The Hem of His Garment

I'd like to tell you the story of a woman.  I don't know her name; in fact it's quite likely that most people who passed her on the street didn't know her name either - and didn't care to know it.  Those who did know her most assuredly tried to avoid her if at all possible; perhaps her own family had abandoned her.  She had no money and she was very ill; tired not only physically, but emotionally.  The isolation and loneliness and illness had gone on so long...had it really been 12 years already?

For 12 years she had been bleeding, hemorrhaging if you will; anemic, weak, seeking answers from doctors who took all she had but in the end had no answers for her.  She was alone and without hope, desperate for healing.

You probably recognize this woman from the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.  Even though she is nameless to us she was obviously very important to our Lord as she is mentioned in three of the four gospels and is known as the woman with the issue of blood.  Did you ever wonder what it would be like to live with that title?  We women can imagine what it would be like to bleed for 12 years - the exhaustion, anemia, frustration.  But as a Jewish woman in 1st century Jerusalem under the Levitical Law she would also have lived in isolation because she would be labeled 'unclean'.  Her own family, if they touched her, would themselves become unclean and would have to go through ritual cleansing before being able to enter synagogue or temple.  She herself would never be allowed to worship there.  If she sat on a bed or a mat it too became unclean to others.  If she was married her hemorrhaging would have allowed for her husband to divorce her; if not married, she never would be.  She must have been very lonely and very desperate.  For 12 years she had been looking for hope through the doctors and longing for restoration to her family and community.

One day in what must have been her final act of desperation, as Jesus was walking through the streets with people pressing all around Him, she pushed her way through the crowds, thinking:  "If I just touch the hem of His garment I will be healed."  So she reached out through the throngs and reached down - perhaps she was on the ground - and she grabbed hold of His hem.  Immediately she was healed!  This was not an isolated incident either.  Matthew also tells us that people brought all their sick to Jesus and begged Him to let them just touch the hem of His garment, and all who touched it were healed.

What was it about the hem of His garment that brought healing to those who just touched it?  Why not grab His arm or His leg?  To understand what was going on we need to understand a bit of Jewish Law in Jesus' day.  In the Book of Numbers the Lord God said to Moses:

"Speak to the Israelites and say to them:  Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel.  You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the Lord, that you may obey them..."

"Throughout the generations to come..."  So every law-abiding Jewish male wore tassels on the edges or corners of his garment.  Jesus was not only a Jew, He testified that "I have kept My Father's commandments" (John 15)  so we can expect that He too, as an observant male Jew, wore the tassels on the edges or corners of His garment.  Because these tassels were designed by God to call every Jew to remember all the commands of the Law, they came to symbolize the authority of God.  They were a visual reminder not only to the person wearing the tassels but also to everyone he would come in contact with that this person belonged to God, and as such was part of a kingdom of priests.

In addition to the corners of the garment representing God's authority, they also came to represent God's refuge and healing.  The Hebrew word translated for 'corners' of the garment is also the word used for 'wings', as in: 

"I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed."

or

"But unto you that fear My Name shall the Son of Righteousness

the Messiah

rise with healing in His wings."

When the woman with the issue of blood reached out and grabbed the corner of Jesus' robe she was grabbing symbolically on to the authority of God and the healing power of God.  She believed that all of that was manifested in this one man, Jesus.  As she grabbed on, she was healed - instantly.

There are many people in our community who, while not having the same illness as this woman in the gospels, share the same feelings of isolation and abandonment - they are bleeding out spiritually, seeking solutions in all the wrong places.  They are in desperate need of healing that can only come through the touch of Jesus Christ.

So I'd like to challenge you as I challenge myself.  When Jesus walked among the people the corners of His garment were visible to all who came in contact with Him; they could see it, they knew what it represented, and they could reach out, grab hold if it and be healed.  We don't wear tassels today that indicate God's authority in our lives.  Instead we are clothed with the Holy Spirit and with acts of righteousness.  What does that look like for you and for me?  When we walk through our daily lives is there something people see, people who are experiencing seasons of hopelessness, people who are desperate for restoration and healing?  Is there something about us that they might see and think:  "Oh, if I can only reach out and touch them and what they have I will be healed."  And then do we allow ourselves to be touched by them.  We have the answer and His Name is Jesus.  May we walk through our lives and our communities letting our 'tassels' show so that all may see and glorify our Father in heaven.

The Gift of Suffering

John's gospel has always been my favorite.  In it I seem to get a deeper glimpse of the heart of our Savior.  I especially appreciate that John invites us in to that most intimate of times - the Upper Room where Jesus and His beloved disciples celebrated the Passover meal before His death on the Cross.  What was going through His mind?  What was on His heart?  We know because John records His prayer:

"Father, the time has come.  Glorify your Son that your Son may glorify You...I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work You gave Me to do...

And now Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You

before the world began."

