Reaching Out for the Fringe

She faced a crowd of people. Normally, she would go nowhere near such a gathering. The woman had some sort of a health condition that resulted in what was likely a chronic vaginal bleeding. It was discomforting and embarrassing. She'd had it for years, and no medical process available in her culture or her era offered any kind of help. The effort to eradicate her condition drained her financial resources. By the laws and practices of her people, she was known as "ritually unclean." This not only kept her on the fringes of religious and social activity, but it also threatened others whom she might touch.

Somehow, though, she was emboldened by the one who was at the center of the crowd - a carpenter turned healer from a place called Nazareth. At risk to herself and others, the woman was moved by a fleeting hope that if she somehow touched the fringe of his outer garment his power to heal might come to her. Sometimes desperate circumstances evoke desperate measures. Hoping to not be noticed by Jesus, she moved into the crowd, approached from behind him, and reached out to touch the hem of his clothing.

If you have access to a Bible, read Luke 8:40-50 to see how the story ends. As Jesus followers, our mission is to introduce Jesus to people who are or feel far from God, just as this woman did. Consider the following questions:

Describe a time in your life when you felt so down and out, that you would have liked to just touch the hem of Jesus' garment.

How have you helped people to reach out to connect with Jesus? How have you thrown barriers in their way? How has your church helped and/or hindered such people?

This weekend in worship our congregation will have the opportunity to confess the ways we have not helped people who are reaching out for the hem of Jesus' garments. We will repent of these things, relinquish them to God, and seek new life and purpose in Him. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.