[AI translation] This story begins sadly! What a sad life this woman must have had! Outsiders can hardly imagine how much suffering, how much anguish, how much pain there really is behind the short news that "for twelve years...", and that "she has suffered a lot from many doctors", and that "she has not improved...". And what's more, he had a condition which, at the time, he was ashamed of, he couldn't talk about or complain about. It was a life of complete abandonment, a life of bleeding, slowly drained of its vitality, of bitterness of soul. What this woman would not have given to be free of this misery, if she had not had to keep secrets, if she could live a normal human life again, if she could walk among men with her head held high again, as she had done twelve years ago! But he had tried everything, he had spent all his wealth on himself - in vain!It is terrible when such a secret misery is hidden in a human life! And oh, how many human lives hide some secret misery! Almost every human soul has a secret wound somewhere hidden, that hurts - oh, it hurts so much! - that bleeds through its whole life, that it would be oh, so good to get rid of! Doctors, clergymen, psychiatrists - when they talk to a man so thoroughly - could perhaps tell him, if they were allowed to tell him, how much spiritual blood is sometimes shed by an indifferent look! Just a few pictures from the pastor's diary: a radiant young girl - one can almost feel how happy and proud this soul is in the consciousness of its young beauty - one cannot imagine that such a person's soul could bleed like that! And yet she bleeds. Cruelly! From a very, very deep wound! Or: an envied beauty, with a world-famous scientist husband, and the same sorrow is eating away at her soul, bittering her life, as is the case in every pulp novel. A tough, storm-tossed man, like a pillar of granite, a reliable support for many, many people, no one would believe he has tears - but he does, and sometimes he secretly cries, as bitterly as an orphaned child! Or: a man full of cheerfulness, full of humour, serenely balanced, typically picnic-like, and only a practised ear can sense from a hidden word that his soul is bleeding... I read somewhere the other day that a clinic had opened in America to treat patients suffering from love-sickness. Every room in the clinic is booked for two years in advance! How many unhappy people there are in the world! How many bleeding lives! And who can help them? Us? We have excellent doctors, but no one can cure the bleeding soul! We have wonderful instruments, but no one can operate on the prisoner soul! We have giant cranes - I am amazed when I see the construction of the Elizabeth Bridge - but they cannot lift the burden of the soul! We have beautiful, scientific theories, but they are of little use with the anxiety of conscience... Is there really no help?
Look, the story goes on, "And when he heard of Jesus, he went behind him in the crowd, and touched his garment." This woman also heard something about Jesus. What did she hear? Obviously that he has miraculous power, that he is not disgusted by unclean lives, by bleeding wounds! If Jesus really is who He says He is, who He says He is, then He can help, we must get to Him now by all means! We must reach out to Him! He must be touched! Now! But perhaps the most inopportune moment is now. He's called to a dying man. A desperate father urges her to come quickly, quickly, before his child dies! He cannot wait any longer! And he was right. Jesus did not say to him, "Oh, leave me now, I'm busy, come another time, I must hurry! Jesus always has time for everyone. He never says to anyone that he is busy with bigger things, that he has no time to bother about small individual matters: no! Jesus is indeed a wonderful Someone who takes the fateful questions of world politics or the cosmic order of the Milky Way systems to heart, as much as the secret sigh of a desolate, sick woman. In this small scene, we glimpse something of the incomprehensible mystery that Jesus is truly close to everyone, everywhere, at every moment! For you, too, he is just a touch away! He can be reached with a soft cry for help! If he had a medical signboard, it would read something like this: 'The blessed doctor! The specialist in all diseases! Reception: day and night, without prior appointment. Free appointment! He paid the price himself!"
Yes: this woman must have heard something like that from Jesus. Don't you always hear things like that about Jesus? How many times have you heard that Jesus really helped this or that, healed this, comforted that, loosed one from his bonds, reconciled another to his fate... Why don't you come to Him with your troubles, as so many others have? Why don't you come close to Him and touch Him as this woman did? "He went round the back of the multitude, and touched her garment." Just one touch! But in this touch there was the cry of a struggling heart without sound, this touch was like a humble supplication. Not like the squeezing of a crowd, not an accidental, unthinking touch, a touch born of sheer physical closeness, of drifting: in that touch there was a soul! There was the timid but determined faith of a trembling heart! In that touch was the determination to be healed at all costs. You can do it too! You can do it now!
