The numbers that we have to crunch in dealing with the annual operating budget and capital funds for building purposes, maintenance, staff support, and outreach, can so preoccupy us that the amount of time and space we give to Jesus can be squeezed out. We say that the church is Christ-centered, but so many other activities and interests can displace the presence of the Lord from our center to the periphery.

In the midst of the crowd, where the God-Man is being jostled as he makes his way to the house of Jairus there is a woman, “who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years [other manuscripts include that she had spent all she had on doctors], but no one could heal her. She came up behind Jesus and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.”

What do we know about this woman? First of all, she was anonymous. She was unnoticed in the crowd, She had no name. Being a woman, not a man, she was ignored in the crush of people surrounding Jesus. Have you ever felt like that? No one knows you. No one knows what you are suffering from. No one knows your personal history. No one knows what you have been through. Oh, they may know your name, they may know something about you, but they don ‘t really know who you are and what you have struggled with over the years. They don’t know what’s going on in your marriage and family, in your mind and imagination, in your dreams and nightmares, in your circumstances. You are not sure whether God knows you, or notices you. You wonder whether the pastor or the church leadership, knows or cares. When a person feels anonymous there is the tendency to feel that if anything happens to you in the crowd that you will be all alone with nobody to care for you. Panic then sets in.

That leads us to the second characteristic of this woman: she was alone. There was no one with her, no family, no friends. Unlike Jairus, who had his family, and professional mourners in attendance, and was a person of some importance in the community, and therefore attracted people who liked to be associated with him, this woman had no one. Was she single, widowed, or divorced? We don’t know her social situation but we do know that she must have suffered loneliness, and the depression that afflicts the lonely. Anybody who lives alone knows what that is like. Anybody who finds themselves losing spouses, close friends or relatives, knows what it is like to have to cope without anyone to share their lives with them. Loneliness leads to depression, which can lead to despair.

This woman was not only anonymous and alone, she was also unwanted. She was suffering from a disability that rendered her unclean in the society and religion of her day. Like a leper she would have had to remove herself from the society of others. She was not accepted. She was rejected. People would have been afraid of associating with her. They avoided contact with her. Have you ever experienced being passed over, being ignored, being unwanted? In the crowd it is so easy to feel unwanted. You see the beautiful and the powerful attracting all the attention while you are ignored, and cannot establish eye contact. Or you are talking with someone and their eyes are surfing the room to see someone else they would prefer to talk with rather than you. You leave church feeling that you are unwanted, and unappreciated. You want to be considered valuable but you fear that you are not considered important enough to warrant attention. In fact, you wonder whether you are defective in some way. Perhaps you think yourself too unworthy, or too sinful, to be wanted. You carry with you a sense of inadequacy and failure.

Anonymous, alone, unwanted, but also in reduced circumstances. This woman had spent all she had on doctors. Her expenses had outrun her income. She was not where she wanted to be financially, or where she had planned to be at this time in her life. Circumstances over which she had no control had overcome her resources. This has an effect on her self-esteem. She couldn’t afford to do what she would have liked to do. It was all she could do to keep up appearances. She was poor, and felt poor. She also was envious of those who were healthy and wealthy. In fact she experienced some anger at the fact that others were prosperous and could do anything they wanted, while she had to watch every penny. She dreaded what might happen next as she became unable to take care of herself. Her circumstances would lead to an inability to be in control of her life and her future. She would be at the mercy of other strangers.

Anonymous, alone, unwanted, in reduced circumstances, she was genuinely suffering from a chronic disability. Her problem was not imaginary. She was really sick, and unable to function normally. She could learn to cope but she could not dismiss the reality of her condition. All the self-help books in the world could not diminish her suffering. All the advice of others could not solve her problem. She had had to live with it for twelve years. Have you ever had other people try to tell you how to handle your suffering? It adds insult to injury when other people, who do not suffer as you do, say that they know how you feel, and if you would only read this book, or attend that lecture, or enroll in this program, or follow this diet, or pray in this manner, that you would feel much better. She saw no end to her sufferings and wondered how she could continue to bear them. Where would she get her strength?

What this woman had going for her was that she was willing to persevere. She had gone from one doctor to another looking for a cure. She was hopeful that one day she would be healed. This is why she came up behind Jesus and touched him. She hoped that he might be the answer. “Who touched me?” Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”

Now this is a remarkable statement. Jesus is in the midst of a crowd of people who are pressing against him, but he knows when this woman touched him for healing. Jesus knows the solitary individual in the crowd. Jesus knows us: anonymous, alone, unwanted, in reduced circumstances, genuinely suffering but persevering, when we reach out to him in the hope of being healed. He can distinguish between the pressing of the crowd and the touch of the solitary individual in need.

And so must we in the church. We must never be so enamored with the crowd, with numbers, with the public, that we cannot discern the needs of the solitary individual in need. Jesus is here, his risen presence is in our midst by the Spirit of God, so that his power is available to the solitary individual who reaches out to him.

But when we reach out to Jesus, he does not allow us to remain anonymous. He called her out of the crowd, and asked her to confess why she had touched him, and gave her the opportunity to witness to her healing. When Jesus heals us he asks that we bear public witness. We cannot keep it secret. Our faith, if it is genuine, has to become public. “Then he said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.’” Her reaching out to touch the Savior was a choice. It was a response to his presence. This response is called faith. Jesus is always in our midst and he calls us to respond to his presence. We can either reach out in faith, or we can draw back in rejection. It is either/or.

There is no middle response. There is either a desire for healing, for salvation, or there is a rejection of his offer. Jesus, the crucified one, who bled for this woman, took her bleeding away. When this woman reached out in faith, she experienced deliverance from her malady, which was the outward sign of her forgiveness, cleansing and restoration to wholeness, which we call salvation.. She was free to go in peace – shalom - wholeness - in peace with God, at peace within herself, and at peace with the world. She was now a public person to be noticed. She was now able to be accepted back into society. She was clean, holy, and acceptable to God and others. She would be able to find work, and friends, and perhaps a new family to love her. Her circumstances would improve. But if not, she had received the strength, the power, she needed from on high, to bear her sufferings. She knew that God had come alongside of her and turned her tears into laughter. That made all the difference.

What does this story say to you? You are the solitary individual in the crowd. Jesus, God-in-the-flesh, knows you by name. You are not unnoticed or anonymous to the Savior. If you will respond to his presence (and the risen and ascended Lord is present by his Spirit) by reaching out and touching him by faith, he will share his healing power with you. Then he requires you to publicly witness to what he has done. No one in the church should feel unnoticed or powerless. You are not just part of the crowd.

When we are crowding around Jesus and pressing upon him for our own needs, we should take note of the individual we don’t know. Perhaps we are meant to be Jesus to them, the presence of God to them. Who is the solitary individual who is sitting in front of you or behind you in church? What are the needs of the person you don’t know? When you greet one another, take time to notice the strangers, and be genuinely interested in them. Like, Jesus, you may be on your way to do something important, like healing the daughter of Jairus. But Jesus took time to minister to the woman. Jesus was busy. Jesus was busy comforting Jairus, who was an important man. But Jesus was not too busy to notice this woman, to stop, and get to know her story, and to give her the opportunity to witness to her faith. We must never be too busy that we overlook the solitary stranger in our midst, or to take for granted any person we encounter. Never let the crowd control you. It is the solitary individual who is important in God’s eyes.

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