CHAPTER LXVIII.

Who touched me?

There is nothing more unreasonable and ungovernable than a crowd of people.  Men who standing alone or in small groups are deliberate in all they do, lose their self-control when they come to stand in a crowd.  You have noticed this, if you have heard a cry of fire in a large assemblage, or have seen people moving about in great excitement in some mass-meeting, shoving, jostling and pulling at each other.

But while the Lord Jesus had been performing some wonderful works, and a great mob of people were around Him, shoving this way and that way, all the jostling He received evoked from Him no response.

After a while I see a wan and wasted woman pressing through the crowd.  She seems to have a very urgent errand.  I can see from her countenance that she has been a great sufferer.  She comes close enough to put her finger on the hem of Christ’s garment, and the very moment she puts her finger on that garment, Jesus says:  “Who touched me?”

I would like to talk to you of the extreme sensitiveness of Jesus.  It is very often the case that those men who are mighty, have very little fineness of feeling; but notwithstanding the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ was the King of glory, having all power in heaven and on earth, so soon as this sick woman comes up and puts her finger on the hem of His garment, that moment all the feelings of His soul are aroused, and He cries out:  “Who touched me?”

I remark that poverty touches Him.  The Bible says that this woman had spent all her money on physicians; she had not got the worth of her money.  Those physicians in Oriental lands were very incompetent for their work, and very exorbitant in their demands.  You know they have a habit even to this day in those countries of making very singular charges.  Sometimes they examine the capacity of the person to pay, and they take the entire estate.

At any rate, this woman spoken of in the text had spent her money on physicians, and very poor physicians at that.  The Lord saw her poverty and destitution.  He knew from what a miserable home she had come.  He did not ask, “Who touched me?” because He did not know; He wanted to evoke that woman’s response, and He wanted to point all the multitude to her particular case before her cure was effected, in order that the miraculous power might be demonstrated before all the people, and that they might be made to believe.

In this day, as then, the touch of poverty always evokes Christ’s attention.  If you be one who has had a hard struggle to get daily bread—­if the future is all dark before you—­if you are harassed and perplexed, and know not which way to turn, I want you to understand that, although in this world there may be no sympathy for you, the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ is immediately moved, and you have but to go to Him and touch Him with your little finger, and you arouse all the sympathies of His infinite nature.