And behold, a woman, who had had a bloody flux [for] twelve years, came behind and touched the hem of his garment;
Jesus is walking toward the house of a dying girl. A woman who has bled for twelve years slips up behind Him and touches the edge of His clothing. Everything turns on that quiet touch: what her illness meant under Israel's law, why she reached for the garment, and what Jesus did with a faith that tried to stay hidden.
Her illness did two things at once, and only one of them was physical.
So while the Lord is on His way to carry out a purpose He has already announced, the faith of this woman with the flow of blood lays claim to Him, and receives its answer. Again, Matthew does not give the same detail as Mark or Luke, and for the reason noted before: Matthew is occupied with the signs that show who He is. Her disease is named — a flow of blood. It was not only a slow draining away of her life. Under the law it also made anyone unclean who touched her (Lev. 15:25-27). So here again, as with the man with leprosy, there is uncleanness, the picture that reminds us of what sin does.
That law made her touch daring, not casual. She reached out to a holy Person while the law counted her unclean.
How great must have been her trial and her sorrow during the twelve years of her uncleanness. Still greater was her faith and the testimony she bore to the holy Person of our Lord. Anyone and anything that touched such an unclean person became unclean. She believed both that her touch could not make Christ unclean, for He is holy, and that His power could heal her.
She had only heard about Him. That report was enough to move her.
But faith comes by hearing; and, having heard of Jesus, she came in the crowd behind, and touched His garment, or, as Matthew and Luke say, its hem. Faith is always sure of the Saviour; it may have as feeble knowledge of itself as of Him, but it never doubts in Whom the power lies. Much remains to be learnt and corrected, but it goes straight to its object.
She did not ask for His hand or His word. She reached only the outer edge of His clothing — the "fringe" of the verse, which older translations call the hem.
The woman timidly touches only the hem of His garment. If this was not the great faith of the centurion (Ch.8:10), yet it was faith, the confidence that the least contact with Him would heal her. His clothes speak of His character as it was shown in the world. That alone was enough to meet her need, even though she may have understood little of His own glory.
A whole crowd was pressing against Him. Only one touch was a touch of faith, and He knew the difference.
Jesus looked round and asked, "Who touched Me?" Peter, always quick to speak, objected to the question. The crowd was so thick that many people were bound to be touching the Lord (Luke 8:45). But the Lord knows all things. He would not confuse the touch of faith with the rude shove of a curious crowd. He tells the same two apart today: the great mass of people who crowd into "places of worship" from all kinds of motives, and the true hearts among them who truly seek Him in humble faith.
She already knew she was well. Jesus still would not let the matter end there.
But even her own certainty of the cure is not enough for the grace of God. She had, in a way, stolen the blessing; she must have it as a free and full gift from the Lord, face to face.
Her healing interrupts a journey to a dying girl. Commentators read that order as a picture, though they differ on whom she stands for. One view ties her to Israel's own believers:
He visited Israel as dying — He really found it dead... So the poor woman stands for the faithful few whose faith took hold of Jesus in the middle of the crowd around Him. That is what marked them out from the crowd. These the Lord owned. They are healed and saved on the way.
Another view sees blessing reaching beyond Israel while the nation waits:
She stands for the Gentiles — the nations outside Israel — and the grace that comes to them by faith. Israel's resurrection has not happened yet, but it is drawing near. Faith touches Him now and receives salvation from Him.
- Heard. Faith started with a report about Jesus; she knew little about Him and still went straight to Him.
- Touched. The least contact was enough — the fringe of His clothing, reached for by a woman the law counted unclean.
- Healed. The touch of faith received healing; the crowd pressing on all sides received nothing. He still tells the two apart.
- Owned. What she took secretly He drew into the open, so the blessing came to her face to face as a gift.
- Awaited. Her healing came on the road to a dead girl — grace given now, while the raising of Israel is still to come.
for she said within herself, If I should only touch his garment I shall be healed.
A woman who had bled for twelve years makes her whole plan in silence, deciding to reach the edge of His clothing in a crowd. Everything about her cure hangs on that unspoken sentence: what she believed about Him, and how little contact she thought she needed.
What she believed came from reports about Him. She came only after her money had run out.
The Holy Spirit draws our special attention to what happens while He is on His way to raise the dead Jewish girl. Another Gospel says, "she had heard of Jesus." She had heard enough to conclude that if she could only touch Him she would get the blessing. And this was after "she had spent all." As long as she had a coin left, she kept away.
She expected a full cure from the smallest contact.
The woman had said, "If I only touch His garment, I will be made well." She was right. Jesus was like a vessel filled to the brim with water, and the least touch makes it overflow. She was one of the few exceptions; the great mass saw nothing desirable in Him.
She aims not at His person but at the outer edge of His clothing — the part anyone in a crowd could reach.
The woman timidly touches only the hem of His garment. If this was not the great faith of the centurion (Ch. 8:10), yet it was faith — the confidence that the least contact with Him would heal her. His garments speak of His character as shown in the world. This alone is enough to meet her need, even though she may have had little grasp of His glory as a Person.
Under the law of Moses, her condition made her unclean, and whatever she touched became unclean too. Her plan assumes that with Him the rule runs the other way.
Leviticus 15:25-27 states the case of the woman with a discharge of blood (Matthew 9:18-26). How great her trial and sorrow must have been during the twelve years of her uncleanness. Greater still was her faith and the testimony she bore to the holy Person of our Lord. Everything that came in touch with such an unclean person became unclean. She believed both that her touch could not make Christ unclean, for He is holy, and that His power could heal her.
