If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made 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 

 

Yesterday we read that, as Jesus passed on, 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 that 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 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.  My study Bible comments on today's passage that authority over life and death is in the hand of God alone (Deuteronomy 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:6).   As He is of one essence with the Father, Christ has this authority (John 5:21).  The healing of the woman with the flow of blood demonstrates His power to cleanse and to heal (see Matthew 8:1-4).  In the Old Testament, we must understand, hemorrhage caused ceremonial defilement.  This imposed religious and social restrictions, as contact with blood was strictly prohibited (Leviticus 15:25).  This suffering woman counts herself unclean, my study Bible says, but she nevertheless approaches Jesus secretly and with great faith.  Jesus brings her good cheer because of her faith.  He also corrects her thinking, because she could neither hide her touch from Him, nor is she excluded from Him because of her illness.  Finally, Christ even exhibits her faith as an example to all, that they might imitate her.  

 

One interesting thing about today's passage is that the healing of this woman with the flow of blood is always placed "in between" the story of the healing of Jairus' daughter (the ruler of the synagogue is identified as Jairus in the Gospels of St. Mark and St. Luke).  It's interesting to juxtapose the stories of the woman and the girl.  Here we're told that the woman's flow of blood had lasted for twelve years.  Again, in the other Synoptic Gospels, we're told that the girl is twelve years old.  So there are some interesting contrasts and comparisons in this story.  The woman, an outcast because of her illness, comes to Jesus in secret and yet with great faith.  Contrast her actions with the ruler of the synagogue, who boldly comes to Jesus himself and tells Him that his daughter has just died, and asks for Christ's touch to heal her.  The woman with the blood flow has such great faith that her healing is effected through the touching of Christ's hem.  In the ruler's household, Jesus is ridiculed for saying that the child is not dead, but sleeping.  (The flute players and the noisy crowd wailing are mourning her.)  But of course, we notice that Christ's healing happens in both circumstances by touch:  in the first, she touched the hem of His garment; in the second He took her by the hand.  Perhaps the pattern in this story is suggesting to us that there is no "right" way that Christ can heal, no right person Christ can heal.  In some sense, we can say that everything in one story is inversed in the other, for Christ inhabits all dimensions. There is nothing and no place where He is not.  There is nothing in creation that is separate from His rule (John 3:31-36).  And His rule is supreme:  He is the Giver of the Law, and His mercy declares healing and love and responds to faith.  This reminds us of the righteousness of Abraham, accounted to him by his faith (Genesis 15:6,Romans 4:1-22, Galatians 3:6-9, Hebrews 11:8-10, Hebrews 11:17-19).   This woman comes to Christ in great faith.  In the other stories of the Synoptic Gospels, Jairus must be encouraged by Christ to have faith, and we see in today's reading that Jesus must put the people out of the house who ridicule.  In the Jewish culture of the time, public relations between men and women could make touch scandalous, but here in both cases, touch is the means by which God's healing comes.  

 

 

 

 

If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made 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

Yesterday we read that as Jesus passed on from where He healed the paralytic (and disputed with some scribes), 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.   My study bible notes here that authority over life and death is in the hand of God alone (Deuteronomy 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:6).  Being of one essence with the Father, Jesus has this authority (John 5:21).  The healing of this woman demonstrates Christ's power to clean and to heal (see also this reading from chapter 8, in which He cleansed a leper).  In the Old Testament, hemorrhage such as the affliction suffered by this woman caused ceremonial defilement.  This necessarily imposed religious and social restrictions (as did leprosy), because contact with blood was strictly prohibited (Leviticus 15:25).   But this suffering woman, because she accounts herself unclean, approaches Jesus secretly -- and with great with.  Jesus brings her good cheer because of her faith.  He also corrects her thinking, because she could not hide her touch from Him -- and neither is she excluded from Him because of her illness.  The final correction in thinking comes because He exhibits her faith to all, so each might imitate her.