(John 17)

When Jesus talks about glorifying the Father and thus receiving glory, He includes His obedience and suffering as revealing that glory.  The Hebrew word for 'glory' is kavod and it means what is weighty or heavy, what is important, powerful and strong.  It is used to describe honor, dignity, wealth, splendor and majesty.  If someone possessed 'glory' he was laden with all these weighty, heavy things.  But Jesus turned the idea of glory into something entirely different!

In His prayer He is looking to the cross and His obedience to the Father, even unto death, as His glory.  His glory then was not an easy thing to carry.  Weighty in majesty, yes; but also weighty in submission.  Heavy in honor yes; but also heavy in pain.  Powerful and strong, but like a lamb led to the slaughter.  How heavy and weighty His glory must have weighed upon Him!  So heavy that He sweated blood in the Garden.

Further on in His prayer in the Upper Room Jesus  prays for us:

"I pray also for those who will believe in Me...

I have given them the glory that You gave Me,

that they may be one as We are one."

(John 17)

He has given us that glory - that weightiness.  In Christ we are weighty with riches, power and position.  But as Jesus' glory was heavy and not easy to carry,  we should expect no less.  When we go through difficult times and struggles and yet remain obedient to the Father's will, loving Him even when it hurts to do so, we are sharing in Christ's glory.  Listen to these words from the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians:

"For it has been graciously granted to you on behalf of Christ

not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for Him..."

Graciously granted -  as a privilege, a gift - to suffer for Christ.  Jesus prayer to His Father that night started out "Father, the time has come..."  Has the time come in your life too?  Is there anything in your life that prevents you from glorifying the Father through obedience, even though it may seem too heavy or weighty for you?  Then, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross...and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Deep Water Faith in the Shallow End

 Fearless warriors in a picket fence, reckless abandon wrapped in common sense

Deep water faith in the shallow end and we are caught in the middle

With eyes wide open to the differences, the God we want and the God who is

But will we trade our dreams for His or are we caught in the middle.

Somewhere between who I was and who You're making me

Somewhere in the middle, You'll find me.

Just how close can I get, Lord, to my surrender, without losing all control

when I'm caught in the middle.

I love the song Somewhere In The Middle by the group Casting Crowns.  I'm sure its popularity among God's people is due to the haunting lyrics of being caught 'somewhere between who I was and who You're making me.'  At some point we all realize we've been there.  It's true for us today just as it has been true for God's people down through the ages.

As the Old Testament Book of Joshua opens, the Nation Israel is at the banks of the Jordan River ready to cross over into the Promised Land.  God told them that He had brought them out from the cruel bondage of the Egyptians in order to bring them into this land flowing with milk and honey.  Of course there was that period of 40 years wandering in the desert while they learned to listen to God's voice.  Now all 12 tribes are assembled here and ready to cross over the Jordan to the abundant life God had planned for them from the beginning.  Yes, it would be a land of milk and honey and great promise, but it wasn't going to be easy to receive all that God had for them.  There would be battles and wars to be fought; there would be enemy after enemy to conquer.  Promised Land living is not one of ease - it is life on the offense, moving forward and taking territory for the Lord.  It is walking fearlessly by faith and not by sight.

In the opening chapter of Joshua we read about 2 1/2 tribes who do not want to cross over into the land.  They would prefer to settle just at the border.  They had very large herds and flocks and had seen that this land, close but not quite where God wanted to take them, was very good for their livestock.  So they went to Moses and asked for the land.  They said:  "Do not make us cross the Jordan." (Num. 32).  Moses was angry that they would walk by sight - that they didn't want to wholehearedly follow where the Lord was leading.  This area they wanted looked good for them and their needs; so they compromised.  The men would go and fight with the other 9 1/2 tribes but would then come back and settle here.  And that's what happened; they settled for less than God wanted for them.  Oh He blessed them; they had their life of relative comfort raising their families and flocks and herds; but they also unwittingly set themselves up for attack.  With the Jordan River at their back they were now vulnerable to the enemy; when the attacks came they would be the first to go.

Solomon said there is nothing new under the sun and he was right.  God's people have not changed much since the years of Joshua.  God has called us out of our spiritual Egypts - a place of great bondage and slavery to sin - to bring us in to the abundant life of living in a spiritual Promised Land, a life on the offense, walking fearlessly by faith and taking territory for our Lord in our neighborhoods, our communities, our workplaces.  Yet so often we 'settle', and I include myself in this category.  I want to stay just close enough to the border because it is comfortable, it suits me, it makes sense, it's good enough.  It's deep water faith in the shallow end; it's fearless warriors in a picket fence; reckless abandon wrapped in common sense.  It's living 'somewhere in the middle'.  Almost Promised Land living, but not quite all the way in.

Jesus said:  'I have come that you may have life;

and life more abundantly.'

John 10:10

Lord, forgive me for wanting to live on the borders of the life to which You call me.  Amen.