She knew little about Him. She was sure of one thing: where the power lay.
Faith is always sure of the Saviour. It may know as little about itself as it knows about Him, but it never doubts who holds the power. Much still has to be learned and corrected, but faith goes straight to its object.
Her hope rested on Him, not on the size of her own confidence. So her blessing was not cut down to match her small faith.
It was only a touch, and only the hem of His garment, yet the blessing was hers in full measure. She was completely healed. This shows that the measure of our faith does not set the measure of the blessing that grace gives.
Other people made contact with Him in that crowd. Nothing happened to them.
His question also showed that many people had been touching Him in various ways. Yet no other touch had drawn any power from Him. Why was this? Because, of all the touches, hers was the only one that sprang out of a consciousness of need, and faith. When these two things are present, the touch is always effective.
The Lord was already on His way to raise a dead girl when this woman touched Him. His errand did not shut her out.
While He is going, a woman touches Him. The Lord's errand was to Israel, and that errand is only suspended, not cancelled. While He is on the way, whoever comes and touches Him gets the blessing. No unbelief from the scribes and no self-righteousness from the Pharisees could ever hinder the Lord in His mission of love. He was about to bring in new principles that would not mix with the law: grace that would go out to everyone, and would meet the worst cases.
- Heard — she had never met Him. A report was enough to convince her that contact with Him meant healing, and she came only after her money was gone.
- Said — she speaks the words inside herself, to no one. Faith can reason in the heart before it ever asks out loud.
- Touched — she reached the hem, the smallest contact possible. She counted on this: her uncleanness could not defile Him, but His holiness could heal her.
- Whole — the One she touched set the measure of the blessing, not the strength or clarity of her faith.
- Different — others touched Him at the same moment and drew nothing. Need and faith are what make a touch count.
But Jesus turning and seeing her, said, Be of good courage, daughter; thy faith has healed thee. And the woman was healed from that hour.
A woman who had been bleeding for twelve years came up behind Jesus in the crowd and touched His clothes, hoping no one would see. He turned and spoke to her — so why did a cure she already had still need His voice?
Many people were pressing against Jesus that day, yet He asked who had touched Him. One writer points out that not every touch is the same.
What the Lord does is always worthy of Himself, and, like Himself, perfect. He is a divine person, and there was infinite fullness in Him to respond to all need. It was a puzzle to the disciples when He said "Who touched me?" The crowd was so thick that the question might rather have been, "Who did not touch me?" But this was a touch of faith and of need, and He never fails to respond to such.
She was already healed before He spoke, and He was already on His way to raise a dead girl. He turned anyway. He knew her faith was there; He simply had more to give her than a healed body.
"Who touched My clothes?" (Mark 5:30) said the Lord Jesus. And again in Luke 8:46, "I perceive that power has gone out of Me." It was the effective power of God to meet the power of death working in her. Faith was there before the touch, and He knew it well. But His blessed heart would not let her go without the fuller and richer blessing of peace from God in her soul. The paralysed man at the beginning of the chapter was put right first in soul, then in body. Here it was the body first, then the soul, by the healing power of the Son of God. In the woman there had been the touch of faith from her side, but in the room where the dead girl lay it was the touch of power from His side. These two cases bring out very clearly the love and power of the Son of God.
His first word to her is a family word. And what makes faith right is not its strength but its object.
"Daughter" was a term of endearment. Perhaps she was not conscious of her faith, but there it was, and it was right, for it was in Jesus. It is very necessary to see that her faith was in the person of Christ. Very strong faith in a wrong thing will not make the faith right nor the thing right. What gives faith its value is its object.
Older translations read "be of good comfort" or "be of good cheer" here. One writer explains what that cheer is, and where else Jesus said it.
"Cheer" is that comfort of heart which springs from complete confidence in the love and power of God. And who could give this sustaining strength like our Lord? Besides this occasion, Jesus used these words in four other cases. Two were cases of physical weakness and two of mental distress. Two came in the middle of trouble, and two were full of fear about what was coming.
Jesus points to her faith — but the healing power was never in her faith. It was in Him.
Jesus also told her that she was made whole, and that by faith — "your faith has made you well." She had confessed the Lord "before all the people," but that had not made her whole. It is important to see that it is not our tears, our sorrows, our reformations, or efforts of any kind that make us whole. No, it is Christ, and Christ alone.
Matthew closes by dating the cure: from that hour. A study of the expression notes that here the phrase carries no delay at all — "'moment' or 'at once' would give the sense" (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
The healing broke into another journey. One writer sees a picture in that: the Gentiles — the nations outside Israel — blessed by faith while Israel still waits.
She represents the Gentiles and the grace which comes to them by faith, while the resurrection of Israel is still unaccomplished, but drawing near. Faith touches Him now and receives from Him salvation with its precious help. But the touching of Him is parenthetical, just as the present age with salvation come to the Gentiles is a parenthesis.
- Touch. Crowds pressed Him; one woman touched Him. He answers need and faith, not proximity.
- Turn. He turned not to expose her but to give more — the body healed already, now peace in the soul.
- Daughter. His first word is kinship. She may not even have been aware of her faith, but it rested on Christ — and its object is what gave it value.
- Whole. Not tears, not reform, not even her public confession made her whole — Christ alone did, and He did it in a moment.
- Meanwhile. He healed her on the way to a deathbed. One writer sees grace reaching the nations by faith while Israel's raising still waits ahead.