Touch

Matthew 9:18-22

The key idea in this passage of Scripture is touch. The synagogue leader wanted Jesus to come and touch his daughter to bring her to life. The anonymous woman just wanted to get close enough to Jesus to touch him to bring healing (which is another key word in this passage: heal). I think both people demonstrate incredible faith: Jesus had not raised anyone from the dead at this point. He had cast out demons and healed people from diseases but this was a different category entirely. Yet, the man simply asks Jesus to come and place his hand on her. The woman also showed incredible faith because I don't know of any other person who was healed this way in Jesus' ministry. Yet she believed that Jesus was powerful enough that he could heal her if only she could get close enough to touch him.
I don't think that it is by mistake that these verses occur right after Jesus' teaching about new structures and new wine. Both of these healings were new to Jesus' ministry, very rare in Israel's history and announced the new covenant that God was making with his people. It also continues to build Matthew's case that Jesus is the Promised One: he raises a child from the dead just like the prophet Elijah (or Elisha - I can never remember) and he heals people without ceremony - all you have to do is bump into him.
I need to remember two things: 1) I need to reduce my scepticism and cynicism when it comes to the miraculous. Since we still live under the new covenant and since Christ still refuses to fit into categories and structures for long, I must be willing to at least consider the miraculous. 2) I need to have the same trust that this man and woman had in Christ. Nothing was impossible for him to do. Death seems pretty final and yet Jesus is more powerful than even death. I can trust him for anything: to help us adopt another child, to provide even in the midst of economic uncertainty, to save middle and high school students in Lethbridge, even LDS ones.