A certain woman, who had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and had suffered many things by many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better, but rather grew worse, having heard the things concerning Jesus, came up behind him in the crowd, and touched his clothes. For she said, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be made well.” Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
Immediately Jesus, perceiving in himself that the power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd, and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
His disciples said to him, “You see the multitude pressing against you, and you say, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
He looked around to see her who had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had been done to her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.
He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be cured of your disease.”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v25 Jesus being touched with true faith although it be…
Jesus being touched with true faith although it be but weak, doth heal us by his virtue.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv25, 26, 28, 30, 32, 33, 34 25 And a certain woman, which had an issue…
25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,
Ver. 25. And a certain woman] This history happened fitly, that Jairus might be confirmed, and the different degrees of faith in several saints the better discerned.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On v25 See Poole on "Mat 9:18", and following verses to…
See Poole on "Mat 9:18", and following verses to Mat 9:22, upon this whole history, containing a passage which happened in the way between the place where our Saviour first heard of the sickness of Jairus’s daughter and his house, whither our Saviour was now going. We shall in these histories observe our Saviour propounding several questions to persons: of the matter to which they related, he could not be presumed to be ignorant, being as to his Divine nature omniscient; but he only propounded them for the bettering of the knowledge of those to whom or amongst whom he spake, that his miracles might be more fully and distinctly understood. So also he is said to have known many things (as here,
that virtue had gone out of him) which he only knew as he was God, and knew all things. It is also observable how Christ encourages the first rudiments of saving faith in him. All that we read of this woman is, that she said,
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If I may but touch his clothes, I shall be whole: this was much short of her owning and receiving him as her Lord and Saviour. It amounted to no more than a persuasion she had of his Divine power and goodness, and that with respect to the healing of a bodily distemper; neither doth it import her believing him to be the eternal Son of God, but one to whom God had communicated a power of healing. In this confidence she cometh unto him, and toucheth the border of his garment. She is presently healed. Christ saith, her faith had made her whole. Christ measures her faith by the light and means she had received, and accordingly rewards it; and if the notion be true, that where he healed the body he also healed the soul, this was the beginning of a greater faith in her.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v25 As our Saviour was on his way to Jairus’s…
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 here, 1. The diseased person, a woman with a bloody flux. Let women here take notice of the miseries which the sin of the first woman has brought upon all women, amongst which this is one, that it has made their bodies subject to unnatural issues and fluxes of blood.
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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 it, though she spent all she had upon them.
The use of physic is not 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 tempt God. The health of our bodies ought to be dear and precious to us, and all lawful means to be used, both to preserve it, to recover it, and confirm it.
Observe, 4. The workings and actings of this poor woman’s faith: her disease was unclean by the ceremonial law, and therefore to be separate 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 by God unto him, miraculously to cure incurable diseases.
And see how our Saviour encouraged her faith, though she did not believe him to be the eternal son of God, but one to whom God had communicated by God, but one to whom God had communicated a power, of healing bodily diseases; yet, says Christ, This thy faith hath made thee whole.
Learn hence, That faith oftimes meets with a better welcome from Christ than it did or could expect. This poor woman came to Christ trembling, but went away triumphing.
Observe, 5. Christ would have this miracle discovered; he therefore says, Who touched me? and I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.
First, in reference to himself, to manifest his divine power, that by the touch of his clothes he could cure such incurable diseases.
Secondly, in relation to the woman, that she might have an opportunity to give God the praise and glory for the cure.
And thirdly, With respect to Jairus, that his faith might be strengthened in the belief of Christ’s power to raise his daughter.
Now from those words virtue went out of Christ, and he healed them, it is evident, that the virtue which did these miraculous cures resided in Christ, and was not communicated to him; and consequently proves him to be God; for the divine virtue, by which the prophets and apostles did their cures, is ascribed to God; God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul. Act 19:11 But the miracles done by Christ are ascribed to the divine virtue dwelling in him. Accordingly here he says, I perceive virtue is gone out of me.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv25–34 And a certain woman which had an issue of…
And a certain woman which had an issue of blood twelve years. See Gill on Mat 9:20. This woman was in the crowd that thronged Jesus, as he passed through the streets of Capernaum. Eusebius relates (o), that it was reported, that this woman was of Caesarea Philippi, where her house was to be seen; where were extant some wonderful monuments of the benefits conferred upon her by Christ; as that at the door of her house was an effigy of a woman in brass, set upon an high stone on her bended knees, and arms stretched out like a supplicant; and opposite to her, another effigy of a man, of the same metal, standing, and decently clothed in a tunic, and his hand stretched out to the woman; at whose feet, upon the pillar, a strange form of a plant arose, reaching up to the border of the brazen tunic, which is a remedy against all diseases; and he says it remained to his times, and was then to be seen: and Theophylact (p) says, in the times of Julian the apostate it was broke to pieces. But this woman rather seems to be an inhabitant of Capernaum, in the streets of which the after cure was wrought; and therefore what credit is to be given to the above accounts I leave to be judged of. It may be more useful to observe, that this profluvious woman is an emblem of a sinner in a state of nature: as her disease was in itself an uncleanness, and rendered her unclean by the law, whereby she was unfit for the company and society of others; so the disease of sin, with which all are infected, is a pollution itself, and of a defiling nature; all the members of the body, and all the powers and faculties of the soul are polluted with it, and the whole man is filthy in the sight of God, and is pronounced unclean by the law of God; and such persons are very unfit for the society of saints on earth, and much less to be with those in heaven, nor even to be with moralized persons; for evil communications corrupt good manners: openly profane and impure sinners are infectious, and to be avoided. Likewise, as this woman's disease was of long standing, she had it twelve years, and it was become inveterate and stubborn, and not easy to be removed; so such is the disease of sin, and indeed it is much worse; it is what is brought into the world with men, and is as old as themselves; is natural to them, and cannot be removed by any ordinary and natural methods, but requires supernatural power and grace; and it is in such a like case and condition, that the Spirit of God finds his people, when he quickens, sanctifies, and cleanses them: "and when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live", Eze 16:6.
(o) Eccl. Hist. l. 7. c. 18. (p) In Matt. ix. 20.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v25 Matt. ix, 20; Luke viii, 43.
Matt. ix, 20; Luke viii, 43.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv25, 26, 27, 31, 33, 34 Verse 25. A certain woman] See Mt 9:20.
Verse 25. A certain woman] See Mt 9:20.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v29 Mar 5:29-30. She felt in her body that she…
Mar 5:29-30. She felt in her body that she was healed of that plague — Or distemper, with which she had been chastised; for this is the plain meaning of the word μαστιγος here used, which properly means a stroke, scourge, or correction. And Jesus turned about in the press, and said, Who touched, &c. — The woman, having obtained her wish, would have retired unobserved: but Jesus, who had secretly performed the cure, by the concurring efficacy of his will, which sent forth the healing virtue, thought fit, on this occasion, to show that it had not escaped his notice, and to take the opportunity of illustrating and commending the faith of the woman for the encouragement of others to confide in his power and love.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv28, 30 Touch his garment. Almighty God is pleased to give…
Touch his garment. Almighty God is pleased to give occasionally to the relics and clothes of his pious and faithful servants, a degree of virtue. See Acts v, and xix, where the very shadow of St. Peter, and the handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched the body of St. Paul, and were brought to the sick, cured their diseases, and banished the wicked spirits. See St. John Chrysostom, T. 5. contra Gent. in vit. Babylœ. St. Basil saith: "he that toucheth the bone of a martyr, receiveth in some degree holiness of the grace or virtue that is therein. (St. Basil in Psalm cxv.)
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).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv25, 27, 30, 31, 33 25. A certain woman — She intercepts him as…
25. A certain woman — She intercepts him as he passes on, followed by a pressing crowd, to the house of Jairus.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv25, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34 25–34. The Healing of the Woman with an Issue…
25–34. The Healing of the Woman with an Issue of Blood
25. a certain woman] “Such overflowing grace is in Him, the Prince of Life, that as He is hastening to the accomplishing of one work of His power, He accomplishes another, as by the way.” Trench, p. 188.
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an issue of blood] Her malady was especially afflicting (Lev_15:19-27), for not only did it unfit her for all the relationships of life, but was popularly regarded as the direct consequence of sinful habits.
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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv26, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34 (26) Was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse.—The fact…
(26) Was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse.—The fact is the same as in St. Luk_8:43, who, however, does not mention that she grew worse, but it is, as usual, expressed more graphically.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv25, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34 Vers. 25, 26. A woman, which had an issue…
Vers. 25, 26. A woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years. All the synoptic Gospels mention the length of time during which she had been suffering. Eusebius records a tradition that she was a Gentile, a native of Caesarea Philippi. This disease was a chronic hemorrhage, for which she had found no relief from the physicians. Lightfoot, in his "Horae Hebraicae," gives a list of the remedies applied in such cases, which seem quite sufficient to account for St. Mark"s statement that she was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. St. Luke, himself a physician, says that she "had spent all her living upon physicians, and could not be healed of any.
Vers. 25-34. Faith conquering timidity.
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Far from withdrawing from scenes of distress and woe, our Lord Jesus was found wherever human sin or misery invited his compassion and invoked his aid. On this occasion he was passing towards the house of mourning, the chamber of death, and on his way paused to pity and to heal a helpless, timid, trembling sufferer.
I A PICTURE THIS OF HUMAN NEED AND SUFFERING. Amidst the thronging multitude were persons of various circumstances, character, and wants. In all companies there are those who have spiritual ills which only Christ can heal, spiritual desires which only Christ can satisfy. Sin and doubt, weakness, sorrow, and rear, helplessness and despondency, these are to be found on every side. The case of this poor woman deserves special attention.
1. Her need was conscious and pitiable.
2. It was of long continuance: for twelve years had she suffered and had obtained no relief.
3. Her case was beyond human skill and power. She had gone to many physicians, had endured much in undergoing treatment, had expended all her means, and yet, instead of being better, was worse than before. And now apparently hope was taking flight, and the end seemed near. An emblem this of many a sinner"s case conscious of sin and of a tyranny long endured, yet helpless and despairing of deliverance.
II A PICTURE THIS OF THE APPROACH AND CONTACT OF TREMBLING FAITH, The graphic narrative of the evangelist is very suggestive as well as very impressive.
1. There was faith, in the woman"s coming to Christ at all. She might have questioned the possibility of his curing her. She might have fancied that, lost in the crowd, she should not gain his notice and help.
2. The faith, however, seems to have been imperfect. Something of superstition probably impelled her to seize the hem or sacred fringe of his garment, as though there were magic virtue in the bodily presence of the Saviour.
3. Yet the venture of faith overcame the natural shrinking and timidity she experienced. Doubt and diffidence would have kept her away; faith drew her near, and she stole to him. It was the last resource; as it were, the dying grasp. "I have tried, and tried in vain, Many ways to ease my pain; Now all other hope is past, Only this is left at last: Here before thy cross I lie; Here I live or here I die.
4. Faith led to personal contact, to the laying hold of the Redeemer. Jesus often healed with a touch, by the laying on of his hand; and here he acknowledged the grasp of trembling confidence. They that come to Jesus must come confessing their faults and needs, applying for his mercy, and laying hold upon him with cordial faith.
