The Touch Of Faith
Sermon
All About Eve
Ten Selected Women of the Bible
Object:
Do you ever find yourself watching the television
commercials? We all do at some time or another. The most
successful commercials are those which touch our hearts.
There is the Hallmark commercial where the family is gathering for Christmas. A snowstorm has hit the area and Tommy, the college student, may not be able to come home.
His little brother says, "But Tommy was going to sing 'O Holy Night' with me." The commercial continues with the little brother looking out the window at the storm with no sign of Tommy. Then it's time to sing "O Holy Night" and he begins to sing all alone. As he is singing, Tommy slips in beside his little brother and begins singing with him.
The telephone company has a commercial where the wife says to her husband, "Joey called today."
"Is there something wrong?" he asks.
"No," his wife replies.
"Then why are you crying?" he asks.
The wife looks up and wipes the tears from her cheeks and says, "Joey called just to say 'I love you, Mom.' "
Then, she lays her head on her husband's shoulder and the music begins: "Reach out and touch someone."
The advertising companies know how to get the attention of the audience with these commercials. By touching the strings of the heart, they are not only making the audience aware of their product, but are also saying that using their greeting cards or long distance service, we, too, can touch someone we love.
This is what the woman in the Gospel story was trying to do as she reached out to touch the hem of Jesus' garment. The distance for this woman was not in miles, but in culture. For twelve years she had suffered with a hemorrhage and the medical science of that day could not help her. According to the Jewish law, everything she touched was defiled. The bed she slept in, the clothes she wore, the chairs she sat on -- everything she touched became "unclean." Thus she was an outcast in society and no one wanted her around. The isolation made every day seem like another hopeless dawn; every sunset was stained with the pain of loneliness. She was driven to the point of despair, and that despair drove her to go into the crowd to see if she could touch the hem of the garment Jesus wore.
She had heard rumors of this Jesus. She had heard of lepers being made well ... she had heard of those blind from birth able to throw away their walking sticks ... she had heard of the crippled rising up and walking.
She had heard what Jesus did for others and she reasoned in her own mind that if she could touch him -- even if it was only the hem of his garment -- she would be healed of her twelve-year illness.
With this reasoning she joined the great crowd of people and began making her way toward Jesus. She struggled through the throng of people. She made no attempt to attract his attention. She only wanted to touch the hem of his robe. The closer she got, the more dense the crowd became. There were moments when she thought she would not be able to get close enough but she kept working to get closer until there he was, and she reached out with a trembling hand and touched the tip of his robe.
No one in the crowd noticed her or paid any attention to her -- no one but Jesus. Recognizing a "touch of faith" from the crowd, he stopped and asked, "Who touched me?"
With a note of sarcasm in his voice, one of the disciples asked, "How should we know? Look at this crowd of people surrounding you and you ask, 'Who touched me?' "
To the disciples it was ridiculous that he would notice the touch of one person in a crowd. But Jesus stood there scanning the faces in the crowd and his eyes met hers. Something passed between them as his eyes fixed upon hers. There was no anger, no resentment, no ridicule, no scorn, or no indignation in him at her for the audacity of touching him. Instead, there was sympathy, love, and understanding as he said, "Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace ... and be healed of thy plague."
I like the way one minister described this scene. He said: "This nameless woman began as a Nobody, but by touching Christ she became Somebody and in the receiving of his mercy represents Everybody who has faith in him."
Perhaps you too have felt like a nameless nobody in the crowd. Perhaps, just perhaps, you need to push your way through the midst of the crowd and get close enough to reach out to Christ. Reach out in faith and touch him and it will have a tremendous impact in your life just as it did for that woman of long ago.
I. The Touch Of Faith Brings A Change In Your Life
The woman who worked her way through the multitude of people to touch the hem of the robe of Christ was changed. With trembling fingers she had touched him. In that instance, she felt a change take place within her. She touched him in faith and a new sense of strength and vitality filled her body.
But notice what she did -- she retreated back into the crowd. The disciples paid no heed to her; she did not seek the attention of the crowd. She had touched him in secret and in trembling haste. She felt the change come into her but it would have remained a secret had Jesus not asked, "Who touched me?"
