Cleanliness and Christ

Matthew 9:20-25

And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be rescued.”

Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well.

And when Jesus came to the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.

Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone (Vol. 1)

[T]wo of the things that were near the top of the [Jew’s cleanliness] list, thing to avoid if you wanted to stay “pure” in that sense, were dead bodies on the one hand, and women with internal bleeding (including menstrual period) on the other. And in this double story Jesus is touched by a hemorrhaging woman, and then he himself touches a corpse.

No Jew would have missed the point . . . In the ordinary course of events, Jesus would have become doubly “unclean,” . . . But at this point we realize that something is different. [Their] “uncleanness” doesn’t infect him. Something in him infects [them]. . . . What Jesus was doing was the beginning of his whole work of rescuing the world, saving the world, from everything that polluted, defaced and destroyed it. And those who would benefit would be those who would believe (104-6).

A. Orendorff

Sin defiles. Whether we are the perpetrators or those perpetrated against, sin stains. It makes us dirty, unclean, impure, filthy. In the presence of a holy God, we may easily multiply Isaiah’s woeful confession, “I am a person of unclean lips, eyes, ears, hands, motives, thoughts and heart.” Yet our uncleanness does not stop the advancing Christ. Jesus enters the fray of our defilement and, as Wright so wonderful puts it, “[Our] ‘uncleanness’ doesn’t infect him. Something in him infects [us].”

“Lord Jesus, I believe you are able, make me clean.”