeding in one way or another, who really don’t know how to reach out, or who to reach out to. They feel embarrassed or think people will judge them. Some won’t dare to risk it; a few will. Often the church will try to protect God from them. Just as the disciples protected Jesus from those in need. But they couldn’t.
This woman broke through all of that.
I like this story for the enormous but undramatic courage of the woman – no swords, no martyrdom, no beautiful words spoken to a crowd, just a quiet resolution and faith enough to risk everything and touch Jesus. I like it too because the story also points to a quality we all know is present in Jesus for sure, but actually we don’t speak of very much – not directly – that is, his kindness.
Touch was integral to Jesus’ own ministry. Sometimes the examples that resonate the most are the ones where Jesus does not touch but allows himself to be touched. Here are the greater risks, the greater leaps of faith.
The story shows Jesus to be kind. It sounds almost mundane when I put it like that –. God is Love, capital L, God is omniscient, all knowing, omnipotent, all powerful; God is King, God is Lord, God is the Creator of the Universe – all of that and, yes, God is kind. And that is why I love this story – in a world where kindness is sometimes undervalued or dismissed as naivety, it reminds me that God is kind.
There is really big stuff going on in this story –Jesus will go on and raise a little girl from the dead. But it’s big stuff too that an unnamed nobody, the riff raff, an untouchable, can touch, actually touch the King of the universe. And not get shooed away. But be made whole. Everything else is nothing to Jesus at that moment.
She has been bleeding for twelve years. Remember the injunctions from Leviticus – “Whenever a woman has her menstrual period, she will be ceremonially unclean for seven days. Anyone who touches her during that time will be unclean until evening’. And the book goes on to give lots of details about how to avoid that impurity…..and so ‘guard the people of Israel from ceremonial uncleanliness‘ which would ‘defile’ the Tabernacle itself. The fear in essence is that God could, would, be made unclean by an unclean woman – but what Jesus shows us is that God cannot be made unclean; he makes clean – Just with a touch.
In language the idea of touch it is used to convey many things – people become touchy when they are over-sensitive, hurt or threatened; we describe people as out of touch when they are disconnected from what is happening culturally. We develop a fine touch when we acquire a sense of rapport or empathy or skill in a particular field. Touch is an integral part of worship through blessing, the laying on of hands, anointing, the foot washing liturgy, the Peace. Think back to Covid again – and what we missed; we couldn’t anoint or share the Peace, we couldn’t lay on hands in blessing, the bread we shared couldn’t be touched by me, but had to stay lidded until the last moment and until hands have been sanitised.
Touch is integral to the Church and for a while we surrendered it – I make no judgment, only an observation. Do we know what we lost?
Touch was integral to Jesus’ own ministry. Sometimes the examples that resonate the most are the ones where Jesus does not touch but allows himself to be touched. Here are the greater risks, the greater leaps of faith. When we reach out to God. Whether it is the woman who touches the hem of his cloak and is healed, the woman who anoints him with her tears, or Thomas trying to recover a destroyed faith by putting his finger into the wounds of the risen Christ.
Our society is rightly very sensitive about touch. It can be damaging, threatening and abusive. We must be careful. But we need to reflect on what we lost during those days of Covid, especially those people who live alone and who are seldom touched in a loving way, who maybe long for that physical hug on a Sunday morning. Touch can be damaging, threatening, and abusive, But, exercised in the context of sensitive sacramental or non-sacramental care and with appropriate boundaries it can be profoundly healing.
Our community is full of people who perhaps are never touched, and that is the measure of our atomised lives, and our sickness as a society. The woman who reached out to Jesus would not have been touched or have dared to touch for a very, very long time. She reaches down across the years, this unnamed woman, and reminds us of who we are, of who God is.
We have to be careful and appropriate, and recognise boundaries with touch but to become a community, a society, a body that can be a vehicle for the healing power of Christ we need somehow to reclaim the dignity of human touch.
We are who we are because God touched the world – that’s the Incarnation.
Amen
Just then, a woman who had suffered from bleeding for 12 years approached from behind and touched the tassel on His robe, for she said to herself, “If I can just touch His robe, I’ll be made well!”
Matthew 9: 20-21
Matthew 9:18-26 HCSB – A Girl Restored and a Woman Healed – As – Bible Gateway
Thank you for reading – I look forward to hearing your thoughts!