Luke 8:43

Luk_8:43-48

Came behind Him, and touched the border of His garment

Life behind and life before Christ

We believe in the progressive character of the Christian life.

It is like the increasing light, which comes to us first as the dim dawn, then as the grey morning, and afterwards as the noon-day brightness. This progress is connected with, indeed is essential to, our highest well-being. It is a progress from good to better, and from better to best. Let us devoutly think of our life in its relation to Christ.

I. THE FIRST STAGE IS LIFE BEHIND CHRIST. And what a picture this woman presents, as she quietly presses her way through the thronging crowd, as if by stealth, to take away the needed boon. She had tried life away from Christ; and that had proved a failure. Now she tries life in contact with Christ; this proves an immediate success. When it is asked, What brought her to Christ at all? we can only answer, She was driven by her sense of need, and drawn by her faith in Christ. Driven and drawn. This, more or less, is the experience of all who come to Christ. A sense of their need drives them; a knowledge of His character draws them.

II. THE SECOND STAGE IS LIFE BEFORE CHRIST. Had this woman gone away as stealthily as she came, she would have gone away but half-blessed; she would have touched His garment and been healed; she would not have tasted His love and been made happy.

1. Life before Christ is life revealing itself to Him. And what a wonderful saying that is: She told Him all the truth! All the truth about what she had suffered; and that was a mournful tale. And we have not risen to the glory of life before Christ if we are not accustomed to go and tell Him every phase of our experience, all the truth about our sins and our sorrows, our hopes and our fears. There may be phases of experience which we have never breathed into any human ear; but we can whisper all in His ear, confident that He will neither betray our trust nor withhold His sympathy. It takes a great many keys to unlock all the rooms of a great house; but the owner carries a master-key that unlocks them every one. There are rooms in the house of the heart into which few, if any, of our friends are admitted; but the master-key is in the hands of Christ, and He can come and bring all heaven in His train.

2. Life before Christ is life working beneath His eye. The saintly Payson speaks of three classes of Christian workers, and represents them as occupying three circles around Christ. In the outer circle there are those who take rare side-glances at Christ; in the inner circle there are those who occasionally look up to catch His smile; and in the innermost circle there are those who bring all their work and do it beneath His eye. These last, in the truest, fullest, gladdest sense, stand in the presence of Christ, and have life before Christ.

3. Life before Christ is life blessed with His friendship. He is my physician, and I am grateful to Him; but He is my friend, and I am happy in Him. Oh 1 what a glory comes into the experience of him whose life is blessed with the friendship of Christ! Others may doubt; he has the witness in himself. Tell him that Christ is only a mythical character. You might as well tell him that the flowers that are breathing their sweetness in his presence are only painted flowers, that the sun which is pouring brightness into his chamber is only an imaginary sun. He perceives the sweetness, he enjoys the brightness that come from Christ into his very soul; and with a confidence that no sophistry can shake, with a love that no power can quench, he tells every assailant, You may as soon reason me out of the consciousness that I am alive, as out of the better and more blessed consciousness that I have the very life of God in my soul. (R. P. Macmaster.)

Christs particular sympathy and friendship

When a lone woman came up in a crowd to steal something, as it were, some healing power out of His person, or out of the hem of His garment, He would not let her off in that impersonal way. He compelled her to show herself, and to confess her name, and sent her away with His personal blessing. He pours out everywhere a particular sympathy on every particular child of sorrow. We have seen that He can love as a man loves another, and that such is the way of His love. He has tasted death, we say, not for all men only, but for every man. We even dare to say for me; who loved me, and gave Himself for me. Nay, He goes even further than this Himself, calling us friends, and claiming that dear relationship with us. The servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends. He even goes beyond this, promising a friendship so particular and personal that it shall be a kind of secret or cipher of mutual understanding open to no other--a new white stone given by his King, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. (H. Bushnell, D. D.)

The earnest touch

How many feel the reality of a personal relation to Jesus? How many consciously recognize that their lives are implicated with His life?

1. Of some, of many, it may be said that they touch Jesus with their respect. No doubt the religion of Christ is respected. Christianity is at least a respectable institution, Nevertheless, all this respect is not like that touch which was given in the earnest purpose of faith and need.

II. There are those who touch Jesus with their opinions. But, held as mere opinions, their intellectual validity gives us no real contact with the Saviour. We may actually be what we claim to be, exclusive possessors and vigilant guardians of orthodoxy, and yet be far from Him. The essential thing is not what we think about Him, but what He Himself, in His personal relations, in His healing, life-giving power, is to us.

III. Again, there are those who seek to touch Jesus through sacraments and ceremonies. The idea of the woman appears to have been of this kind. She thought, If I may but touch His garment, I shall be whole; whereas we know that the virtue went out of Him.

IV. There are those who touch Jesus timidly and fitfully. Their communion with Him is felt only in impulses of intermittent enthusiasm or seasons of excitement, or it is held as a secret of which they are ashamed. We must, indeed, respect the modesty of sincere faith, the sacred reticence that guards the deepest and truest feelings of the heart. We know that religious emotion may evaporate in words, and that sterling principle may be less demonstrative than the noisy ring of cant. But, notwithstanding all imperfections, he who has really touched Jesus will in memo way make the secret manifest, not in the mere profession of the lips, but in the confession of the life. (E. H. Chapin, D. D.)

Who touched Me?

I. THERE IS GREAT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THRONGING AND PRESSING CHRIST, AND TOUCHING HIM, WITH FAITH.

II. SIMPLE FAITH IN CHRIST IS ALL WHICH IS NECESSARY TO SALVATION.

III. THERE ARE PREPARATIVES FOR FAITH. It may be said, If believing in Christ be such a simple and easy thing, why can I not believe at once, and be saved? I have tried to believe in Christ, but hitherto without success. There are preparatives for faith. Yes, as there are preparatives for cure, and healing, and rescue, so there are preparatives for faith. Preparatives for cure and healing are being sick, or wounded, and feeling the need of remedies. So the woman in the text had preparatives for faith in Christ by twelve years experience of fruitless help from physicians, Hope deferred had made her heart sick; she saw her property melt away; one new physician had encouraged her to expect from Him a cure; and she was sinking into the grave. These were the preparatives with her for saving faith. So that we may say, in general, that the preparatives for faith are, a deep conviction that Christ alone can help us, and a persuasion that He must save us or we perish.

IV. THIS WOMAN AFFORDS US A STRIKING ILLUSTRATION OF OUR DUTY TO COME TO CHRIST, WITHOUT WAITING FOR HIM TO COME TO US.

V. SALVATION FOLLOWS INSTANTANEOUSLY UPON BELIEVING IN CHRIST.

VI. THERE IS NOTHING WHICH CHRIST SEEMS TO LOVE SO MUCH AS FAITH IN HIM. (N. Adams, D. D.)

The throng and the touch

The woman reached out her hand and touched the Saviours garment. What was it that moved her hand? She believed. But in what did she believe? Not in herself, not in the motion of her arm, not that she was doing anything that was an equivalent for the cure, or would purchase it; nor yet did she believe that by standing aloof and waiting awhile till she was partly restored, made stronger or more presentable, by some skill of her own, she should be more likely to get the benefit desired; nor had she any theory whatever about the method in which the curative power was to take effect. You do not find in her clear and urgent sense of need that strange inverting of all reason that we so often see in men when they hesitate about coming to seek heavenly grace in Christs Church, pleading that they are not good enough, not strong enough, healthful enough, to be blessed by it. The soldier, after the battle, wounded and sick, bloodstained and feverish, creeps along the hot and dusty road, longing only to die under the old home-tree, and under the breath of a mothers lips. He comes to a hospital, and sees it written over the door, Whosoever will, let him come. Does he creep back, pleading that he is not well enough to go in and be healed? What, then, did the woman believe? She believed that she was to receive something, a real blessing, from Christ. This was what distinguished her, in her humility and obscurity, from the sentimental crowd around her. This was that in her which was not in them. Most graphic history of how many hearts l She believed that she could have that new life by a touch. The reaching oat of her hand was an expression of that faith. Another signal might probably have done just as well. In other cases a prayer was as effectual. But there must have been two things: the faith that she should receive the benefit, and some act to embody that faith and bring the benefit home. With faith, action. (Bp. F. D. Huntington.)

Various touches

1. There is the unbeliever s touch, like the impious touch of the unhallowed hands of the soldiers who nailed the Saviour to the cross of Calvary. How many there are that rudely and profanely handle the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ: they cannot leave Him alone: yet even while they touch Him, they only so touch Him as to bring judgment and condemnation upon their own souls, because the touch is the sacrilegious touch of unbelief. The Philistines were bold enough to touch the ark, but they found there was death in the touch.

2. Then again, there is the cold touch of the critic. He is not profane: he is not irreverent: he is simply critical. The character of Christ is the object in which they are performing their experiments.

3. Then again, there is the fashionable touch, which is much more common. Those who give this touch to our Lord are to be found in all our churches and places of worship, not unfrequently, probably once in a week; they have got their tribute to pay, and they pay it. Society expects it of them.

4. Then there is the formalists touch, where the touch is everything, but the Touched nothing! What is the most proper way of saluting Him whom you recognize as your Saviour? How are you best to arrest His attention? Form, form, form, from beginning to end.

5. There is one way in which s larger number of persons seem to touch Him Without receiving any help than in any other. It is the touch of indifference. There are many people who are no critics: they wont give themselves the trouble for that. They will not be unbelievers: they will not be at the pains to be infidels. These, then, my dear friends, are some of the different ways in which we may touch Christ, and yet get no healing benefit. We should ask ourselves, How are we to touch with good effect? Again, there may be difficulties in our way: but few of us have such difficulties as that poor woman. The very nature of her disease was one which made her shrink back from anything like publicity. She might have waited until He was not surrounded by a crowd--waited for a more favourable opportunity. She says to herself, I am going to be healed; she does not say, I am going to try. How often do we hear that word try.