One thing this story seems to say is that the touch of faith can bring a thrilling change within your life without catching the attention and the excitement of the world. There are the Apostle Pauls who catch the attention and excitement of the world when they have life-changing encounters on their "roads to Damascus." There are the Martin Luthers who gain worldwide recognition when touched by faith and deliberately take stands that polarize the world. There are the Jonathan Edwardses, John Wesleys, Billy Sundays, and Billy Grahams whose lives are so changed they devote themselves to proclaiming the gospel.
However, there are some faintly average people in life who make mistakes -- who give in to what's wrong and it is called "sin" -- but, by and large, they travel down the middle of the road and at some point reach out and touch the hem of his garment. This touch of faith brings a change in their everyday existence and it influences all areas of their lives. There is no dramatic, earth-shaking change. It is a change that may go unnoticed by the crowd -- but Jesus notices it. Jesus is aware of lives that have been touched by faith.
I have been reading a short biography of Dag Hammarskjold, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations. What was not widely known, until after his death in 1961, was the significance of faith in his life.
A friend, as well as his lawyer, from Sweden, began to dispose of his personal effects at his apartment in New York. Beside the bed was found a document, the contents no living person knew, simply marked "personal." When this document was examined, it was discovered to cover a period of 36 years and contained literary jewels ranging from sketches of men, to countryside scenes, to psychological self-probings. Even more remarkable was the discovery that these personal notes also constituted a private spiritual diary. It recorded his groping but finally successful journey into faith. It was a side of Hammarskjold that the public had not known. Some close friends, themselves antireligious, were startled to discover just how much effect his faith had had on his public life.
One entry in his personal diary spoke eloquently of how the touch of faith brought a change in his life: "I don't know Who -- or -- What put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer yes to Someone -- or Something -- and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that therefore, my life, in self-surrender (to him) had a goal ..."
The touch of faith is not always a dramatic, earth-shaking encounter. In fact, for many of us it is simply a moment when we dare to reach out toward him and touch the hem of his garment. When we pull back our hand the crowd has not noticed -- but we know we have been changed and so does Jesus.
II. The Touch Of Faith Indicates God Is Interested In You
This woman with a twelve-year sickness had the courage to reach out to Jesus. She had no purse filled with gold -- only faith. She did not meet him in the Temple for she was barred from the Temple because of her illness and her clothes would have caused her embarrassment. She did not request a private audience with the Christ -- she was simply one in a crowd. Yet she reached out and touched him in faith -- a blind, desperate, believing faith.
And what did Jesus do? Ignore her? Walk on and not pay any attention to this insignificant woman? No! Jesus stopped! The touch of one anonymous woman in a crowd halted Jesus and he asked, "Who touched me?" There is something significant here. The touch of faith has the power to stop Jesus in his tracks, to make him aware of your problems, your pain, and your needs.
You may think it impossible -- that God is surely not interested in you. You may even agree with Mark Twain who used to say: "God doesn't even know we are here and if he does, he doesn't care." You may feel that God is not interested in you. But Jesus stopped to help a nameless woman who touched the hem of his garment and he is just as interested in you.
I like the old story about the census taker waking up a man of Irish descent in Boston one Saturday morning. The census taker asked his questions as the Irishman rubbed his eyes, yawned, and took a few minutes to wake up. The census taker worked his way down the chart of questions, like name, address, religious preference, and place of employment. Then he asked, "How many children to you have?"
By his reaction, it was plain to see that the Irishman liked to talk about his children. With a gleam of a loving father in his eyes, he said: "Well, there's Patrick, Jr., and Catherine and Sean and Donald and Mary Kathleen and Elizabeth and ..."
The census taker interrupted and said, "I don't need their names! I just need the number."
The Irishman fixed a glare upon the census taker and said, "Sir, I'll have you know that every one of me children has got a name. We ain't got around to numbering them yet!"
Just as that Irish father was interested and concerned about each of his children, so is God. We are not insignificant to God because God is interested in us ... God cares about us ... God knows us and our needs.
Just as that woman long ago needed to reach out and touch Jesus in faith, so do we. We all have different reasons for reaching out to Jesus Christ. Some of us need to reach out for forgiveness. Some of us need to reach out for courage to face difficult problems in our lives. Some of us need to reach out for strength in overcoming temptations we know are wrong but are so appealing to us. Some of us need to reach out for guidance as we make decisions about our lives.
What is your reason? Look inside your own heart and life. Then, reach out your trembling hand ... reach out and touch the hem of his garment ... reach out to Jesus Christ. And as you do, I believe he will say to you as he did to that woman long ago: "... your faith has made you whole...."