III A PICTURE THIS OF CHRIST"S TREATMENT OF A BELIEVING APPLICANT. The conduct of Christ has been recorded in detail, for the instruction and encouragement of all to whom the gospel comes.
1. Remark his recognition of the individual. This woman was one of a multitude, yet she was not unobserved by the all-seeing and affectionate Saviour. He never overlooks the one among the many; his heart can enter into every case, and succor every needy soul.
2. Remark the immediate and efficacious exercise of his healing power. What others could not accomplish in long years, the Divine Healer effected in a moment. Thus Jesus ever acts. His grace brings pardon to the penitent, justification to the guilty, cleansing to the impure. Immediate grace is the earnest of grace unfailing.
3. We see our Lord accepting grateful acknowledgments. Pleasing to him was the courage that, spite of timidity, "told him all the truth." He ever delights in the thankful tribute of his people"s praise and devotion.
4. We hear our Lord"s gracious benediction. The language is very rich and full. There is an authoritative assurance of blessing; there is the adoption of the healed one into the spiritual family, conveyed in the one word, "Daughter;" there is the recognition of her saving faith; there is the dismissal in peace; and there is the assurance that the healing is complete and permanent.
APPLICATION.
1. Let this representation of the Saviour induce every hearer of the gospel to bring his case to Jesus.
2. Let every applicant to Christ be encouraged by the assurance of the Lord"s individual regard and interest. 3, Let faith lay firm hold of Christ, and that at once without delay.
Vers. 25-34. The healing of the issue of blood.
The magnifying power of faith. "Twas but a touch, humanly speaking; yet was it a means of salvation to the believing soul.
I TRANSFORMING LITTLE THINGS INTO MEANS OF GRACE.
1. Many touches, but only one touch of faith. This alone was effectual and saving. It is not human effort that saves, but the spirit of faith that lays hold of Christ.
2. Only the hem of his garment. Yet as effectual as if she had touched the body of Christ. How so? Because she touched him spiritually. All ordinances and outward means of grace are in themselves little no better than the hem of the garment of Christ. It is the Saviour who is great when appealed to by a great faith.
3. Making use of what was within reach. Not perhaps the best means possible. But enough when accompanied by faith.
II IN IMMEDIATE EARTHLY ENDS SECURING ULTERIOR SPIRITUAL ONES. The trembling and fearing woman not only secured the physical bond; the Saviour said, "Thy faith hath saved thee, a word that had a larger meaning than could be exhausted by a merely temporal relief or physical wholeness. M.
Vers. 25-34. Salvation without money and without price.
A figure of the spiritual experience of man.
I CONTRASTED WITH EARTHLY EXPEDIENTS OF SALVATION, These are expensive because:
1. They waste the spiritual nature of man.
2. They increase rather than diminish the evil. How forlorn the poor woman! How great the contrast with the "sleeping" child! Death in life is far worse than the natural death. It is not mourned for as the latter, and has all the added sorrow of disappointment and despair.
3. They keep away from the true Saviour.
II YET IT MUST BE LEGITIMATELY SOUGHT. The grace of God cannot be stolen. The Saviour knows when a sinner receives his "virtue." There is only one way the way of faith. The salvation of God is given, not taken by force or stealth; graciously given, with a benediction and a confirming assurance.
III IT COSTS THE SINNER NOTHING, BUT THE SAVIOUR EVERYTHING. M.
Vers. 25-34. The little of things of Christ great things for men.
How great an idea this woman had of Christ! If there was any fault, it was that she believed in the power, but did not trust the love of Christ. Yet her humility, which was as manifest as her faith, and her shame may account in great part for the stealth and surreptitiousness of her action.
I MEANS OF GRACE ARE NOT TO BE DESPISED BECAUSE THEY APPEAR OUTWARDLY INSIGNIFICANT. Superstition, ritualism, etc., deprecated; yet an error incident to the opposite extreme. We are not saved by works, neither (literally) are we saved by faith. It is Christ that saves. This woman was touching Christ. God"s sufficiency so different from man"s.
II NOT THE OUTWARD CHARACTER OF ANY ACT, BUT THE SPIRIT IN WHICH IT IS DONE, IS TO BE CONSIDERED CHIEFLY. The great end of religious acts is to bring us into communion with Christ. This of the woman was a mere touch, scarcely perceptible in the pressure of the crowd. The disciples had not observed it. But Christ felt that it had taken place, and had been effectual. There are manifold ways in which he reaches souls and is reached by them. The common experiences of life may be channels of greater blessing than the ordinances of the Church, when they are regarded in a believing, pious spirit.
III PIETY IS OFTEN APPARENTLY OUT OF PROPORTION TO ADVANTAGES AND OPPORTUNITIES.
1. Small things way often bring people to Christ, or keep them away from him.
2. Faith may often discover itself in the midst of ignorance and the absence of conventional religion.
3. Spiritual privileges may hinder instead of helping religious progress if they be not spiritually used. This poor woman will rise in judgment against many who have made great show of religious observance, and condemn them. We may hear too often, if we do not lay to heart and obey. We require "grace for grace. M.
Vers. 25-34. The magic of faith.
I THE CURE OF THE SICK WOMAN RESEMBLES A MAGICAL CURE. Magical belief universally prevailed. The principle of it was, an operation on the nervous system through the wishes and the imagination. A representation in the mind of a cure is assumed, and acted on as a reality. So mysterious and great is the power of imagination over the mechanism of life, that cures might occasionally occur without any real cause external to the sufferer"s mind.
II BUT HERE THERE WAS A REAL CAUSE AT WORK. Coincident with the touch of the woman was the knowledge of curing virtue going forth from him, in the mind of Christ. Here is something impossible to explain a connection that defies thought; but a real connection. And the great general lesson remains. Every change in the mind from sickness to health implies the correspondence of a thought on the sufferer with a reality without him. Whenever and however the energy of God is reflected as a thought of reality or a faith in us, a change for the better must and will occur. J.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v34 Mar_5:24; Mar_5:34
Mar_5:24; Mar_5:34
And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years.
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The power of feeble faith
I. Very imperfect faith may be genuine faith. It was intensely ignorant trust. Again, her trust was very selfish. It was also weakened and interrupted by much distrust.
II. Christ answers the imperfect faith. Christ stoops to her childish thought and allows her to prescribe the path by which His gift shall reach her. Christs mercy, like water in a vase, takes the shape of the vessel that holds it. On the other hand, His grace is given to every one of us according to the measure of the gift of Christ, with no limitation but His own unlimited fulness. Therefore-
1. Let us labour that our faith may be enlightened, importunate, and firm.
2. There can be no faith so feeble that Christ does not respond to it.
III. Christ corrects and confirms an imperfect faith by the very act of answering it. Her ignorance, selfishness, and fear, were all removed. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The faculty baffled-the great Physician successful
I. Let me expose the physicians who delude so many by their vain pretensions. Their names are, Dr. Sadducee, Dr. Legality, Dr. Ceremonial, Dr. Ascetic, Dr. Orthodoxy, and Dr. Preparation.
II. What is the reason of their failure? Because they do not understand the disease. They often prescribe remedies which are impossible to their patients. Many of their medicines do not touch the disease at all.
III. The plight of the patient who has tried these deceivers. She lost all her time. She was no better. She rather grew worse. She spent all that she had.
IV. How a cure can be wrought. I must press to get near Him. I must touch. The least of Christ will save. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The disease of humanity incurable except by Christ
The disease of fallen humanity is wholly incurable except by the hand of Omnipotence. It is as easy for us to create a world as to create a new heart; and a man might as well hope to abolish cold and snow as hope to eradicate sin from his nature by his own power: he might as well say to this round earth, I have emancipated thee from the curse of labour, as say to himself, I will set myself free from the thraldom of sin. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Determination in the face of tremendous discouragements
When sinners sweep away every other delusion, and view Jesus as the only Saviour they will persevere till they find. When Cortez went to conquer Mexico, he found that the soldiers were few and dispirited. The Mexicans were many, and the enterprize hazardous. The soldiers would have gone back to Spain, but Cortez took two or three chosen heroes with him, and went down to the seaside and broke up all the ships; and now, he said, we must conquer or die. We cannot go back. When it is death or life, heaven or hell, pardon or condemnation, the sinner will be as determined and courageous as these poor Spaniards or as this poor woman. (Anonymous.)
The touch
I. The patient. Note: what courage and spirit she displayed; Her resolute determination; Her marvellous hopefulness.
II. The difficulties of this womans faith. The disease: long-standing: incurable. Her frequent disappointments. Her own unworthiness. Her present poverty. Her extreme sickness.
III. The vanishing point of all her difficulties. All her thoughts have gone toward the Lord Jesus. She has forgotten herself; forgotten the rampant fury of her disease; forgotten her being behind and out of sight: and even her own touch of Him she has put into a secondary place. All that she looks for must come out of Him. If seeking sinners would but think more of Christ, all would be well.
IV. Her grand success. She was healed immediately. She knew that she was healed. She has next the assurance from Christ that she was healed. The wine that cometh out of these grapes is this: the slightest connection with Jesus will bless us. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Apply this thought-
I. To spiritual existences. If I touch but a grain of sand or a bud, I find the Mighty One.
II. To the scheme of spiritual providence. Review your own life from infancy.
III. To the processes of spiritual education. It is a great thing to see God in heavens rich with systems of suns; it is a grander faith, surely, to see Him in a speck of dust.
IV. To the uses of spiritual ordinances. The hymn, the prayer, the lesson, the mere form itself may do men good. Application: The hand must touch Christ, not an apostle, or a minister, or an angel-but God the Son. You may have touched many without benefit; touch Him and you will live. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Who hath touched me?-Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole.
It requires the second sentence to complete the meaning of the first. In the days of the semaphore signals a message came across to England concerning the Duke of Wellington, and half the message was read as it appeared upon the semaphore, and astonished all England with the sad intelligence. It ran thus, Wellington defeated. Everybody was distressed as they read it, but it so happened that they had not seen all the message. Fog had intervened, and when, by and by, the air was clearer and the telegraph flashed out a second time, it was read thus-Wellington defeated-the French. Thus the first sentence may have caused dismay in the poor womans heart, but if the first appeared to kill, the second would make alive. (Anonymous.)
A diseased woman healed
The chief design of our Lords miracles was to confirm His pretensions. But they were more than this. Benevolent, for the greater part in their character, they served to unfold the mercifulness of His nature. They also shadowed forth His mode of serving us. Viewed in this light there is wonderful variety in them.
I. The sad condition of this woman when she came to Christ for relief. Her malady was an inveterate one. We are all sick in our souls. There is a disease in us which has seized on the noblest part of us. It is weakening, polluting, and destroying our immortal spirits.
II. The state of this womans mind in this sad condition. Had it been a despairing state, we could hardly have blamed her. One of the worst features in a penitent sinners case, is frequently a tendency to despair. No sin so great as despair. Your case may be sad, yet not hopeless. There is a Physician you bare not yet tried, or have never tried aright.
III. Her application to Him. There is deep humility evident here, and great self abasement. Sin is a loathsome and shameful thing. The soul would hide itself from every eye. There is great faith: I shall be whole-not relieved. What exalted views she must have had of Jesus. He is no common Saviour. But her faith was not perfect. It settled only on one part of the Lords character. She believed His power, but distrusted His goodness. This mixture of faith and unbelief is very common in every newly converted soul. If real faith be in us, its inferiority is overlooked.
