Read Luke 8:40-56 – Now, take a moment and see if you can determine which of the characters in this story you identify with most closely.
When the woman saw that she could not remain hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before him, she declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”
Luke 8:47-48 | NRSV
In his book, Further Along the Road Less Traveled, M. Scott Peck recounts a story of when Baptist theologian Harvey Cox was addressing a convention of Christian healers – pastors, therapists, nurses, and doctors that Peck was attending. During his presentation, Cox retold this same story from Luke 8; which includes glimpses of a woman who has been hemorrhaging for years. She touches Jesus’ robe in the hope that she too might be healed. Jesus reels around and demands to know who touched him. The cowering woman sheepishly owns up, and Jesus, feeling compassion for her, in her suffering, heals her, and continues on his way…. After retelling this story, Harvey Cox turned to his audience of six hundred Christian healers and therapists to ask them which of the characters in the story they most strongly identified with. The bleeding woman? The anxious father? The curious crowd? Or Jesus?
With whom do you identify most closely?
What Cox discovered was that around a hundred felt they related most closely to the desperate woman. Several hundred identified with Jairus, (the synagogue ruler) whose daughter was dying. The majority of those attending the conference identified with the perplexed group of bystanders in Capernaum. And only six – yes, six – people – felt they identified most closely with Jesus. Peck’s point in retelling his experience was to illustrate that there is something seriously wrong when only one in every hundred Christians in healing ministries identifies first with Jesus. Here was a story about Jesus the healer, told to healers, and almost none of them identified with Jesus.
Each of us has experienced a measure of Jesus’ healing touch in our lives. Each of us is being invited to pass along healing words and actions to those around us; those we know, and those who at the moment are strangers. This is part of what it means to “follow” Jesus. The late, Henri Nouwen, referred to this kind of living/following as being, “wounded healers.” It requires us to take risks, to be vulnerable – just as the hemorrhaging woman risked and stretched out to Jesus in her great need.
In the chapel of a Roman Catholic Church on the shores of Galilee (near the village of Migdal, Israel ) the mural pictured below is on display; one artist’s depiction of the woman’s healing. If you could reach out at this moment and touch Jesus, what part of you is most in need of healing? If you could share the healing touch of Jesus with someone else today – who would that be? What are you waiting for?
How Sweet The Sound, 
Jon (the Methodist)
If you would like to view past editions of How Sweet the Sound, follow this link: https://sounddistrictnc.org/category/from-the-ds/