Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well

 While He spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshiped Him, saying, "My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her and she will live."  So Jesus arose and followed him, and so did His disciples.  And suddenly, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment.  For she said to herself, "If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well."  But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, "Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well."  And the woman was made well from that hour.  When Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd wailing, He said to them, "Make room, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping."  And they ridiculed Him.  But when the crowd was put outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.  And the report of this went out into all that land.

- Matthew 9:18-26

In yesterday's reading, we were told that as Jesus passed on from the healing of a paralytic, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office.  And He said to him, "Follow Me."  So he arose and followed Him.  Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples.  And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"  When Jesus heard that, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  But go and learn what this means:  'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.'  For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."  Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?"  And Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?  But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.  No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse.  Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined.  But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."


While He spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshiped Him, saying, "My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her and she will live."  So Jesus arose and followed him, and so did His disciples.  And suddenly, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment.  For she said to herself, "If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well."  But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, "Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well."  And the woman was made well from that hour.  When Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd wailing, He said to them, "Make room, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping."  And they ridiculed Him.  But when the crowd was put outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.  And the report of this went out into all that land.  Of today's entire passage, my study bible says that only God has authority over life and death (Deuteronomy 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:6).  Since Jesus is of one essence with the Father, He has this authority (John 5:21).   It tells us that the healing of this woman shows Jesus' power both to cleanse and to heal (8:1-4).  Referring to the perspective of the Old Testament, it notes that hemorrhage caused ceremonial defilement, which meant the imposition of both religious and social restrictions, because contact with blood was strictly prohibited (Leviticus 15:25).  My study bible notes:  "This suffering woman, accounting herself unclean, nevertheless approaches Jesus secretly and with great faith.  In verse 22, Jesus (1) brings her good cheer because of her faith; (2) corrects her thinking, for neither could she hide her touch from Him, nor is she excluded from Him because of her illness; and (3) exhibits her faith to all, so that they might imitate her."

We note also the ridicule with which Jesus is met at the ruler's house, when He tells those who mourn to make room, because she's not dead, only asleep.  He's just made a tremendous healing -- a sort of "on the way" miraculous cure for a woman so oppressed by her illness she wants to approach Jesus in a hidden way, and yet He's ridiculed despite all that He has done (and obviously His reputation is by now, at least in this place, extraordinary and wide-spread).  I think it's important to make note of the limitations of our own experience and assumptions, and particularly within a kind of crowd or "mob" environment.  All too easily, when we don't really pay attention to the things of the heart, of real faith, we "go along" with a crowd that is bent on its own mission, its own self-importance, and get down to that lowest common denominator which is - in the end - negative, destructive, ridiculing of wisdom, of those who may know better.  I think it's an important thing to observe here, because it tells us a great truth which, 2,000 years later, has exemplified itself certainly in various aspects of the past century and our own "recent" history.  This "small example" here may be a great example from the Gospels of the truth that is suggested to us in all of Jesus' mission, the truth about what is all-too-easily dismissed, forgotten, condemned, ridiculed, unless we take the time and the awareness to remember and to recall what we are supposed to be all about, the One who has the true power of life and death, and all ultimate truth -- especially about the ways in which we are to treat one another.  This one small example teaches us so much about current ideas of consensus and why it is important to be truly mindful of the things we are to be about, despite the "crowds."  It's all too easy to fall into the thinking that we are a part of a crowd, a movement, and that our loyalty is to a vague concept of the communal or collective.  This is true in so many varied examples that we can't speak of any particular group, but has manifested itself repeatedly in widely varying contexts and movements.  But Christ works in each one of us, intersects with the hearts of each one of us, calls each one of us.  Let us remember to be mindful of this call, no matter where we find ourselves, or in what company.  In the end, it is the faith of this woman with the bloodflow, who comes to Him - she thinks - in secret, and on her own, that is truly praised by Him.