There are two little words beginning with TR the one is TRUST, and the other is TRY. I wish we were a little tender of the first, and less of the second. So, through the crowd she makes her way, draws near, stretches out her hand, and she touched Him. And now we have a blessed opening up of the inner life of Christ, which seems to bring Him wondrously near to us. It is this: amidst all the subjects that occupied His mind, there cannot proceed from Him the very slenderest favour to any of the creatures whom He has made, but He is sensible of it. The reception of grace shall be a mutual thing--a thing involving reciprocal consciousness, consciousness on our part of our approach; consciousness on His part that we are approaching: consciousness on our part of our stretching out the hand of faith; consciousness on His part of the flowing of the current of His own Divine healing. There shall be no blessing stolen from an unconscious God. We shall not get it from Him when He is asleep. We will not get it from Him when His attention is fixed upon anything else. It is when His own blessed God-consciousness comes into contact with our human sense of need that she miracle of grace shall be performed. Is it not a wonderful thing He can think of us!--that, while He is giving us blessings every moment, He nevertheless gives every blessing consciously? How near this brings God to us! (W. H. Aitken, M. A.)

The touch

I. Look at THE PATIENT.

1. Her courage. She was a woman who had suffered from a very grievous malady, which had drained away her life. Her constitution had been sapped and undermined, and her very existence had become one of constant suffering and weakness; and yet what courage and spirit she displayed. She was ready to go through fire and through water to obtain health.

2. Note also her resolute determination. She would die hard, if die she must. She would not resign herself to the inevitable till she had used every effort to preserve life and to regain health. It is a hopeful sign, a gracious token, when there is a determination wrought in men that, if saved they can be, saved they will be.

3. I admire also this womans marvellous hopefulness. She still believes that she can be cured. She ought to bare given up the idea long ago according to the ordinary processes of reasoning; for generally we put several instances together, and from these several instances we deduce a certain inference. Now, she might have put the many physicians together, and their many failures, and have rationally inferred that her case was past hope.

II. THE DIFFICULTIES OF THIS WOMANS FAITH They must be weighed in order to show its strength. The difficulties of her faith must have been as follows:

1. She could hardly forget that the disease was in itself incurable, and that she had long suffered from it.

2. And then again she had endured frequent disappointments; and all these must have supplied her with terrible reasons for doubting. Yet she was not dismayed: her faith rose superior to her bitter experience, and she believed in the Lord.

3. There was also another difficulty in her way, and that was, her vivid sense of her own unworthiness.

4. I do not know whether the other difficulty did occur to her at all, but it would to me, namely, that She had now no money.

5. Perhaps the worst difficulty of all was her extreme sickness at that time. We read that she was nothing better, but rather grew the worse.

III. THE VANISHING POINT OF ALL HER DIFFICULTIES. We read of her first that she had heard of Jesus. It is Mark who tells us that, When she had heard of Jesus. Faith cometh by hearing. The point to notice most distinctly is this. The poor woman believed that the faintest contact with Christ would heal her. Notice the words of my text: If I may touch but His clothes. It is not, If I may but touch His clothes--no, the point does not lie in the touch; it lies in what was touched. Splendid faith I It was not more than Christ deserved, but yet it was remarkable. It was a kind of faith which I desire to possess abundantly. The slenderest contact with Christ healed the body, and will heal the soul; ay, the faintest communication. Do but become united to Jesus, and the blessed work is done.

IV. HER GRAND SUCCESS. Let me remind you again, however, of how she gained her end. She gave to the Lord Jesus an intentional and voluntary touch. Yet note that she was not healed by a contact with the Lord or with His garment against her will: she was not pushed against Him accidentally, but the touch was active and not merely passive. And now see her grand success; she no sooner touched than she was healed; in a moment, swift as electricity, the touch was given, the contact was made, the fountain of her blood was dried up, and health beamed in her face immediately. Immediate salvation! I heard a person say the other day that he had heard of immediate conversion, but he did not know what to make of it. Now, herein is a marvellous thing, for such cases are common enough among us. In every case spiritual quickening must be instantaneous. However long the preparatory process may be, there must be a time in which the dead soul begins to live. There may be cases in which a blessing comes to a man and he is scarcely aware of it, but this woman knew that she was saved; she felt in herself that she was whole of her plague. She had next the assurance from Christ Himself that it was so, but she did not obtain that assurance till she had made an open confession. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Faith rewarded

I. CONSIDER WHAT THIS SUFFERER SAID WITHIN HERSELF (Mat_9:21).

1. As displaying ignorance of the true nature of Christ. Impossible then to have the clear and distinct ideas that we may now.

2. As displaying not only ignorance, but error, along with truth.

3. Was her faith, then, a foolish credulity? Not at all. She knew the wonders He had wrought on others, and responded to the goodness and truth His language and demeanour expressed; and on this convincing evidence she trusted Jesus, and was healed.

II. CONSIDER THIS FEELING TOWARDS CHRIST AS FINDING RECOGNITION WIDER THAN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. The world finds healing in the slightest contact with Christ. How vast the number, outside avowed followers of Christ, who crowd Christian sanctuaries Sunday after Sunday, with a more or less explicit conviction that it is good to be there.

III. REMEMBER THAT CHRIST CALLS US, BEYOND SLIGHT CONTACT, TO THE CLOSEST UNION WITH HIMSELF. This turning of humanity to Christ is like the turning of flowers towards the sun, their life-giver. It exhibits a true and healthy impulse; but how many forget that it is but the first step of what should be a close and continual approach to Him! There is healing in His slightest touch, but what in a living union with Him who died that we might live for ever! (T. M. Herbert, M. A.)

The woman healed by a touch

1. A disorder which was endured.

(1) The disorder was unavoidably marked by much and painful privation.

(2) The disorder was long-continued and inveterate.

(3) The disorder had been aggravated by bitter disappointment.

2. The remedy which was resorted to.

(1) Observe the Being to whom the application was made.

(2) The spirit by which the application was distinguished.

(a) There was a display of confidence.

(b) There was the spirit of humility.

3. The blessing which was obtained.

(1) The communication of the blessing of healing was immediate.

(2) The communication of the blessing was free.

(3) The communication of the blessing was kind.

(Preachers Treasury.)

Cured at last

I. Consider, therefore, concerning this woman, WHAT SHE HAD DONE. She had been literally dying for twelve years.

1. She had resolved not to die if a cure could be had. She was evidently a woman of great determination and hopefulness. Insensibility has seized upon many, and a proud conceit: they are full of sin, and yet they talk of self-righteousness. No doubt some are held back from such action by the freezing power of despair. They have reached the conclusion that there is no hope for them. Alas l many have never come to this gracious resolution, because they cherish a vain hope, and are misled by an idle dream. They fancy that salvation will come to them without their seeking it.

2. Let us next note, that this woman, having made her resolve, adopted the likeliest means she could think of. Physicians are men set apart on purpose to deal with human maladies; therefore she went to the physicians. No doubt she met with some who boasted that they could heal her complaint at once. They began by saying, You have tried So-and-so, but he is a mere quack; mine is a scientific remedy. Many pretenders to new revelations are abroad, but they are physicians of no value.

3. This woman, in the next place, having resolved not to die if cure could be had, and having adopted the likeliest means, persevered in the use of those means. Have you been to Doctor Ceremony? He is, at this time, the fashionable doctor.

4. But this woman not only thus tried the most likely means, and persevered in the use of them, but she also spent all her substance over it. Thus do men waste their thought, their care, their prayer, their agony, over that which is as nothing: they spend their money for that which is not bread. The price of wisdom is above rubies. If we had mines of gold, we might profitably barter them for the salvation of our souls.

II. We have seen what the woman had done; now let us think of WHAT HAD COME OF IT. We are told that she had suffered many things of many physicians.

1. That was her sole reward for trusting and spending: she had not been relieved, much less healed; but she had suffered. She had endured much additional suffering through seeking a cure. Efforts after salvation made in your own strength act like the struggles of a drowning man, which sink the more surely.

2. There has been this peculiarly poignant pang about it all, that you are nothing bettered.

3. We read of this woman, that though she suffered much, she was nothing better, but rather grew worse. You are becoming more careless, more dubious than you once were. You have lost much of your former sensitiveness. You are doing certain things now that would have startled you years ago, and you are leaving certain matters undone which once you would have thought essential.

4. This is a sad, sad case l As a climax of it all, the heroine of our story had now spent all that she had. Welcome, brother! Now you are ready for Jesus. When all your own virtue has gone out of you, then shall you seek and find that virtue which goeth out of Him.

III. This brings to our notice, in the third place, WHAT THIS WOMAN DID AT LAST.

1. Note well she resolved to trust in Jesus in sheer despair of doing anything else.

2. After all, this was the simplest and easiest thing that she could do. Touch Jesus.

3. Not only was this the simplest and easiest thing for the poor afflicted one, but certainly it was the freest and most gracious. There was not a penny to pay.

4. This was the quietest thing for her to do. She said nothing. She did not cry aloud like the blind men.

5. This is the only effectual thing. Touch Jesus, and salvation is yours at once. Simple as faith is, it is never-failing.

IV. And now, poor convicted sinner I here comes the driving home of the nail. DO THOU AS THIS WOMAN DID. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The woman who touched

I. MENS FAILURES. Human physicians could not heal. Sin incurable by self.

II. A SUPERSTITIOUS FAITH. Faith may grow in strange places.

III. AN ACTUAL TOUCH. We want the same living connection with Christ, and it is possible still.

IV. IMMEDIATE HELP. No need to wait long; prayer answered often sooner than we expect.

V. A TREMBLER IN HIDING. Glad to have blessing from Christ, but fearing to reveal how obtained.

VI. PUBLIC ACKNOWLEDGMENT. Christ requires this. We must bear witness, &c. Free men.

VII. INDIVIDUAL RECOGNITION. Christ will not pass us in a crowd.

VIII. GENEROUS ENCOURAGEMENT. He might have called her rude or foolish. Not so. He calls her daughter.

IX. SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT. It was not any power lying in the touching of My garment; it was thy faith that saved thee. Conclusion: The only one in the crowd blessed. Why? Lack of faith, not lack of need. How near we may be to Christ, and yet not find true spiritual healing or renewal. (T. Sherlock, B. A.)