IV. The cure this sufferer received.
1. It was immediate. This is always our Lords mode of acting with one class of persons who come to Him-those who come for pardon-receive it at once. Those who come to have the power of sin subdued in them, are often kept waiting for the mercy they desire. Like the child of Jairus, the disease grows worse while seeking the remedy. But the help sought is found at last.
2. The cure of this woman was one of which she and our Lord were both conscious. You think perhaps, brethren, that it is a small thing with Christ whether you come to Him or not; you conceive that He on His lofty throne has not a look or thought for you; but if you are turning to Him with a broken heart for salvation, there is not an object in the universe He thinks of more than you, there is not a moment in which His eye is off you. Great as is His joy now, it will be greater still when you touch Him and are made whole. He will say to His angels, as He said to His disciples here, Virtue is again gone out of Me. There is another sinner healed. And the woman, too, was aware of the cure which had been wrought in her; She felt in her body that she was healed. Her recovery, however, did not produce in her at first the joyous feelings we might have anticipated. There was a mixture of feeling in her. She feared and trembled after she was healed, as many a pardoned sinner trembles when he has reason to rejoice; but healed she was, and she knew it. And it is not easy to conceive how anyone can be cured of the dreadful disease of sin, and yet remain long ignorant or doubtful about his cure. (C. Bradley, M. A.)
The consciousness of cure
We cannot see His hand as it passes over the book of God, and blots out the dark record of our crimes which is written there; but pardon is not all. Sin is more than a crime against God which needs to be forgiven, it is a disease within a mans heart to be subdued and healed. And if we go on always doubting whether this disease within us is in a way of being healed, the probability is that our souls are sick as ever. It is not easy when a man is ill and recovering, to tell the exact moment in which his disease gives way and his recovery begins; but it is soon seen by those around him that his recovery is begun, and it is soon felt by himself. Just so with the salvation of the soul. A man may doubt for a time at his first return to God, and these doubts may recur again and again at intervals in his future years; nay, they will assuredly recur whenever he allows himself to wander from his God; but the habitual frame of the established Christians mind is not one of doubt and uncertainty. Christ has not done so little for him, that he cannot see it. The Holy Spirit has not touched his heart so slightly, that he never feels His hand. The gospel is not so poor a medicine, that he is always doubting whether it has done him any good. (C. Bradley, M. A.)
A woman which had an issue of blood
This case is crowded with lessons.
I. Note: how many unknown sufferers are about us.
II. Christ had sent this womans illness and was as loving in laying it on her as in lifting it away.
III. She is another instance of the sweet uses of adversity. The afflicted class producing then and now more believers in Christ than any other.
IV. There are many hems of the garment through which we can touch the Divine omnipotence and mercy.
1. Christs humanity is the great hem of the garment, through which we can touch His Godhead.
2. A word of Scripture is often a hem of His garment, through which we draw in salvation to our soul.
3. A sacrament is a hem of Christs garment. All these are valueless unless our touch seeks the Divine Christ within them; but they are saving links to Christ when enlightened faith seeks Him.
V. There is all the difference in the world between pressing and crowding on Christ and touching him. Many crowd Christ, reading much, attending services, singing hymns, and making impassioned prayers, perhaps fruitlessly; while a publican in the temple, or a dying thief-with one word, fall of aim and meaning-finds his soul saved. Be not fussy in religion, but calm your spirit, and speak not until in briefest compass you can name, and lodge, and leave your request with God.
VI. Let mercies received be duly confessed. (R. Glover.)
Twelve years! Long continuance of discipline
It pleases God to lay long and tedious afflictions on some of His servants in this life.
1. To manifest His great power, strengthening them to bear such long afflictions.
2. To magnify His mercy in delivering them at length out of them.
3. That He may make thorough proof and trial of their faith, patience, and other graces of His Spirit in them.
4. To wean them from this world, and to stir up in them a longing for heaven.
5. To make them more earnest in prayer to Him for deliverance. It is therefore no evidence of Gods wrath, nor any sufficient reason to prove such an one to be out of His favour, whom He so holds for a long time under the cross. Be well content, then, to bear afflictions, though of long continuance; submitting in this matter to the will of God, who knows it to be good and profitable for some to be kept long under discipline. (G. Petter.)
A variety of sufferers, their best meeting place
It is strange, the variety of sufferers that meet each other at the feet of Jesus! (R. Glover.)
Coming to Christ
Come to Christ Jesus to be cured in soul and conscience of your sins. Come to Him, and touch Him by true faith, as this diseased woman did, and thou shalt feel Divine virtue to come from Him to heal thee of thy sins, both of the guilt and of the corruption of them. Thou shalt feel His Divine power healing thee of the guilt of thy sins, by the merit of His obedience and sufferings applied to thy conscience by faith; and the same Divine power healing thee of the corruption of sin, that is, mortifying thy sinful lusts, that they may not reign in thee as they have done, and as they do in the wicked and unbelievers. Oh, therefore, thou that feelest thy soul diseased with sin, make haste unto Christ to be cured by this Divine healing virtue that is in Him: pray Him to manifest it in thee; and withal, labour by some measure of faith to apply it to thyself, as this woman did: then shalt thou most certainly be healed in soul, as she was in body. And let not the grievousness of thy disease hinder thee from coming to Christ to be cured, but rather cause thee to make the more speed to Him by faith: for be assured, there is virtue enough in Him to heal all thy sins, though many and grievous, if thou do but see and feel them, and complain of them, and lay them open to Him, and seek earnestly to Him by the prayer of faith to be cured of them. Do this therefore, and do it speedily, without delay. As in a dangerous sickness of body, thou wouldst not dare to put off sending to the physician, lest it cost thee thy life: so much less must thou dare to delay the time in seeking to Christ to be healed of thy sins, lest it cost thee the loss of eternal life, and the salvation of thy soul. Be careful, therefore, forthwith to seek to Christ to be healed of thy sins. The rather, because there is no other means or physic in the world to cure thee, besides the Divine healing virtue that is in Christ Jesus: no power or virtue that is in any herb, precious stone, or mineral, can cure thee of thy sins: not all the balm in Gilead; not any power or skill of man or angel can cure thy diseased conscience of one sin: only this Divine virtue that is in Christ can do it: and therefore seek to Him alone to be cured, and not to other vain helps and remedies. When thou feelest thy sins lie upon thy conscience, seek not (as many do) to be cured by merry company, or by following vain sports or recreations, nor by going to the bodily physician to purge melancholy (as if this alone would cure thee): all these are in this case physicians of no value; therefore trust not to them, but go directly to Jesus Christ, to be healed by that Divine virtue which is in him. (G. Petter.)
Majestic faith
Some criticise her faith unfavourably, as if she had a superstitious belief in Christs clothes. Superstition does not act as she did. Her faith was that Christs anointing, like Aarons, goes to the skirts of His garments. One less believing would have sunk, murmuring in despair, quoting dismal proverbs about misfortunes never coming single, and feeling that in her disease, poverty, shame, loneliness, she was specially ill-used by God. Or, if not despairing altogether, feeble faith would have faced Christ, and displayed at large all her claims for help, dwelling on the length of her sorrow, and on the fortune vainly spent in endeavouring to regain her health. But calm, trustful, feeling Christ so willing and so strong to help that there is no reluctance in His heart, she ventures all on a touch of faith. There is a heroism here worthy of Abraham. Full of this faith, she elbows her way through the crowd, and finding the blue hem of Christs garment within her reach, quietly-so that none observe her-she touches it; and at once a swift, gentle tide of health flushes through all her frame, and she feels she has got what she desired. (R. Glover.)
Encouragement to faith
If you have faith, though but in its infancy, be not discouraged, for-
1. A little faith is faith, as a spark of fire is fire.
2. A weak faith may lay hold on a strong Christ; a weak hand can tie the knot in marriage as well as a strong. She, in the gospel, who but touched Christ, fetched virtue from Him.
3. The promises are not made to strong faith, but to true. The promise does not say, He who hath a giant faith, who can believe Gods love through a frown, who can rejoice in affliction, who can work wonders, remove mountains, stop the mouth of lions, shall be saved; but, whosoever believes, be his faith never so small. A reed is but weak, especially when it is bruised; yet the promise is made to it, A bruised reed will He not break.
4. A weak faith may be fruitful. Weakest things multiply most. The vine is a weak plant, but it is fruitful. The thief on the cross, who was newly converted, was but weak in grace; but how many precious clusters grow upon that tender plant!
5. The weakest believer is a member of Christ as well as the strongest; and the weakest member of the body mystical shall not perish. Christ will cut off rotten members, but not weak members. Therefore, Christian, be not discouraged: God, who would have us receive them that are weak in the faith (Rom_14:1), will not Himself refuse them. (Watson.)
Coming to Christ
We are like this woman, inasmuch as-
I. We, too, have a need of Christ. He alone can
(1) pardon our sins;
(2) renew our nature;
(3) strengthen us to wage the spiritual conflict with success.
II. We should have a sense of this need. As long as we suppose that a slight change, a little penitence and contrition, will suffice; so long, not heartily applying to Christ for the blessings we want, we shall go empty away.
III. We have nothing to offer for the blessing we desire. Christs people receive all, and return nothing; for, all they can offer is already His.
IV. We come to a willing Benefactor. He is more ready to give than we to receive. It is as natural to Christ to give blessings to all who ask, as it is for the sun to diffuse its beams on all the objects beneath; if we receive not, it is because we have intercepted the rays flowing from the Sun of Righteousness.
V. In the exercise of faith we are sure of a blessing. All spiritual blessings may be ours, if only we will believe in Christs goodness and grace, and come to Him.
VI. The blessing may be delayed; but no prayer and no exercise of faith is ever lost. (B. W. Noel, M. A.)
Told Him all the truth: Be open with Jesus
This woman has a word for two classes. She urges the penitent to a full confession, and the true convert to an open profession.
I. To the penitent, urging a full avowal of their state and condition. Tell Jesus all the truth
(1) about your disease. Show yourself in all your foulness to the great Physician. Do not draw the picture flatteringly when you are in prayer. Do not use dainty terms; but make a clean breast of every sin.
(2) about your sufferings. Tell how your heart has been broken, your conscience alarmed. Let your sorrows flow in briny floods before the Lord. Though no other can understand them, He can.
(3) of your futile attempts after a cure; your wicked, sinful pride in seeking a righteousness of your own, instead of submitting to that of Christ.
(4) regarding your hopes.
(5) and your fears.
II. Reasons for this.
1. The Lord knows it all already. It would be folly to deny or attempt to hide what He has seen.
2. To tell Him will be a very great service to you. It will tend to make you feel your need more. While you are in the act of opening your heart to God, He will pour in the oil and wine of His Divine grace.
III. To those who are converted, but who have not yet acknowledged their faith in the presence of others.
1. This is for Gods glory. The Christian is not to be always wishing to expose what is in him; that were to make himself a Pharisee; but if God has put in you anything lovely, beautiful, and of good report, who are you that you should, by covering it, rob Him of His praise?
2. For the good of others. In the case before us, the womans confession was doubtless intended to strengthen the faith of Jairus, who was sorely tried by this delay. You do not know of how much service your open confession of Christ might be to some trembling soul.
