Touching Jesus

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

TOUCHING JESUS

Matt 14:34-36

34 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him 36 and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.

NIV

Although this is the conclusion of the narrative regarding the experience of Peter getting out of the boat and walking on the water, we have another truth to ponder on. Once they reached the shore, there was not slipping away somewhere for the men of that region knew it was Jesus and they spread the word, Jesus is in our territory. He already had the reputation of healing people because that is what Jesus does wherever he goes. So they brought the sick and all they wanted was to be able to touch the hem of his garment. They must have heard about the woman with the issue of blood being healed just by doing that very thing. Jesus did not forbid them but allowed as many as wanted to simply touch him and whoever did touch him was healed. We cannot touch Jesus in the physical sense those people did, but is it possible we can be in touch with Jesus? We have considered this healing of sickness and ailments many times before and it is most likely that we will have more opportunities to deal with it again. Healing is just something Jesus did and because God does not change, and because Jesus is God, then we have to conclude that Jesus still heals, and we should expect healing if we are in touch with Him. That may be the key here, to touch Jesus. We have heard believers pray that Jesus would touch them for healing, asking Jesus to put His hand on them, so to speak. We know we should be able to ask for the laying on of hands by the elders, who could be anyone, in a certain sense, that is in some way a spiritual leader. That suggests they would be representing the hand of Jesus, which they would need to recognize. It is Jesus who heals, and it is Jesus we should come to. However, we must believe that in some way we can be in touch with Jesus for healing. Perhaps, we just talk the walk a lot more than we walk the walk, especially in regard to healing. It certainly seems we put a lot more faith in the medical profession than in miraculous healing by touching Jesus. We have heard prayers, and we have even prayed that someone would be healed, either by Jesus or through some medical way. Is that lack of faith? Are we giving Jesus an option to cop out of healing, or maybe we are shutting him out from healing the sick? Maybe if we had an honest to God miraculous healing, where there was no doubt whatsoever, that Jesus healed, then we would believe more than we do. Speaking on a personal note, we have been healed miraculously on several occasions and we believe He will do it again. Maybe we are not in touch with Him as much as we should be. Maybe we need to reexamine our faith. What we know is that Jesus healed everyone who came to Him seeking healing, believing He could and would heal them. In this case, it was whoever touched Jesus.