Mark 5:30 – “Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?”  NASB

I love the songs “He Touched Me” and “Touching Jesus.”  My title question might cause one to assume that I was talking about the Lord touching us, but the person of my question is Jesus.  Our Lord and His disciples had crossed over the sea to the country of the Gerasenes, and the encounter with the demoniac resulted in those people asking Him to leave. 

He and his disciples crossed back to their starting point, and he found a huge crowd awaiting Him.  The crowd and the needs were so numerous that he stayed by the seashore ministering.  One of the synagogue officials, Jairus, came requesting healing for his daughter, and many others were trying to get to Jesus to receive their healing, their miracle.  The throng of people was so overpowering that he could hardly move without being bumped, touched, or grabbed.

In that situation, the woman who had had a hemorrhage for 12 years endured terrible treatment by physicians.  She was broke and still afflicted with her malady.  She heard about Jesus and said, “If I can just touch His garment, I will get well.”  That was her faith point and focal point.  Touching Jesus! 

She believed that if she could simply “Touch His Garment,” the healing virtue of God would flow out from him to her, and she would be cured.  She pressed through the crowd and achieved her goal, touching his garment. 

• Immediately, the Bible tells us the flow of her blood ceased, and she was totally cured. 
• Immediately, Jesus stopped and stunned His disciples, asking, “WHO TOUCHED ME?”  Remember the condition and situation.  The throng of people was overpowering, and Jesus was being touched repeatedly as he moved through the crowd, yet He asked, “WHO TOUCHED ME?”

The disciples responded incredulously and said, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched My garments?”  In East Texas, it would have been, “Are you kidding me?  Look at this mob; EVERYBODY IS TOUCHING YOU!”  But Jesus knew something had happened, which differed from all the other touches uncoupled from faith. 

This Faith Touch resulted in virtue or power leaving His body, the power He could feel.  He looked at the woman, and she confessed what and why she had done what she did.  Jesus responded, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.”

Who touched Me was the question of Jesus, but it was not a question of simply being physically bumped or touched.  This was a question of Who exercised faith and drew out from Me the Divine Power to heal.  This is the Touching Jesus we must do for ourselves and others. 

Years ago, as lead pastor in a church in East Texas, I was called to the home of a retired minister and his wife.  She had been ill and wanted me to come, anoint her with oil, and pray the prayer of faith as directed by James.  When I began to pray, I said, “Lord, touch my sister.”  She immediately interrupted me and said, “Preacher, don’t pray for a little touch; I want Healing!” 

She wanted me to do more than offer words; she wanted me to do what the woman with the hemorrhage did, Touch Jesus in a way that was coupled with faith and would result in total healing.  She wanted results, not prayer.

I have said, “Too often, we expect to be prayed for, but we do not expect to be healed.”  We expect to go through the motions and do the prescribed religious things in prayer for healing, but we do not expect the Touch of the Master’s Hand to bring about a full recovery.  That is not universally true for all believers or even all believers all the time, but it is more prevalent than we acknowledge. 

Jesus said we are to “Ask, Seek, and Knock.”  We are instructed to be determined and to become the ‘hart panting for the water brooks’ in our pursuit of God.  Nothing Less than His Touch should be satisfactory.  When We Touch, HIM He will Touch us!

God bless you as you enjoy this wonderful day in Jesus!