This woman thought to herself: if I can only touch her dress, I will be cured! And she was right! Because you know what the point of this touch was? This woman was considered unclean by the Mosaic Law because of her sickness. Everything she touched or who touched her became unclean. And yet this woman touched Jesus, despite all the prohibitions, and by touching him she made him unclean. This was the very healing for her! True healing is always found in putting my own sinful uncleanness on Jesus, so that I myself may become clean. Like letting Jesus take the punishment for my sins, consciously accepting that I had put Him on the cross with my own wickedness! If one touches Jesus in this way, one is most certainly healed! He must be healed! If we truly believe that Jesus is here, then something must happen in us, in our contact with Him: our tears must dry up, our hearts must be purified, our bitterness and despair must become hope, our weary limbs and souls must be filled with heavenly strength.
So let us dare to come to Jesus with the determination and the exalted desire of this woman who said to herself, "If I touch his garment, I shall be healed!" Perhaps this woman was encouraged to touch by an old Old Testament memory of a similar miracle that had already happened once, when a man was buried and laid in the tomb of the prophet Elisha, and when the body touched Elisha's corpse, the dead man came to life. (cf. 2 Kings 13) And here we have not a dead prophet, but a living Saviour, the earthly centre of God's heavenly power, the mysterious One in whom the full power of God's redeeming love is revealed! In Whom God has revealed Himself, so that all may have access to this heavenly energy, be filled with Him! How can this precious power not be healing when one touches it. Oh, how little this woman knew about Jesus, but it was enough to be healed by Him! We now know much more: we know that the divine power at work in her made sin harmless, defeated Satan, broke death, opened eternity! And we are allowed to touch not only His garment, but His heart: Himself!
"And immediately the fountain of His blood was dried up, and He felt in His flesh that He was healed of His affliction! And Jesus immediately perceived in himself that divine power was flowing out of him." Such is true faith, such is true prayer: spiritual contact, an outstretched hand with which our soul touches Jesus, the source of heavenly power. To pray in faith is to grasp the redemptive power of Christ and make it part of my new life. Whoever touches Jesus in this way with his faith and prayer, and the healing power of Jesus flows into his heart, into his daily struggles, into the performance of his tasks, heavenly powers begin to become visible in his life. Let us dare to touch Jesus with such faith! Let us say to Him: Lord, I too have heard many times that You are alive, that it is possible to come into contact with You. I do not see You, but now I stretch out my faith as a hand towards You, into the invisible world, and by touching You, I gain healing and spiritual health from You in my innermost being!
Many believers do this every day and that is how they gain forgiveness of sins, and strength over temptations, and overcoming their fears, and victorious Christian living! Someone might say, "But that takes a lot of faith! Well: no! This woman didn't have much faith either! In fact, she had something quite strange, almost superstitious faith. She expected a miracle from the touch of Jesus' garment as a relic. And behold: Jesus does not even reject this perverted faith! He accepts this too. He blesses that too! In faith, it is not important whether the wire is big or small, just as it is not important whether the wire is thin or thick when it conducts electricity, but whether it is in contact! The contact! Start with as much faith as you have! Jesus can also use that to pour His divine power into your life to start something new in you today! His promise is sure: "Whoever comes to me I will in no way cast out!"
Finally, "And the woman, knowing what was done to her, went fearfully and trembling, and fell down before him, and told him all things in truth." This is the most blessed moment when a man comes face to face with Jesus and tells Him "all things truly"! He unveils all the secrets of his soul, unveiled and honest. Because at some point, everyone has to be honest, has to come out from behind the mask... Look at me! - that's what our father used to say to us when we were feeling guilty. The eyes have a hard time lying. The eyes tell us what the mouth dare not say. "Look at me," says Jesus. Why? To be truly honest! Look into my eyes - and tell me everything, everything! Everything that's in your heart, that hurts, that hurts you, that you've never told anyone! You can tell him! Before him, you can be who you are. And then Jesus will say to you what he said to this woman: 'Your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be healed of your trouble." In other words: be sure that you are truly healed, be convinced that you are now truly a different person going forward from here! And don't be ashamed of what happened in secret between you and Jesus. Tell others how you have experienced His healing power to encourage them. People need Him! - Go in peace! With the peace of the testimony of a healed life.
Amen!
Date: 31 May 1964.
Lesson
Mk 5,22-34