“She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, ‘If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.’” (Mark 5: 26-28)
I’ve seen this passage several times over the years and always thought of it as “just another miracle.” But one day something new occurred to me: this woman rejected the logic of the world, for the reason of God. She turned her back on common sense, and took a radical and dangerous step (being socially “unclean” as this woman was, and touching a “clean” man was a major deal, and she could have been in big trouble with the religious police).
The smart thing to do would be to continue with her treatments. Even though the doctors had failed to heal her, at least she was trying something. At least she was doing something. But this woman recognized a truth that most people that day were missing. She realized that there was something more to this world. She knew there was something special about this Jesus guy. She knew that doing exactly what the world prescribed to heal her was the worst course of action she could take.
So she came up with this idea that if she just touched him, somehow brushed against him, that would be all she would need to be healed.
Think about that for a moment. That’s completely ridiculous. If all of the world’s medicine wasn’t helping, why would touching some guy? But it did, and she was healed! It wasn’t until she did this radical thing – trusting in Jesus – that she was finally cured. Her faith, something not of this world, saved her.
How often do we follow the “common sense” path, even though it leads us to death? How often do we latch onto an idea and refuse to let go, even when it’s painfully obvious that it’s not working? Sometimes we need to make a radical decision. Sometimes we need to be revolutionary in our approach, because what the world is telling us to do just isn’t working.
