The edge of his cloak
People brought all their sick to him and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed. -Matthew 14:35-36
How Jesus Loved People
People from all around brought their sick to Jesus, and everyone who touched the edge of his cloak was healed.
I did a search on the definition of a cloak, and this was the first thing that came up: An outdoor overgarment, typically sleeveless, that hangs from the shoulders.
That confirmed what I already suspected,
I don’t even own a cloak.
And if I did, anyone who touched it wouldn’t be healed.
In contrast to an average Joe like me, Jesus healed all manner of sickness. He healed lepers (once he healed ten at a time), paralytics, people with withered hands, bleeding women, blind men, dying children, and epileptics. He healed deaf men, women with fevers, and he reattached severed body parts. He even raised people from the dead.
Jesus favored healing people by touching them. Occasionally he healed remotely, by just saying it would happen, it happened. He preferred to heal instantaneously, as opposed to progressively. He liked to heal totally and completely, as opposed to partial healing.
Jesus loved people–by healing them.
How to Love Like Jesus–A Baby’s Skull Removed
My wife Kathy is a great example of how someone without a cloak can heal people. When our grandson Andrew was 9 months old, he had a deformity of his skull called Bilateral Isolated Frontosphenoidal Craniosynostosis. That’s a fancy medical term that means the part of Andrew’s skull behind his eyes and around his left temple wasn’t growing as fast as it should. Without surgical intervention, the left frontal lobe of his brain wouldn’t have enough room to grow properly. The surgery was complicated and involved folding down Andrew’s face and removing the front part of his skull, including the forehead. But the left frontal lobe is the part of the brain that provides our speech and language function. So no intervention could possibly result in a compromised ability to talk, read, and write.
The required surgery was also expensive and involved travel. The hospital where the procedure would be performed was Phoenix Children’s Hospital, in Phoenix, Arizona, a thousand miles away from our home in Oregon.
So Kathy organized a massive garage sale to raise money for the cause. She also arranged for us to travel with our son, daughter-in-law, and grandson to provide support out in Arizona. After the surgery, Kathy was over at our son and daughter-in-law’s almost every day. She did anything she could to help with the healing process. (If you’re interested, you can read more in a previous post: You Are the Body of Christ)
Fast forward 18 months: As I write this post, my daughter-in-law is on our couch downstairs recovering from a broken foot. She broke her foot while chasing a very healthy and energetic two-year-old Andrew. So Andrew is healed. And Kathy is helping–again. She’s helping Andrew’s mother with the healing of a broken foot. She’s watching Andrew, and serving our daughter-in-law food, and putting ice on her foot, and driving her to the doctor’s office, and doing everything and anything she can to help the healing process. She’s healing by touching, she’s touching the life of Charise, our daughter-in-law.
And while all that’s going on, Kathy’s on the phone with doctors and relatives, helping an older family member (who lives in Chicago, 2,000 miles away) negotiate the process of major oral surgery. So she’s also healing remotely, if you will.
You’re probably like me in that, you don’t own a cloak, and if someone touched it, they wouldn’t be healed anyway. But that’s OK. There’s plenty you can do to help the healing process. Next time your neighbor, or your friend, or your family member needs healing, instead of focusing on what you can’t do, focus on what you can do, then do everything you can, to help the healing process.
So do it.
Do everything you can, to help them heal.
Jesus did.
You can too.
[Image via floridjohn – Creative Commons]
People from all around brought their sick to Jesus, and every one who touched the edge of his cloak was healed.
Wow, Kurt, so much scripture flooding through my mind on this scripture alone. So here goes…. the Strong’s concordance in the Greek for the word “hem” is kraspedon. It declares it to be of “uncertain derivation”, a margin, that is, (specifically) a fringe, or a tassel:-border, hem.
The majority of the versions use fringe, border, edge, hem, tassel. But few use the correct wording to indicate exactly what was touched on his garment. Since Messiah was from the tribe of Judah he wore the commanded “tzitzit” on his garment (talit) according to the scriptures, and this is what brought healing to the woman who had the issue of blood in Matthew 9:20-22, and the others who were healed of various diseases. When one looks at or touches the tzitzit, God’s Word is brought to mind.
The garment (beged in Hebrew) He wore was a talit (prayer shawl) and the appropriate verse for this is Malachi 4:2 in relation to the “wings”:
“But to you who fear My Name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings. And you shall go out and leap for joy like calves from the stall.
After all, Jesus was a Rabbi/Teacher, and the fringe He wore was in compliance with the ceremonial law, as it was a commandment for all the Israelite tribes to wear the tzitzit (fringe) on their talit accordingly, and not just the Rabbis:
Num 15:16 One law (Torah/precept/statute) and one ordinance (custom, manner, statute) shall be for you, and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner with you.
Num 15:37 The LORD spoke to Moshe, saying,
Num 15:38 Speak to the children of Yisra’el, and bid those who they make them tzitziyot in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put on the tzitzit of each border a cord of blue:
Num 15:39 and it shall be to you for a tzitzit, that you may look on it, and remember all the mitzvot of the LORD, and do them; and that you not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you use to play the prostitute;
Num 15:40 that you may remember and do all my mitzvot, and be holy to your God.
Deu 22:12 You shall make you tzitziyot on the four borders of your cloak, with which you cover yourself.
The relationship between tzitzit and a person’s authority can be found in 1 Samuel 24:4. David cut off the “skirt” of Saul’s robe. He was actually snipping off the tzitzit of his garment, representing the King’s authority; then Saul declared, “And now I know indeed that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand.” Also to touch Yeshua’s talit was to make contact with His authority, the Word of God, God’s Name, and the Living Word, resulting in healing!
This custom of wearing the tzitziyot was to cause God’s people to remember to keep His commandments and DO them. In keeping His commandments we are made whole and set-apart unto Him as consecrated; however, keeping His commandments do not “save” us for His shed blood provided salvation for the “whosoevers” who call upon the Name of the LORD.
It has been noted that in Temple times, a mixture of wool and linen were part of the priests’ clothing. Not so for the everyday dress of the Israelites. Yet, affixed to their garments were tzitzit combined with linen and one wool thread (the blue one, representing Messiah, our High Priest). This one part of the garment of every Israelite, male and female, was priestly. Wow, are we not part of a royal priesthood?
1Pe 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a set-apart nation, a people for a possession, that you should proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light,
1Pe 2:10 who once were not a people, but now the people of Elohim; who had not obtained compassion, but now obtained compassion.
Your weekly blogs always incite study and ultimately produce fruit, Kurt! And thanks for sharing Kathy’s heart with us. She is indeed a Proverbs 31 woman, which means she is a “warrior” for the Almighty! You go girl!!!!
Reblogged this on Believing God Today.
Great post Kurt with a very real life example. Blessings to you and Kathy, and all the rest of the clan. 🙂
Greg
No doubt I’m blessed to have Kathy as my wife. I’ve never met any woman who more closely resembles the woman in Proverbs 31. #WayBlessed
Thanks for your comment Greg, and for all you do at Believing God Today!
🙂
God Bless Kathy for her gift of serving, encouraging and healing . . . and for you for sharing this about her. ~ Blessings ~
Beautiful post. I’m praying for your family.