3. For the persons own sake. I have no doubt this was the main reason. Suppose Christ had let her go home quietly, without any word from Him-when she reached home she would have said, Ah, I stole that cure; I am so glad I have it. But one day there would come a dark thought, What if it should die away after a time; then I shall be as bad as ever; for I never asked him. Conscience would say to her, Ah, it was a theft; and though she might excuse herself, still she would not be easy. Now Christ calls her up, and conscience cannot disturb her, for He gave her the cure before them all. She need not be afraid of the return of her disease, for Jesus has said, Thy faith hath made thee whole. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Salvation
There are three great truths which are illustrated in this narrative.
I. Salvation needed. That woman needed healing; we need saving. The gospel is the remedy, and the fact of the gospel being provided is a sufficient proof of the necessity of it. A remedy suggests the evil which is to be remedied. Justification by faith is a remedy to meet a special case of necessity. The most obvious and legitimate method of being justified is to be just; let me be just, and I am justified in the eye of the law. So the angels are justified. But we have sinned. How, then, are we to be justified? The gospel tells us we are to he justified by faith; we are to believe in Jesus Christ, and on the ground of His great sacrifice on our behalf we shall be accepted as just, though we ourselves have sinned. If you see a lifeboat on the seashore, it suggests storms and deaths; so the gospel suggests the ruin which it is meant to remedy. Look abroad on the world, and you will see evidences enough of the necessity. Consult your own consciences and history, and everyone will know in himself that there was need for such a remedy-that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Christ has come into the world as a propitiation for the sins of the whole world. A universal remedy indicates a universal necessity.
II. Salvation provided. Jesus obeyed the law we had broken; He suffered the punishment we had merited; He obeyed and suffered on our behalf. He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.
III. Salvation obtained-obtained by faith. We accept Christ as our representative. (N. Hall, LL. B.)
The resource of faith
Here, then, is an exhaustless reservoir of power, the power of Omnipotence, and the means by which it may all be made available to feed our lives. The mill owner stores up in a reservoir on the heights the water that shall run his mill. Then he needs only a channel or sluice way that shall bring the water to his wheels. If it was an exhaustless reservoir, like the Atlantic Ocean for extent, he would have no fear that his mill would run dry. These miracles and this text teach the Christian that Omnipotence and Omniscience alone bound the reservoir of his spiritual graces, and that he has under his own control the width and depth of the channel called faith which brings them into his life. When Franklin grasped the principle of electricity, he could not only draw the lightning from a single cloud: all the electricity in the earth and in all the clouds was at his command, and he could send it upon his errands. When James Watt mastered the principle of the expansive power of steam, not only the little cloud of vapour that issued from his mothers tea kettle was under his control, but all the steam that could be generated by the stored up combustibles of the world was really his. When the Christian can grasp this truth of the power of faith, the infinite spiritual resources of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are his. All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth, There is the reservoir. All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. There is the channel that conveys the power into our lives and makes it available. (Sermons by Monday Club.)
The persistence of faith
Again, Jairus and the woman and the blind men teach us not only what faith is, but what it inevitably involves. It always involves a persistent effort. Even though death has stiffened his little daughters limbs, and silenced her tongue, and has rolled the deep, dark stream which no soul was ever known to recross between her and him, Jairus will still persist. He will not give over his efforts. Come and lay Thy hand upon her and she shall live, is his entreaty still. Though the invalid for twelve years has tried physician after physician and has received no help, she will try again. It could not have been easy for her to press through that curious throng of stronger ones, but she does it until she even grasps His garments hem, and then He turns and speaks the healing word. Our Lord at first seemed to take no notice of the blind men, but when they persistently followed Him, when He saw that the rebuke of pitiless bystanders had no effect but to increase their effort to reach Him, when they followed Him into the house, then He touched their eyes. Persistent effort is not true faith, but it always accompanies true faith. Thunder never split the heart of the oak tree, but it always accompanies the lightnings flash, and tells to all about of the lightnings presence. The farmer does not show his faith by lying in his bed and waiting for God to plough and harrow his field and sow his seed. He ploughs, and harrows, and sows, and shows his faith in then waiting for God to give the increase. Gods winds are always blowing; the man of faith spreads his sail before God can fill it. (Sermons by Monday Club.)
Gospel pictures
As a picture from a magic lantern is dashed upon the screen, is looked at for a moment, then vanishes, and is gone, so different persons come upon the stage in the narratives of the Evangelists, enact perfect dramas, exquisite in texture and construction, and momentous in moral bearing, and then pass away. There is no lineage, no record, no name; and yet all is so vivid and powerful. (H. W. Beecher.)
Sickness spoils life
She was sick; and what is all the world worth when one is sick? What is all that is presented to the eye, what is the income of the year, what are all the treasures of life worth under such circumstances? What is everything that can be desired worth when one is thoroughly sick? Sickness takes the flavour out of everything. It changes the whole current and course of desire and feeling. She had long been sick. She had worn out years in sickness, and those years had well nigh worn her out. All that a man hath will he give for his life. (H. W. Beecher.)
An ungrateful reception of healing
Well, ought she not, in that very instant, to have cried out? Ought she to have taken such bounty, and to have borne no witness to it? It is true that she did not say anything; but her silence was not altogether from ingratitude. It may have been a relative want of appreciation of the greatness of the favour. She may have said to herself, How do I know that it is anything more than my imagination? I will say nothing about it until I am sure;-just as a great many persons, when they begin to feel the saving power of the Divine Spirit in their souls say, I will not speak of this; I will wait; I will see what it is. She may have said, How Can I speak of this? My lips refuse to open; I cannot speak. It may have been sensibility, delicacy of feeling, shrinkingness, that kept her from speaking. How many there are who believe that they have been pardoned, and that the blood of Christ which takes away the stain of sin has healed them, but who consult their sensibility and their shrinking tastes, and say, How can I speak of this? And it does not look as though it were wicked. Yet, if there be anything that a person ought to acknowledge, it is obligations which touch the great core of things. He who has been healed by a faithful physician should be the friend of that physician as long as he lives. It may be that he acted professionally; it may be that he took his fee; but money never pays a physician who performs his duty faithfully. If your child has come back from death, never forget the faithful old nurse that made her bosom a cradle in which the child rocked, and gave her days and nights to the care of it. For such service as hers nothing material can be an adequate compensation. We are ungrateful in a thousand ways which we hardly suspect. We do not pay what we owe to men who enfranchise our understanding. Authors who give us a higher and nobler conception of life; poets who give wings to our fancy, so to speak, enabling us to fly higher than ordinary men, who stumble and fall down in the midst of the vulgarities of society; those who make virtue beauteous, and draw us to it,-who can repay the services of such as these? Men scarcely know what they owe to those who fortify them in virtue; to those who make it plain to them that integrity is safe under all circumstances; to those who have walked before them in the beauty of holiness; to those who have redeemed them from the conception that religion is a bondage, and led them to see that it was an efflorescent garden full of sweet delights. There is among men a great lack of the sense of their obligation toward those who have served them. (H. W. Beecher.)
Unpurposed healing
Ah! it is a good thing for men to be filled with grace to such a degree as that their unconscious moods and unpurposed influence shall be healing, as well as the things which they intend. So it was with our Master. Purposely He cast out demons. He set persons free from insanities. He quenched the fire of fevers. Dropsies were dried up by Him. Men were brought to health on every side through His instrumentality. With a word, with a gesture, with a look, with a touch, He did great works of beneficence. But so full was He of Divine savour, of spiritual power, that His very garments, as it were, were imbued with it; and when the woman stole up and touched the hem of His garment, straightway she experienced a joyful release. Oh, soul-filling surprise! She that for twelve years had not known one hours exemption from disease, felt the sovereign balm of perfect health flow through her veins; and she stood restored! She was well! (H. W. Beecher.)
Touches that do not touch; or contact without sympathy
There seems to be requisite, then, a relation between souls before the real and rich fruits of life can come to them in the highest forms of Christian experience. Let us look along the lines of analogy a little. Souls touch each other in various ways. Life touches life variously. People live together in bodily contact. They live in agreement only as to bodily conditions. They are related to each other simply by the necessity of food, raiment, warmth, protection. Ten thousand wedded souls are to each other simply as a blade is to knife. There is no real vitality between the two. Only in regard to provision for worldly wants and in bodily conditions are they in contact. But, then, these are the lowest, rudest forms of contact; yet there are people that are more in sympathy. There are multitudes that come into sympathy with each other only through their children. The cradle is a reconciler, often, between husband and wife. It opens up, in the rude, hard man, streams like those which Moses brought forth from the rock. For the childs sake, the mother becomes dear to him. There is mediation; and yet how little of life is there in common between two such souls! Again, people dwell together in single lines of mutuality. Many persons live together in all intellectual qualities, but in no other respects. Many dwell together being in accord in their tastes; but in no other regards. Many live together in literature, in history, in the ordinary and easier forms of knowledge that are of the earth earthy; but they never rise into eminence, aspiration, glorification, of each other, and never see anything in each other except that which the bird sees, or which the animal sees. They do not touch each other; and yet they are in perpetual contact. Higher phenomena of life there are, however; and there is developed heroism at times. There is a coming together of soul with soul, not through the ministration of the body, nor of taste, nor of thought, nor of mutual service, alone, but by that rare inflammation of the whole soul which has no definition, and which no man can describe. It is not needed by those who have it; it is not possible to those who have it not. Every faculty in one, then, has sympathy with every faculty in the other. Either they fit each other by exact agreement, or the positive element of one is just adapted for the absence of it in the other. Thus souls come together in an indefinable way. They are conscious that their liven mingle and blend. This is the rarest and highest form of contact; and yet is the revelation of that law by which men can rise from bodily conditions into social, and from those conditions into intellectual; but the consummation lies in that invisible, indescribable element which inheres in every man and woman-inheres sometimes only as a seed ungrown, and at other times develops and is full of fragrance, and then is full of fruit. (H. W. Beecher.)
