Matthew 9:18-22 While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples. Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.
In today’s focus, Jesus interrupted his teaching about needing a new container or new material for the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus introduced a new work of God in his ministry. His basic proposition was that people must be born again to please God. The old way of laws, regulations and ceremonial cleanness failed to change the hearts of men and women. These outward works of the flesh brought God little fidelity as the Creator of all things. The heart, the inner-man, needed to be changed to be right with God; purity of the soul by the indwelling Holy Spirit was the message people received from Jesus. While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” Jesus responded immediately to this request: Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples. On the way as He maneuvered through the crowd, a woman touched him with intent in her heart for healing by this divine person. She believed Jesus had power to heal the sick; therefore, she felt she could be healed by touching his garment. Her faith was in the radiating power of God in and through the person of Jesus. Of course, the outer garment was not part of the body of Christ, but she believed his presence within that garment was enough to heal her issue of blood. When she touched Jesus’ garment, He knew immediately that power had been released from him, for this person who touched him possessed faith in his divinity. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” (Mark 5:30-34) The disciples were somewhat confused by Jesus’ remark about who touched him, for they knew many were crowding in to touch Jesus or to talk to him. Probably, some were even addressing Jesus for specific concerns, but Jesus knew someone with genuine faith in his divinity was in that crowd with intentions of being healed by touching him. Jesus turned to look in the faces of those around him. His gaze must have frightened the woman, for any woman with an issue of blood should not be in the midst of people, for her touch would make others unclean. As ceremonially unclean, her very presence was outlawed in the Temple. She was anathema to people and to God, for she walked in uncleanness. Knowing Jesus was divine, she knew Jesus would spot her, so she confesses that she touched him. As with the disciples, she understood many people were jostling Jesus, gathering to be near him, but she knew her touch was different, so she admits to touching him deliberately to earn favor from him: her healing; trembling with fear, (she) told him the whole truth. As with many occasions, Jesus deals with her as a child of God. She might have been older than Jesus, but He calls her daughter. With men seeking his help, Jesus often called them son. Jesus was on a mission for the Father; therefore, these people of faith were his Father’s children. He addresses her with the words: your faith has healed you. This daughter of God went away completely healed, now ready to show the priest the new work that had begun in her.
In the process of being baptized by John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit fell on Jesus in the form of a dove. From that time on Jesus was the resident temple of the Holy Spirit. His words and actions became very powerful, testifying of the reality of God. He demonstrated power that only One of divinity could possess. He healed people, cast out demons, altered the realities of nature by walking on water, calming the sea, controlling the wind. With the knowledge of the Spirit of God in him, Jesus spoke with wisdom, confounding the most learned and wise in Jewish society. Jesus radiated the power of God. People were influenced by this power when they gathered around him. He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all. (Luke 6:17-19) The power in Jesus was so evident that people sought to touch him: all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all. As with the woman with the issue of blood, people wanted deliverance from their sicknesses and troubles. They felt Jesus could be their problem-solver. Many people felt Jesus’ power and found his words a purifying solvent for their bodily needs. John writes, Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. (John 21: 25) But the story of the woman with the issue of blood is in three gospels for a purpose. We know this woman is an outcast within her society. She cannot touch others; neither can she be in the Temple of God. After twelve years of this infirmity, she is without hope of a cure. She tried many doctors and solutions to her physical ailment, but none succeeded. She was alone in a society of bustling people—all of them doing their own thing. She had no right to carry on with life, for she was an untouchable: unclean, without hope of companionship or service to God. She had to consider herself worthless, a life caught in unending hopelessness. But she heard of Jesus. He was walking through her community. He was her last hope of normalcy. She went into that crowd, knowing that her touching of people was an anathema to the God of creation. When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge, just as in the days of her period. Any bed she lies on while her discharge continues will be unclean, as is her bed during her monthly period, and anything she sits on will be unclean, as during her period. Anyone who touches them will be unclean; they must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening. (Leviticus 15:25-27) The people might not know her situation, but God knew it and disfavored her condition of uncleanness. She was bringing herself into judgment by God himself for her actions. But Jesus, the Son of God, called her daughter. She reached beyond the law and its regulations to the giver of grace and mercy. JESUS IS GRACE AND MERCY. He came not to condemn, but to release the captive from captivity.
We who are filled with the Holy Spirit, who radiate his life through our words and actions, should express grace and mercy to those in hopeless situations. God came that day to a very sick woman and touched her through his Son. Through Jesus, God activated grace and mercy. This whole scene is a message of faith in the God of love. This woman broke the law that governed her society, a law given by God. But she came to Jesus, believing He could deliver her from her issue of blood. Jesus’s grace and mercy were on display that day. In our day, we who are alive in Christ should be his instruments of grace and mercy. We do not determine what God’s will is, but we pray in faith, believing the touch of Jesus’ garment will save and heal many. Our lives should overflow with love. Praying for others is part of loving others even if they are doing wrong. We should shine with the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "Whoever believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (John 7:38) In this story, we see so much faith in Jesus and his love that this woman was willing to break religious laws and customs of her society. She was willing to be exposed as a sinner, a violator of sacred law to the point of endangering her physical well-being. She might have been stoned for her transgression, but her faith was completely in the Christ who walked by her. She fell at his feet when she saw Jesus looking around to see who touched him: trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. At that time she exposed herself to the crowd as a person in great need and as an untouchable, one who could contaminate them all. Her fear was great, but Jesus the champion of that crowd said, Go in peace and be freed from your suffering. She went away rejoicing because she knew she was healed, and the crowd let her go away from them unmolested. All three gospels describe this event to tell us that God’s grace and mercy reach out even to a violator of the law. Jesus put aside the rules of uncleanness and replaced them with the law of forgiveness and the promise of a new life. This story is an extension of new wine in new bottles. This lady came under the jurisdiction of the old bottles, the old laws and regulations, and left with a new way of living, by the grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. He did not condemn her for being in the midst of that crowd. He forgave her and said very directly, Your faith has healed you. You are a new creature because of your faith in me and my divinity. We who are IN CHRIST have been made whole. Our flesh might give way to infirmities and sicknesses, but our faith in Christ has made us new souls that contain the love of God for the world, for the souls of men. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17) Our praying for healing is good, praying for difficulties of our lives to be erased is not bad, but praying to be like God, loving our enemies as well as our friends is very good. Giving grace and mercy as shown in this story, gives us a place with God that is eternal, that will never pass away.
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