A Woman is Healed

Luke 8: 4- - 48 (NIV): Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him. Then a man named Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, came and fell at Jesus' feet, pleading with him to come to his house because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying. As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. "Who touched me?" Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you." But Jesus said, "Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me." Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."

This woman was desperate for Jesus. She had tried the doctors and everything else she could think of, and nothing had worked. She knew Jesus was her only hope, and she believed that he would heal her if she could only touch him. Unfortunately, in her society a woman was (and still is in some places) forbidden from touching or speaking to a man in public. Desperate, she touched him anyway and was instantly healed.

Jesus didn't even do anything except walk past her! But he knew that she had touched him and that the power to heal her had been given. Notice what he did. First, he made her confess that she had touched him. Why? For one thing, her condition made her “unclean” and she could not go to the synagogue. By announcing to the whole community that she had been healed, Jesus was allowing her back into society. How else would she have proven that she had been healed? Jesus didn't mind an “unclean” person touching him, and that's good news for all of us.

Also, Jesus wants us to confess to others when we heals us or saves us. That's how other people will know to do the same.

Now notice that Jesus said her faith had healed her. Faith is the delivery truck that God uses to deliver his goodness to us. We cannot be saved without it and we cannot be healed or have our prayers answered without it. When we get desperate enough, we'll reach out to touch him and find ourselves at peace. We won't care what our culture says, and we'll risk being embarrassed. Pride goes out the window when we're desperate. Often, when we are desperate for Jesus and realize that he is our only hope, we're right where he wants us to be.

Jesus was on his way to heal someone else, but he stopped to minister to this woman. He will take the time to answer our prayers too, so let's show him we have faith.