"Who Touched Me?"

Mark 5:21-34

July 8, 2012 + Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Reverend Dr. David C. Brown
Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ
400 Glenwood Drive, Chattanooga, TN 37404

In the fourteenth century a nobleman named Richard of Sicily came to the conclusion that the original language of human beings was Hebrew. In other words, if babies were not taught by their mothers to speak any other language, when they began to form and articulate words, those words would be Hebrew. To test this novel theory Richard took a half dozen infants away from their mothers immediately after birth and brought them to his castle. (Remember, he was a nobleman and could do what he wished.) The babies were put in a room and only those feeding them had any contact with them. The nurses were ordered by Richard to have as little physical contact with them as possible. They should not speak any words to them. Then Richard waited expectantly for the result of his experiment. Would the babies prove his theory that as they began to talk the language would be Hebrew? Unfortunately Richard never found out because after a relatively short time the babies all died. They died not from illness but from a lack of warm loving physical human contact. A medieval chronicler in commenting on this story said that though Richard’s experiment may have been sincere, “the shame was his.”

Why did the babies die? We now know that loving physical tough is crucial not only for a child’s survival but also for the first critical stage in human development. A modern Doctor and Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Rochester School of Medicine has discovered that there is a vital link between the physical touch of a mother and a baby’s physical as well as mental development. In his words . . .

“Yes, and that touching makes a difference. Studies have shown that even in rodents, physical touching during early development, before weaning, greatly increases the number of small neurons in certain parts of the brain. Now that’s a very powerful insight. Once again we rediscover that Grandmother knew what she was talking about, that you need to touch and love and nurture a baby. I’m sure that Grandmother didn’t know that involved postnatal proliferation and migrations of small neurons into the brain, but, nevertheless, she knew the effects were real.”

(Dr. Robert Felton in “Healing and The Mind” by Bill Moyers, Doubleday, 1995)

In other words, touching babies is not optional, it is crucial not only to their survival but also their human development. Psychologists such as Erik Erikson have taught us that the first critical stage of our development is our awareness that we can trust this world into which we have come. The quantity and quality of the way our mothers hold and caress us makes us believe the world is a safe and trustworthy place. Such trust makes us believe we can safely relate to other aspects of life. Tragically, if an infant does not experience a deep, loving, trusting relationship with its mother, the child may develop infantile schizophrenia. An inadequate trust also becomes apparent in adult personalities where a retreat into schizoid and depressive states is habitual.

(Cf. Erik H. Erickson in “Childhood and Society,” W.W. Norton, 1950)

While I believe that nearly all of us would agree on the importance of touch to an infant’s growth and development, we may not realize that physical touch is essential in all of life. Physical touch can help maintain our emotional being. It can even make a difference in our physical healing. Again, studies have shown that patients in a hospital recover much more quickly when they are caringly touched by nurses and doctors, and not simply given cold, impersonal, excellent medical care.

If you agree with all this – and I hope you do – perhaps those mysterious stories in the Gospels about Jesus healing people through his loving touch become easier to understand. The story of Jesus’ healing the woman who touched his clothing is a good example. I am going to re-tell the story again in my own way and with some of my own comments.

As the story begins, Jesus has returned from the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee to the area near Nazareth. His reputation as a healer causes a great crowd to gather around him the moment he sets foot on the shore. One of the leaders of a local synagogue, a rich man named Jairus, quickly comes up to him, falls on his knees, and begs Jesus to come to his home where his little daughter is almost dead. Jairus pleads with Jesus, “Please come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well.” Jesus accepts Jairus’ invitation and begins going along with many people.

I can’t resist remarking at this point that times haven’t changed much. Rich people always have access to healing. Wasn’t this the fundamental issue in the affordable healthcare debate that has been raging for months? Is healthcare to be limited mostly only for people with means or made available to all persons with need it regardless of their means? The recent Supreme Court decision has not ended this debate but only further inflamed those who despise President Obama and the Affordable Healthcare Act passed during his administration. This November we will decide the future of the Act.

In any event, as Jesus is going to Jairus’ home he is jostled by the crowd all around him. At this point, a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years enters the story. Doctors had been able to do nothing for her. By the way, I love the way the old King James Version of the Bible translates this verse:

(“She) had suffered many things of many physicians and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered but rather grew worse.” (Mark 5:26) Some of us could say much the same thing, but, remember, doctors “practice” medicine; they don’t always do it perfectly. Be patient with them.

This poor woman had heard about Jesus and the wonderful healing he brought to many people. She tells herself, “If I can only touch his clothes, I will be made well.” Sneaking up behind Jesus in the pushing, shoving crowd, she reaches down and touches the hem of his cloak. Immediately, she believes she is healed. And, immediately, Jesus asks his disciples, “Who touched me?” I sense a bit of anger in their response: “Who touched you, Master? Everybody touched you! Don’t ask such a foolish question.” But Jesus looks around to see who it was. The woman comes up, falls at his feet, and tells him her story. Notice what Jesus says to her: “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

I think this passage makes clear that Jesus did not believe there was some special magic power in his clothes. He also didn’t claim that he had done the healing. The healing came because of the woman’s faith in God.

Once again I will offer a comment, two, actually. First, doesn’t this story demolish the claims of contemporary faith healers that their special prayer cloths can heal people? It certainly destroys the (unspoken) claim of such “healers” that God has given them some special power to heal people. Even Jesus didn’t claim that. He gave all the credit to the woman’s faith in God. The woman certainly didn’t have to give Jesus a generous offering in order to get her healing! What blasphemous nonsense it is when contemporary “faith healers” like Oral Roberts, Benny Hinn, and all the other religious charlatans do such things.

There is something else in this story that to me is the greatest miracle of all. Jesus was so sensitive to human need that he could tell the difference between a gentle touch and a jostling shove. He was always deeply aware of the people around him who needed his help. My God, how I wish I had had this gift in the fifty years of my ministry! How many times have I failed to be aware of someone who wanted my help but missed their subtle signal? Loud, noisy, demanding people always get my attention. People who are more timid and self-facing don’t always get my attention. How is it with you? Have you had the same experience? We are not insensitive people; we’re just not sensitive enough. I need to work on this one. Maybe you do, too.

The other thing I take away from this story is the importance of being “in touch” with other people. They need it and so do you and I. For the past thirty or forty years, churches like ours have often included in their worship a time to take another person’s hand and offer them the peace of Christ. But some people don’t want to do that. It is too intimate a gesture for them. To such a person I would say, “My friend, I won’t comment on your aversion to being in physical contact with another person, although you might want to discuss this phobia with a counselor. I do want to tell you that for some people in every congregation this is the only caring physical contact with another person they will have all week. They need to be “in touch” with you and you need to be “in touch” with them though you may not recognize it. It is a healing moment. No, neither your touch nor mine will likely cure other people. That is up to God. In faith we connect with other people and with God. In faith we offer our own version of Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Dear God, if possible take this disease, this burden from me, but whether that happens or not I believe your loving peace is always with me.”

With that understanding I want us to do again what we did at the beginning of this service: offer one another the peace of Christ. But this time offer only the Peace of Christ to the people immediately near you. Please do not talk about other things. Simply offer one another the blessing: “The Peace of Christ be with you.” Who knows what miracle may come of it?