There are several things to note that are happening in this reading.  First of all, if we look at yesterday's reading, above,  we note that Jesus has just come from a head-to-head dispute with some Pharisees because He eats with sinners (tax collectors and others).  In the reading before that He disputed with some scribes over His power to forgive sins, and made a display of His stupendous healing power.   There is a continuity here, as in today's reading, before a ruler of a synagogue (who venerates Him in a form of prostration by kneeling or bowing before Him, translated as "worshiped"), Jesus praises a woman who is unclean according to religious law but has secretly touched Him in faith.  Each of these episodes signals to the leadership (present in the form of scribes, Pharisees, and this ruler of the synagogue -- identified elsewhere as Jairus) that Christ is indeed present with "new wine," so to speak.  The events challenge their thinking about who Jesus is and what He can do.  He has described His mission (in chapter 5, during the Sermon on the Mount) as coming not to destroy, but to fulfill the Law and the Prophets.  Each of these events in recent readings teaches us what it means to "exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees," and to fulfill the Law and the Prophets.  They are challenges to the understanding of the leadership who are present in various personae, and they also establish Jesus' identity as Messiah who is both human and divine.  The entirely surprising response of Jesus to this woman must have been astounding to all the crowd.  As the ruler of the synagogue is present and desperately urging Him to go to his daughter who "has just died," we can imagine the impact on Jairus.  Finally, in microcosm we see the tumultuous nature of Jesus' healing work, in that it turns upside-down the expectations of the people.  Jairus' house is filled with those who mourn.  There are flute players and a whole crowd of noisy wailers.  When Jesus tells them that the girl is merely sleeping, they ridicule Him.   We already know the importance of faith to healing, even in the friends or relatives of those who cannot ask for help themselves.  Here Jesus first takes action by having the loudly wailing (and ridiculing) crowd put outside. Again, He heals by touch, taking the little girl's hand so that she rises from where she sleeps.  Once again, as we noted in yesterday's reading and commentary, there is an image here prefiguring the Resurrection power of Christ which will become the central key to His identity as Lord (and thereby the fulfillment, or telos, meaning "end" in Greek), of the Law and the Prophets.  What we have is a hint of the understanding of the Church about Christ Himself as the central focal point of all of  Scripture.  In this identity as the One who is "the Resurrection and the life" (John 11:25), Jesus is the fullness by which all else is measured, and the light by which all of Scripture and spiritual history becomes viewed.  These glimmerings of what will be more fully expressed later teach us so, as they taught our forbears to view all of Scripture and the life of the Church and spiritual life to come.  To be the fulfillment is to be the telos, the absolute, the perfection of something.  His life shines the light of meaning for all else and becomes the standard by which we know and understand faith and the work of God in the world.  If Resurrection is present with Him, so our faith can bring us glimmers and meanings of this power.  Perhaps we, too, need a kind of resurrection in our lives, in any circumstance, as part of the healing of old wounds or deep traumas.  We call on Him in faith, knowing that He has displayed already His healing power that overcomes all obstacles and reaches where the world ridicules and loudly proclaims failure.  Let us remember His work that astonishes all expectations, and seek His way for us, even if we have to put "the crowd" outside to do so -- and change the way we think.

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 into all that land.

- Matthew 9:18-26

Yesterday, we read that as Jesus passed on from healing a paralytic (He is in Capernaum), 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.  In other Gospels, this ruler is identified as Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue at Capernaum.  We see his faith in the "Teacher."  My study bible says that authority over life and death is in the hand of God alone (Deuteronomy 32:39).  Jesus shares this authority as Son (John 5:21).  As Matthew tells it, we see Jesus' immediate positive response.  There's a sort of interesting parallel here to yesterday's reading.  There, Jesus commanded Matthew the tax collector, "Follow Me."  Here, Jesus follows the ruler of the synagogue to His home, and His disciples follow as well.  It seems to tell us something about Jesus' own obedience to the institutions of faith, although this ruler worships Him.

 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.   As He's on His way to the ruler's daughter, another expression of His power takes place -- and this time it comes literally from behind Him.  This is another example of His power to cleanse and to heal.  And it's also another example of His actions which seem to directly violate the Law.  In the Old Testament, hemorrhage would cause ceremonial defilement, imposing religious and social restrictions, because contact with blood was strictly prohibited (Leviticus 15:25).  But this woman, while thinking of herself as unclean (and she would have been prohibited from community contact as well), approaches Jesus secretly and with great faith.  Her faith makes contact with His power.  Nothing can really be hidden from Him, but it is faith that makes the connection.  She's not excluded from Him because of her illness, and far from putting her away, He shows her to the whole crowd as an example of faith for everyone.

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 into all that land.   Jesus goes through ridicule from the noisy crowd to heal the girl.  It won't be the last time.  It's another emphasis on faith that everyone is put outside, with the exception of a handful of disciples and the girl's parents (Mark 5:36-43).

Jesus once again exemplifies faith as our highest good.  The unclean woman, officially or legally (according to the Law of Moses) is not supposed to be in community, let alone touching a man -- and particularly this Man, Christ, the Teacher.  But faith makes her bold, even to just touch the hem of His clothing.  Jesus draws her out and praises her, in complete contradiction to her expectations, and most likely those of the crowd.  This is something astonishing.  And all of it is couched, justified, made possible through faith.  He shows her off to the crowds, saying, "Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well."  So again, as we have observed so far throughout Matthew's Gospel, it is faith that makes all the difference.  In this case in today's reading, it seems that her faith has somehow "unlocked" His power.  He was prepared to go with the synagogue ruler to his house in order to heal his daughter.  Would we think, possibly, that Christ's power was somehow ready for use?  The story might give us some sort of impression like that.  But in His authority as Son, Christ's power is always present and ready for us.  In Orthodox theology, God's grace and mercy are always active as God's energies.  And again, we note that in this Gospel (and in others) grace and mercy are synonymous with healing.  Just as in yesterday's reading, when we noted that Jesus sits with tax collectors who have become His disciples, and He calls Himself "Physician," while teaching the Pharisees, "Go and learn what this means:  'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' "  The point of the Law was to heal, and He is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.  Let us understand, then, healing not just as some sort of example of miraculous power and a sign to the world, for it is more than that.  Healing is the whole Way of Christ.  It is the path, the journey.  Our repentance and transformation in God's love, our correction in that faith process, is healing.  It is setting aright.  It is bringing us into right-relatedness with the whole of the creation.  This is the gospel message.  Let us find ways in which it manifests in all of our lives and in all kinds of ways and expressions, and treasure those moments.  And we note what we might need to do to shore up faith.  Jesus puts the noisy crowd outside.  Let us remember to do that when we need to, as well.