Matthew 9:20-22

Matthew 9:20-22

And behold!  A woman who suffered a loss of blood for twelve years – after approaching from behind – touched the fringe of His garment.  For she was saying in herself, “If I only touch His garment I will be saved.”  And after Jesus was being turned around and after seeing her, He said, “Have courage, daughter!  Your faith has saved you.”  And the woman was being saved from that hour.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

I am always amazed at the length of this woman’s suffering.  Twelve years!  I can’t imagine suffering with something for that long – especially something as messy as blood loss!  But also remember that those who touched human blood were ritually unclean.  They would not be allowed into the same places as the religious elite and the spiritual leaders of a community.  So here is a woman who not only has to deal with the physical turmoil but she would also be dealing with emotional and spiritual estrangement.  This should be a hopeless woman; but instead we find a woman of incredible hope!

What would you do if you had something prevent you from knowing true spiritual acceptance for twelve years?  Would you find it easy to hold this against God?

Second Thought:

Nobody is lost in a crowd when Jesus is around.  The woman doesn’t even plan on introducing herself to Jesus.  After all, how could she?  She’s ritually unclean!  To be in Jesus’ presence would risk making Him ritually unclean – as if that could ever happen.  But Jesus takes note of the woman.  He has compassion upon her.  He has mercy upon her.  He has words of hope and promise for her.  What a great story of Jesus coming to the hopeless!  What a great testimony of how nobody is too small or too “damaged” to be a part of the kingdom.

Have you ever thought yourself too small or too damaged to be a part of God’s kingdom?  How does this story help you to realize that Jesus can even take notice of you?

Third Thought:

I love the tense of the verb that Jesus uses when speaking to the woman about her salvation.  Jesus uses the perfect tense: “Your faith has saved you.”  What Jesus means by all of this is that her salvation has been a known thing of the past because of her faith.  It was the effect of her faith and salvation that now brought her peace.  It is not as if the woman was healed and then believed.  The woman believed in the past – and continued in her belief – and the healing came about on account of her past faith.  This is a woman to be lifted up.  She did not need a miracle to believe.  She did not need God to “take care of all of her issues” and thus prove Himself before she believed.  She believed.  Out of her faith came her salvation: physical and spiritual.

Why is this woman a great role model to lift up in our circles of Christianity?  Is this made even truer by the fact that in no place is her name ever recorded?  How is this even more remarkable when we remember that the woman suffered with this for twelve years?

Passage for Tomorrow: Matthew 9:23-26