And he said to her, Daughter, thy faith has healed thee; go in peace, and be well of thy scourge.
The woman was already well before a word passed between her and Jesus. She had touched His clothes in the crowd and felt the change in her body. Yet He stopped, searched the crowd, and would not let her go until she had heard Him speak. Every phrase of His answer to her does a job.
Called out of the crowd
She already had what she came for. So why did He turn round? Not to check the healing, but to deal with how she had taken it.
But even conscious assurance is not enough for the grace of God. She had, as it were, stolen the blessing; she must have it as a free and full gift from the Lord, face to face.
He does the same with everyone He blesses.
Then we see that the Lord delights to encourage faith. He is not content that the one who has received the blessing should go quietly away. He brings the believer into His own presence, there to tell Him all the truth. He delights that we should have everything out with Him — that there should be no distance or reserve between Himself and His own.
"Daughter"
His first word to her is not a rebuke. It names a relationship.
And now He reveals Himself to her heart, and fills her soul with the peace and joy of His salvation. "Daughter" — the nearest and dearest of family ties, the tenderest of human bonds. "Your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease."
"Your faith has made you well"
The verb behind "made you well" is the ordinary New Testament word for saving, used here of the body.
It is worth noticing the word sozo. In the New Testament it is usually translated "save." Here it carries its wider sense of deliverance, and all three accounts of this woman's healing use it: Matt. 9:21-22; Mark 5:28, 34; Luke 8:48. It is also used of the restoration of the daughter of Jairus… of the healing of Bartimaeus… of the Samaritan leper. In these places translators render the Greek word "made whole" or "healed."
He credits her faith — but the credit does not rest on the strength of her believing.
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.
"Go in peace"
This sounds like an everyday farewell. One writer argues it carries far more, because of the only other place in the Gospels where Jesus says it.
Our Lord speaks this blessing, "Go in peace," in only one other place in the Gospels. There, as here, it goes with the faith that saved. One woman came to the Lord in Simon the Pharisee's house for the forgiveness of sins. This woman came to Him for help in this life. To both He said, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace" (Luke 7:50). Because of this link we may take these words as more than the ordinary farewell greeting of the East.
"Be healed of your disease"
The word translated "disease" is stronger than a general term for illness.
Plague is an uncommon word in the New Testament… Mark also uses it twice for the illness of the woman with a discharge of blood (Mark 5:29, 34). The word literally means a scourge. It probably covered the more severe complaints that drove people to seek relief.
This last clause guards her tomorrow, not just her today.
Suppose the Lord had let her go off without what now follows. She never would have had peace. Satan would have followed her and whispered, "Oh yes, it's quite true you are better just now, but your trouble is sure to break out again; you are relieved, not cured." The fear of the plague coming back would have eaten away the joy she rightly had. How gracious the Lord is! He does not want the devil to trick, deceive and distress any soul that has trusted Him. So He speaks words that calm the troubled heart for ever.
Resting on His word, not on feelings
He would not leave her resting on feelings, however real.
Like the woman, we can then go on our way, not trusting in our feelings or in some experience, however real, but with the assurance of His own word. So the woman learns from His own lips that she was healed, for He can say, "Your faith has made you well."
Summary
- Object, not effort. Her faith may have been barely conscious, yet it rested on Christ — and the object of faith is what gives it value.
- Face, not back. She took the blessing in secret. He called her out so she could hold it as an open gift, with nothing hidden between them.
- Daughter. The word that meets her fear is a family word — He owns the relationship before He confirms the cure.
- Past, present, future. "Your faith has made you well" settles the past. "Go in peace" settles the present. "Be healed of your disease" settles the future.
- His word outlasts her feelings. She felt the healing. She left with His word about it — and His word silences the whisper that it will all come back.