The Power of Touch: Experience the hem of Jesus.

I saw him for the first time sitting alone in the church parking lot in his lawn chair. It was late summer, and my church was hosting an outdoor service. Of course, when it came time to greet each other my wife Carla who has never been shy made a beeline right to the stranger who was sitting all by himself. I soon learned from her his name was Tom and the next time I would see him would be at my Thursday morning bible study weeks later.

Tom is a quit man, as one might say “a man of very little words.” As I walked out of church service one Sunday my eye caught Tom waiting with a Christmas gift all by himself. As we talked and I would learn that day was Tom had honed his listening skills as a Chaplin in our community. Ah, so then the Christmas gift must be a bible. As we talked, I mentioned my passion for painting scripture-based art that moves or sometimes propels me to a closer relationship with Jesus.

The next words out of Toms mouth just happened to be “I have a painting of the woman touching the hem of Jesus hanging in my office.” He then explained that the painting for himself represented the hem of Jesus as a conduit to God. Seeing himself as the hem on the robe of Jesus Tom touches people in their time of pain and sorrow offering them hope and sense of purpose as they reach out to touch the robe of Jesus.

And here ’s how scripture of that encounter reads in both Matthew and in Mark:

Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples. And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. Matthew 9:17-22

“A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. For she thought to herself, ‘If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” Mark 5:25-28

Before meeting Jairus the ruler Jesus talks to Johns disciples about the tradition of fasting. Jesus refers to the process of making wine with wineskins to show that our old nature brings bad wine versus the new nature of a life with Him is the good wine made with new wineskins. It’s then that Jairus the ruler of a Jewish Synagogue hesitantly approaches Jesus and kneels at His feet to ask if He can lay hands on his dead daughter. Without hesitation Jesus gets up to go to the house of Jairus.

My painting is the image I had of the encounter is Jesus’ walking with Jairus when an unclean woman with a twelve-year bleeding disorder, a person on the margin of society, an outcast who thought that if she could just touch the hem of Jesus she would be healed. Jesus feels her presence and turns to her and deems that her faith has healed her.

How profound it is that I can look at the same scripture as Tom and it can mean something totally different to me depending on the lens of life I am looking through at the time. Yet, others may look and see Jairus a Jewish ruler kneeling before Jesus asking Him to bring His 12-year-old daughter back to life. A man who finds hope and places every ounce of honor, trust and faith in Jesus. Jesus shows His love by leaving what He is doing to follow Jairus to his house. Once there Jesus said,

“Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. And the report of this went through all that district. Matthew 9:24-26

So, what was the big deal? The woman was only touching the hem of Jesus. What would that hurt? Or better yet “what would it do?” The word “hem” means “fringe, tassel, or the border of a garment”. It says in Numbers 15:38-39

“Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the LORD and do them, and that you may not follow the vice to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined, and that you may remember and do all My commandments and be holy for your God.”

What she touched was the tassel of Jesus! The tassel had meaning for her. As part of a prayer shawl, it’s a reminder of the way God wants us to walk with Him, to follow His heart as He commands. To some it might be sacred. No matter who we are God loves us and wants us to be holy in His eyes not in our own or better yet not in the eyes of the rest of the world.

My wish for the world is that every boy and girl can be healed. Today experience the power of touch that brings the peace of Jesus. To show people His hem as they go out into the world walking with their brother or sister in perfect step, lifting a shining light bringing PEACE on Earth with joy filling hearts, ringing the bells as we lift our voice in song to be heard.

I challenge you today to read Matthew 9:17-22 and then ask yourself “where do I see myself in this particular story?” Am I the unclean woman? Jairus the ruler of the Synagogue? A disciple of John with a new wineskin, part of the crowd of people just watching and judging or like Tom are you the hem of Jesus?

A few notes about the painting: I found a great article “The Hem of His Garment” which gave me the basis to my painting. I typically find that my original vision is never my final piece. After reading scripture I find God has the final say in what I paint.

The man’s hand above her head is a symbol of both the Holy Spirit and Trinity. Above that hand is an amanous face. Both emerged as I painted. The crosses on the road tell of the coming of the crucifixion of Jesus.