“Who touched my clothes?” asked Jesus (Mk 5:30). The disciples were quick to draw on commonsense & critique Jesus’ ‘overemphasis’: “You see the people crowding against you…and you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’” Simply put they were saying, ‘Who hasn’t touched you?’ In touch, yet out of touch, their following was a characteristic paradox.

Contrary to the famed practice & trendy crowding around a woman who was subject to bleeding for twelve years came & “touched the edge of his cloak.” She was the least close, touching the edge (end) of His cloak. Yet she became the closest to the providential potential He carried with Himself as “power had gone out from him.” She became different, because she was desperate – minimal contact, but maximum encounter. Jesus is touchable. Faith however remains the conductor of His power.