Mark 5 - The woman who thought, 'If I just touch his clothes i will be healed!"


A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
As we said before, Mark's gospel is often called the "power gospel". In this chapter, Jesus healed a man possessed of many demons, raised a man's 12 year old daughter from the dead, and healed a woman who suffered 12 years with bleeding. 
When Jesus felt her touch his clothes, he felt power go out from him.  It was in that moment that her bleeding stopped.  Note it was the women's faith that Jesus attributed to this healing for she said, "If I just touch his clothes I will be healed." This highlights that there was no one way or method Jesus used to heal people.  Sometimes he said words, sometimes he touched, and others he healed from a distance. This time he healed by someone who touched his clothes.  Apparently Jesus was so powerful that touching his cloak brought a supernatural healing to this suffering woman . 
The key part of this story is the woman's faith.  She really believed if she just touched Jesus' clothes, she would be healed.  She had only just "heard about Jesus", yet she had great faith which Jesus commended her for. 
When I read stories like this it makes me think that we often discount the power we have available through Jesus.  When Jesus left he told his disciples, "You will do even greater things than this."  Really.  Greater things than what happened in these stories.  Of course, it is not by our power that we do these things, but in His name and through His Spirit. 
I believe God is looking for people like this woman who thought, "If I just touch his cloak I will be healed."  May we have this kind of faith and use the power Jesus has given us as his disciples to do the things he did!         



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