The healing of Veronica

Who is this wan, feeble woman that struggles through the swaying crowd, and watches her opportunity to stoop and lay her hand on the Healers garment? This, say the Evangelists, is a poor woman afflicted for twelve years with a disorder, a haemorrhage, which was then held to warrant divorce--a disorder which rendered her unclean in the eyes of the law, so that she could neither enter temple nor synagogue. This, says Eusebius, was Veronica, a woman of wealth and repute, who dwelt in Casarea Philippi, at the northernmost extremity of the Holy Land, hard by the main source of the river Jordan, in a lonely valley at the foot of Hermon. I, Eusebius, have seen her house in that city. And to this day [some three centuries after the miracle], before the gate of her house, on a lofty block of stone, there stands a brazen sculpture; on the one side, a woman drops on her bended knees, with hands outstretched as in supplication; and, opposite to her, stands a man, erect and tall, becomingly clad in a mantle, who extends His hand to the suppliant. At her feet there springs a certain strange plant, which rises as high as the hem of her garment; it is held to be an antidote to all forms of disease. This they say, is a statue of Jesus Christ. Eusebius goes on to argue the probability that Veronica caused it to be erected, since it was a custom of the Gentiles to erect statues to those who had healed them; and Caesarea Philippi being, not a Jewish, but a Phoenician city, mainly inhabited by Greeks, we have every reason to believe that Veronica herself was a Gentile. But whoever she was, and whencesoever she came, she had heard of Jesus, and conceived a hope that He would heal her. A woman who had spent all that she had, only to suffer more from her doctors than from her disease, in her despair would be very apt to betake herself to One who at least demanded no fee, and who was reported to have wrought many marvellous cures … But why does she select the hem, or border, of His garment? Perhaps because in her diffidence she thought herself unworthy to do more. Perhaps because in her faith she thought even this would be enough. Perhaps simply because she thought the border of His garment might be most easily touched without attracting attention Beyond a doubt, her faith, though genuine, was darkened by superstition. In His grace the Lord Jesus corrects and enlarges her conception; He disentangles the truth in it from the error. But mark how He does it, how patiently, how gradually. At first it is her superstition, rather than her faith, which is confirmed But why did He not let the poor woman creep quietly away with her boon? Why compel her to tell her sad story of womanly pain and suffering in so many ears? Simply because He loves her too well to let her go away with half a blessing. Simply that He may teach her that it is her faith, and not, as she thought, her mere touch, which has saved her. It is a pathetic story, a story--

1. Full of hope and gracious incentive for all who believe, however weak their faith may be.

2. Conveying also a lesson of warning. Many thronged and pressed upon Christ; many touched His clothes; yet only one touched Him.

3. Teaching also a lesson of invitation. According to the Hebrew law she was impure, and made all she touched impure; but she ventured to touch Jesus, and, instead of making Him unclean, He makes her clean and whole. Now, whatever our sins may have been, we can hardly be farther from hope than she. And however faintly we may turn to Christ, however ignorantly, we can hardly do less than she who hid herself in the darkness and the crowd, and laid trembling fingers on the edge of His garment, to see what would come of that. Jesus did not know her or her story--did not know even that it was she who had touched Him. Yet she was healed. Why? Because His will is always for the health and salvation of men. Virtue is stored up in Him, and flows forth from Him at every touch of faith. (S. Cox, D. D.)

THE WOMAN WHO CAME BEHIND HIM IN THE CROWD.

Near Him she stole, rank after rank;

She feared approach too loud;

She touched His garments hem, and shrank

Back in the sheltering crowd.

A shame-faced gladness thrills her frame:

Her twelve years fainting prayer

Is heard at last; she is the same

As other women there.

She hears His voice; He looks about;

Ah! is it kind or good

To drag her secret sorrow out

Before that multitude?

The eyes of men she dares not meet--

On her they straight must fall:

Forward she sped, and at His feet

Fell down, and told Him all.

His presence makes a holy place;

No alien eyes are there;

Her shrinking shame finds god-like grace,

The covert of its care.

Daughter, He said, be of good cheer;

Thy faith hath made thee whole;

With plenteous love, not healing mere,

He would content her soul.

(G. MacDonald.)

Glimpses of Jesus

I. THE SENSITIVENESS OF CHRIST. Who touched Me? Ruskin has said truly, We are only human in so far as we are sensitive.

II. THE YEARNING OF CHRIST FOR NEARER PERSONAL FELLOWSHIP WITH MEN. The question must be interpreted by the result. Evidently what He desired was to bring the woman nearer, and to establish more direct and abiding relationship between her and Himself.

III. THE JOY OF CHRIST IN CONFERRING BENEFITS UPON HUMAN SOULS. Mark--

1. The loving address--daughter.

2. The comfortable words--Thy faith hath made thee whole.

3. The gracious dismissal--Go in peace.

Learn--

1. That we should come to Christ in our need.

2. That we should commune with Him with the greatest freedom and openness.

3. That we should confess gladly and gratefully before men all the good we have received at His hands.

4. That we should comply with all His solicitings, and ever seek nearer and dearer fellowship with Him as our Saviour and our God. (W. Forsyth, M. A.)

The Healer

We have to trace the history of a touch. Let us inquire--

I. WHY THIS TOUCH ATTRACTED THE PARTICULAR ATTENTION OF THE SAVIOUR?

1. It was the touch of a sufferer whose case before that touch had been desperate.

2. It was the touch of faith.

3. It was a touch that wrought an instant and perfect cure.

II. WHY DID THE SAVIOUR ASK THE QUESTION, Who touched Me? This excited the wonder of the disciples.

1. Not from ignorance.

2. Not from exhaustion.

3. Not from displeasure. But

(1) To show that He marks the difference between thronging and touching Him. (Many, says Ambrose, press upon Christ, in outward ordinances, but believers touch Him; it is by faith that He is touched, so as to have virtue from Him.)

(2) To enlighten and invigorate the faith of her who touched Him.

(3) To assert His right to be glorified for what He has done.

4. That the interview might issue in the bestowment of His benediction. (C. Stanford, D. D.)

Oh, dost Thou ask who touched Thy garment? Oh,

Sweet Master, hast Thou not turned back and viewed

How round Thee throng and press the multitude?

Not all who throng and press for Mine I know;

But trembling, falling, one now Mine draws near,?

To tell of garment touched and ended woe,

The things she sought not, nor has heard, to hear;

Things present, things to come, her deeds revealing,

The fount of sin whose flowing none may stay,

Till breaks on Calvary the Fount of Healing,

All wounds to staunch, all tears to wipe away.

This Flesh, My garment, feels but faiths right hand;

All: many near Its hem, unhealed will stand!

(A. M. Morgan.)

Virtue is gone out of Me

Virtue at one time meant strength, Now it is used to denote purity. Jesus meant that power had gone out from Him. It is worth while to note that virtue cannot leave one and pass to another without a loss to the giver. There can be little doubt that the sacred body of Jesus had to suffer for being the medium of healing, and that very costly was the honour of being the shrine of Divinity.

I. Virtue is gone out of Me to ONE WHO FAILED TO GET HELP ELSEWHERE. As a last resource, she came and tried Jesus. Is she not a picture of many among us, who try everything but the right thing, and also go anywhere rather than to the Saviour? There is Dr. Merryman. He has a very large practice. He is the most popular of all the soul doctors, and has an amazingly large connection among young people. If some one goes to him complaining of a sad heart, he will prescribe a change, lively society, the theatre, dancing, &c. There is another of these impudent quacks. I mean Dr. Devotee, who, like the famous Dr. Merryman, has a large number of patients, but they are generally rather older; indeed, many of them have been under Merryman till they were tired out; then they have gone over to the other side of the way to try if Devotee could help them. If you go into his waiting room, you will see some who have had disappointments, blighted affections, &c. When you are shown into his room, you notice how very grave he is--none of the flippancy of the other. He does not approve of Merrymans prescriptions. Fasting and prayer and seclusion are his remedies. There is yet another of these medical gentlemen you must look in upon. This is where Dr. Apathy lives. He is the favourite doctor among men of business and commerce. They will tell you, Merry-man is all very well for the youngsters, and Devotee suits the women, but for a sensible practical man, commend me to Apathy. Bless you, what I suffered before I went to him! I could not sleep at nights for thinking I might lose my soul. Really business began to suffer; so I went to him, and he seen put me to rights. When I told him my symptoms, he said, I understand you, my dear fellow, you need a sedative. Stick to your newspaper, and give up all that nonsense about family prayer.

II. Virtue has gone out of Me to ONE WHO HAS OVERCOME GREAT DIFFICULTIES. This poor woman must have found it very difficult to come to Christ, for at least two reasons.

1. She was ceremoniously unclean. And so are we. Yet we should not let this deter us.

2. There was the difficulty of the crowd. The people thronged Him; and no wonder, for He was on His way to heal the rulers daughter. The crowd was between her and the Lord.

III. Virtue has gone out of Me to ONE WHO HAS FAITH. DO not wait till you have altered this, or improved that; all that can be done afterwards.

IV. Virtue is gone out of Me to one WHO MUST CONFESS THE TRUTH. (J. Champness.)

The cost of service

I. IN NATURE, WE HAVE WHAT HAS LATELY BEEN TERMED THE PERSISTENCE, OR CONSERVATION OF FORCE.

II. THIS LAW OF COST IS ALSO ECONOMIC LAW. In agriculture, what we call the bounty of nature, the gift outright, comes a long way short of what is needed even for merest comfort. The spontaneous products of nature are scanty. So of all industry and useful art. To begin with, there is the cost of raw material, come whence it may, from earth, or sea, or air. Houses, and their furnishing, tax the quarries, the clay-yards and the forests. Our wardrobes suggest cotton-fields, flax-fields, silkworms, flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, birds of the air, wild animals of sea and land, from pole to pole. Even wigwams and bearskins are no gratuities. Every coarsest want supplied, every adornment, every luxury, means work. Good things, fine things, cost.

III. THIS LAW OF COST IS ALSO MENTAL LAW. Mind is very much more than mere passive capacity; it is vital, organizing force. Learning, rightly apprehended, is not mere passive reception, as of water into a cistern, bringing with it all the accidents and impurities of roof or aqueduct. It is water in oak, or elm, making its way up through living tissue, filtered as it ascends, shaking out its leafy banner, hardening into toughest fibre.

