Point of contact

In Capernaum, a synagogue official came to Jesus asking Him to come to his house. His daughter had just died, yet he believed that if Jesus touched her, she would live. Jesus got up, and followed the man back to his house.

While Jesus was on the way to this man's house, a woman came up from behind Him, to just touch His cloak. She had suffered from a hemorrhage from twelve years; Mark adds that she had suffered much at the hands of physicians, having spent all that she had trying to become well. Like the synagogue official, she believed she would be healed if she only touched Jesus; even if He did not know that she touched Him.

This woman touched the outer cloak that Jesus wore, from behind Him. Mark makes it clear that she immediately felt that she was healed. But both Mark and Luke added that Jesus felt power go out from Him. He turned around, and asked who touched Him. The woman, in fear, came before Him and told Him what had happened. Jesus told her to take courage; He expressed to her that it was her faith that had made her well.

When Jesus came to the synagogue officials house, the mourners, including fluteplayers were already there. Jesus told them to go away, saying that she was not dead, only sleeping. The crowd laughed at Jesus, but He went inside the house, and had the crowd sent outside. He took the girl by the hand, and she arose.

These two stories are told in this same way in Matthew, Mark, and Luke; the one story is always embedded in the other. What is in common in the stories is issue of a point of contact for faith. Jesus made a point of stopping to find the woman and then making it clear to her that it was her faith that made her well. But she was made well when she touched His cloak; Jesus felt power going from Him when she touched His outer garment. Her heart had focused on a point of contact; she had good reason to think that the physical contact had healed her. In the same way, the synagogue official thought that if Jesus laid His hand on his daughter, see would be made alive. He also had focused on a point of contact. In both cases Jesus healed, even when their heart had focused on a point of contact.

His disciples saw Jesus go with the synagogue official, to lay His hand upon the girl as the man had asked. Jesus did not seek to convince the man that He only needed to speak a word and his daughter would live; the centurion understood that, but the synagogue official did not. Jesus was willing to work with the man's faith, even though his faith was limited by a need for a point of contact. But by going, Jesus rewarded the faith that this man had; this man watched Jesus raise His daughter from the dead.

His disciples also saw Jesus find the woman who had touched Him; she had been healed without His knowledge, but He wanted to see her face to face. Jesus told her face to face that her faith had made her well.

What His disciples saw was His concern for the faith of those who came to Him; He wanted those who came to Him to understand that those who come to Him by faith are rewarded.

The synagogue official must have prayed much for his daughter; the people of the synagogue must have joined him in prayer. Yet his daughter slipped away. He had sought for healing, but he did not find it. The woman had gone to many physicians, and had endured much pain in their "treatments"; she had spent all she had seeking to be cured. She had trusted many different physicians, and had not been helped. She had sought to be healed, but she had not found it through what she had done. They had both sought healing in what they thought would work, but had not found it. When they came to Jesus in faith, they found healing.

This is the point of what the disciples saw: those who seek Him are rewarded.

"And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of of those who seek Him."
Hebrews 11:6

Seek the touch of the Rewarder, not the reward.