Tuesday 13 March 2012

If Only


Mark five twenty eight
If only I just touch his garment I will be healed…

 If I crawl through the crowds perhaps they will not notice me.  Cautiously, I begin my genuflection pilgrimage to the holy one.

The blood stained garment that covers the sin catches on the stones. Whimpering, the Pharisees look down and scoff, Can anything good come out of Nazareth?
They snicker.

If only. If only I just touch his garment I will be healed.

The crowd presses in. A religious wall thicker than bricks and mortar try to separate me from the holy one. A polished sandal bruises my heel, crushing my foot into the stones. Pain sears from the wound.  I look up. Kindness is my plea. Will you help me Mr. Sadducee?  Will you bring me to the holy one, Mr. Pharisee? They dismiss.

You are an unclean woman in need of a good stoning, not healing. The truth always comes out in one’s greatest affliction.

If only. If only I just touch his garment I will be healed.

The blood and the stones restrain me. I must wait. Intuitively, the holy one moves. The myrrh beckons him to lay hands on the shadowed sick. Pressing through the multitude, He stops within a stone’s throw of my reach. My tear veiled eyes see his dusty feet thirsting for the expensive consecrated oil.

The holy one hesitates; His heart longs for my persistence. The contained mercy oil gives me the courage to reach out over the manicured toed Pharisees and Sadducees and caress the swish of his garment. His healing myrrh empties into my weary spirit and the holy one knows.

Who touched my garment?

Mr. Pharisee and Mr Sadducee grasp the stones in anticipation. I whisper out my confession. It is I, Lord.

Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.

The stones must wait as Mr. Pharisee and Mr. Sadducee are silenced.

Mark six fifty six
Wherever He entered the villages, cities, or the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged Him that they might just touch the hem of His garment.
And as many as touched Him were made well.