Touching Jesus - Conclusion

 

        I was recollecting when you came in…this is my big day…and my aunt’s big day…I was recollecting on that dust filled road 31 years ago…on our walk from Chorazin back to Capernaum…with broken hearts…despair…hopelessness.

            We had spent all we had…every penny…and had precious little inventory with which to make more money…

It was a long walk that day…we stopped a few miles out of Chorazin to have lunch …we had taken a bit of bread and cheese from home…and after eating we resumed our journey with an unspoken sense of hopelessness…my aunt and me…walking side by side…not saying too much…but in our hearts wondering “what do we do  now?”

            As we approached Capernaum about four in the afternoon, we saw a great crowd moving along the crossroads at mile marker one north.  The crowd was moving southward and it seemed to have a center, a center of attention if you will.  There was quite a commotion, children, teenagers, older folks, younger folks, it seemed like the entire town was out on an unruly mob-like parade….that their attention was focused on something or someone that they were trying to keep up with or touch…we weren’t really sure what was going on.

            The mob was moving away from us, moving away from the town, and that was good…because that meant that we wouldn’t have to endure their stares and looks of disdain as we headed back to our home.  The words “unclean, unclean, don’t touch them” seemed to be perpetually in their hearts and minds.  So let them go, I thought, let them go, let them go away from us on whatever circus adventure they’re on today, let them go.

            Just as I was thinking these thoughts children ran past us…children who didn’t know enough to know that we were unclean…as they stopped to greet us my aunt Ruth asked, “Children, precious young ones, why all the commotion, what is everyone doing?”

            “Oh,” they replied, “don’t you know?  Jesus of Nazareth is passing this way.  Everyone is trying to get a look at Him and touch Him.”

            Aunt Ruth and I looked at each other.  Jesus.  We had heard of Him, conflicting accounts of Him.  Some praised Him while others condemned Him.  The religious leaders seemed to hate him…but others…well…it was said that He touched people…it was said that He touched certain types of people…it was said that He touched the unclean…that He touched lepers…that He touched the dead…it was said that He touched women…could it be that perhaps…could it be that perhaps?????

            Aunt Ruth took the lead…a quick lead…a determined lead…and we headed toward the moving mob…closer and closer we got…if they recognized us they would push us away…they might even stone us to keep us from coming close…for we were unclean and we’d make them unclean…closer and closer we got…fear and hope both welling-up in our hearts…hearts pounding like kettle drums…

            No one was noticing us…their attention was all focused inward…inside the crowd, inside the mob…moving along that hot, dusty road in Galilee 31 years ago, a cacophony of noise filling the air…people pushing and jostling each other…we reached the edge of the crowd…and my little aunt Ruth began to push inward…inward beneath the men, inward past women and children…I was a few feet behind her…losing her now and then…then finding her again…and finally, finally…we saw Him…people were pushing against Him…this way and that pushing against Him as He walked…

            Ruth later shared with me that she only had one thought in her mind, “If I can only touch the hem of His garment.  If I can only touch the hem of His garment.  If I can only touch the hem of His garment.”

            And before I knew it…there she was…aunt Ruth…almost to Him…almost to Jesus…people crowding around Jesus…and she reached out and thrust her hand between two large men…right between their legs…and she…she…touched the hem of His garment…

            “Nathan,” she told me later, “it was like the warmth of a thousand suns cascading through my body…and I knew…Nathan I knew…that I was healed…I was whole…I was clean.”

            Jesus stopped…the crowd stopped.  Jesus turned around…His eyes scanning the crowd…and He spoke…a question, “Who touched me?”

            Some, whom I later learned were His disciples answered, “Master, how can you ask such a question?  “Who touched me?”  Master, why would you ask such a question?  Why everyone is touching you.  What kind of a question is that?”

            “No,” Jesus said.  Someone has truly touched me, for I know that healing has passed from me to…to.”  His eyes fell upon Aunt Ruth…and she was drawn to Him…she fell upon her knees and – in a Niagara of tears - poured out the misery and helplessness of twelve long years.  The Master said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you.  Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

            Oh the joy we knew that day, that day 31 years ago as we laughed and embraced and returned home that afternoon with hearts filled with hope, love, joy and a sense of destiny. 

            Did I mention that today is our big day?  Oh, but of course, you’re probably wondering about all those people, all those people who were around Jesus, all those synagogue church-going people who were bustling around Jesus, pushing Him this way and that, touching His hands, His hair, His arms, His side, His clothes…and then there was my little aunt Ruth…my unclean little aunt Ruth…who only touched the hem of His garment…what was the difference?

            How is it that people can go to synagogue all their lives and never really touch Him?  How is it that people can “say and do all the right religious things” and yet never really touch Him?  How is it that people can join this church or that church and yet never really touch Him?  How is it?  How can it be?  How is it that the scribes and Pharisees knew the Scriptures forwards and backwards and yet most of them never came to know Him?  How is it that people can learn Bible verses and yet never know the One whom these verses speak of?

            How can this be?  All those people touching Jesus…yet really only one person touching Jesus…my aunt Ruth.

            Did I mention this is my big day?  It’s also my aunt Ruth’s big day.  Did I mention this?

            It’s about time now.  I’ve got an appointment in a few minutes, an appointment much like the appointment on that grimy dusty road in Galilee 31 years ago.  You see my aunt and I continued to follow Jesus, to know Him and to love Him…and 4 years ago we moved here, to Rome, to help establish a fellowship of believers of both Jews and Gentiles.  And today is our big day…

            Aunt Ruth and I were arrested 3 weeks ago by Nero’s soldiers for being followers of Jesus Christ and we’ve been sentenced to die today…our big day…an even bigger day than that day 31 years ago…for today is our graduation day…today we’ll go to be with Him forever.

            O don’t be sorry for us, no please don’t.  After all, we are all going to die…and death is a part of life…the question of course is…when that day does come…will you have touched Him…and will He have touched you…?