IV. BUT THIS LAW OF COST IS PRE-EMINENTLY SPIRITUAL LAW. The so-called passive virtues either are not virtues, or are not passive. Humility, patience, self-denial, and the forgiveness of injuries, are battles and victories. So it has been, and so it shall be, in essence, to the end. Redemption cost infinitely in eternity, and must cost in time. Human history almost began with martyrdom. The blood of righteous Abel inaugurated the stern economy. Scarcely a people have ever been evangelized without the baptism of blood. Scarcely a man has ever been signally useful without the baptism of some great sorrow. We learn in suffering what we teach in song. (R. D. Hitchcock, D. D.)

Real contact with Jesus: a sacramental meditation

I. First, then, IN THE USE OF ALL MEANS AND ORDINANCES LET IT BE OUR CHIEF AIM AND OBJECT TO COME INTO PERSONAL CONTACT WITH THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.

1. Note, first, she felt that it was of no use being in the crowd, of no use to be in the same street with Christ, or near to the place where Christ was, but she must get at Him; she must touch Him. She touched Him, you will notice, under many difficulties. There was a great crowd. It is very easy to kneel down to pray, but not so easy to reach Christ in prayer.

2. Observe, again, that this woman touched Jesus very secretly. Beloved, that is not always the nearest fellowship with Christ of which we talk the most. Deep waters are still. Nathaniel retired to the shade that no one might see him, but Jesus saw him and marked his prayer, and He will see thee in the crowd and in the dark, and not withhold His blessing.

3. This woman also came into contact with Christ under a very deep sense of unworthiness.

4. Notice, once again, that this woman touched the Master very tremblingly, and it was only a hurried touch, but still it was the touch of faith.

II. THE WOMAN IN THE CROWD DID TOUCH JESUS, AND, HAVING DONE SO, SHE RECEIVED VIRTUE FROM HIM. In Christ there is healing for all spiritual diseases. There is a speedy healing. There is in Christ a sufficient healing, though your diseases should be multiplied beyond all bounds.

III. And now the last point is--and I will not detain you longer upon it--IF SOMEBODY SHALL TOUCH JESUS, THE LORD WILL KNOW IT. NOW, as Jesus knows of your salvation, He wishes other people to know it. (C. H.Spurgeon.)

She was not hid

I. First, then, we say concerning this woman, that HER HIDING SEEMED VERY EXCUSABLE. I have already said that if, in any instance, a cure might have been concealed, this was one; and it was so for many reasons.

1. Because of this womans natural timidity, and because of the nature of her malady.

2. In addition to this, remember that the Saviour did not court publicity. He laid no injunction upon those whom He healed that they should tell every one of the marvel.

3. There was another reason why she might have thought she need not make a public confession, and that was, that the Saviour was at that time exceedingly occupied.

4. Excuse might also have been found for the healed woman in the fact, that her cure would make itself known by its results. When she reached home everybody would see that she was quite another person; and when they asked how it came to pass, she could tell them all about 2:5. Another pretext might have served this woman, if she desired an excuse. She might truthfully have said, It is evident that an open confession is not essential to my cure, for I am cured.

II. Secondly, HER HIDING WAS NOT PERMITTED BY THE SAVIOUR. Her being brought out had the best of consequences.

1. For, first, an open confession on her part was needful in reference to the Lords glory. Beloved, the miracles of Christ were the seals which God gave to His mission. If the wonders which He wrought were not made known, the seals of His mission would have been concealed, and so would have lost much of their effect. If this woman concealed her cure others might do the same; and if they all did it, then Christs commission would have no visible endorsement from the Lord God.

2. Further, remember that our Lords miracles were illustrative of His teaching.

3. But the confession had to be made for the sake of others. Do any of you wish to live unto yourselves? If you do, you need saving from selfishness.

4. Do you not think that her public declaration was required for the good of our Lords disciples? When they heard her story, did they not treasure it up, and speak of it to one another in after days, and thereby strengthen each others faith?

5. But especially she had to do this for her own good. The Saviour had designs of love in bringing this poor trembler forward before all the people. By this He saved her from a host of fears which would have haunted her.

She had been a very timid and trembling woman, but now she would shake off all improper timidity. I have known many persons cured of timidity by coming forward to confess Christ. Our Lord also gave her an increased blessing after her confession. He gave her clearly to know her relationship to Him. He said, Daughter! Next notice that He gave a commendation to her faith--Thy faith hath made thee whole. Then the Lord gave her a word of precious quieting. He said, Go in peace. As much as to say: Do not stop in this crowd, to be pushed about or stared at, but go home in quiet.

III. Thus I have already reached my last point: YOUR HIDING OUGHT TO BE ENDED.

1. Do you not think you owe something to the Church of God, which kept the gospel alive in the world for you to hear?

2. May I be permitted also to say, I think you owe something to the minister who led you to Jesus?

3. Besides, you owe it to yourselves. Are you going to be mere pats, fluttering out when none will observe you, and hiding from the light? Are you going to be like mice, which only come out at night to nibble in the pantry? Quit yourselves like men!

4. You owe it to your family. You should tell your household what grace has done for you.

5. Do you not think you owe it to your neighbours to show your colours?

6. Now let me hear some of your objections, and answer them. I hope I have been answering them all through my sermon. Here is one. Well, you know, I am such an insignificant person. It cannot make any difference what I do. Yes, and this woman was a very insignificant person--only a woman! God thinks much of the lowly: you must not talk so. Do not excuse yourselves through pretended humility. But coming out and joining a Church, and all that, is such an ordeal. So it may be. In this womans case, it was a far greater ordeal than it can be to you. Jesus does not excuse one of his healed ones from owning the work of His grace. A dear lady, who has long since gone to glory, was once an honoured member of this Church: it was Lady Burgoyne, and when she wished to unite with us she said to me, Dear sir, I cannot go before the Church. It is more than I can manage to make a confession of Christ before the members. I told her that we could make no exception for anybody, and especially not for her, who was so well established in the faith that she could surely answer a few questions before those who were brethren and sisters in the Lord. She came bravely, and spoke most sweetly for her Lord. Some of you may remember her, with her sweet countenance, and venerable bearing. When she had owned her Lord, she put both her hands on mine, and said emphatically, With all my heart I thank you for this; I shall never be ashamed of Christ now. When aristocratic friends call upon me I will speak to them of my Lord. She did so constantly. You never found her slow to introduce the gospel, whoever might be with her. She frequently said to me, Oh, what a training that was for me! I might have been a timid one all my days if I had not made that confession before the Church. Now I say to you, if it be an ordeal, undergo it for Christs sake. Alas! says one, I could not tell of what the Lord has done for me, because mine is such a sorrowful story. Was it not so with this woman? I have so little to tell, says one. That is a good reason why you should tell it, for it will be all the easier for you to do so. He that has little to tell should tell it straight away. But perhaps people may not believe me. Did I tell you that you were to make them believe you? Is that your business? Ah! says one, but suppose after I had confessed Christ I should become as bad as ever. Suppose that this woman had supposed such a sad thing, and had said, O Lord, I cannot confess that Thou hast healed me, for I do not know how I may be in six months time. She was not so mistrustful. (C. H.Spurgeon.)

Grasping the hem

Dr. Simpson on his death-bed told a friend that he awaited his great change with the contented confidence of a little child. As another friend said to him that he might as John at the last supper, lean his head on the breast of Christ, the doctor made answer, I fear I cannot do that, but I think I have grasped hold of the hem of His garment. (Dr. Koenigs Life of Dr. Simpson.)

The touch of faith

A lady was being shown through a corn mill, worked by a river which ran close by the walls. But all the wheels were in silent inaction. Where is the power? she asked. She was shown a handle, and told to press upon it. She did, and the mighty force was instantly turned on, the wheels moved, and the place was alive with activity. The power of God moves in upon us at the touch of faith. (Methodist Times.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL NOTES

Luk_8:43. Issue of blood.—A disease which, in addition to its painful and weakening character, exposed her to the disagreeable restrictions imposed on those who were ceremonially unclean. Spent all her living, etc.—St. Mark says she “had suffered many things of many physicians, and was nothing better, but rather grew worse.” The somewhat trifling remark has been, made that St. Luke, as a physician, is more gentle in his reference to those of his profession who had attempted to cure the woman. There seems to be little ground for the statement.

Luk_8:44. The border of His garment.—Perhaps the fringe or tassel of blue, worn in obedience to the law in Num_15:38-40.

Luk_8:45.—The hasty and almost impatient reply of Peter is very characteristic of him.

Luk_8:46. Virtue.—Rather, “power” (R.V.). I perceive that virtue, etc.—Rather, “I perceived that power had gone forth from Me.” This proves Christ’s knowledge of the circumstances at the very moment of the cure.

Luk_8:47. Before all the people.—Peculiar to St. Luke. It is a significant detail: she had sought a cure in secret, but is led to confess it openly.

Luk_8:48. Daughter.—This is the only occasion on which Christ is recorded to have addressed a woman in this way. The kindliness it expresses is specially appropriate to the circumstances of the case. Be of good comfort.—Omitted by the best MSS.; omitted in R.V.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Luk_8:43-48

Timid Faith rewarded and confirmed.—This incident is marked out among our Lord’s healings by these two peculiarities. It was a miracle within a miracle; and it was a cure obtained without a word spoken beforehand. Jesus is called to go on an errand of mercy, and finds another merciful work to do on the way. The power of Jesus not only flows out, but overflows and dispenses blessings by the way. The crumbs that fall from His table are better than the feasts of other masters. It was also a healing granted without any previous conversation. In this it was exceptional. He usually talked with the patient, or with those interested in the case, before He wrought the cure. The faith of this woman was so fearless, prompt, and resolute that without question or explanation, before a word had been spoken, she believes, resolves, acts. She has snatched the blessing, and is only not permitted to steal it. For He would not let her go until He had obtained a confession of her faith from her own lips. Thus, though the conversation was not held till the cure had been wrought, the exception confirmed the rule on which He acted, that, apart from faith, and the acknowledgment of faith, there would be no blessing. Two things in the narrative especially claim our attention: the woman’s confidence in Christ, and Christ’s action towards her.

