Chutzpah!

 As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.

“Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”

But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”

Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” (Luke 8:42b-47)

 

             And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

               At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

            “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

             But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” (Mark 5:25-34)

 

        Talk about chutzpah. Talk about rudeness! I mean, maybe you would be comfortable sneaking up behind someone famous who has never met you and grabbing a handful of jacket. Let’s take it the step farther – would you feel comfortable sneaking up behind someone famous and his entourage when he is clearly going somewhere with a purpose? And would you do it if you knew that your touch would incapacitate him socially, at least to some extent?

            The woman was desperate, and the desperation may have given her courage, but I don’t know that I could do it. On the one hand, if touching his garment would heal me without his taking time and effort, and I could gain that healing without inconveniencing anyone…maybe. But I suspect I would think it more appropriate to follow him and see if I couldn’t get his attention when he got done with his errand. It might still be socially outrageous that I would dare approach him, but at least I wouldn’t feel as if I were trying to steal from him somehow.

            In the past couple of years, there have been claims that it’s acceptable and even good for people to take what doesn’t belong to them from stores because stores have insurance. That claim doesn’t hold water from my perspective, but one might claim that since God has infinite power, “stealing” a little for a good cause, even if that good cause (even if that good cause is yourself) might not be quite the same as looting a store.

            And Jesus doesn’t punish her. He does heal her, but He doesn’t let her get away with it, but He doesn’t shout, “Stop! Thief!” either. He make a who-done-it out of the situation and she’s cajoled into confessing. He told lepers to do what the law commanded. There are laws concerning abnormal discharges, but He doesn’t refer her to them. Some people claim it was His act of reconnecting her to society, much as touching the leper in Luke 5. But what He says is that her faith had healed her. She had been willing to risk so much and to act in ways that were countercultural because her faith in Him was so great.

            Do we trust God so much that we’re willing to “steal” or otherwise get ourselves in trouble because we have so much faith in Him?