It has been a couple weeks since I have shared from my seminary studies, because it has been so busy! But I want to share a brief insight that I think is so profound:
It came up as my classmates and I were discussing the hemorrhaging woman in Luke 8:43-48–whether there would have been an issue of defilement due to her uncleanliness. My professor shared there is halakhah that the Torah is so holy that it is beyond defilement. Thus, if something unclean touches it, the Word of God cannot become unclean, but retains its purity.
Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, so this also applies to Him. When He touches the unclean, they become clean: healed, delivered, forgiven, whole. When the unclean touch Him, they likewise cannot defile Him. The atmosphere changes for Him, not the other way around.
There is so much more to say about this story; but I’ll end here: No matter how “far gone” we are, how embarrassing our issues, how hurt, how sinful, how broken, we can come to Jesus with the faith that–because He is the unchanging, undefilable, Word of God–we can approach Him to receive healing.
She had to push through the crowd to touch Jesus. My goal is to touch God by going through the devil.
Hi George,
The women with the issue of blood was definitely determined in going after Jesus (a great example for us), but there is no reason to bring the devil into it. Going through the devil often leads to more of the devil. Instead, we can reach out to Jesus, knowing He is the God who is near, and not the God who is far off. He wants to be reached by us.