Serving Ethiopian women by encouraging and exemplifying vulnerable, thought-provoking conversations around the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the mission of the
Church, and the life of a Christian.
Address:
Golagul Tower
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Email: info@selahethiopia.org
selahforethiopia@gmail.com
The crowd swarmed around him. Many shoved and pushed to get closer and see this Jesus they had heard so much about. He was just invited to rescue another hopeless situation – would he do it again? they wondered. Would he deliver this much-needed deliverance? Would he perform the kind of miracle people in the neighboring towns talked about? Imagining the noise and eagerness of the crowd somehow reminds me of our churches where we gather in hundreds…in thousands hoping to get a glimpse— albeit with much less expectation of an impending miracle. Yes, we’ve heard the stories, heard the witnesses of many and maybe even experienced his healing hand in our own lives, and yet here we are, simply gazing on as spectators to see what he will do next. So they were in the presence of God Almighty – touching him, walking around him…waiting to see.
Among the crowd came a woman who dared to believe that the Jesus she had heard about would touch and change her life today. That she was an outcast woman, deemed unclean, that she had spent 12 long years with her suffering, that she had tried everything else before… all this did not keep her from finding her way through the crowd, to extend her hand and touch the hem of his garment. I would like to imagine this scene in slow motion— just as she approached and touched him, all the noise and chaos of the crowd becomes background noise; every other person around him— touching him, talking to him— blur out and a powerful spark at her touch ripples through the crowd and brings Jesus to a standstill to turn and ask, “Who touched me?” [Gives me goosebumps every time I read this]
How many times have we shoved and pushed around Jesus only to go back to our lives with our burdens and sufferings intact? How many days have we been spectators—watching God do miracles in others’ lives but failed to trust Him to do the same for us? He still beckons us— oh, come you weary souls, find rest in Me. And yet we go on with our shackles as if Jesus was not passing through our town, as if He was inaccessible, or incapable of easing our burdens. Yes, we have seen miracles before, heard the wonderful stories…but we have buried our Savior and cannot see it is true for us today. Like the disciples on Emmaus road, we are busy narrating our brokenness and hopelessness to see that the resurrected Jesus is at our table today asking, “What burdens your heart, my child? Have faith in Me. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”