The survival of the fittest and a higher law
Jesus did not say to this woman, Go away; you are too weak and broken to hold your own in the world; best for you to be down and wait for the end, while others take your place she can do your work. That would have been a sorrowful word, not to her only, but to us also; for it would have set a limit, not to Christs power merely, but to His very compassion, and therein also to ours. That, however, is not the law which human hearts acknowledge. Our power may easily have limits, but our pity must have none; and as we can help not a little even when we cannot heal, it is bound upon our conscience never to be inhuman. The bruised reed He would not break. But this, while it is the supreme law of mans nature, is by no means the law of nature elsewhere. Nature throws away her broken vessels with no compunction or pity whatever. Everywhere the weak and sickly among the lower animals are ruthlessly killed off, and only those remain which are able to do for themselves. The fit survive-the feeble perish. It is hardly necessary to lead any proof of this. The stricken deer turns aside to die, while the fat herd sweeps on indifferent to its fate. The park of lean wolves know of no surgery for a fainting comrade, except to fall on him and rend him in pieces. The frail bird that cannot fly with the rest of the brood is tumbled from the nest and left to its fate. Nature has, indeed, a great healing power for the strong and healthy in case of accident, so that wounds and broken bones soon come together again. But among wild animals sickness, disease, feebleness, and age meet with no compassion. In their warfare it is still Vae victis, for they cannot cumber themselves with the wounded. The halt and the blind get no chance at all. The weak and sickly are left to their fate, and the sooner it comes the better, for their kindred turn from them, and their friends will not know them. Unfit for the struggle of existence which is their supreme business, they perish without ruth or remorse. Thus everywhere on sea and land, and in the lightsome air, among all creatures that swim, or fly, or creep, or run, we find this law working, and doubtless working for the general good of the whole, yielding a benevolent harvest of health and comfort to the unthinking creatures of God. But now, when we pass from them into the province of man, we meet at once with a law which breaks in upon this, and controls it. The struggle for existence goes on there too, but it is no longer supreme and all in all. Everywhere it is modified by ideas that are confessedly of greater moment and higher authority. Sometimes it is set aside altogether, for we are not always bound to exist if we can, but we are always bound to do right. Thus the moral rises above the natural, and even flatly contradicts it. The struggle for existence is subordinated to the struggle for a higher perfection. Instead of the survival of the fittest, we have a law requiring the strung to help the weak, the healthy to improve their health for the sake of the diseased, and even those who are hopelessly stricken, and forever invalided from the battle of life, are cast on us as a peculiar care, to neglect which were to outrage the noblest instincts of humanity. The natural law, everywhere else in full swing, that the weak and sickly, the halt and blind, must be left to their fate, or even hurried out of the way, not only does not hold among us, but the very reverse of it holds. And the moral principle which thus asserts its supremacy vindicates its claim by many fruitful results. For often times the poor cripple whom natural law would have cast away, has grown up to bless the world with wise and noble counsel, and blind men, all unfit for the mere struggle of animal life, have yet done brave and good service in the higher warfare of humanity; and even the utterly broken, the helplessly disabled, who can only stand and wait, have yet, by their meek patience under affliction, shown us an example which made our hearts gentler, humbler, better, and was well worth all the care we bestowed on them. So it is, at any rate, that no sooner do we pass from the mere natural life of animals to the moral life of man, than we find another law breaking in upon the law of survival of the fittest-controlling, suspending, even utterly reversing it, with an authority which cannot be gainsaid, without forfeiting all that is most nobly and distinctively human. (Walter C. Smith, D. D.)
Christs kindness in discipline
It is not often that we are able to perceive the full purpose of any one of Gods dealings. Seldom can we see the perfect fruit of the chastisement He allots us. And no wonder: the life of man is so short; the purposes and operations of God are so vast.
I. In the conduct of our Lord notice-
1. Christs apparent harshness. He insisted on the womans coming forth to tell her shame. But see Christs real kindness. It was not in mere assertion of authority that He called her forth. It was to complete the blessing. He would give her His benediction before she went. Again, it was to purify and strengthen her faith. He would prepare her to confess Him elsewhere. Christ alone knew the trials to which this woman would be exposed at home.
2. So in like manner and with like purposes, will Christ deal with you, if you be of those who have come to Him with faith. The purpose of all Christs discipline-the discipline that we experience-is exemplified in His conduct to this woman. First, we noticed that He called her forth to receive further blessing. She came for healing only, but He would give her spiritual grace. Like her, many now come to the Saviour, barely praying for pardon, for deliverance from punishment. But Christ did not achieve redemption merely to keep men out of hell-He died to take them to heaven. Now, to prepare for heaven much grace is necessary, and men must be summoned to return to Christ again and again, that they may receive far more than the blessing for which they first came. Christ has yet richer favours to bestow; and if His people do not apply for them they must be placed in circumstances where they will feel their want and their need, and hungrily ask Him for more. Next, we saw that He called her forth to purify and strengthen her faith. There is no need for me to tell you that your faith is both imperfect and impure. Would you not desire your faith to grow stronger and larger? Then it must be used and tried, exercised and trained. Again, we noticed that Christ was probably preparing this woman to witness for Him in time to come. He requires from all men the public profession of His name. Salvation is not a sort of spiritual luxury to be enjoyed in private. And, further, men never know what lies before them as messengers of God; they are ignorant of the high and arduous service to which, may be, they have been appointed. But Christ knows it; and He prepares them and exercises them in bearing testimony for God in one difficulty and trial after another, until they are ready for the work they have to do. Thus does He grant to His applicants, not only the healing they pray for, but also the strength which they are content to lack. As in the experience of this woman, so in His treatment of us, will Christ combine apparent harshness with real kindness.
II. For the further investigation of this subject shall we turn from the Saviour to the saved, and try to trace the feelings of this woman as the black cloud of Christs seeming displeasure passed over her.
1. We find her full of sudden joy at feeling in her body that she was healed of that plague. Twelve years misery, labour, expense, and disappointment are all at an end. How universal the joy must have been. No fibre of her frame that did not thrill with gladness. And there was another cause of joy too; she bad escaped the exposure she so much dreaded. But her joy was all at once quenched in awe and fear when He asked, Who touched Me? and when He asked again, and when He looked round about with a gaze that showed He knew her that had done this thing. So feeling, for a moment, she comes forward and tells Him all the truth. But, instead, sounds came upon her ear tenderer and tenderer, and stronger in consolation: Courage, daughter; thy faith hath saved thee, etc. Ah! what feelings were hers, as she rose and departed. It would take her long to disentangle all their varied happiness. Did she not feel that the benediction of Christ amply made up for the loss of secrecy? She was really happier for the discipline through which He made her pass. Had she gone away as she hoped and planned, she would have carried with her none of this joy-the love of Christ. She would have received the cure, and that alone. And, on the other hand, she would have had doubts as to Christs willingness to heal her; doubts as to His forgiveness of her intrusion and underhand application; doubts, too, as to the permanence of the cure-all would have been in uncertainty. But now she knew that His will healed her, His kindness welcomed her, His grace blessed her. Moreover, had she gone away as she hoped, she would have retained her superstition with her faith. It would have cramped and enfeebled it, and she might never have believed in Jesus to the salvation of her soul. And the weakness that made her come to Christ in the crowd behind might have betrayed her into greater fear of man at home, and she might never have been able to confess His name. But now she knew Him, and believed in Him-not in the fringe of His garment; now she had confessed Him before the multitude, and would not fear to confess Him before her friends. Would she not be sure that it was loving wisdom that deprived her of the convenience which she had yearned for, and substituted blessings of which she had not dreamed? And, further, was she not glad that she had been made to undergo all this? If she could have had her choice, and it were all to do over again, think you she would have wished to go away secretly without seeing Christs beaming eye and hearing His Courage, daughter, go in peace? Surely not. She saw now that Christs kindness, though it seemed harsh at first, was wiser than her own selfish cowardice, and secured her greater happiness.
2. This narrative shows us also a person undergoing harsh discipline, and perceiving herself in a few moments the kindness which appointed it. Now this makes it specially interesting. It is so seldom we can see both sides of any dispensation-the peaceable, happy fruit as well as the present grievousness-that every instance in which we can do so ought to receive most careful meditation. It is not always granted to Christians to see this happy change so suddenly; and yet some time or other in the experience of every believer as swift a vision of Gods kindness in discipline is accorded. And from over us will the cloud sometimes pass as quickly as in this case. Many a discipline which we think harsh we shall find to be kind. Not only will it really be kind, but we shall know it to be so, and shall receive the joy of experiencing Gods goodness. Many an exposure or trial that we would have avoided at any cost will turn out to be the means of bringing blessings which we shall reckon cheaply bought. Conclusion: It is painful when speaking of privileges and securities, to think that they are limited to a few. But I must warn you that none but those who come to Christ for salvation may hope that He is training them for eternity. Those who do not touch Christ by faith, their sorrows are but sorrows, their disappointments bring no outweighing joy, their troubles are not trials, only calamities. Of how much are you depriving yourselves by unbelief! Now that Jesus is near, is even waiting for you, will you not trust in Him and come to Him to be healed? (J. Alden Davies.)
A cure by the way
Jesus was pressing through the throng to the house of Jairus to raise the rulers dead daughter; but He is so profuse in goodness that He works another miracle while upon the road. While yet this rod of Aaron bears the blossoms of an unaccomplished wonder, it yields the ripe almonds of a perfect work of mercy. It is enough for us, if we have some one purpose, straightway to go and accomplish it; it were imprudent to expend our energies by the way. Hastening to the rescue of a drowning friend, we cannot afford to exhaust our strength upon another in like danger. It is enough for a tree to yield one sort of fruit, and for a man to fulfil his own particular calling. But our Master knows no limit of power or boundary of mission. He is so prolific of grace, that like the sun which shines as it fulfils its course, His path is radiant with loving kindness. He is a fiery arrow of love, which not only reaches its ordained target, but perfumes the air through which it flies. Virtue is always going out of Jesus, as sweet odours exhale from the flowers; and it always will be emanating from Him, as light from the central orb. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Men speak of killing two birds with one stone, but my Lord heals many souls on one journey. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Tell all to Jesus
If your heart be very grieved, do, I pray you, remember that compassion is one of the most rapid ways of getting relief. While the banks hold good the lake swells; let them break, and the water is drained off. Let a vent be found for the swollen tarn up yonder on the mountains, and the mass of water which might otherwise inundate the valleys will flow in fertilizing streams. When you have a festering, gathering wound, the surgeon lets in the lancet and gives you ease. So confession brings peace. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Confessing Christ
Why should the wonders He hath wrought be hid in darkness and forgot? When I look abroad upon nature, it is true I do not see nature fussily trying to make itself tidy for a visitor, as some professors do, who, the moment they think they are going to be looked at, trim up their godliness to make it look smart. But on the other hand, Nature is never bashful. She never tries to hide her beauties from the gazers eye. You walk the valley; the sun is shining, and a few raindrops are falling; yonder is the rainbow; a thousand eyes gaze at it. Does it fold up all its lovely colours and retire? Oh, no! it shrinks not from the eye of man. In yonder garden all the flowers are opening their bejewelled cups, the birds are singing, and the insects humming amid the leaves. It is a place so beautiful that God Himself might walk therein at eventide, as He did in Eden. I look without alarming the bashful beauties of the garden. Do all these insects fold their wings and hide beneath the leaves? do the flowers hang down their heads? does the sun draw a veil over his modest face? does nature blush till the leaves of the trees are scarlet? Oh, no! Nature cares not for gazers, and when they come to look upon her, she doth not hasten to wrap a mantle over her fair form, or throw a curtain before her grandeur. So the Christian is not to be always wishing to expose what is in him; that were to make himself a Pharisee; yet, on the ether hand, if God has put anything that is lovely and beautiful and of good report in you, anything that may glorify the cross of Christ, and make the angels happy before the eternal throne, who are you that you should cover it? Who are you that you should rob God of His praise? What! Would you have all Natures beauties hid? Why, then, hide the beauties of grace? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Best to apply direct to the Master
A tenant farmer on a rich lords estate had been refused a renewal of his lease by the steward of the estate. Instead of giving up, the farmer went to the owner himself, laid the matter before him, and was successful in getting his renewal. Why? He had gone to the one who had the ultimate power to grant or refuse. So Jairus, so the woman with the bloody flux, when all human help failed, went to Him in Whom alone was the power to heal and make alive. All the bread in the world will not keep you from starving, if it is shut up in storehouses, and you have no key, There may be water enough in the well; but if you have no bucket to draw it with, it will do you no good. And all Christs treasures of healing for body and soul will be nothing to you, if you do not go to Him for your share of them. (Sunday School Times.)
