Thursday, September 3, 2015

The Matthew Connection: The Flow of Faith

The Matthew Connection: The Flow of Faith: Many are familiar with the story of the woman with the issue of blood.  She

The Flow of Faith



Many are familiar with the story of the woman with the issue of blood.  She's the one who pressed through the crowd to touch the hem of Jesus' garment and was healed.  But not as many may be familiar with another story where people touched the hem of Jesus' garment. I'm referring to Matthew 14:34-36:
34 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him 36 and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.
The men of that region recognized a special guest had arrived in their region. Quickly word went out to other villages that Jesus had come.  The people's immediate response was to bring all the sick people they could to Jesus.  This is where it gets interesting.

It says that they specifically "begged" him to let the sick just touch the hem of his garment.

Maybe they had heard about the woman with the issue of blood being healed?  At any rate, they sent out the good news that Jesus had come so all the sick people should come and ask to touch the hem of his garment.  

Notice how Jesus went along with their request. Did Jesus plan on having them touch his gament for healing?  What is key here is seeing that Jesus will meet us at out point of faith and will work with us from there.  The people believed that in touching his garment they could be healed so that's where Jesus started with them.

I could see some ministers today saying, "Oh no, that's not how I do healing ministry.  I lay hands on people, now everyone who wants to be healed line up and wait for me to lay hands on you."  Maybe Jesus could have gone for the more spectacular effect by walking away to the closest mud puddle saying, "Everyone who desires to be made well follow me to the mud puddle."

I think Jesus was responding to the men's point of faith.  They put out the word to come to Jesus and touch the hem of his garment.  The faith of the men led the people to come and expect that if they touched his garment they would be healed.

And what's more, the men, acting on their faith, created an opportunity for the people to exercise their faith. There is a real "flow of faith" going on here.  Jesus has no set "program" but he will respond to faith wherever and in whomever he finds faith.  

This leads me to ask myself, "how often do I express my faith in a way that lets others have an opportunity to exercise their faith?"  Sometimes all someone needs is to hear us speak our faith out loud.  When we speak our faith out loud, that may be just the encouragement they need to step over the line of unbelief into their own place of trusting Jesus for the impossible; and we all know that with faith, nothing is impossible.

But what is this "touching the hem of Jesus' garment" all about?  Basically three things: God's Word, God's Authority and God's Power.

Jewish men typically wore an outer garment with tassels or "tzitziyot" tied to the four courners.  These tassels were made out of white and blue threads tied in 613 knots.  These knots constantly reminded them of the 613 commandments of Moses.  There were 365 prohibitions ("thou shalt not" laws) and 248 affirmations ("thou shalt" laws).  They reminded the man and everone else to walk according to the commandments of God's Word.

Only those with authority could afford these tassels.  The blue thread was very expensive since the source for blue dye came from a gland of a particular snail.  It took 12,000 snails to make up a thimble full of blue dye.  It cost the equivalent of $36,000 to make up one pound of cloth dyed blue in 200 BC. By 300 AD, this same one pound blue cloth would cost the equivalent of $96,000.  (By the way, Lydia in Acts 16:14 as a "seller of purple" would have been amoung some of the wealthiest women in the empire.)

Because of the expense, these tassels came to be seen as a sign of the man's authority. Remember David cut off the edge of Saul's garment and later repented of doing it.  Cutting off the tassel was taking a king's authority.

The power of God is signified in the most interesting way to me.  In Malachi 4:2, it is prophesied the Messiah as "the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in his wings." The Hebrew word for "wings" refers to the outer fringe of a birds wing.  You have seen or seen pictures of an eagle or a hawk soaring in the sky.  You can plainly see the individual feathers on the edges of their wings.  These fringe feathers is what is specifically meant by "in his wings".  The picture is the Messiah will have healing power in the feathers on the fringe of his "wings" or his tassels.

Touching the hem of Jesus' garment is then an expression of faith in God's Word, God's authority and God's power to bring healing.  This simple act was a public sign of faith by the sick person.  Their faith in Jesus as Messiah with the Word of God exercising his authority through the power to heal is their response to Jesus.

But one last thought, it says that "all who touched were healed".  The implication is some sick people brought by friends to Jesus decided not to touch the hem of Jesus' garment?   What a lost opportunity by not following through with a simple act of faith.  

Some of us are at just such a point of recieving our healing.  We know Jesus is present as we hear the Word of God. We hear about Jesus' authority as God's Son and with it the power to heal.  But we stop just short of exercising our faith to recieve his healing touch.  

Others can bring us into an awareness of Jesus.  They can encourage us by their faith.  We are right at the point of making the connection for Jesus to do what He has promised.  But are we one of the ones who touch the hem of his garment or are we like the ones who hold back?