“Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of His cloak.  She said to herself: ‘If I only touch His cloak I will be healed.” Matthew 9:20

“For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds….”  Matthew 7:8

The woman, being oh so very desperate, felt that she had one shot.  It wasn’t that she wanted to be in the same town as Jesus.  It was not that she wanted to go and hear him preach.  The woman needed much more than that and her need drove her to extraordinary lengths.  She was sick.  She had been sick for a very long time; twelve years.  Doctors she had gone to; many, many times.  Yet to no avail for there seemed that there was no earthly cure for her.

Then she heard about Jesus.  Scripture does not tell us how she came to know about Jesus.  So we can’t be sure if she had actually witnessed another healing accomplished by Jesus or just heard about His power to miraculously heal.  However, one thing is extremely certain; she believed.  She believed so emphatically that it drove her to a plan.  She must have been certain that Jesus was a man of God; perhaps even convinced He was the messiah.  But being within seeing distance or hearing distance was not going to be good enough.  No, she would need to get so close to Jesus Christ, she could touch him.  Her faith was so strong and so pure that she didn’t feel that she needed a blessing, a laying on of hands or even a prayer from Jesus.  His power was so overwhelming that even His cloak, because it was His cloak, touching His Holy body, was enough to transfer healing to her.  And she was right.  So right in fact that Jesus had to stop when she touched Him.  Her faith was so significant to Him that He needed to make sure that she truly understood what her faith in Jesus Christ had brought about.  Her faith in His power, her faith that brought her to the point of reaching out and touching Him had not only cured her body of the curse of the bleeding; more importantly His power had cured her  soul of sin.  He needed all pressed around him to understand the power of that woman’s faith and what her seeking Him out had done for her.

What, Dear Sisters and Brothers are you and I afflicted with?  How many years have we suffered with some physical pain, mental anguish or spiritual darkness?  How often have we sought out worldly cures or fixes only to have them fall flat or short of bringing about true healing.  Jesus Christ is calling to us.  He is calling to us to have faith in Him.  He is calling to us to come to Him.  But this time is different; for we don’t have to go searching in some far off town or travel out to the foot of some mountain.  Because Jesus Christ has risen back to Heaven and is in spirit sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, in spirit He is also right here with you and me.  We are not seeking a physical place as much as we are seeking a spiritual place.  A place that we can find when we fall on our knees and ask Jesus Christ to be right here with us.  We can lift up our hands both in praise and supplication knowing that Christ is right there to reach out in love and touch us.  Like He proclaimed to that woman of old, He will also proclaim to you and I:  “Take heart daughter (or son), your faith has healed you.” (Matthew 9:22)

To be healed, we believe that Jesus Christ is the One True Son of God with all the power needed to heal us of every affliction.  To be healed, we must seek Jesus Christ out.  We must come to him humbly in trembling, knowing that we are sinners and that He is our perfect savior.  Yet even in our humility we can be confident.  Confident that Jesus Christ is right here beside us, ready not just to let his cloak brush passed us, but to extend His nail scarred hands to us in a warm loving embrace.

The mystery and the blessing is that Jesus Christ is always near.  He is always near enough to hear our prayer.  He is always near enough to reach out and heal us.  May we, in faith, find ourselves seeking Him out today, knowing He is our one true salvation for now and all eternity.

Our Most Gracious Heavenly Father, we are afflicted.  We are afflicted with physical ailments.  We are afflicted with mental ailments.  We are sorely afflicted with spiritual ailments and these spiritual ailments mostly come from our sinfulness.  Move us Dear Father to cry out to Jesus Christ, our savior for healing of these ailments; being sure of the promise He gave, that if we seek in faith, we will find Him and in finding Him, we will be healed.  We pray this in the Holy Name of Jesus Christ to the Glory and praise of Your Most Holy Name.  Amen