I. The woman’s faith in the Saviour, its strength and its weakness.—She put herself in Jesus’ way on this eventful occasion, and thus proved the strength of her faith. She was filled with a belief that He was able to heal even her. She never seems to have doubted for a moment her right to take the cure if she could get it. Such a Saviour should not come within arm’s length of her, but she would stretch out her hand for the blessing. Though she should have to press her way through the crowd to reach Him, she would touch Him and be healed. No doubt there were defects in this faith. Its strength and weakness lay close together. It had the defect, so to say, of its quality. Its promptness may have owed something to the mechanical or material conception of the Healer’s power, as if it were some atmosphere that surrounded Him, or some magical influence that flowed even from His garments. The confidence she had in Jesus was typical in that it was strong and well-founded. That it was mixed with those other elements from which the Lord proceeds immediately to purify it may teach us a double lesson. It hints, on the one hand, how small a part of gospel truth may save the soul, if there be faith to receive and love to act upon it. The spiritual value of faith is not to be reckoned by the correctness of conception on which it rests. Yet, on the other hand, the trust which is well-founded and generous will meet with its reward in a rapid and progressive enlightenment through Christ’s word and Spirit.

II. The Saviour’s action towards the woman, its wisdom and tenderness.—The active faith of the sufferer, as it were, takes the blessing by storm, though from One who is always willing to bless. He was not, indeed, unconscious of the virtue He put forth, nor of the faith which received it. But to bring that faith into clearness and purity it was necessary to bring the subject herself into conscious and open relation to her Healer. Our Lord straightway turns round, and puts the question which amazed the disciples, and drew forth Peter’s characteristic remonstrance. Searching the crowd around, and hitherto behind Him, His gaze falls upon the woman. The thin and pinched features, the pallor of habitual ill-health, helped, perhaps, to single her out. But now there mingles in it the glow of instantaneous success, and the blush of womanly sensibility. She knew instantly that she was healed. She felt in that moment how far her sanguine boldness had carried her. She perceived, indeed, that nothing was hid from her Healer, but also that His mien was as gracious as His person was mighty. What look of His met hers we can imagine. A rare delight filled His countenance—a foretaste of the joy set before Him—at the signal proof of confidence given by this poor, lone woman. This sunshine of His face, added to the joy of her own success, gave her courage to tell Him, both “for what cause she had touched Him, and how she was healed immediately.” The avowal cost her not a little. She came “trembling” as she “fell down before Him,” and made her confession “before all the people.” But it was richly rewarded. With a kindly word of greeting, He clears her faith to her own mind, He confirms her cure as a permanent healing, and He claims to be Himself the knowing and willing author of it all. We can see why for His own sake, and for His works’ sake, Jesus had to make the cure public. But we are also to note how good it was for the subject of it herself. She did not mean perhaps “to filch the blessing.” Her failing leaned to virtue’s side. She deemed it not worth while to have Him stop for her, when He was in such urgency, and stand and speak the healing. One quiet touch would do all she needed. Had she been allowed to slip away without the public scene, she would have lost two things: the honour of confessing her faith, and of having her cure confirmed. Reserve was her fault, a wish to hide the cure; thus at once cheating her own self of comfort, and withholding from the Lord His due honour. He corrects that fault most gently and wisely. He does not insist upon publicity till the healing had taken place, thus making confession as easy as possible for her. The object of its publication then becomes apparent, viz. to show that the medium of the cure was faith, not physical contact, to confirm what she had already taken by His own pronounced bestowal of it, and to bring her out in grateful acknowledgment, both for His glory and her good.

There are Christians whose fault is reserve. They would be saved, as it were, by stealth. The Saviour will not have it so. True conversion is, no doubt, a secret transaction, very close and personal between the soul and Christ. But it cannot remain secret. The virtue which is gone out of Him is a savour which cannot be hid. A seen religion is not always real, but a real religion is always, seen. We cannot claim Christ for ours, but He will also declare His part in the blessed bond, and have us acknowledge that we are His. “To confess with the mouth” is an essential part of the salvation which comes by believing with the heart; indeed, it is the consummation of it. “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” This is the private justification of the man before God. “With the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” This crowns the transaction. It is more than its mere publication—namely, its perfection. The salvation is neither comforting nor complete until it is openly acknowledged.—Laidlaw.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk_8:40-56

Luk_8:40. “All waiting for Him.”

I. A sad father waiting.

II. A dead child waiting.

III. A sick woman waiting.—Watson.

Luk_8:41-44. Two Forms of Faith.

I. Jairus openly appeals to Jesus on his daughter’s behalf, but is secretly anxious: his faith, weaker than it appears, would have ebbed away but for the Saviour’s word of encouragement.

II. The woman is too timid to make her case known to Jesus, but for all that her faith is stronger than one would have judged it to be from outward appearances.

Luk_8:41-42. “Besought Him that He would come.”—Similarity between the raising of Jairus’ daughter and the raising of Lazarus. In both cases there is (l) delay in bringing help;

(2) the patient dies before Christ’s arrival;

(3) there is a mysterious promise of deliverance;

(4) death is spoken of as a sleep.

Luk_8:42. “She lay a-dying.”

I. There is nothing like trouble to drive people to Christ.—So long as things go on prosperously, many men do not ask favours of Him; but when great trial comes, He is the first to whom they turn. This is one of the most obvious uses of trouble.

II. The little daughter “lay a-dying.” This is a universal experience. The paths of earth run diversely, but they all reach this point at last. No one knows when he will come to it. Sometimes it is reached in early youth. Children should think of it, not sadly, and prepare for it, not regretfully.

III. The strongest men break down when their children are ill or in danger.—It is a touching sight to see this father falling at Christ’s feet. Stern, hard men often reveal tenderness in such times of trial. Behind such sternness and severity there is often a gentle, loving, affectionate heart.—Miller.

Luk_8:43. “Could not be healed of any.”—In like manner—

I. Sin is a disease of the soul.

II. When recognised, recourse is often had to inadequate means of cure.

III. No sinner, however inveterate his case may be, need despair of a cure if he will apply to Christ in faith.

Luk_8:44. Faith’s Approach to Christ.

I. Faith comes with a deep despair of all other help but Christ’s.

II. Faith has a Divine power to discover Christ.

III. Faith comes with an implicit trust in Christ.

IV. Faith seeks, for its comfort, close contact with Christ.

V. Faith, with all its imperfections, is accepted by Christ.

VI. Faith feels a change from the touch of Christ.—Ker.

The Power of Feeble Faith.

I. Very imperfect faith may be genuine faith.

II. Christ answers the imperfect faith.

III. Christ corrects and confirms an imperfect faith by the very act of answering it.—Maclaren.

Faith mingled with superstition.—This is a most encouraging miracle for us to recollect, when we are disposed to think despondingly of the ignorance or superstition of many who are nominally Christian: that He who accepted this woman for her faith, even in error and weakness, may also accept them. Superstition tinged her thoughts, but her feelings were ardent and pleasing to the Lord: the head may have been affected by vain imaginations, but the heart was sound.

Luk_8:45. “Who touched Me?”—The fact that many thronged about Christ, and only one, by reason of her faith, was healed by touching Him, is highly significant. Many in our day are in close contact with the Saviour, in worship, in reading the word of God, and in celebrating the sacraments, who are not healed by Him for want of the faith which this sufferer manifested.

Luk_8:46. “Virtue is gone out of Me.”—The poor woman had approached His sacred garments as men are said to touch relics, with a blind faith in their mysterious virtue and efficacy. Even thus she obtained a blessing, for it was faith. But Christ would not so be touched. He will have us know that the fountain of grace is the living God, who beholdeth all things in heaven and earth, and who claims of His rational creatures a reasonable worship.—Burgon.

Luk_8:47. “She came trembling.”—This woman would have borne away a maimed blessing, hardly a blessing at all, had she been suffered to bear it away in secret and unacknowledged, and without being brought into any personal communion with her Healer. She hoped to remain in concealment out of shame, which, however natural, was untimely in this the crisis of her spiritual life. But this hope of hers is graciously defeated. Her heavenly Healer draws her from the concealment she would have chosen; but even here, so far as possible, He spares her; for not before, but after she is healed, does He require the open confession from her lips. She might have found it perhaps altogether too hard had He demanded this of her before. But waiting till the cure is accomplished, He helps her through the narrow way. Altogether spare her this painful passage He could not, for it pertained to her birth into the new life.—Trench.

The Necessity for Open Acknowledgment.—It was necessary that this hidden act of faith should come to light in order that

(1) Christ might receive the glory due Him;

(2) the suppliant might be delivered from the false shame which would have hindered her openly acknowledging the benefit she had received; and

(3) others be led to faith in Christ.

Doubts and Fears.—In this case the cure came first—a cure wrought by Christ without a word or sign. She knew that what had been done in her was a result of her own act, without permission from Jesus, and she could scarcely hope that the faith which suggested it would be accepted as genuine; hence the terror and trembling, the sudden prostration and the full confession.

Confessing associated with Believing.—The apostle Paul lays equal stress upon the necessity of confessing with the mouth and of believing in the heart (Rom_10:9): “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

Luk_8:48. “Thy faith.”—Jesus wishes her fully to understand that it is not the contact of her hand with the border of His garment that has, as she expected, wrought the cure, but her faith. The idea of a physical and almost magical operation is dispelled, and the moral significance of the miracle is brought into view.

“Go in peace.”—If we keep in mind how her uncleanness separated her off as one impure, we shall have here an exact picture of the sinner drawing nigh to the throne of grace, but out of the sense of his impurity not “with boldness,” rather with fear and trembling, hardly knowing what there he shall expect; but who is welcomed there, and all his carnal doubtings and questionings at once chidden and expelled, dismissed with the word of an abiding peace resting upon him.—Trench.

Luk_8:49. “Trouble not the Master.”—The words are kindly, and even indicate a measure of faith. “Had He arrived while she was still in life, He might have saved her; but now she is beyond the reach even of His help.”

