New Crutch Needed

PART 1

A woman crawls through the pressing crowd, clawing her way through the dirt and the shuffling feet to reach Jesus.

“If I can just get to Him, touch the bottom of His cloak,” she thinks. “I know I will be healed from this agony, these twelve years of pain and disease, of loneliness and being an outcast.”

She continues fighting against the crowd. She can see His feet and His tunic now and doubles her efforts. Rocks dig into her bloodied knees and unknowing feet step on her hands. A man trips over her, almost falling and, cursing her uncleaness, turns to kick her hard in the ribs.

In a desperate lunge, her fingertips brush the heavy fabric of His cloak and, in her healing, she knows the struggle has been worth it all.

Jesus, feeling His healing power flowing to the woman, asks “Who touched me?” When He hears her story, her efforts, He blesses her, saying “Go in peace and be healed.” 

There are many times in life when we need healing – from sickness and chronic disease of both the body and the soul. We know Jesus is the physician of our bodies and the healer of our hearts, so we head to Him. We crawl along with what strength we have, keeping his tunic in sight, drawing strength from the hope of reaching Him.

We grasp a few threads on His cloak and He turns to say “I don’t have to ask who touched me. I know you. You are my child and I will never turn you away.”

Jesus stops what He is doing when we touch His cloak. He turns to lift us up, to help us to our feet. He holds our face in His scarred hands and looks in our eyes. “I know you’ve gone through a lot to get here. It still may not be an easy road, but we will walk it together now.”

He puts our arm around His neck and His hand around our waist. “We will go in peace together,” Jesus says. “We will walk along toward healing, and when you are tired, we will rest. When your legs wear out, lean on me and I will help you take each step.”

He doesn't give us a crutch or a cane, He gives us Himself.

No Crutch Needed Part Two

The word was out. Everyone was talking about that woman, the unclean, diseased one who had the nerve to crawl up to Jesus and touch his tunic. Her family and friends were overjoyed with her healing. Some of the people in the crowd were wishing they thought of it first. The Pharisees wanted to punish the woman for exposing so many to her uncleanness. But for a large number of the people who heard of the healing, it was a call to action.  

They might only be common folk, uneducated and of no social status, but they were not stupid. They could certainly add one plus one and get two, and in this case, their math was very simple. One sick person plus one cloak worn by Jesus equaled hope.

And hope was something that had been in short supply for a very long time. Some of the sick languished for years in conditions that drained their family’s time, energy and hard earned money. Some suffered from a sudden illness and were now near death and unaware of their dire situation. Some were in heartbreaking states of mental illness and demon possession, living in restraints and being fed from a plate on the floor like an animal.

But now there was hope, sparkling in the distance like a far away star. If somehow, some way, these sick and inert, these comatose and demented, could get a touch of Jesus’ clothes, their ordeal would be over.

A fever of hope took hold of the families and their efforts became frantic.  Inquiries were made as to where Jesus would be next. Cots to carry and litters to drag were hastily constructed. Distant cousins and neighbors were pressed into service to help transport the sick. Mothers strapped deformed children to their backs, carrying blankets to place them on once at the marketplace. The mentally ill were bound hand and foot to stretchers and carried toward the center of town.

Jesus was coming.

The furor of preparations continued. As dawn broke, the marketplace was already half full of the ill and helpless. Laying side by side on the ground, every small patch of earth was claimed and covered with withered bodies and wretched, suffering souls. Soon the entire area would be cloaked with a patchwork of misery.

Family members stood or sat near their sick, attending their needs. Breaking off bits of bread and feeding them, dribbling water into their dry mouths, wiping faces and arms with damp cloths, the families brought what little aid and comfort they could.

The marketplace was full now. The merchants, initially angry at the crowd for blocking access to their booths, quickly learned they could charge five times the normal amount to the captive crowd and were now happily raking in their profits.

As the sun rose higher, the marketplace became stifling hot. The sick and diseased, enduring hour upon hour of waiting began soiling themselves. Some vomited and wounds bled and oozed though rag bandages. Unable to move without aid, and with their families unwilling to release this one last hope, they waited together in a living sea of suffering.

A young boy on a rooftop, pressed into service as a lookout with a bribe of fresh fruit and cheese, suddenly stood up and began shouting. “He’s coming! I can see Him.”

Those that could, jumped their feet. They grabbed their neighbors in excitement, encouraging each other, saying quick prayers. A confusion of voices all speaking at once echoed off the marketplace walls.

And then there He was. Jesus stood at the head of the small street leading to the marketplace. A blanket of silence unrolled over the crowd.

Jesus looked tired. He was dusty from the miles already walked today and there was a slight slump to His shoulders. But His eyes were alert and alive. Surveying the crowd, His warmth showed through as a slight smile touching the corners of His face.

A big, burly man standing behind Jesus, looked over His shoulder, rolled his eyes and blew air out in a large, noisy sigh. Jesus reached back, scruffling the base of the man’s neck and giving it an encouraging, but playful, shake. Then, turning back to the crowd, Jesus started forward.

And everywhere Jesus went, to villages, towns, or farms, people would take their sick to the marketplaces and beg him to let the sick at least touch the edge of his cloak. And all who touched it were made well. Mark 6:56

There are times when those close to us are facing illness that seems incurable or situations that look hopeless and they don’t have the ability to get help on their own. They have neither the strength to move themselves to Jesus or the faith to believe things can change.

This is when we have an opportunity to follow the example of the townsfolk. We need to carry our families, our friends, our brothers and sisters, to the marketplace and lay them in the path of Jesus. This is a time to pray for them, asking the Lord to walk by and let His cloak brush them and heal them, revive them and restore hope.

We can have faith in the knowledge that Jesus is coming. He is coming to let His cloak sweep across the hurting and bring healing. The heart of Jesus is compassion, moved to action. And Jesus wants us to be the action that carries those in need to Him, that brings His compassion and hope to those we know and love.

Written by
Jody Ward