One On One: 100 Days With Jesus--Ministry YearsSample

Wings: The One who heals

Yesterday, we watched Jesus make His way through a crowd and suddenly stop and ask, “Who touched me?” Today we meet the one who interrupted. 

Let’s call her Susan. Susan has some kind of incurable cancer and is willing to do anything to feel better again. What should have lasted five days each month for her had flowed for more than 4,380 days straight. She saw one doctor after the next—and not one of them helped her. A few, in fact, hurt her. All of them left her drained and broke. 

What hurt Susan more was the ugly label, “unclean.” Susan’s husband couldn’t touch her, she couldn’t go to temple, or light the Sabbat evening candles. She couldn’t eat the Passover meal, or any meal, with her family. She lingered, unwelcomed, on the fringes of her former life. Exhausted, humiliated, sick, and alone.

Not surprising, news of a Healer spread quickly in the hopeless community of the unclean. When Susan heard about this Jesus, some little bit of hope stirred faith in her. If she could just get close enough to touch Him… Who cares if she was unclean—she’d hide in the crowd. No one would see.

So, with the courage only the desperate know, Susan made her move. As Jesus walked by, she reached out and simply touched His prayer shawl and just the fringes.

Immediately she felt life flood her body. Warm, colorful, electric life. And the Healer whirled around, “Who touched Me?” 

His tone was more surprise than accusation. His power met her faith and He felt something leave His body. Whoa! He searched the crowd—and when their eyes met, He smiled. What audacity! Far from superstition, what He saw in her was the confidence in Him that cured her—flooding her with a more thorough healing than what she had even when she was well. 

“Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

Did you hear that? He called her daughter. It had been a lifetime since anyone spoke to her so tenderly. And He wished her shalom. Peace—that wholeness of life that comes from being in right relationship with God. For the first time in 12 years—no, in her life—she was whole and clean. 

Malachi 4:2 prophesied that the Messiah would come with “healing in his wings.” The Hebrew word for “wings,” kanaph, is also the word for “borders” describing the long tassels on the corners of a Jewish prayer shawl. The Messiah was prophesied to have healing in His tassels. Susan probably didn’t know this, she simply grasped at the last threads of hope as the Savior walked by.

Tomorrow: One on one with Jesus, the storyteller …