Daily Devotional For Thursday, February 20, 2025
Well, this is crazy weather we are having. I feel for teachers, students and parents with this wintry weather. Please stay safe and warm. Today we come to a story in Scripture that involves a lady who had a health issue for 12 years. That is a long time folks. Look at Matthew 9:20-22:
“And a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak; (21) for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch His garment, I will get well.” (22) But Jesus turning and seeing her said, “Daughter, take courage; your faith has [e]made you well.” At once the woman was made well” (NASB).
This story comes on the heels of a synagogue leader who frantically comes to Jesus to heal his daughter who has just died. For both stories, panic is a word I would describe both stories. If you have ever had a chronic health issue or know someone who has, it is one that is challenging, frustrating and even embarrassing. Here, crowds were pressing on Jesus, touching Him, and begging Him to do some miracle for them or a loved one.
This bleeding was painful and may have been a menstrual or uterine disorder. She had been to many doctors, had spent all her money, but had received no cure. This is the point of Mark 5:25-26, “A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, (26) and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse” (NASB). She was not only worse off health wise, but worse off financially, emotionally, and spiritually. The bleeding caused the woman to be in a constant condition of ceremonial uncleanness. This is the point of Leviticus 15:25-33:
“Now if a woman has a discharge of her blood many days, not at the period of her menstrual impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond that period, all the days of her impure discharge she shall continue as though in her menstrual impurity; she is unclean. (26) Any bed on which she lies all the days of her discharge shall be to her like her bed at menstruation; and every thing on which she sits shall be unclean, like her uncleanness at that time. (27) Likewise, whoever touches them shall be unclean and shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. (28) When she becomes clean from her discharge, she shall count off for herself seven days; and afterward she will be clean. (29) Then on the eighth day she shall take for herself two turtledoves or two young pigeons and bring them into the priest, to the doorway of the tent of meeting. (30) The priest shall offer the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. So the priest shall make atonement on her behalf before the Lord because of her impure discharge.’ (31) “Thus you shall keep the sons of Israel separated from their uncleanness, so that they will not die in their uncleanness by their defiling My tabernacle that is among them.” (32) This is the law for the one with a discharge, and for the man who has a seminal emission so that he is unclean by it, (33) and for the woman who is ill because of menstrual impurity, and for the one who has a discharge, whether a male or a female, or a man who lies with an unclean woman” (NASB).
What did this mean for her for the last 12 years? She could not worship in the synagogue, and she could not have normal social relationships, for under Jewish law, anyone who touched her also became unclean. Thus, the woman had been treated almost as severely as a leper.
New Testament scholar Bruce B. Barton writes this:
“This woman had heard about Jesus’ miracle-working power (apparently for the first time) and had come to Capernaum to find him (tradition says she was from Caesarea Philippi). She worked her way through the crowd and came up behind Jesus. She believed that she only had to touch the edge of his cloak (the tassels) and she would be healed. Tassels were attached to the outer garment to remind Jews to follow God (Numbers 15:37–38; Deuteronomy 22:12). The effort to touch Jesus’ garment was due to the popular belief that the clothes of a holy man imparted spiritual and healing power (see Mark 6:56; Acts 19:11–12). She may have feared that Jesus would not touch her if he knew her condition, that Jesus would not risk becoming unclean in order to heal her. Or she may have feared that if her disease became known to the crowd, the people who had touched her would be angry at having become unclean unknowingly. The woman knew she could receive healing, but she tried to do it as unobtrusively as possible. She thought that she would just be healed and go away” (Source: Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 188).
Mark 5:25-34 gives us more details. It is clear that the crowds were pressing and touching Jesus. In fact, when the woman touched the tassels on the hem of Jesus’ robe, and felt power go out from Him, and asked, “Who touched Me?” The disciples are shocked and respond with this in Mark 5:31, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched Me?’” Jesus’ question was rhetorical because He already knew who touched HIm in faith to be healed. In Matthew 9:22 Jesus said to her, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” Jesus called her daughter which were gentle words like in a father-child relationship.
She came for healing and received it, but she also received peace and a relationship with God himself because of her faith. Jesus explained that it was not His clothing that had healed her; rather, her faith in reaching out to the one person who could heal her had allowed that healing to take place. Not only did she have faith, but she had also placed her faith in the right person. She was instantly delivered from her bleeding and her pain.
For 12 years she had been one of the “untouchables,” but she never gave up. When she heard Jesus was in town, she pushed her way through the crowd ignoring everyone, all the Jewish cultural laws, even the Old Testament Law to get to Jesus. Whereas the scribes would have believed that the woman’s discreet touch of Jesus’ garment imparted to Him ritual impurity, the opposite was true; the touch imparted to the woman Jesus’ cleansing power! We shouldn’t see this episode as a case of magic. God didn’t capitulate to the woman’s superstition. In fact, Jesus turned to the woman and said, “Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well” (Matt. 9:22). We know from Mark 5:27 she had heard about Jesus and His ability to heal and do miracles.
Early church disciple Jerome said this about the woman: “Her touch on the hem of his garment was the cry of a believing heart” (Source:Jerome, “Homily 33,” quoted in Mark, eds. Thomas C. Oden and Christopher A. Hall, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, NT II (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), pp. 73-74.). Her faith is childish, perhaps, but also childlike.
New Testament scholar Douglas Sean O’Donnell says this: “From this, I want you to know that you don’t need to have all your theological ducks in a row to come to Jesus. Nor do you have to have all your commandment-keeping ducks in a row to come to Jesus. You just need to come to him. You need to push through the crowd and come to him, the more empty-handed the better” (Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Preach The Word Bible Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 260).
Questions To Consider
- Her superstition of touching the tassels of a holy man may have been part of her reason to get to Jesus, but so is Mark 5:27. She had no proof that she would be healed, so why do you think she violated every law and cultural requirements to get to Jesus?
- Have you ever had to push through something to get to Jesus? If so, what was it and how did you do it? Why did you do it?
- Of all the people touching Jesus that day, she knew she had. How?
- What in your own life do you need to push through to get to Jesus about it? When will you start?
- Desperation is uncomfortable, but when we are desperate, we become willing to push past our fears and natural affinities, so we can draw closer to Jesus. How desperate are you to get to Jesus?
Scripture To Meditate On: Hebrews 11:6, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (NASB).
Prayer To Pray: “Heavenly Father, forgive me for when I have been distracted by preferences, traditions, or simply a bad mood and did not want to push through all of that to get to You. Grant me a hunger and desperation for You alone that will help me get to You in spirit, truth, and adoration. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly