Touching

Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from Him, so He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched My robe?" His disciples said to Him, "Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can You ask, "Who touched me?" Matthew 9:30-31 Have we ever taken the time to ask the same question that His disciples asked? It was not a foolish question. Jesus was being pressed by, thronged by the crowd. Many people were touching Him, yet He asked specifically who the ONE was. Why? The crowd that followed Him had many motives for doing so. He was something of a celebrity. There was also the expected excitement. A lot happened wherever Jesus went. Many came with a desire that He do something for them, much more interested in getting something than getting Him. There was something much different about the woman who had suffered from menstrual bleeding for so long. It had rendered her unclean by Jewish law. Yes, she wanted healing, but I believe what set her apart from all the others is that she sought not only His healing, she sought Him. All the years of being shunned by the priests and people had left her desperate for the contact she felt she had lost with her God. I think the healing was secondary for her. She didn't want to just touch Him as all the others were doing. She wanted Him. She didn't want to just press in on Him, touch Him, and then move on. She sought an intimacy she must have felt she'd lost in all the years of being barred from public worship. She realized there was a great difference between touching Him for a moment and then moving on. She didn't want just the blessing. She desired the Person. Many commentators have agreed with this. It's what set her apart from all the others. Jesus knew it as well. He sensed a deep desire for a personal encounter with Him. Such passionate seeking can never be, will never be ignored by Him. So what's the lesson for you and I? When we come before Him, especially in what we call corporate worship, do we simply "press in on Him" for a few moments and then go on our way? Do we have our scheduled "touching base with Jesus" moment(s), or do we seek, deeply seek, to encounter Him as He is? As He longs for us to? There's a difference. The latter is what true worship is all about. Is it what we are all about....or do we just crowd around Him briefly and then move on? Jesus knows the difference. Do we? Most reading this will count themselves as His followers. If so, what are our motives? That of the crowd, or that of the woman? I believe most of the crowd that day went away from Him unchanged. Not so the woman. In our times with Him, individually and corporately, how will we emerge? Who will we most resemble? Blessings, Pastor O