"Don’t Touch Me" - Mark 5:21-43 - July 2, 2000

One time I was visiting a man who was gravely ill in the hospital. In order to see him you had to put on a isolation gown and gloves. He apparently had some kind of bacteria. After my visit I was speaking to a nurse who told me to be sure and wash my hands. She said this at least three times in a very stern and authoritarian manner. I think if I had neglected to wash my hands she would have had me arrested.

I appreciated the nurses reminder to wash my hands. She was just doing her job. However, I was doing mine and its not unusual for me to touch a sick person on the shoulder or hand to give them comfort and assurance. This was one of those cases where the discipline of medicine and the discipline of theology were intersecting. I respected her precautionary procedures but I had the need to touch and trust in a power beyond myself.

I can remember riding in the back seat of the car with my three brothers. We were constantly poking each other, keeping one another at a distance. We would literally make a line on the car seat, wanting no contact. While that is fairly normal behavior for children growing up, especially boys, it is sometimes a problem for we adults. There are some people we simply do not want to touch.

The woman who was hemorrhaging was an untouchable. According to Jewish law she was not allowed to be touched or touch anyone else. Jesus would have known this, but touching the untouchables of society was not beneath him. Besides, for Jesus, touching had both healing and spiritual power that could lead a person to health and wholeness.

The woman believed that by touching Jesus she would hopefully be healed. She didn’t realize that Jesus would raise the bar. Not only was she healed she now had a relationship with him that transcended her restoration to physical wellness. Jesus made an example of her faith by bringing attention to act of touching him. He also addressed her as "daughter", which suggests he and she were now very close, but in a spiritual way.

If anyone in society needed to be touched, she did. Not only did it make her well, it brought her back into the life of the community. For me this illustrates the fact that our health is directly related to the importance of being social. In fact there is evidence which supports this. For example, Leo Buscaglia has developed the theory that hugging helps you to live longer, protects you from illness, strengthens family relationships and even helps to relieve stress and depression.

According to Helen Colton, author of The Gift of Touch, the amount of hemoglobin in a persons blood is increased significantly when a person is touched. Increased hemoglobin levels tone the whole body and help to prevent disease and speed the recovery time from illness. ( from Homiletics, June 1991)

In a 1997 June issue of The Dayton Daily News, there was an article on the common cold. They now believe that those who have social contact with friends and family are less likely to catch a cold then those who live in seclusion. You would think the opposite. But studies are showing that people with a broad array of social ties are significantly less likely to catch colds than those with sparse social networks. Dr. Ronald Glaser, a virologist at Ohio State, also reported that a person’s immune response increased with the strength of his or her social network.

Today’s scripture is really two stories in one. But, they are connected. Notice that in both cases there is a crowd of people. Neither is a one-on-one encounter. Jairus wants Jesus to come and heal his daughter by laying hands on her. Jairus has heard of the healing miracles Jesus has performed. No need to travel to Cleveland Clinic when a specialist is in the neighborhood. Jesus responds but when he arrives it is too late. The girl is presumed dead, but Jesus goes to her and tells her to "get up." She is made well but Jesus minimizes the event by telling Jairus and the others to keep the healing to themselves.

Why would Jesus want to keep this a secret? This last week we heard about a major breakthrough in the discovery of genetics. They have now determined how we are put together, identifying our GNA. What they will be able to do with this research in the future still waits to be seen, but the discovery is front page news. Jesus, on the other hand, wanted the little girl’s restored health to remain a secret. The only way for her to have a normal life was to be just a regular little girl rather than a major attraction in society.

In both cases, Jesus raises the issue of faith. He tells the woman that her faith had made her well. And to the relatives and friends of the little girl he said, "Do not fear, only believe." Does this mean that as long as we have faith we can be healed of any disease or illness? These two events illustrate something more than just the notion that having faith can cure the sick. These stories illustrate that God is a God who touches us, that God wants us to be touched and wants us to reach out and touch others.

We don’t have to be afraid to touch each other. To restrain from touching is to deny ourselves an essential human yet God-given characteristic. And, the power that flows through our freedom to touch has healing and restoration power that is beyond our comprehension.

To withhold the opportunity to touch is to restrict the potential of the spirit of God that is within us. To live in isolation from our neighbors sets us up for a community that is fragmented, segmented, if not sick. To fail to see the connection between our faith and the need of human touch is to miss a joyful element of life.

There is an old Chinese tale about the woman whose only son died. In her grief, she went to the holy man and said, "What prayers, what magical incantations do you have to bring my son back to life?" Instead of sending her away or reasoning with her, he said to her: "Fetch me a mustard seed from a home that has never known sorrow. We will use it to drive the sorrow out of your life."

The woman set off at once in search of that magical mustard seed. She came first to a splendid mansion, knocked at the door, and said: "I am looking for a home that has never known sorrow. Is this such a place? It is very important to me." They told her, "You've certainly come to the wrong place" and began to describe all the tragedies that had recently befallen them.

The woman then said to herself, "Who is better able to help these poor unfortunate people than I, who have had misfortune of my own?" She stayed to comfort them, then went on in her search for a home that had never known sorrow. But wherever she turned, in hovels and in palaces, she found one tale after another of sadness and misfortune. Ultimately, she became so involved in ministering to other people's needs and griefs that she forgot about her quest for the magical mustard seed, never realizing that it had in fact driven the sorrow out of her life.

Dr. Keith Wagner, St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Sidney, Ohio