Prayer
O God, give us the courage to reach out to Jesus and the faith to know that he is already reaching out to us. In his name. Amen.
There is the Hallmark commercial where the family is gathering for Christmas. A snowstorm has hit the area and Tommy, the college student, may not be able to come home.
His little brother says, "But Tommy was going to sing 'O Holy Night' with me." The commercial continues with the little brother looking out the window at the storm with no sign of Tommy. Then it's time to sing "O Holy Night" and he begins to sing all alone. As he is singing, Tommy slips in beside his little brother and begins singing with him.
The telephone company has a commercial where the wife says to her husband, "Joey called today."
"Is there something wrong?" he asks.
"No," his wife replies.
"Then why are you crying?" he asks.
The wife looks up and wipes the tears from her cheeks and says, "Joey called just to say 'I love you, Mom.' "
Then, she lays her head on her husband's shoulder and the music begins: "Reach out and touch someone."
The advertising companies know how to get the attention of the audience with these commercials. By touching the strings of the heart, they are not only making the audience aware of their product, but are also saying that using their greeting cards or long distance service, we, too, can touch someone we love.
This is what the woman in the Gospel story was trying to do as she reached out to touch the hem of Jesus' garment. The distance for this woman was not in miles, but in culture. For twelve years she had suffered with a hemorrhage and the medical science of that day could not help her. According to the Jewish law, everything she touched was defiled. The bed she slept in, the clothes she wore, the chairs she sat on -- everything she touched became "unclean." Thus she was an outcast in society and no one wanted her around. The isolation made every day seem like another hopeless dawn; every sunset was stained with the pain of loneliness. She was driven to the point of despair, and that despair drove her to go into the crowd to see if she could touch the hem of the garment Jesus wore.
She had heard rumors of this Jesus. She had heard of lepers being made well ... she had heard of those blind from birth able to throw away their walking sticks ... she had heard of the crippled rising up and walking.
She had heard what Jesus did for others and she reasoned in her own mind that if she could touch him -- even if it was only the hem of his garment -- she would be healed of her twelve-year illness.
With this reasoning she joined the great crowd of people and began making her way toward Jesus. She struggled through the throng of people. She made no attempt to attract his attention. She only wanted to touch the hem of his robe. The closer she got, the more dense the crowd became. There were moments when she thought she would not be able to get close enough but she kept working to get closer until there he was, and she reached out with a trembling hand and touched the tip of his robe.
No one in the crowd noticed her or paid any attention to her -- no one but Jesus. Recognizing a "touch of faith" from the crowd, he stopped and asked, "Who touched me?"
With a note of sarcasm in his voice, one of the disciples asked, "How should we know? Look at this crowd of people surrounding you and you ask, 'Who touched me?' "
To the disciples it was ridiculous that he would notice the touch of one person in a crowd. But Jesus stood there scanning the faces in the crowd and his eyes met hers. Something passed between them as his eyes fixed upon hers. There was no anger, no resentment, no ridicule, no scorn, or no indignation in him at her for the audacity of touching him. Instead, there was sympathy, love, and understanding as he said, "Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace ... and be healed of thy plague."
I like the way one minister described this scene. He said: "This nameless woman began as a Nobody, but by touching Christ she became Somebody and in the receiving of his mercy represents Everybody who has faith in him."
Perhaps you too have felt like a nameless nobody in the crowd. Perhaps, just perhaps, you need to push your way through the midst of the crowd and get close enough to reach out to Christ. Reach out in faith and touch him and it will have a tremendous impact in your life just as it did for that woman of long ago.
I. The Touch Of Faith Brings A Change In Your Life
The woman who worked her way through the multitude of people to touch the hem of the robe of Christ was changed. With trembling fingers she had touched him. In that instance, she felt a change take place within her. She touched him in faith and a new sense of strength and vitality filled her body.
But notice what she did -- she retreated back into the crowd. The disciples paid no heed to her; she did not seek the attention of the crowd. She had touched him in secret and in trembling haste. She felt the change come into her but it would have remained a secret had Jesus not asked, "Who touched me?"
One thing this story seems to say is that the touch of faith can bring a thrilling change within your life without catching the attention and the excitement of the world. There are the Apostle Pauls who catch the attention and excitement of the world when they have life-changing encounters on their "roads to Damascus." There are the Martin Luthers who gain worldwide recognition when touched by faith and deliberately take stands that polarize the world. There are the Jonathan Edwardses, John Wesleys, Billy Sundays, and Billy Grahams whose lives are so changed they devote themselves to proclaiming the gospel.