“Trouble not the Master.”—The word σκύλλω is closely represented by our word “worry.” Its primary application is to sheep, or other tame animals, hunted and torn by dogs or other natural enemies. It is used in this sense in Mat_9:36, and is translated in the R.V. by “distressed.” But in ordinary colloquial use it came to mean no more than “tease” or “trouble.”

The Dead Daughter.

I. Jesus is never in a hurry.—It seemed as if there was not a moment to lose. Why did Jesus not hasten? Why did He stop to heal the woman? Because He is never so much engrossed in one case of need that He cannot stop to give attention to another. He is never so pressed for time that we have to wait our turn. No matter what He is doing, He will instantly and always hear our cry of need.

II. Jesus never waits too long or comes too late.—It seemed as if He had tarried too long this time; but when we see how it all came out, we are sure that He made no mistake. True, the child died while He lingered; but this only gave Him opportunity for a greater miracle. He waited that He might do a more glorious work. There is always some good reason when Christ delays to answer our prayers or come to our help. He waits that He may do far more for us in the end. Even in answering our prayers it is best to let our Lord have His own way as to when and how to come to our help.—Miller.

Luk_8:50. “Fear not.”—The cheering word doubtless was the more encouraging to Jairus, spoken as it was so soon after the miracle which he had witnessed.

Luk_8:51. “Peter, and James, and John.”—Christ took with Him only those disciples who had hearts most open to receive the fulness of His grace; and it is interesting to notice that Peter long afterwards in Joppa, in performing a similar miracle, imitated exactly the method followed by Jesus in the house of Jairus (Act_9:40).

Luk_8:52. “She is not dead, but sleepeth.”—She did but sleep till He who is the resurrection and the life came to waken her. In accordance with our Lord’s teaching here the apostolic and later Church has instinctively substituted “sleep” for “death,” in speaking of the believer’s removal from this world (see Act_7:60; 1Th_4:14).

Luk_8:54. “Put them all forth.”—

1.Their presence was not needed—they were mourners for the dead, and Christ was about to awaken the damsel from the sleep of death.

2. Their boisterous grief was incongruous with the solemnity of the occasion.

3. Their scornful laughter at His saying rendered them unworthy to witness the deed of power.

“Took her by the hand.”—Our Lord adapted His manner of working miracles to the circumstances of the occasions. He called the four-days dead Lazarus from the grave with a loud voice (Joh_11:43); but of this youthful maiden it is said that He took her by the hand and called her, “Damsel, arise,” and woke her gently from the sleep of death.—Wordsworth.

“Maid, arise.”—One of the Fathers remarks that if Christ had not named the child all the dead would have arisen at His word.

Luk_8:55. “To give her meat.”—An indication of an affectionate care which, even in the midst of the greatest things, forgets not the least, and which would provide for the necessity of the exhausted child on her return to life—Stier.

“Give her meat.”—Perhaps, too, partaking of food was to be a sign of actual restoration to bodily life, as when Christ Himself after His resurrection said, “Have ye here any meat?” (chap. Luk_24:41).

Luk_8:56. “Tell no man.”—The reason for the prohibition was doubtless to avoid a notoriety, which might excite the people and give occasion for tumultuous proceedings. The disciples would, of course, obey; but the parents could scarcely conceal their feelings of gratitude.—Speaker’s Commentary.

Silence enjoined.—Observe the different courses followed by Christ in these two cases: she who sought healing by stealth was constrained to confess openly the boon she had obtained; he who publicly appealed for the healing of his daughter is enjoined to be silent about the miracle.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luke

A MIRACLE WITHIN A MIRACLE

Luk 8:43 - Luk 8:48.

The story of Jairus’s daughter is, as it were, cut in two by that of the poor invalid woman. What an impression of calm consciousness of power and of leisurely dignity is made by Christ’s having time to pause, even on His way to a dying sufferer, in order to heal, as if parenthetically, this other afflicted one! How Jairus must have chafed at the delay! He had left his child ‘at the point of death’ and here was the Healer loitering, as it must have seemed to a father’s agony of impatience.

But Jesus, with His infinite calm and as infinite power, can afford to let the one wait and even die, while He tends the other. The child shall receive no harm, and her sister in sorrow has as great a claim on Him as she. He has leisure of heart to feel for each, and power for both. We do not rob one another of His gifts. Attending to one, He does not neglect another.

This miracle illustrates the genuineness and power of feeble and erroneous faith, and Christ’s merciful way of strengthening and upholding it. The woman, a poor, shrinking creature, has been made more timid by long illness, disappointed hopes of cure, and by poverty. She does not venture to stop Jesus, as He goes with an important official of the synagogue to heal his daughter, but creeps up in the crowd behind Him, puts out a wasted, trembling hand to touch the tasselled fringe of His robe-and she is whole.

She would fain have glided away with a stolen cure, but Jesus forced her to stand out before the throng, and with all their eyes on her, to conquer diffidence and womanly reticence, and tell all the truth. Strange contrast, this, to His usual avoidance of notoriety and regard for shrinking weakness! But it was true kindness, for it was the discipline by which her imperfect faith was cleared and confirmed.

It is easy to point out the imperfections in this woman’s faith. It was very ignorant. She was sure that this Rabbi would heal her, but she expected it to be done by the material contact of her finger with His robe. She had no idea that Christ’s will, much less His love, had anything to do with His cures. She thinks that she may carry away the blessing, and He be none the wiser. It is easy to say, What blank ignorance of Christ’s way of working! what grossly superstitious notions! Yes, and with them all what a hunger of intense desire to be whole, and what absolute confidence that a finger-tip on His robe was enough!

Her faith was very imperfect, but the main fact is that she had it. Let us be thankful for a living proof of the genuineness of ignorant and even of superstitious faith. There are many now who fall with less excuse into a like error with this woman’s, by attaching undue importance to externals, and thinking more of the hem of the garment and its touch by a finger than of the heart of the wearer and the grasp of faith. But while we avoid such errors, let us not forget that many a poor worshipper clasping a crucifix may be clinging to the Saviour, and that Christ does accept faith which is tied to outward forms, as He did this woman’s.

There was no real connection between the touch of her finger and her healing, but she thought that there was, and Christ stoops to her childish thought, and lets her make the path for His gift. ‘According to thy faith be it unto thee’: His mercy, like water, takes the shape of the containing vessel.

The last part of the miracle, when the cured woman is made the bold confessor, is all shaped so as to correct and confirm her imperfect faith. We note this purpose in every part of it. She had thought of the healing energy as independent of His knowledge and will. Therefore she is taught that He was aware of the mute appeal, and of the going out of power in answer to it. The question, ‘Who touched me?’ has been regarded as a proof that Jesus was ignorant of the person; but if we keep the woman’s character and the nature of her disease in view, we can suppose it asked, not to obtain information, but to lead to acknowledgment, and that without ascribing to Him in asking it any feigning of ignorance.

The contrast between the pressure of the crowd and the touch of faith has often been insisted on, and carries a great lesson. The unmannerly crowd hustled each other, trod on His skirts, and elbowed their way to gape at Him, and He took no heed. But His heart detected the touch, unlike all the rest, and went out with healing power towards her who touched. We may be sure that, though a universe waits before Him, and the close-ranked hosts of heaven stand round His throne, we can reach our hands through them all, and get the gifts we need.

She had shrunk from publicity, most naturally. But if she had stolen away, she would have lost the joy of confession and greater blessings than the cure. So He mercifully obliges her to stand forth. In a moment she is changed from a timid invalid to a confessor. A secret faith is like a plant growing in the dark, the stem of which is blanched and weak, and its few blossoms pale and never matured. ‘With the mouth confession is made unto salvation.’

Christ’s last word to her is tender. He calls her ‘Daughter’-the only woman whom He addressed by such a name. He teaches her that her faith, not her finger, had been the medium through which His healing power had reached her. He confirms by His authoritative word the furtive blessing: ‘Be whole of thy plague.’ And she goes, having found more than she sought, and felt a loving heart where she had only seen a magic-working robe.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

THE BLOODY HEMORRHAGE

Mat 9:20-22; Mar 5:25-36; Luk 8:43-50. Mark: “A certain woman, being with a hemorrhage of blood twelve years, and having suffered much from many physicians, and spending all things in her possession, and being profited as to nothing, but rather having come to the worst, hearing concerning Jesus, coming behind in the crowd, touched His garment. For she said, If I may touch His garments, I shall be saved. And immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she knew that she was healed from her disease.” The presumption is that this woman did not have lung hemorrhage, as they are not apt to survive so long. We have no intimation as to the character of the hemorrhage. It must have been very serious, as she had availed herself of all possible medical aid, even submitting to financial bankruptcy. We have the significant statement, polla pathousa hupo pollon iatron, “having suffered much from many physicians,” involving the conclusion that these physicians, instead of relieving the ailment, had greatly augmented her suffering. Doubtless this is a very significant truth; in the majority of cases, the medical treatment only adds to the suffering of the patient, without curing the disease. This poor victim of a twelve years’ hemorrhage had not only suffered much gratuitously, without receiving any benefit, but had expended all of her living and come down to poverty. Now that she has nothing, the physicians will not medicate her; therefore, in her hopeless desperation, she is in good fix to turn over the work to Jesus. You see, from this illustration, that there is no real conflict between Divine healing and medical treatment, as they seldom come in competition; the people, like this woman, going to the ultimata thula with physicians before they really turn over the case to Jesus, and trust Him alone to heal them. “And immediately, Jesus knowing in Himself that the power had gone out from Him, turning in the crowd, He said, Who touched My clothes? And His disciples said to Him, You see the crowd treading upon You, and You say, Who touched Me? And He was looking around to see the one having done this. And the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had been done unto her, came and fell before Him, and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, Daughter, thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace, and be thou whole from thy disease.” Here we see an indisputable confirmation of bodily healing through faith, precisely as the soul is healed through faith.

