If this passage was about Jesus attending a screaming loud concert, Jesus might be heard to say "who's whispering?". I mean, here we see Jesus in the throngs of followers, the huge crowds pressing in on him and he asks "Who touched me?". It seems almost absurd.
When I say I am a fundamentalist, I do not mean it in the way that is currently being used. The label "fundamentalist Christian" often applies to some Bible quoting, Bible thumping, arrogant, hypocritical hater. My notion of fundamentalism is, well, even more fundamental. I don't find that quoting snippets of Scripture as necessary. Perhaps it is not even desirable in the face of so much misinterpretation and the cherry picking that is done to support spurious and hateful positions.
No, my fundamentalism is very different. In my beliefs the life of Jesus lived, as seen in today's passage, is the real indicator of how to live. Jesus as he lived, walked and loved, before the words were put to paper is far more fundamental and informative. Scripture surely has a place, it is after all the revealed word of God. But Scripture is so often misused.
So what do we learn today? Jesus can sense someone touched him. His senses are tuned differently than how we often see things or experience things. Jesus is attuned to the fringes. Jesus is attuned to the marginalized. How do we know this? Let's point to this passage. Jesus routinely rails against the Pharisees and Temple elite yet He finds reason to reach out and cure the daughter of a man he would likely be railing against. Jesus is touched by a hemorrhaging woman in a crowd. The first ting any other devout Jew would do is label her unclean and in turn realize that He himself by such a touch is also ritually unclean. Does Jesus make this judgment and scream it out? Does Jesus mete out judgment, chastise and say repent? Jesus senses the touch of someone who needs a cure. She is considered unclean and Jesus makes her clean, cured. She knows that she is loved. That Synagogue leader knows God loves him and his family. This is fundamental. Love is fundamental to the Gospel of Jesus, Jesus' life. Jesus' life is all about love for us and us loving each other. It predates any written Scripture of the New Testament. It is what the writings point to and try to capture in their essence. Other 'Christian fundamentalists' point to words without love, preaching without caring.
The fundamentalist in me is simply to love and let yourself be loved. Simple and fundamental but all Jesus.
Luke 8:40-56
Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. Just then there came a man named Jairus, a leader of the synagogue. He fell at Jesus’ feet and begged him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, who was dying.
As he went, the crowds pressed in on him. Now there was a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years; and though she had spent all she had on physicians, no one could cure her. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his clothes, and immediately her haemorrhage stopped. Then Jesus asked, ‘Who touched me?’ When all denied it, Peter said, ‘Master, the crowds surround you and press in on you.’ But Jesus said, ‘Someone touched me; for I noticed that power had gone out from me.’ 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.’
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