However, there are some faintly average people in life who make mistakes -- who give in to what's wrong and it is called "sin" -- but, by and large, they travel down the middle of the road and at some point reach out and touch the hem of his garment. This touch of faith brings a change in their everyday existence and it influences all areas of their lives. There is no dramatic, earth-shaking change. It is a change that may go unnoticed by the crowd -- but Jesus notices it. Jesus is aware of lives that have been touched by faith.
I have been reading a short biography of Dag Hammarskjold, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations. What was not widely known, until after his death in 1961, was the significance of faith in his life.
A friend, as well as his lawyer, from Sweden, began to dispose of his personal effects at his apartment in New York. Beside the bed was found a document, the contents no living person knew, simply marked "personal." When this document was examined, it was discovered to cover a period of 36 years and contained literary jewels ranging from sketches of men, to countryside scenes, to psychological self-probings. Even more remarkable was the discovery that these personal notes also constituted a private spiritual diary. It recorded his groping but finally successful journey into faith. It was a side of Hammarskjold that the public had not known. Some close friends, themselves antireligious, were startled to discover just how much effect his faith had had on his public life.
One entry in his personal diary spoke eloquently of how the touch of faith brought a change in his life: "I don't know Who -- or -- What put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer yes to Someone -- or Something -- and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that therefore, my life, in self-surrender (to him) had a goal ..."
The touch of faith is not always a dramatic, earth-shaking encounter. In fact, for many of us it is simply a moment when we dare to reach out toward him and touch the hem of his garment. When we pull back our hand the crowd has not noticed -- but we know we have been changed and so does Jesus.
II. The Touch Of Faith Indicates God Is Interested In You
This woman with a twelve-year sickness had the courage to reach out to Jesus. She had no purse filled with gold -- only faith. She did not meet him in the Temple for she was barred from the Temple because of her illness and her clothes would have caused her embarrassment. She did not request a private audience with the Christ -- she was simply one in a crowd. Yet she reached out and touched him in faith -- a blind, desperate, believing faith.
And what did Jesus do? Ignore her? Walk on and not pay any attention to this insignificant woman? No! Jesus stopped! The touch of one anonymous woman in a crowd halted Jesus and he asked, "Who touched me?" There is something significant here. The touch of faith has the power to stop Jesus in his tracks, to make him aware of your problems, your pain, and your needs.
You may think it impossible -- that God is surely not interested in you. You may even agree with Mark Twain who used to say: "God doesn't even know we are here and if he does, he doesn't care." You may feel that God is not interested in you. But Jesus stopped to help a nameless woman who touched the hem of his garment and he is just as interested in you.
I like the old story about the census taker waking up a man of Irish descent in Boston one Saturday morning. The census taker asked his questions as the Irishman rubbed his eyes, yawned, and took a few minutes to wake up. The census taker worked his way down the chart of questions, like name, address, religious preference, and place of employment. Then he asked, "How many children to you have?"
By his reaction, it was plain to see that the Irishman liked to talk about his children. With a gleam of a loving father in his eyes, he said: "Well, there's Patrick, Jr., and Catherine and Sean and Donald and Mary Kathleen and Elizabeth and ..."
The census taker interrupted and said, "I don't need their names! I just need the number."
The Irishman fixed a glare upon the census taker and said, "Sir, I'll have you know that every one of me children has got a name. We ain't got around to numbering them yet!"
Just as that Irish father was interested and concerned about each of his children, so is God. We are not insignificant to God because God is interested in us ... God cares about us ... God knows us and our needs.
Just as that woman long ago needed to reach out and touch Jesus in faith, so do we. We all have different reasons for reaching out to Jesus Christ. Some of us need to reach out for forgiveness. Some of us need to reach out for courage to face difficult problems in our lives. Some of us need to reach out for strength in overcoming temptations we know are wrong but are so appealing to us. Some of us need to reach out for guidance as we make decisions about our lives.
What is your reason? Look inside your own heart and life. Then, reach out your trembling hand ... reach out and touch the hem of his garment ... reach out to Jesus Christ. And as you do, I believe he will say to you as he did to that woman long ago: "... your faith has made you whole...."
Prayer
O God, give us the courage to reach out to Jesus and the faith to know that he is already reaching out to us. In his name. Amen.