We do not get what we ask for, but what we believe for, our faith being the measuring line of our reception from God. The human side of Divine healing is simple faith in Jesus for that very thing, as He is no respecter of persons. The great law, “As your faith is, so be it unto you,” is applicable to the body as to the soul. We do not say you must discard your physician, but we do say that you must have faith in Jesus alone to heal you. Perhaps if Jesus had come along at an earlier day, when she was paying out her money and looking to those physicians to heal her, her faith in them would have vitiated her faith in Jesus, and thus defeated her healing. Your physician may help you, like your nurse; but you make a great mistake when you look to them for healing. In this I do not depreciate the medical profession, as the most competent physicians I have met in my extensive travels have confessed to me their utter incompetency to heal the sick, but only to assist nature, it being the province of God alone to give health and life.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8:43 with constant bleeding: Perhaps it was a menstrual disorder. The tragedy was both physical and spiritual, for such bleeding rendered the woman ceremonially unclean and thereby precluded her participation in community worship (Lev 15:25-30).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk 8:43. Ἰατροῖς, physicians) Luke, being a physician himself, writes candidly.—προσαναλώσασα) The πρὸς implies, besides his affliction of body.—οὐκ ἴσχυσεν—θεραπευθῆναι) was not able—to be healed, i.e. the physicians were not able to heal her.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 8:43-48 . The woman with an issue (Mat 9:20-22 , Mar 5:25-34 ).

Luk 8:43 . ἀπὸ : indicating the terminus a quo. Mk. uses the accusative of duration. προσαναλώσασα (here only in N. T.), having expended in addition: to loss of health was added loss of means in the effort to gain it back. βίον , means of life, as in Luk 15:12 ; Luk 15:30 , Luk 21:4 . οὐκ ἴσχυσεν , etc., was not able to get healing from any (physician), a milder way of putting it than Mk.’s.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

All that she had to live upon.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 43. Spent all her living upon physicians] See Clarke on Mr 5:26.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(43) Neither could be healed of any.—It is, perhaps, worth noting that while St. Luke records the failure of the physicians to heal the woman, he does not add, as St. Mark does, that she “rather grew worse” (Mar_5:26).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

43. which had spent all her living] Literally, ‘having in addition spent’ her-whole means of livelihood.

neither could be healed op any] St Luke, perhaps with a fellow- feeling for physicians, does not add the severer comment of St Mark, that the physicians had only made her worse (Mar_5:26). The Talmudic receipts for the cure of this disease were specially futile, such as to set the sufferer in a place where two ways meet, with a cup of wine in her hand, and let some one come behind and frighten her, and say, Arise from thy flux; or “dig seven ditches, burn in them some cuttings of vines not four years old, and let her sit in them in succession, with a cup of wine in her hand, while at each remove some one says to her, Arise from thy flux.” (Lightfoot, Hor. Hebr. ad loc.)

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Came behind him,.... In the press and crowd of people, being ashamed to come before him, and tell him her case:

and touched the border of his garment the fringe the Jews were obliged to wear at the bottom of their garments, Num 15:38 and which the more religious sort did, for by this they were distinguished from the common people: it is asked (p),

"who is a plebeian, or one of the common people? every one that does not read "Keriat Shema", (i.e. hear, O Israel), &c. Deu 6:4 morning and evening, with the blessings belonging to it, the words of R. Meir: but the wise men say, whoever does not put on the "Tephillin" (the frontlets, Deu 6:8) Ben Azzai says, whoever has not "the fringe" on his garment''

See Gill on Mat 9:20. This woman was persuaded in her own mind, if she could but touch the clothes of Christ, she should be healed, and accordingly she was:

and immediately her issue of blood staunched; stopped, and was dried up; Mar 5:28.

(p) T. Bab Succa, fol. 22. 1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

All her substance; (Greek: olon ton bion) i.e. all that she had to live upon.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

43-48.—On the way to Jairus’s house occurs the miracle of the Bloody Flux. (Notes on Mar_5:22-23.)

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 43, 44. And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, came behind him, and touched the border of his garment. It may be assumed that the disease from which she suffered made her, according to the Levitical Law, ceremonially unclean: this had separated her in a great measure for a very long period from all contact with the outer world. This would well account for her shrinking from any public appeal to the great Physician. The border of the Lord"s garment which the woman touched was one of the four tassels which formed part of the Jewish tallith, or mantle; one of these was always arranged so as to hang down over the shoulder at the back; it was this one which the sufferer"s fingers grasped. There was a certain sacredness about these tassels, as being part of the memorial dress enjoined by the Levitical Law, which, no doubt, induced the woman to touch this particular portion of the Saviour"s dress. And immediately her issue of blood stanched. This is not the only instance of this kind of strange faith mingled with superstition being signally rewarded. The case of the miraculous efficacy of the handkerchiefs and aprons which had had contact with Paul"s body (Act_19:12) is an interesting example. A still more startling one exists in the healing influence of the shadow of Peter falling on the sick as he passed along the street. (Act_5:15) The lesson evidently intended to be left on the Church of Christ by this and similar incidents is a very instructive one. Faith in Christ is a broad inclusive term: it is accepted and blest by the Master, as we see from the gospel story, in all its many degrees of development, from the elementary shape which it assumed in the case of this poor loving superstitious soul, to the splendid proportions which it reached in the lives of a Stephen and a Paul. Faith in him, from its rudest form to its grandest development, the Master knew would ever purify and elevate the character. It would, as it grew, be the best teacher and the truest monitor of the noble, generous life he loved. Therefore he watched for it, encouraged it, helped it; and his Church, if it would imitate its Master, would do well to follow his wise and loving example by.fostering in every form, however crude, faith m Jesus Christ; for this incident in the Divine and perfect life which we have just dwelt on, teaches us with striking clearness that he can and will bless the dimmest, most imperfect faith, the faith of the little child, and of the poorest untaught one.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The sick woman:

v. 43. And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any,

v. 44. came behind Him, and touched the border of His garment; and immediately her issue of blood stanched.

v. 45. And Jesus said, Who touched Me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng Thee and press Thee, and sayest Thou, Who touched Me?

v. 46. And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched Me; for I perceive that virtue is gone out of Me

v. 47. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before Him, she declared unto Him before all the people for what cause she had touched Him, and how she was healed immediately.

v. 48. And He said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.

This thronging of the crowd, which Luke emphasizes so strongly, was taken advantage of by a certain woman. She had been in the sickness of a flux of blood, surrounded by this misery, for the space of twelve years. This issue rendered her Levitically unclean, Lev 15:25-30, and deprived her of many of the rights and privileges of the other members of the congregation. She had made every effort to be cured, to the extent of giving up to the doctors, expending upon physicians, all her living, all her means. And yet, as even Luke the physician writes, she could not be healed of any of them. A true picture of human misery and helplessness! This woman, coming from behind in the crowd, touched the hem or tassel of Christ’s mantle, which He wore according to Jewish custom. This was not an act of superstition, but of faith. Her humility and sensitiveness merely kept her from making her condition public. And her faith was rewarded: at once the flow of blood was stopped, the healing was complete. Jesus, who, of course, was perfectly aware of the entire incident, determined to test the woman. Turning around, He asked who had touched Him. The remark was addressed chiefly to the disciples, and they, and the others near them, denied any willful jolting. And, upon second thought, Peter, acting as spokesman for the rest, reminded the Lord that He was hemmed in and squeezed by the crowds on all sides, therefore the question seemed strange. But Jesus, with His object in mind, insisted that someone had deliberately and intentionally touched Him. Then the woman saw that her secret was no secret before Christ, and therefore she came and confessed the entire matter fully. And with happy heart she dwelt upon the fact of her having been cured at once, when the virtue had gone out from Him, as He had said, when the divine, miraculous power was given by Jesus as a reward of her faith. Hereupon Jesus, ever kind and sympathetic, gave her the further assurance that her faith had brought her the priceless boon of health. He takes great pleasure in commending again and again the qualities of faith, by which it is able to do such great things. Her health was a reward of grace for the firmness of her trust. She should not fear or be uneasy in her mind over the incident, but go to her home in peace. Note: Such faith is needed in the Church and in its individual members even today; there is too much stereotyped sameness in the lives of the church-members in merely moving along a broad Christian way. Victories of faith are not so frequent in our days because the conquering faith is absent.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

As our Saviour was on his way to Jairus’s house, a diseased woman comes behind him, touches his clothes, and is presently healed. The virtue lay not in her finger, but in her faith; or rather in Christ, which her faith instrumentally drew forth.

Observe, 1. The diseased woman, one with a bloody flux: let women here take notice of the miseries which the sin of the first woman brought upon all women; amongst, which this is one, that it has made their bodies subject to preternatural issues and fluxes of blood.

Observe, 2. The long continuance of this disease, twelve years; it pleases God to lay long and tedious afflictions upon some of his children in this life, and particularly to keep some of them a very long time under bodily weakness, to manifest his power in supporting them, and to magnify his mercy in delivering them.

Observe, 3. This poor woman was found in the use of means: she sought to physicians for help, and is not blamed for so doing, although she spent all she had upon them.

The use and help of physicians is by no means to be neglected by us in times of sickness, especially in dangerous diseases of the body: to trust to means is to neglect God; and to neglect the means is to contemn God. The health of our body ought to be dear unto us, and all lawful means used both to preserve it, to recover it, and to confirm, it.

Observe, 4. The actings of this poor woman’s faith: her disease was unclean by the ceremonial law, and she is to be separated from society: accordingly she is ashamed to appear before Christ, but comes behind him to touch his clothes; being firmly persuaded that Christ had a power communicated to him miraculously to cure incurable diseases; and how our Saviour encouraged her faith, he said, Thy faith hath made thee whole.

Learn hence, that faith often times meets with a better welcome from Christ, than it did or could expect; this poor women came to Christ trembling, but went away triumphing.

Observe, 5. Christ would have this miracle discovered; he therefore says, Who touched me? For I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. Christ says this, first, in reference to himself, to manifest his divine power, that by the touch of his clothes he could cure such an incurable disease.

Secondly, in elation to the woman, that she might have opportunity to give God the praise and glory for the cure.

