Following after Jesus #60

After the incident with the deliverance of the men with demons, which went into the pigs and over the hillside, Jesus and His disciples went back to the other side of the sea, where He was once again greeted with great crowds. (For those of you following the calendar the next event will be covered later this month.) In the middle of Jesus going to Jairus' home to heal his daughter, Mark tells us this happened: 

And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. 25 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28 For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” 29 And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

You'll recall that Jesus had been putting his disciples through increasingly fearful situations to test and strengthen their faith. While they struggled to keep up, He also exposed them to people like this, whose faith was immediately evident and challenging. This woman is another example of desperation. She had exhausted every medical option, tried every home remedy, and been taken advantage of by every traveling quack who came along.  She had lost all her money and was about to lose all hope.  Her condition, like many, made her ceremonially unclean, so she was in this alone; no one was there to help her, unlike the girl whose healing she was interrupting. So she gets just close enough to touch Jesus. She truly believes it is Him in Whom she will find hope. Jesus did one of those things that drove His disciples nuts. They could not wait to see Him heal this famous man's daughter.  But Jesus stops and asks: "Who touched my garments?" He would not move on until someone confessed. But guess what: Jesus already knew who she was. He just knew for her sake, and for the witness to her fellow citizens, she needed to come forward. So she did.  Now he can say to her, but for His followers and those around: "Your faith has made you well." Here He speaks after she has already been healed, confirming what she already knew: Jesus was her healer.