What Happens When Something Unclean Touches What Is Clean?

Should We Approach Jesus Only When We Are Sinless?

I was watching one scene from “The Chosen” when a very important question came to mind: “What happens when something unclean touches what is clean?”

The scene was about the healing of a bleeding woman who touches the clothes of Jesus. Before doing so, however, some people tried to prevent her because she was ritually “unclean”. They seem to be worried that by touching Jesus, the woman would make Him unclean.

What happened next was the amazing miracle we all know. The woman who bled for twelve years was healed simply by touching the fringe of His clothes!

This scene made me think about my own condition as a sinner. In a way, I felt “unclean” many times. I felt so unworthy to approach Jesus even in prayer.

Because that’s how things were naturally supposed to be, right? Clean things were mean also for other clean things. Unclean things should not dare touch what is clean!

But just like the scene where the bleeding and unclean woman touched Jesus, I must remember Jesus’ point of view in this.

He did not get mad at the woman for touching His clothes. He never said that the woman made Him unclean. On the contrary, Jesus declared her to be clean! In this case, it was the cleanliness or holiness of Jesus received in faith by the woman that made her clean.

God knows our sins and our uncleanliness.

If He wanted to exclude Himself, He would not have come down from heaven to live among us. To mingle with us in the darkness, sinfulness and uncleanliness of our lives.

He knew it would cost Him much. It cost Him all His suffering and even death at the cross! But that was the only way to lift us up from the darkness where we were. It was the only way to make us all clean.

Today, if you ever feel unclean and unworthy, try to look toward the Infinite Love and Mercy of Jesus.

Never let your sins keep you away from Him. What He is looking for is your contrite heart and your faith in His unfailing compassion.

“Come now, let us set things right,
says the Lord:
Though your sins be like scarlet,
they may become white as snow;
Though they be red like crimson,
they may become white as wool.”
-Isaiah 1:18 (NABRE)

“Thinking about sin, whether our own or another’s, creates a spiritual fog that robs from us the sight of God’s beauty. Instead, we should seek God’s healing… to fasten ourselves to Him… in whatever condition we find ourselves, whether we are clean or dirty in our own eyes, for His love for us never changes.”

(All Shall Be Well: A Modern-Language Version of the Revelation of Julian of Norwich by Ellyn Sanna)