The sanctity of touch
I. How great and mysterious the importance attaching to touch in the Old Testament.
1. Thus touch is pollution (Hag_2:12-13).
2. Thus touch is consecration (Exo_30:26; Exo_30:29).
3. Thus touch is strength (Dan_10:10; Dan_10:16; Dan_10:18).
4. Thus touch is wisdom (Jer_1:9).
5. Thus touch is purity (Isa_6:7).
II. The great lesson of the New Testament is by touch, to show to us the absolute communicability of the Divine power and holiness; it is the story also of the vaccination of the world. The Old Testament is the story of the first man, and how one sin tainted the world. The New Testament is the story of the second Man, and how His holiness purified the tainted stream. Jesus went about touching. The holy awakening of Divine grace restores man.
III. There is no cure without contact. You cannot satisfy hunger without eating, although your table be covered with food. You cannot satisfy thirst without drinking, although fountains play before the eye. You cannot satisfy faith by reading about Christ, or by knowing Him-you must appropriate Him. Imputed righteousness is really transferred righteousness; the purity of the Saviour becomes ours. What does the whole teaching and miraculous life of our Lord convey to us but this doctrine-Transfusion. Faith is the finger by which man touches God. Meanwhile it is not faith that saves; it is faith in Jesus Christ. We are not saved by faith as an act of the mind, but by faith on the object of the mind. It is not the faith, but the Person. No cure without contact. Thus if man cannot come to God, God must come to man, or these two can never meet. This is the meaning of Christs incarnation. By faith we come into contact with God, and are saved; by sympathy, we come in contact with man and cure. (E. P. Hood.)
Touch is the key to all the senses
Touch is the principle of all the senses. Perhaps, also, I shall be right, if I say that it is the most subtle of all the senses. There is no sensation without touch; sight is touch; fragrance is touch; we give that name to what is the sense of resistance; but all things are known to us and are related to us by touch. Touch is the internal sensitive principle-it is the principle of communication, and of reception, and of translation. We are told that particles are constantly floating off to touch the sensitive body, to bid the door of sensation spring open; and I think you must have felt that while those avenues are touched by their proper affinities, there are other senses within which are not touched, and never awakened, but which might own and yield to the appropriate key. Touch is, to me, far from being that endorsement of materialism it has been described as being; it is the assurance of an inhabitant behind the gateway. Indeed, the more closely I look into any of the senses, the more spiritual they become. All knowledge is by contact; all sympathy is in contact; and sin and purity, and health and disease, grow in contact. How true it is that there is no cure, no healing, without contact-that is, without mutual touching. If we cannot get near to that which heals, how can it heal us? Suppose I know of the medicine which might cure me, but I am in England, and the medicine or the physician is in America, and it is the only medicine-how can I be cured? Hence, then, guard the avenues of touch. It has been well said that the skin isolates the man, and makes him world tight; but it is necessary that the worlds goods should come into his house-necessary, too, that the refuse and wear and tear should be carried forth, and that he should go out and in with the freedom of a man. The skin is our abode, not our prison; and the porous skin has its bivalve doors and windows, to admit supplies from without, and to allow the spirit to steer forth from within. Some things we must be careful to touch not. (E. P. Hood.)
Sin spreading by contact
It contains also the history of the transference of Divine holiness, but it is especially the history of the inoculation of sin; it is the history of the drop that taints and ruins the race-the fatal virus; it is not inconceivable. I remember, some time since, when in the University of Edinburgh, being told of a young man who slightly touched his two fingers with the dissecting knife, they were instantly cut off to save his life, so fatal was the touch of corruption. Such is the corrosive power of poisonous touch. We can appreciate the touch of fire, the touch of caustic, the touch of poison; but can we not appreciate the touch of sin? Can we not so far appreciate it as to know its power, its danger, and to see in it the dreadful virus tainting and damning our race? (E. P. Hood.)
Christianity a healing influence
Now it is, as I have before said, not difficult to perceive to what teaching all the doctrine concerning touch in the Old Testament and in the New, points: even to the great doctrine of a transferred or transfused purity. It is mournfully true that, for the most part, except as we are divinely breathed upon, we but add to each others impurity. Let the Book be removed from our midst-let all church ordinances expire from among us-let every opportunity of prayer be suspended or at an end-and all the offices of the religious life, as aided and inspired by the sacred Scriptures, and then what shall we see? Still man would exercise his powers as an artist-still would he utter himself in poetry and in song, in painting and in sculpture. Can you doubt for a moment, or wonder, what would be the nature of those performances? Anacreon, and Juvenal, and universal impurity over the marble and over the canvas. When you think of mans genius, his native genius, you are not to think of it as you behold it here, but as it was in the day in which the apostle bore his witness in the prison at Rome, and on the hill of Greece; and you must see how the touch of holiness transformed all that impurity into the holy lights of virtue and truth. But Greece, and Rome-what power had they to impart purity to each other? Therefore is there needed another ray, another touch, another hallowing fire. (Ibid.)
Twelve years! The contrasts of life
In Capernaum there were two houses whose inmates are strangely linked together in the Gospel history. The one was the house of Jairus, which perhaps stood on the rising ground fast by the synagogue: the other was the house in which the nameless woman, with the issue of blood, dwelt, which probably was situated in the poorer part of the city. Let us mark the contrasts of life presented by these two houses in the twelve years twice mentioned by Mark.
I. Hope and fear-There was a day when a great event took place in the house of Jairus. A child was born. What congratulations of friends, etc. The same year-perhaps the same month and day-a memorable event took place in the house of a poor woman. Issue of blood (Mar_5:25). How it came is not told. Such contrasts are common. In one home they are lifted up with hope and joy; while in another there is the gloom and trouble.
II. Health and sickness. In the house of Jairus all goes well. The child grows. She is the joy of her parents, etc. But alas! how different have been the circumstances in the other house. Perhaps the woman thought at first that her ailment was slight and temporary. Certainly she was buoyed up with the hope that it would yield to the skill of physicians. But disappointed.
III. Comfort and penury. Jairus must have held a good position: he was wealthy. As to the woman, we cannot tell what her original condition was. At any rate, she soon felt the pressure of adversity.
IV. Society and loneliness. Jairus had wife and daughter, and many friends. If he needed sympathy, there would be always people ready to give it. Besides, he had his place and his duties, as a ruler of the synagogue, to furnish him with honourable employment and holy rest. But how different with the poor woman. She is represented as alone. No one is named as taking interest in her case.
V. But there came a time when the fortunes of these two people were strangely assimilated and when in their extremity they met and found relief at the feet of the same Saviour. Lessons:
1. Trouble comes to all.
2. Trouble should drive us to Christ.
3. Trouble should bind us more closely in sympathy and love with our brethren.
4. Trouble should endear to us the more the hope of heaven. (W. Forsyth, M. A.)
Methods of spiritual treatment
There are cases in which the physicians must still, to save life, resort to treatment which is painful. But it is now known, it is now conclusively settled among physicians, that the way to master disease is not to torture the patient into health or into his grave, but to provide that those miraculous processes of nature which include healing should as far as possible have fair play, to make art the handmaid of nature, instead of offering any violence to nature in the name of art. Now-a-days, therefore, your physician who is not an age behind his age does not give you drugs in doses which horribly aggravate your suffering-he prescribes fresh air, the delights of travel, gentle exercise, good diet, warmth, comfort, suggests that pleasant company has its own benign influence on body and mind, recommends innocent amusement, and, as regards the welfare of this mortal tabernacle, agrees with the ancient maxim that godliness with contentment is great gain. It is certain that more cures are effected by the modern system of medical treatment, while, as for the soothing of pain, no comparison is possible between them. The difference between the two systems is that by the one the attempt is made to check and to extirpate disease by violence, by the other to aid nature by gentle methods to overcome it. From doctors for the body is not the passage easy to doctors for the soul? Among them, too, the curing of disease by violence has been milch and long in vogue. In our day, it is true, we hear little and know less of the coarser and more outrageous means which were once universally approved for effecting spiritual cures. We dont now believe that we can save souls by burning the bodies belonging to them. Looking thus to the general scope of the teaching of Christ, we have no difficulty in seeing what religion was meant by Him to be in relation to all moral and spiritual disability and disease. It was not to be a system of bleeding and blistering, of curing by counter irritation, of making six days of the week holy by making the seventh miserable, of making earth a place of torment in order to render heaven accessible, of overcoming one disease by the production of another. It was to be a kindred influence with the sunshine, and the air of shores and hills, and the kindly ties of home, and the sympathy which is born of comradeship in adversity and sorrow-it was to be an influence kindred with all these in restoring to health those that were ready to perish. Every way you choose to look at it, this is the character of the Christianity of Christ. (J. Service, D. D.)
Christ discriminates His healing virtue
Who would not think that a man might ladle up a dish of water out of the sea, without its being missed? Yet that water, though much, is finite; those drops may be numbered: that art which hath reckoned how many grains of sand would make up a world, could more easily compute how many drops of water would make up an ocean. Whereas, the mercies of God are absolutely infinite, and beyond all possibility of proportion; and yet this bashful soul cannot steal one drop of mercy from this endless, boundless, bottomless sea of Divine bounty, but it is felt and questioned. (Bp. Hall.)
Virtue had gone out of Him!
Christ an inexhaustible reservoir of grace:-As heat goeth out of the sun into the air, water, earth, earthly bodies, and yet remains in the sun; so here. A fountain is not drawn dry, but cleared; so skill is not lost by communicating it to others, but increased. (John Trapp.)
The looks of Jesus
And He looked round about to see her that had done this thing. The record in this Gospel of the looks of Christ is very remarkable. Let us gather them together and by their help think of Him whose meek, patient eye is still upon them that fear Him.
I. The welcoming look of love and pity to those who seek Him. There are two recorded instances-that of our text and that of the young ruler.
II. The Lords looks of love and warning to those who found Him. There are three instances of this class- Mar_3:34; Mar_8:32; Mar_10:23-27. The stooping love which claims us for His brethren, shines in His regard none the less tenderly though He reads and warns us with His eye.
III. The Lords look of anger and pity on His opponents. This took place in the synagogue (Mar_3:1-5).
IV. The look of the Lord on the profaned temple (Mar_11:11). How solemn that careful, all-comprehending scrutiny of all that He found there. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv25, 26, 30 25. And a certain woman. For notes on this…
25. And a certain woman. For notes on this miracle, see Matt. 9:20–22. Compare Luke 8:41–56. An issue of blood. A hemorrhage of the womb or bowels.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv25–26 Mat 9:20-22; Mar 5:25-36; Luk 8:43-50. Mark: “A certain…
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.
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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.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv25, 27, 28, 32, 34 Mar 5:25, Mar 5:27 - Mar 5:28.
Mark
THE POWER OF FEEBLE FAITH
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Mar 5:25, Mar 5:27 - Mar 5:28.
