Just Reach Out
Today, I want to take a look at the story of the woman who bled for 12 years. What strikes me about this story is that she didn't even wait to address Jesus or ask him for help — she helped herself, and she was not reprimanded but rather told that her faith healed her. What does this mean for us? How often do we "wait on Jesus" when all we have to do is reach out our hand?
Let's read the scriptures. This story appears in three of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Below are the verses from each, from the New English Translation. If you would like to read them in another translation, click here and then select the translation you would like.
Luke 8:42b-48
As Jesus was on his way, the crowds pressed around him. Now a woman was there who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years but could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind Jesus and touched the edge of his cloak, and at once the bleeding stopped. Then Jesus asked, “Who was it who touched me?” When they [the disciples] all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds are surrounding you and pressing against you!” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I know that power has gone out from me.” When the woman saw that she could not escape notice, she came trembling and fell down before him. In the presence of all the people, she explained why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed. Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”
Mark 5:25-34
Jesus went with him, and a large crowd followed and pressed around him. Now a woman was there who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years. She had endured a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she kept saying, “If only I touch his clothes, I will be healed.” At once the bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Jesus knew at once that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” His disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing against you and you say, ‘Who touched me?’” But he looked around to see who had done it. Then the woman, with fear and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
Matthew 9:19-22
Jesus and his disciples got up and followed him. But a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. For she kept saying to herself, “If only I touch his cloak, I will be healed.” But when Jesus turned and saw her he said, “Have courage, daughter! Your faith has made you well.” And the woman was healed from that hour.
In the NET notes for each of these passages, it is noted that the woman touches exactly the part of Jesus's garments that represented his ritual purity. Ritual purity was highly important to the Jewish culture and religion. A woman's menstrual cycle caused her to be ritually impure, so bleeding for 12 years had excluded this woman from the temple entirely. So this woman, who is deeply impure by the cultural standards, touches Jesus's purity with her impurity.
The first beautiful thing here is that there is no indication of an exchange, i.e. Jesus takes her impurity and gives her his. Rather, his purity is so perfect, it just…nullifies her impurity entirely. This point is made repeatedly throughout the gospels — Jesus is always touching ritually impure people — lepers, demoniacs, etc — and the "impurity" never taints him. (Is there even any place where Jesus is shown to do a ritual cleansing or to offer a sacrifice? No! See Hebrews 7:27: "He has no need to do every day what those priests do, to offer sacrifices first for their own sins and then for the sins of the people, since he did this in offering himself once for all.")
No matter how impure we are, no matter what stains us, no matter our past mistakes and bad decisions, no matter what has happened to us — none of that will ever stain Jesus! His purity is pure enough, his power strong enough, his love unconditional enough, to cleanse every stain and to heal every illness!
The second beautiful thing in these passages is that the woman does not wait for permission; rather, she basically sneaks up in the crowd — a crowd full of people who have probably ostracized her and kept her exiled in her home for 12 years because of her bleeding — and she literally grabs hold of her healing. She reaches out and touches the hem of Jesus's cloak, simply because her faith was so strong.
Is your faith so strong that you would reach for a miracle in a wad of fabric…and actually get what you’re after?
How often do we feel that we need to wait to ask for help, or wait to ask God for a miracle? And on the flip-side, how often do we just reach out our hand and take hold of God's promises that already are within our reach?
What an example for us this woman is! I know that personally, I'm going to be sitting with this for a while and letting the Holy Spirit speak to me about this. Because I have things in my own life that perhaps I need to just reach out and grasp in absolute and utter faith and trust in Jesus.
What about you? Spend some time this week in prayer reaching out and taking hold of those promises that you know are right there within your reach.
PS — Jesus is always within reach.