Jesus Heals the Woman with the Issue of Blood
Twelve years of suffering ended by one touch of his garment's hem.
A woman who has bled for twelve years, spending all she had on physicians without cure, touches the hem of Jesus' garment in the crowd, believing that will be enough. She is instantly healed. Jesus feels power go out from him, seeks her out, and says, daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole.
What happened
When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
She came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.
Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.
What it means
The woman's condition made her, like the leper, ceremonially unclean and cut off — twelve years of isolation, poverty, and shame. She approaches in secret, from behind, hoping to be healed without being noticed, and her faith, though mingled with a touch of superstition about the garment, is real: if I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
Jesus will not let her healing stay anonymous. He stops the whole procession — with a dying girl waiting — to find her, not to rebuke her but to honour her. The secret healing becomes a public commendation, and the unclean, unnamed woman receives the tender address daughter, the only person in the Gospels Jesus calls by that name.
The lesson is that Christ responds to faith even when it is trembling and imperfect, and that he wants more than to fix bodies — he wants to be known. He healed her instantly in the crowd; he made her whole when he called her out, spoke to her, and sent her away in peace. The touch healed her body; the meeting healed her heart.