In all the narratives of this miracle, it is embedded in the story of Jairus’s daughter, which it cuts in twain. I suppose that the Evangelists felt, and would have us feel, the impression of calm consciousness of power and of leisurely dignity produced by Christ’s having time to pause even on such an errand, in order to heal by the way, as if parenthetically, this other poor sufferer. The child’s father with impatient earnestness pleads the urgency of her case-’She lieth at the point of death’; and to him and to the group of disciples, it must have seemed that there was no time to be lost. But He who knows that His resources are infinite can afford to let her die, while He cures and saves this woman. She shall receive no harm, and her sister suppliant has as great a claim on Him. ‘The eyes of all wait’ on His equal love; He has leisure of heart to feel for each, and fulness of power for all; and none can rob another of his share in the Healer’s gifts, nor any in all that dependent crowd jostle his neighbour out of the notice of the Saviour’s eye.
The main point of the story itself seems to be the illustration which it gives of the genuineness and power of an imperfect faith, and of Christ’s merciful way of responding to and strengthening such a faith. Looked at from that point of view, the narrative is very striking and instructive.
The woman is a poor shrinking creature, broken down by long illness, made more timid still by many disappointed hopes of core, depressed by poverty to which her many doctors had brought her. She does not venture to stop this new Rabbi-physician, as He goes with the rich church dignitary to heal his daughter, but lets Him pass before she can make up her mind to go near Him at all, and then comes creeping up in the crowd behind, puts out her wasted, trembling hand to His garment’s hem-and she is whole. She would fain have stolen away with her new-found blessing, but Christ forces her to stand out before the throng, and there, with all their eyes upon her-cold, cruel eyes some of them-to conquer her diffidence and shame, and tell all the truth. Strange kindness that! strangely contrasted with His ordinary care to avoid notoriety, and with His ordinary tender regard for shrinking weakness! What may have been the reason? Certainly it was not for His own sake at all, nor for others’ chiefly, but for hers, that He did this. The reason lay in the incompleteness of her faith. It was very incomplete-although it was, Christ answered it. And then He sought to make the cure, and the discipline that followed it, the means of clearing and confirming her trust in Himself.
I. Following the order of the narrative thus understood, we have here first the great lesson, that very imperfect faith may be genuine faith.
There was unquestionable confidence in Christ’s healing power, and there was earnest desire for healing. Our Lord Himself recognises her faith as adequate to be the condition of her receiving the cure which she desired. Of course, it was a very different thing from the faith which unites us to Christ, and is the condition of our receiving our soul’s cure; and we shall never understand the relation of multitudes of the people in the Gospels to Jesus, if we insist upon supposing that the ‘faith to be healed,’ which many of them had, was a religious, or, as we call it, ‘saving faith.’ But still, the trust which was directed to Him, as the giver of miraculous temporal blessings, is akin to that higher trust into which it often passed, and the principles regulating the operation of the loftier are abundantly illustrated in the workings of the lower.
The imperfections, then, of this woman’s faith were many. It was intensely ignorant trust. She dimly believes that, somehow or other, this miracle-working Rabbi will heal her, but the cure is to be a piece of magic, secured by material contact of her finger with His robe. She has no idea that Christ’s will, or His knowledge, much less His pitying love, has anything to do with it. She thinks that she may get her desire furtively, and may carry it away out of the crowd, and He, the source of it, be none the wiser, and none the poorer, for the blessing which she has stolen from Him. What utter blank ignorance of Christ’s character and way of working! What complete misconception of the relation between Himself and His gift! What low, gross, superstitious ideas! Yes, and with them all what a hunger of intense desire to be whole; what absolute assurance of confidence that one finger-tip on His robe was enough! Therefore she had her desire, and her Lord recognised her faith as true, foolish and unworthy as were the thoughts which accompanied it! Thank God! the same thing is true still, or what would become of any of us? There may be a real faith in Christ, though there be mixed with it many and grave errors concerning His work, and the manner of receiving the blessings which He bestows. A man may have a very hazy apprehension of the bearing and whole scope of even Scripture declarations concerning the profounder aspects of Christ’s person and work, and yet be holding fast to Him by living confidence. I do not wish to underrate for one moment the absolute necessity of clear and true conceptions of revealed truth, in order to a vigorous and fully developed faith; but, while there can be no faith worth calling so, which is not based upon the intellectual reception of truth, there may be faith based upon the very imperfect intellectual reception of very partial truth. The power and vitality of faith are not measured by the comprehensiveness and clearness of belief. The richest soil may bear shrunken and barren ears; and on the arid sand, with the thinnest layer of earth, gorgeous cacti may bloom out, and fleshy aloes lift their sworded arms, with stores of moisture to help them through the heat. It is not for us to say what amount of ignorance is destructive of the possibility of real confidence in Jesus Christ. But for ourselves, feeling how short a distance our eyesight travels, and how little, after all our systems, the great bulk of men in Christian lands know lucidly and certainly of theological truth, and how wide are the differences of opinion amongst us, and how soon we come to towering barriers, beyond which our poor faculties can neither pass nor look, it ought to be a joy to us all, that a faith which is clouded with such ignorance may yet be a faith which Christ accepts. He that knows and trusts Him as Brother, Friend, Saviour, in whom he receives the pardon and cleansing which he needs and desires, may have very much misconception and error cleaving to him, but Christ accepts him. If at the beginning His disciples know but this much, that they are sick unto death, and have tried without success all other remedies, and this more, that Christ will heal them; and if their faith builds upon that knowledge, then they will receive according to their faith. By degrees they will be taught more; they will be brought to the higher benches in His school; but, for a beginning, the most cloudy apprehension that Christ is the Saviour of the world, and my Saviour, may become the foundation of a trust which will bind the heart to Him and knit Him to the heart in eternal union. This poor woman received her healing, although she said, ‘If I may touch but the hem of His garment, I shall be whole.’
Her error was akin to one which is starting into new prominence again, and with which I need not say that I have no sort of sympathy,-that of people who attach importance to externals as means and channels of grace, and in whose system the hem of the garment and the touch of the finger are apt to take the place which the heart of the wearer and the grasp of faith should hold. The more our circumstances call for resistance to this error, the more needful is it to remember that, along with it and uttering itself through it, may be a depth of devout trust in Christ, which should shame us. Many a poor soul that clasps the base of the crucifix clings to the cross; many a devout heart, kneeling before the altar, sees through the incense-smoke the face of the Christ. The faith that is tied to form, though it be no faith for a man, though in some respects it darken God’s Gospel, and bring it down to the level of magical superstition, may yet be, and often is, accepted by Him whose merciful eye recognised, and whose swift power answered, the mistaken trust of her who believed that healing lay in the fringes of His robe, rather than in the pity of His heart.
Again, her trust was very selfish. She wanted health; she did not care about the Healer. She thought much of the blessing in itself, little or nothing of the blessing as a sign of His love. She would have been quite contented to have had nothing more to do with Christ if she could only have gone away cured. She felt but little glow of gratitude to Him whom she thought of as unconscious of the good which she had stolen from Him. All this is a parallel to what occurs in the early stages of many a Christian life. The first inducement to a serious contemplation of Christ is, ordinarily, the consciousness of one’s own sore need. Most men are driven to Him as a refuge from self, from their own sin, and from the wages of sin. The soul, absorbed in its own misery, and groaning in a horror of great darkness, sees from afar a great light, and stumbles towards it. Its first desire is deliverance, forgiveness, escape; and the first motions of faith are impelled by consideration of personal consequences. Love comes after, born of the recognition of Christ’s great love to which we owe our salvation; but faith precedes love in the natural order of things, however closely love may follow faith; and the predominant motive in the earlier stages of many men’s faith is distinctly self-regard. Now, that is all right, and as it was meant to be. It is an overstrained and caricatured doctrine of self-abnegation, which condemns such a faith as wrong. The most purely self-absorbed wish to escape from the most rudely pictured hell may be, and often is, the beginning of a true trust in Christ. Some of our superfine modern teachers who are shocked at Christianity, because it lays the foundation of the loftiest, most self-denying morality in ‘selfishness’ of that kind, would be all the wiser for going to school to this story, and laying to heart the lesson it contains, of how a desire no nobler than to get rid of a painful disease was the starting-point of a moral transformation, which turned a life into a peaceful, thankful surrender of the cured self to the service and love of the mighty Healer. But while this faith, for the sake of the blessing to be obtained, is genuine, it is undoubtedly imperfect. Quite legitimate and natural at first, it must grow into something nobler when it has once been answered. To think of the disease mainly is inevitable before the cure, but, after the cure, we should think most of the Physician. Self-love may impel to His feet; but Christ-love should be the moving spring of life thereafter. Ere we have received anything from Him, our whole soul may be a longing to have our gnawing emptiness filled; but when we have received His own great gift, our whole soul should be a thank-offering. The great reformation which Christ produces is, that He shifts the centre for us from ourselves to Himself; and whilst He uses our sense of need and our fear of personal evil as the means towards this, He desires that the faith, which has been answered by deliverance, should thenceforward be a ‘faith which worketh by love.’ As long as we live, either here or yonder, we shall never get beyond the need for the exercise of the primary form of faith, for we shall ever be compassed by many needs, and dependent for all help and blessedness on Him; but as we grow in experience of His tender might, we should learn more and more that His gifts cannot be separated from Himself. We should prize them most for His sake, and love Him more than we do them. We should be drawn to Him as well as driven to Him. Faith may begin with desiring the blessing rather than the Christ. It must end with desiring Him more than all besides, and with losing self utterly in His great love. Its starting-point may rightly be, ‘Save, Lord, or I perish.’ Its goal must be, ‘I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.’
Again, here is an instance of real faith weakened and interrupted by much distrust. There was not a full, calm reliance on Christ’s power and love. She dare not appeal to His heart, she shrinks from meeting His eye. She will let Him pass, and then put forth a tremulous hand. Cross-currents of emotion agitate her soul. She doubts, yet she believes; she is afraid, yet emboldened by her very despair; too diffident to cast herself on His pity, she is too confident not to resort to His healing virtue.
And so is it ever with our faith. Its ideal perfection would be that it should be unbroken, undashed by any speck of doubt. But the reality is far different. It is no full-orbed completeness, but, at the best, a growing segment of reflected light, with many a rough place in its jagged outline, prophetic of increase; with many a deep pit of blackness on its silver surface; with many a storm-cloud sweeping across its face; conscious of eclipse and subject to change. And yet it is the light which He has set to rule the night of life, and we may rejoice in its crescent beam. We are often tempted to question the reality of faith in ourselves and others, by reason of the unbelief and disbelief which co-exist with it. But why should we do so? May there not be an inner heart and centre of true trust, with a nebulous environment of doubt, through which the nucleus shall gradually send its attracting and consolidating power, and turn it, too, into firm substance? May there not be a germ, infinitesimal, yet with a real life throbbing in its microscopic minuteness, and destined to be a great tree, with all the fowls of the air lodging in its branches? May there not be hid in a heart a principle of action, which is obviously marked out for supremacy, though it has not yet come to sovereign power and manifestation in either the inward or the outward being? Where do we learn that faith must be complete to be genuine? Our own weak hearts say it to us often enough; and our lingering unbelief is only too ready to hiss into our ears the serpent’s whisper, ‘You are deceiving yourself; look at your doubts, your coldness, your forgetfulness: you have no faith at all.’ To all such morbid thoughts, which only sap the strength of the spirit, and come from beneath, not from above, we have a right to oppose the first great lesson of this story-the reality of an imperfect faith. And, turning from the profitless contemplation of the feebleness of our grasp of Christ’s robe to look on Him, the fountain of all spiritual energy, let us cleave the more confidently to Him for every discovery of our own weakness, and cry to Him for help against ourselves, that He would not ‘quench the smoking flax’; for the old prayer is never offered in vain, when offered, as at first, with tears, ‘Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.’
