He Knows Us!

There is a message in the story of the woman who touches the Savior’s cloak and is healed that I’ve never heard anyone talk about. You’ll remember that in this story a woman who has had health problems for twelve years makes her way through the throng of people and touches the border of the Savior’s cloak. Immediately she feels the healing power surge through her and knows that the flow of blood has stopped and she has been healed.

But also at that moment the Savior turns and says, “Who touched me? Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me” (Luke 8:45).

Peter and the other apostles are baffled by the question. Hundreds of people are present and they are all pressing forward trying to get near the Savior. “Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?” they ask in amazement.

But the woman knows that Jesus is not simply asking about a physical encounter. She felt the exchange of power and she knows that He knows what she has done. At this realization she comes forward, trembling and tells Him and the multitude what she has done and how she was been immediately healed. But instead of reprimanding, as she feared He would, the Savior praises her.

Sometimes we think of ourselves as just one of billions of people on the earth. Like Peter and the other apostles we are baffled. How can the Savior possibly single us out and know us? It would be like distinguishing one grain of sand from another on the sea shore! But the message here is that He does distinguish. He knew what this woman was doing, and He knew what every other person in the crowd was doing. There may be thousands of people around us, and it is beyond our comprehension how He can do it, but Jesus Christ knows us individually. He knows what we are doing and what is in our hearts, and especially when we make contact with him, He responds.

picture: http://oneyearbibleimages.com/jesus_woman.jpg