And, thirdly, with respect to Jairus, that his faith might be strengthened in belief of Christ’s power to raise his daughter.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

a woman was there

This introduces a new character in the story. (See: Introduction of New and Old Participants)

had been bleeding

"had a flow of blood." She was probably bleeding from her womb even when it was not the normal time for it. Some cultures may have a polite way of referring to this condition. (See: Euphemism)

and could not be healed by anyone

This can be stated in active form. AT: "but no one could heal her" (See: Active or Passive)

touched the edge of his coat

"touched the fringe of his robe." Jewish men wore tassels on the edges of their robes as a part of their ceremonial dress as commanded in God's Law. This is likely what she touched.

translationWords

cure

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

43. See note.

43. ἐν ῥύσει αἵματος. The ἐν indicates her condition: comp. ἐν ἐξουσίᾳ, Luk 4:36; ἐν περιτομῇ, Rom 4:10.

ἰατροῖς. The dativus commodi, ‘upon physicians.’ The more classical construction would be the εἰς ἰατροὺς of the Rec[183] but it is probably a correction.

[183] Rec. The Textus Receptus.

προσαναλώσασα ὅλον τὸν βίον. Literally, ‘having in addition spent’ her whole means of livelihood.

ἀπ’ οὐδενὸς θεραπευθῆναι. St Luke, perhaps with a fellow-feeling for physicians, does not add the severer comment of St Mark, that the physicians had only made her worse (Luk 5:26). The Talmudic receipts for the cure of this disease were specially futile,—such as to set the sufferer in a place where two ways meet, with a cup of wine in her hand, and let some one come behind and frighten her, and say, Arise from thy flux; or “dig seven ditches, burn in them some cuttings of vines not four years old, and let her sit in them in succession, with a cup of wine in her hand, while at each remove some one says to her, Arise from thy flux.” (Lightfoot, Hor. Hebr. ad loc.)

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

43.] προσαναλ., ‘having, besides all her suffering, spent,’ &c. But,—see notes on μὴ προσεῶντος τοῦ ἀνέμου, Act 27:7, and on συμμαρτυρεῖν, Rom 2:15; Rom 8:16; Rom 9:1,—προς- may denote the direction or tendency of her spending. Mark adds, that she grew nothing better, but rather worse. The omission of this clause, ἰατρ. προσαν. ὅλ. τ. β., in some of the best mss., is curious. I have not ventured to exclude it, on account of the characteristic ἅπαξ λεγόμενον προσαναλώσασα, which seems to betray St. Luke’s hand. The ἀπʼ instead of ὑπʼ, which latter may have come from the ὑπὸ πολλῶν ἰατρῶν of St. Mark, conveys a slightly differing sense. ὑπό is more of direct agency, ἀπό of ultimate derivation. She could get no relief from any system of treatment adopted by any.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

43. οὖσα ἐν ῥύσει. “Being in a condition of hemorrhage.” The constr. is quite simple and intelligible; comp. ἐν φθορᾷ ἐν ἐκστάσει, ἐν δόξη ἐν ἐκτενείᾳ, ἐν ἕχθρᾳ. The form ῥύσις is from the unused π̔ύω, from which come the late forms ἐρρυσα and ἐρρυκα, and π̔εῦσις is often a v l. Win. 29:3. b, p. 230.

λατροῖς προσαναλώσασα ὅλον τὸν βίον. “Having, in addition to all her sufferings, spent all her resources on physicians,” or “for for pbysiclans,” or “in physicians.” This use of βίος for “means of living” is freq. in N.T. (15:12, 30, 21:4; Mar 12:44; 1Jn 3:17) and in class. Grk. In class. Grk. βίος is a higher word than ζωή, the former being that which is fecaber to man, the latter that which he shares with brutes and vegetables. In N.T. βίος retains its meaning, being either the “period of human life,” as 1Ti 2:2; 2Ti 2:4, or “means of life,” as here. But ζωή is raised above βίος, and means that vital principle which through Christ man shares with God. Hence βίος is comparatively rare in N.T., which is not much concerned with the duration of temporal life or the means of prolonging it; whereas ζωή occurs more than a hundred times. See Trench, Syn. xxvii.; Crem. Lex. p. 272 ; Lft. on Ign. ad Rom. vii. 3.

WH. follow B D, Arm. in omitting ἰατροῖς … βίον. Treg. at RV., indicate doubt in marg. Syr-Sin. omits.

οὐκ ἴσχυσεν. This use of ἰσχύω for “be able” is freq. in Lk. See on 6:48. It is natural that “the physician” does not add, as Mk. does, that she had suffered much at the hands of the physicians, and was worse rather than better for their treatment. The remedies which they tried in such cases were sometimes very severe, and sometimes loathsome and absurd. See Lightfoot, p. 614; Tristram, Eastern Customs in Bible Lands, pp. 22, 23.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Had spent [προσαναλωσασα] . Only here in New Testament. Some texts omit who had spent all here living upon physicians. Luke, with professional sensitiveness, omits Mark's statement that she had suffered many things from many physicians, and was not bettered but made worse.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vers. 43-48. The Interruption.

The preposition πρός, in προσαναλώσασα, expresses the fact that, in addition to these long sufferings, she now found herself destitute of resources. Mark expresses with a little more force the injury which the physicians had done her. Hitzig and Holtzmann maintain that Luke, being a physician himself, intentionally tones down these details from the proto-Mark. We find nothing here but Mark’s characteristic amplification.

The malady from which this woman suffered rendered her Levitically unclean; it was even, according to the law, a sufficient justification for a divorce (Lev 15:25; Deu 24:1). Hence, no doubt, her desire to get cured as it were by stealth, without being obliged to make a public avowal of her disorder. The faith which actuated her was not altogether free from superstition, for she conceived of the miraculous power of Jesus as acting in a purely physical manner. The word κράσπεδον, which we translate by the hem (of the garment), denotes one of the four tassels or tufts of scarlet woollen cord attached to the four corners of the outer robe, which were intended to remind the Israelites of their law. Their name was zitzit (Num 15:38). As this robe, which was of a rectangular form, was worn like a woman’s shawl, two of the corners being allowed to hang down close together on the back, we see the force of the expression came behind. Had it been, as is ordinarily understood, the lower hem of the garment which she attempted to touch, she could not have succeeded, on account of the crowd which surrounded Jesus. This word κράσπεδον, according to Passow, comes from κέρας and πέδον, the forward part of a plain; or better, according to Schleusner, from κεκραμένον εἰς πέδον, that which hangs down towards the ground.

Both Mark and Luke date the cure from the moment that she touched. Matthew speaks of it as taking place a little later, and as the effect of Jesus’ word. But this difference belongs, as we shall see, to Matthew’s omission of the following details, and not to any difference of view as to the efficient cause of the cure.

The difficulty about this miracle is, that it seems to have been wrought outside the consciousness and will of Jesus, and thus appears to be of a magical character.

In each of Jesus’ miracles there are, as it were, two poles: the receptivity of the person who is the subject of it, and the activity of Him by whom it is wrought. The maximum of action in one of these factors may correspond with the minimum of action in the other. In the case of the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, in whom it was necessary to excite even the desire to be cured, as well as in the raising of the dead, the human receptivity was reduced to its minimum. The activity of the Lord in these cases reached its highest degree of initiation and intensity. In the present instance it is the reverse. The receptivity of the woman reaches such a degree of energy, that it snatches, as it were, the cure from Jesus. The action of Jesus is here confined to that willingness to bless and save which always animated Him in His relations with men.

He did not, however, remain unconscious of the virtue which He had just put forth; but He perceives that there is a tincture of superstition in the faith which had acted in this way towards Him; and, as Riggenbach admirably shows (Leben Jesu, p. 442), His design in what follows is to purify this incipient faith. But in order to do this, it is necessary to discover the author of the deed. There is no reason for not attributing to Jesus the ignorance implied in the question, “Who touched me?” Anything like feigning ignorance ill comports with the candour of His character.

Peter shows his usual forwardness, and ventures to remonstrate with Jesus. But, so far from this detail implying any ill-will towards this apostle, Luke attributes the same fault to the other apostles, and equally without any sinister design, since Mark does the same thing (Luk 8:31). Jesus does not stop to rebuke His disciple; He pursues His inquiry; only He now substitutes the assertion, Somebody hath touched me, for the question, Who touched me? Further, He no longer lays stress upon the person, but upon the act, in reply to the observation of Peter, which tended to deny it. The verb ἅψασθαι, to feel about, denotes a voluntary, deliberate touch, and not merely an accidental contact. Mark adds that, while putting this question, He cast around Him a scrutinizing glance. The reading ἐξεληλυθυῖαν (Alex.) signifies properly: “I feel myself in the condition of a man from whom a force has been withdrawn.” This is somewhat artificial. The received reading, ἐξελθοῦσαν, merely denotes the outgoing of a miraculous power, which is more simple. Jesus had been inwardly apprised of the influence which He had just exerted.

The joy of success gives the woman courage to acknowledge both her act and her malady; but the words, before all the people, are designed to show how much this avowal cost her. Luke says trembling, to which Mark adds fearing; she feels afraid of having sinned against the Lord by acting without His knowledge. He reassures her (Luk 8:48), and confirms her in the possession of the blessing which she had in some measure taken by stealth. This last incident is also brought out by Mark (ver. 34). The intention of Jesus, in the inquiry He had just instituted, appears more especially in the words, Thy faith hath saved thee; thy faith, and not, as thou wast thinking, the material touch. Jesus thus assigns to the moral sphere (in Luke and Mark as well as in Matthew) the virtue which she referred solely to the physical sphere. The word θάρσει, take courage, which is wanting in several Alex., is probably taken from Matthew. The term saved implies more than the healing of the body. Her recovered health is a link which henceforth will attach her to Jesus as the personification of salvation; and this link is to her the beginning of salvation in the full sense of the term.

The words in Matthew, “And the woman was healed from that same hour,” refer to the time occupied by the incident, taken altogether.

Eusebius says (H. E. 7.18, ed. Loemmer) that this woman was a heathen and dwelt at Paneas, near the source of the Jordan, and that in his time her house was still shown, having at its entrance two brass statues on a stone pedestal. One represented a woman on her knees, with her hands held out before her, in the attitude of a suppliant; the other, a man standing with his cloak thrown over his shoulder, and his hand extended towards the woman. Eusebius had been into the house himself, and had seen this statue, which represented, it was said, the features of Jesus.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.