FAITH HANGING BY A THREAD
She wasn’t supposed to be there – in the crowd, I mean. The woman with the flow of blood wasn’t supposed to be there because her very presence would render everyone there unclean.
It reminds me of the ripple of upset that swept through the crowded sanctuary in a former parish when the locally notorious hit-and-run driver, fresh out of prison, showed up in church. He hadn’t been a part of our congregation but one of our members had befriended him. There was a kind of negative energy field surrounding him, holding folks at no less than cringe distance. “He isn’t supposed to be here!” That was everybody’s first thought. But these were good folks and they worked their way through it. Their better angels prevailed and the distance was closed with a greeting, a handshake, a welcome.
I can’t imagine that would have been the reaction to the
crowd surrounding Jesus if the woman’s identity,
if her condition had been
known. “Outcast, unclean!” So she
kept it a secret as she crept closer to Jesus.
And then, “She came up behind him and touched
the fringe of his clothes, and immediately her hemorrhage,
her flow of blood, stopped” (Luke
“She touched the
fringe of his clothes…”
· In the Marcan version of this story, the woman is described as touching Jesus’ “garments”.
· In the King James Version she touched the “hem” of his garment.
· In the New International Version she touched the “edge” of his cloak.
· But here in the New Revised Standard Version – touched the “fringe” of his clothes.
This fringe character touched the fringe of Jesus clothes and was thereby healed.
· She didn’t need to touch Jesus himself, only his clothes.
· She didn’t need to touch the whole garment, only the hem.
· She didn’t even need to touch the whole hem, only the edge.
· She didn’t even need to touch the whole edge, just the fringe.
Let me show you something. This is the prayer shawl that was given to me when I came to this church. At times of private prayer, I put it on as a reminder of God’s ever-present love which is as near to me as my body is to my spirit. I know many of you have one too.
Do you know where the design of this prayer shawl comes from? Well, one part of its design in particular comes from Judaism - the threads that hang down on the edge. From the book of Numbers: “The Lord said to Moses: Speak to the Israelites, and tell them to make fringes on the corners of their garments… so that, when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them…” (Numbers 15:37-39).
As a good and observant Jew, Jesus probably wore a prayer shawl nearly all the time. So when we are told that the woman with the flow of blood touched the “fringe” of his garment, what is it that she touched? The fringe of his prayer shawl. The threads hanging down from his prayer shawl.
And she wasn’t the only one to do it. At Gennesaret, Mark and Matthew tell us, and
in the villages and cities and farms nearby, “they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might
touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed” (Mark
And that was enough. Touch just the fringe, just the bare threads of Jesus’ prayer shawl. That was enough to heal her and many others. Just the threads. That was enough.
I want to do something for you tactile learners this morning. I want to hand you something: a ball of yarn. Could you take a hold of the end and start unspooling it and pass it around? Here – I’ll throw some more of these out there. I’d like each person to whom it’s passed to hold on to one of these threads until everyone is holding on to a piece of thread. As you do this, would you listen to these words of the poet William Stafford?
There’s a thread
you follow. It goes among
Things that
change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about
what you are pursuing.
You have to explain
about the thread.
But it is hard for
others to see.
While you hold it
you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen;
people get hurt
Or die; and you
suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can
stop times unfolding.
You do not ever let
go of the thread.
Now you should all be holding it. A piece of thread. That’s all the woman had, all she needed to touch, and she was healed. It’s not very much, is it? But it was enough for her. Is it enough for you?
I know what you’d like – it’s the same thing as me: something certain, tangible, concrete, rock-solid. We’d like to greet every storm and calamity like an imperturbable rocky shore – unmoved all the turbulent motion around us. We’d like to be able to look at the events of our lives and know all causes, see all ends, understand all God’s purposes.
Though sometimes our lives seem rock-solid, more often we feel the shifting sand underfoot of change and chaos. We don’t have certainty. We don’t have concrete. We don’t have rock.
So what do we have? We have what you hold in your hand right now – a thread. I know it’s a small thing. Not a good sturdy hawser to tie up the sails in the storm or even a triple corded nylon rope fit for a rescue line. It’s a thread.
When you’re facing health problems, job uncertainties, family conflict, marital issues, fractured friendships, broken relationships… it’s hard to be hanging by a thread. But that was enough for that woman. Is it enough for you?
There’s a thread
you follow. It goes among
Things that
change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about
what you are pursuing.
You have to explain
about the thread.
But it is hard for
others to see.
While you hold it
you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen;
people get hurt
Or die; and you
suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can
stop times unfolding.
You do not ever let
go of the thread.
It’s a strange thing, the healing in this passage; most strange perhaps in that the power went out of Jesus without his volition. In this passage, he didn’t decide to heal that woman from the fringes. Without his knowing, while he was turned away looking at something or someone else, she sneaked in to touch the bare threads of his prayer shawl, the mere edges of Jesus’ sublime holiness, and her faith, her extraordinary faith, her hanging-by-a-thread faith, called the healing down upon herself.
But he could feel it.
“Who touched me?” Peter stated the obvious: “Jesus,
the crowds are all over you. Everybody’s
touching you!” No, this one was
different. “Someone touched me; for I noticed that power
had gone out from me.”
It’s almost heart-breaking the way Luke proceeds to tell the story: “When the woman saw that she could not remain hidden, she came trembling; and (fell) down before him…” Of course she’s afraid. She’s unclean! The crowd will be furious with her! Perhaps they’ll turn on her and even stone her in their righteous anger! And they’ll never believe about the healing. Never!
But then Jesus dispels her fears, calms the crowd, and changes everything with just one word: “Daughter.” Daughter, he calls her, this woman who has suffered so cruelly, this woman out on the fringes who has been separated from faith, friends, and family for so long.
“Daughter.”
She had reached out to touch the fringe of his clothing.
He had reached back to pull her in from the fringes.
Daughter.
Jesus was never a father but he had many children, didn’t he? Even some older than he.
Daughter.
It’s time to let go of the thread of yarn you’ve been holding. Now it’s time to reach across and hold the hand of someone next to you, a daughter or son of God. This is the thread to which Jesus finally directed the crowd, this crowd ready to rise in disapproval, in righteous indignation. Jesus directed their attention out on the fringes and urged them to see the thread of faith that connected her to them, her to him.
This is the thread running from you to me, between all of God’s kindred. How eager we are to cut that thread, to deny our relations, to label others outcast or unclean. How often we seek to detach ourselves from the web of relationships because we don’t feel worthy, because we feel unclean.
But today Jesus teaches us differently. Today Jesus offers up as exemplar of the faith a witness from the fringes, a faith hanging by a thread.
There’s a thread
you follow. It goes among
Things that
change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about
what you are pursuing.
You have to explain
about the thread.
But it is hard for
others to see.
While you hold it
you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen;
people get hurt
Or die; and you
suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can
stop times unfolding.
You do not ever let
go of the thread.