II. The second stage of this story sets forth a truth involved in what I have already said, but still needing to be dealt with for a moment by itself-namely, that Christ answers the imperfect faith.
There was no real connection between the touch of His robe and the cure, but the poor ignorant sufferer thought that there was; and, therefore, Christ stoops to her childish thought, and allows her to prescribe the path by which His gift shall reach her. That thin wasted hand stretched itself up beyond the height to which it could ordinarily reach, and, though that highest point fell far short of Him, He lets His blessing down to her level. He does not say, ‘Understand Me, put away thy false notion of healing power residing in My garment’s hem, or I heal thee not.’ But He says, ‘Dost thou think that it is through thy finger on My robe? Then, through thy finger on My robe it shall be. According to thy faith, be it unto thee.’
And so it is ever. Christ’s mercy, like water in a vase, takes the shape of the vessel that holds it. On the one hand, His grace is infinite, and ‘is given to every one of us according to the measure of the gift of Christ’-with no limitation but His own unlimited fulness; on the other hand, the amount which we practically receive from that inexhaustible store is, at each successive moment, determined by the measure and the purity and the intensity of our faith. On His part there is no limit but infinity, on our sides the limit is our capacity, and our capacity is settled by our desires. His word to us ever is, ‘Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.’ ‘Be it unto thee even as thou wilt.’
A double lesson, therefore, lies in this thought for us all. First, let us labour that our faith may be enlightened, importunate, and firm: for every flaw in it will injuriously affect our possession of the grace of God. Errors in opinion will hinder the blessings that flow from the truths which we misconceive or reject. Languor of desire will diminish the sum and enfeeble the energy of the powers that work in us. Wavering confidence, crossed and broken, like the solar spectrum, by many a dark line of doubt, will make our conscious possession of Christ’s gift fitful. We have a deep well to draw from. Let us take care that the vessel with which we draw is in size proportionate to its depth and our need, that the chain to which it hangs is strong, and that no leaks in it let the full supply run out, nor any stains on its inner surface taint and taste the bright treasure.
And the other lesson is this. There can be no faith so feeble that Christ does not respond to it. The most ignorant, self-regarding, timid trust may unite the soul to Jesus Christ. To desire is to have; and ‘whosoever will, may take of the water of life freely.’ If you only come to Him, though He have passed, He will stop. If you come trusting and yet doubting, He will forgive the doubt and answer the trust. If you come to Him, knowing but that your heart is full of evil which none save He can cure, and putting out a lame hand-or even a tremulous finger-tip-to touch His garment, be sure that anything is possible rather than that He should turn away your prayer, or His mercy from you.
III. The last part of this miracle teaches us that Christ corrects and confirms an imperfect faith by the very act of answering it.
Observe how the process of cure and the discipline which followed are, in Christ’s loving wisdom, made to fit closely to all the faults and flaws in the suppliant’s faith.
She had thought of the healing energy as independent of the Healer’s knowledge and will. Therefore His very first word shows her that He is aware of her mute appeal, and conscious of the going forth from Him of the power that cures-’Who touched Me?’ As was said long ago, ‘the multitudes thronged Him, but the woman touched.’ Amidst all the jostling of the unmannerly crowd that trod with rude feet on His skirts, and elbowed their way to see this new Rabbi, there was one touch unlike all the rest; and, though it was only that of the finger-tip of a poor woman, wasted to skin and bone with twelve years’ weakening disease, He knew it; and His will and love sent forth the ‘virtue’ which healed. May we not fairly apply this lesson to ourselves? Christ is, as most of us, I suppose, believe, Lord of all creatures, administering the affairs of the universe; the steps of His throne and the precincts of His court are thronged with dependants whose eyes wait upon Him, and who are fed from His stores; and yet my poor voice may steal through that chorus-shout of petition and praise, and His ear will detect its lowest note, and will separate the thin stream of my prayer from the great sea of supplication which rolls to His seat, and will answer me. My hand uplifted among the millions of empty and imploring palms that are raised towards the heaven will receive into its clasping fingers the special blessing for my special wants.
Again, she had been selfish in her faith, had not cared for any close personal relation with Him; and so she was taught that He was in all His gifts, and that He was more than all His gifts. He compels her to come to His feet that she may learn His heart, and may carry away a blessing not stolen, but bestowed
‘With open love, not secret cure,
The Lord of hearts would bless.’
And thus is laid the foundation for a personal bond between her and Christ, which shall be for the joy of her life, and shall make of that life a thankful sacrifice to Him, the Healer.
Thus it is with us all. We may go to Him, at first, with no thought but for ourselves. But we have not to carry away His gift hidden in our hands. We learn that it is a love-token from Him. And so we find in His answer to faith the true and only cure for all self-regard; and moved by the mercies of Christ, are led to do what else were impossible-to yield ourselves as ‘living sacrifices’ to Him.
Again, she had shrunk from publicity. Her womanly diffidence, her enfeebled health, the shame of her disease, all made her wish to hide herself and her want from His eye, and to hide herself and her treasure from men. She would fain steal away unnoticed, as she hoped she had come. But she is dragged out before all the thronging multitude, and has to tell the whole. The answer to her faith makes her bold. In a moment she is changed from timidity to courage; a tremulous invalid ready to creep into any corner to escape notice, she stretched out her hand-the instant after, she knelt at His feet in the spirit of a confessor. This is Christ’s most merciful fashion of curing our cowardice-not by rebukes, but by giving us, faint-hearted though we be, the gift which out of weakness makes us strong. He would have us testify to Him before men, and that for our own sakes, since faith unacknowledged, like a plant in the dark, is apt to become pale and sickly, and bear no bright blossoms nor sweet fruit. But, ere He bids us own His name, He pours into our hearts, in answer to our secret appeal, the health of His own life, and the blissful consciousness of that great gift which makes the tongue of the dumb sing. Faith at first may be very timid, but faith will grow bold to witness of Him and not be ashamed, in the exact proportion in which it is genuine, and receives from Christ of His fulness.
And then-with a final word to set forth still more clearly that she had received the blessing from His love, not from His magical power, and through her confidence, not through her touch-’Daughter! thy faith’-not thy finger-’hath made thee whole; go in peace and be whole’-Jesus confirms by His own authoritative voice the furtive blessing, and sends her away, perhaps to see Him no more, but to live in tranquil security, and in her humble home to guard the gift which He had bestowed on her imperfect faith, and to perfect-we may hope-the faith which He had enlightened and strengthened by the over-abundance of His gift.
Dear friends, this poor woman represents us all. Like her, we are sick of a sore sickness, we have spent our substance in trying physicians of no value, and are ‘nothing the better, but rather the worse.’ Oh! is it not strange that you should need to be urged to go to the Healer to whom she went? Do not be afraid, my brother, of telling Him all your pain and pining-He knows it already. Do not be afraid that your hand may not reach Him for the crowd, or that your voice may fail to fall on His ear. Do not be afraid of your ignorance, do not be afraid of your wavering confidence and many doubts. All these cannot separate you from Him who ‘Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses.’ Fear but one thing-that He pass on to carry life and health to other souls, ere you resolve to press to His feet. Fear but one thing-that whilst you delay, the hem of the garment may be swept beyond the reach of your slow hand. Imperfect faith may bring salvation to a soul: hesitation may ruin and wreck a life.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v30 (Greek - ἀπόλλυμι," power). Cf. Luk 6:19; Luk 8:46
virtue
(Greek - ἀπόλλυμι," power). Cf. Luk 6:19; Luk 8:46
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv25, 30 The woman with an issue of blood:
The woman with an issue of blood:
v. 25. And a certain woman, which had had an issue of blood twelve years,
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v. 26. and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,
v. 27. when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched His garment.
v. 28. For she said, If I may touch but His clothes, I shall be whole.
v. 29. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.
While Jesus was, at the urging of Jairus, hurrying towards his house, there was an interruption on the way. A woman, otherwise unknown, had had an issue of blood for twelve years, which rendered her Levitically unclean, Lev 15:25. It excluded her from public worship in Temple and synagogue, and isolated her even from the company of her relatives. The manner of Mark’s putting it is rather expressive: She had suffered much from, at the hands of, many physicians; she had become impoverished, she had spent all her substance in her quest for health; and all this had been of no benefit to her; instead of getting better she rather became worse. This description is particularly suitable in the case of those people, both within and without the medical profession, who think that science is paramount and must say the last word. In spite of the great advance in medicine and surgery in the last century, and especially during the last decades, there are still many individual sicknesses and epidemics that baffle the entire medical profession. This is not said in disparagement of the profession, but in the interest of truth. People that make the doctor their god, and trust in him absolutely, may under circumstances find themselves in the position of this woman. It remains true to this day, and the more skillful and conscientious the physician is, the more freely will he acknowledge it: the Lord must direct the diagnosis and bless the medicine, otherwise the science of the greatest physician will avail nothing. This woman had now heard of Jesus, the many laudatory things that were being circulated through the country concerning His ability and willingness to work healing in cases which seemed hopeless. Her condition and the consciousness of her Levitical uncleanness, also her deep humility would not permit her to come forth openly before the multitude and address the Lord. From what she had heard concerning Him, she had come to believe with a conviction born of faith in this Messiah of the world, that the mere touch of the hem of His garment would restore her health. She could carry out her intention all the more easily in this great crowd since they pressed upon the Lord. She hoped thus to remain unobserved. Only to touch His clothes, that was her one thought. And her faith was rewarded. Without delay, at once, the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she knew with a happy conviction that her body was cured of that scourge which the Lord had laid upon her these many years. There is food for thought, as Luther suggests, in the fact that the Buffering of this woman had begun at the same time that the daughter of Jairus had come to gladden the hearts of her parents. To bear such a burden as this woman did for so many years, and then to be released from the afflicting bonds, is an experience which should rightly cause the deepest thankfulness in the hearts of all such sufferers.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv25, 28, 30, 33 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
While Jesus is on his way to heal the man's little 12-year-old girl, a woman who has been sick for 12 years interrupts by touching Jesus for her healing.
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Now a woman was there
"Now" indicates that this woman is being introduced to the story. Consider how new people are introduced into a story in your language. (See: Introduction of New and Old Participants)
who had a flow of blood for twelve years
The woman did not have an open wound; rather, her monthly flow of blood would not stop. Your language may have a polite way to refer to this condition. (See: Euphemism)
for twelve years
"for 12 years" (See: Numbers)
she grew worse
"her sickness got worse" or "her bleeding increased"
the reports about Jesus
She had heard reports about Jesus of how he healed people. AT: "that Jesus healed people" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
cloak
outer garment or coat
translationWords
suffer
Jesus
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv27, 33 5:27-29 The woman’s faith (5:34) convinced her that just…
5:27-29 The woman’s faith (5:34) convinced her that just touching Jesus’ clothing would bring healing; this took place immediately.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.