THE TIME AND THE PLACE WHEN THE MIRACLE HAPPENED
In the Gospel accounts, this miracle immediately follows the exorcism at Gerasa and is combined with the miracle of the Daughter of Jairus. The incident occurred while Jesus was traveling to Jairus’ house, amid a large crowd.
THE MIRACLE
And a woman was there who had been subjected to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped, she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
At once Jesus realised that the 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.”
ALL ABOUT HER
She lived near the shores of the sea of Galilee, in the region of Israel(Luke 8:26; Mark 5:1, 21). She was one of the Jews and her family was unknown. Jesus was sent to “the lost sheep of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). Her age was not revealed in the Gospels. But all that we can assume was that she was neither too old nor too young because she suffered for twelve long years.
LED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT TO JESUS
∗ She had “heard” about Jesus.
∗ She, with the issue of blood was led by the Holy Spirit to position herself for healing.
∗ She stirred the narrative into being, when she journeyed out of her house to find healing.
∗ The woman’s Holy Spirit–activated exploration into her own healing.
∗ She did not bemoan her sickness of bleeding.
∗ Guided by the Holy Spirit, she moved quietly and passionately with the motivated feeling.
∗ Her following and the leading of the Lord carried her in the direction of Jesus which exemplified her faith; yet, no verbal announcement that she was a believer in Jesus, was said.
∗ Her actions speak of her belief.
∗ Indeed, her actions were evangelistic, that she moved beyond her own weak body.
∗ Its quiet revolutionary practice of this sick woman whose weak, disenfranchised body was the authentic voice of her.
∗ Her body as voice, prayer, protest against sickness, an evangelistic model, and justification dragged itself gracefully into the crowd that’s the community, in search of healing.
HER WILLINGNESS TO BREAK SOCIAL TABOOS
∗ The text has not indicated that she intentionally or rudely bumped into the other people in the crowd or spoke; she simply “came behind him, and touched the border of his garment…….”
(Luke 8:44, KJV)
“If a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even. And everything that she lieth upon in her separation shall be unclean: every thing also that she sitteth upon shall be unclean” (Leviticus 15:19, 20).
∗ She carried a psychological, physical, and spiritual weariness, weariness with social implications.
∗ It was unyielding because her bleeding was unyielding. Although she was weary, the woman moved through the crowd with a grief-stricken hopefulness that pushed her beyond the temporal reality of her physical condition, thinking,
“If I only touch His cloak I’ll be healed” (Matthew 9:20).
“If I just touch His clothes, I’ll be healed” (Mark 5:28).
∗ As an “unclean” woman she was unwelcome in society (Leviticus 15:19-30), i.e. socially isolated.
∗ Her touch on people and things would make them ceremonially unclean, so she would have been shunned by everyone, even family.
∗ Worship in the synagogue would have been barred to her since she could not make atonement for her blood flow (Leviticus 15:28-30).
∗ As an “unclean” woman if she touched Jesus, under normal circumstances, she would make Him ceremonially “unclean.”
∗ As a woman, she was restricted from touching a man in public.
“The Great Physician now is near,……..
∗ Although she thought that it would be a quick, unnoticed, one-way meeting. But as soon as the power was drawn from Jesus, He knew somebody had touched Him. So she had to reveal her presence.
∗ This woman sought to the birth of a new text by merging her infirmed body with the cloak of Jesus Christ.
HER HOPE IN JESUS
∗ This woman had hope. Hope energised her to get out of her house, and go into the crowd because Jesus was in the crowd.
∗The consciousness of the Comforter or the Holy Spirit is available to each and every believer.
∗ The Holy Spirit spoke to her too. She heard, and listened, although she lived in the not yet of being healed.
∗ But God, in His grace and mercy, empowered this woman and her weak body to leave her house, to go out into the crowd to find Jesus.
∗ This woman was trapped in the promise of healing.
∗ When the believer becomes trapped in a promise that God has imparted into the spirit, she gains confidence.
“And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that the power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ ” (Mark 5:30).
∗ As a result the spirit of the infirmed body merged with the power of Jesus and she was healed.
HER SATISFACTION
∗ Jesus received her.
∗ Jesus did not heal all whoever touched Him in the crowd.
∗ Jesus perceived her secret touch.
∗ Jesus was willing to heal her and He “responded by letting His power go out to heal her”
HER TRANSFORMATION
Jesus saved her from her affliction.
Jesus healed her body by His power immediately and completely
“And the woman was healed from that moment” (Matthew 9:22).
“…and immediately her bleeding stopped” (Luke 8:48).
“She felt in her body that she was free from her suffering” (Mark 5:29).
She knew “what had happened to her” (Mark 5:33).
RESTORATION OF HER SOCIAL STANDING
∗He made a public declaration that power had gone out for healing.
* “Jesus said, ‘Someone touched Me; I know that power has gone out from Me’” (Luke 8:46).
* “At once Jesus realised that power had gone out from Him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, ‘Who touched My clothes?’ …But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it” (Mark 5:30,32).
∗ He made her publicly confess her healing:
*“In the presence of all the people, she said why she had touched Him and how she had been instantly healed” (Luke 8:47).
∗ She would have been the happiest person mixed with the feeling of fear.
* “Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at His feet and, trembling with fear, told Him the whole truth” (Mark 5:33).
∗Jesus made a public declaration of why she was healed:
* “Daughter, your faith has healed you” (Mark 5:34).
∗ Jesus cared for her feelings and relieved her fears
WHY WOULD SHE BE AFRAID?
∗ She recognised that she was in the presence of God
∗ She need not be afraid of the rebuke of the people.
∗She need not be afraid that her previously embarrassing condition would be made public.
* Jesus reassured her with the words, “Take heart” (Matthew 9:22).
* Jesus addressed her as “daughter,” (Matthew 9:22; Mark 5:34), an expression of “love and concern”
∗ Jesus blessed her, “Go in peace”; “lack of strife” (Mark 5:34; Luke 8:48).
∗ Jesus assured her that the affliction would not return with the words, “Be freed from your suffering” (Mark 5:34).
HER FAITH AND SALVATION
∗ She expressed her faith.
∗ By going to the bottom, the woman with the issue of blood was able to get up. She was healed.
∗ There is irony in this healing moment that it was not the touching that healed the woman. It was, says Jesus Christ, the touch of “faith that . . . made her whole” (Luke 8:48)
* God made Adam and Eve to confess the truth so that they could be saved (Genesis 3).
* The Philippian jailer and his household believed in Jesus and were saved (Act 16:31,32).
She had the right relationship with God and she was saved physically and spiritually.
LESSON TO BE LEARNT
∗ Jesus honours our faith, however small.
∗ Jesus is approachable in every circumstance.
∗ Jesus has compassion on the needy who come to Him in faith.
∗ Jesus sometimes allows circumstances to enter our lives that reduce us to desperation so that we will reach out for Him.
Lets Pray
Lord, let’s have faith in You in all circumstances. We surrender totally unto Your feet for our salvation. Guide us, lead us. Amen.
Glory be to God
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