Mark 5:24-34 tells us the story of a woman who had a flow of blood for many years that the physicians (read that many physicians, over many years) were unable to heal. This woman had tried everything to find a cure for this ailment. Then one day she is out in the street as Jesus is walking by. She’d heard the reports about Him (v.27) and knew that He was a healer. She knew that He had healed others and this gave her hope.

At this time Jesus is on His way to Jairus’ house to heal his daughter (v.22-23). The crowd is large and the woman thinks, “I won’t bother Him. I’ll just reach out and touch Him. He’ll never know and maybe, just maybe,…yes, I believe it will…be enough to heal me.” And possibly she is desperately thinking, “Let it be enough.” So she reaches out her hand and touches His garment. Surprisingly Jesus notices her touch and stops. He turns and asks (although He probably didn’t need to ask – although maybe in His humanity He did) who touched Him. The woman is honest – she is also overwhelmed. And maybe like the disciples (v.31) she is surprised that He even noticed that she had touched Him. But, she feels different. She can tell that the bleeding has stopped. She knows she has been healed! So she falls to her knees, trembling and tells Him, “Lord, it was me.” Her sense of gratitude must have been overflowing. The bible doesn’t say, but I wonder if she wept? I picture her there, at Jesus’ feet, on her knees, tears flowing and bathing His feet, her body trembling, her mind overwhelmed and rejoicing…

The bible says she told Him the “whole truth”.

“I touched you.”

And He said to her (v.34), “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

This morning as I read this passage – and I encourage you to read it too from your own bible – I couldn’t help but think about how we so often struggle with sin for years and years when all we really need to do is “touch his garment”. The passage doesn’t talk about the woman’s sin…but isn’t it the same - not sin and sickness - but the similarity between the flow of blood she had for years and years and how we struggle with sin for years and years even after we become Christians. I can’t help but think that this shouldn’t be. That God didn’t create us for this – that He created us for victory – and that He gave His life/the life of His only begotten Son, that we might have it. I wonder if we simply need to reach out in faith and touch His garment?

Oh, that poor sinners would go to Jesus, believing in the power of His blessed substitutionary work, and they would soon learn the power of His gracious touch. That hand that multiplied the loaves, that saved sinking Peter, that upholds afflicted saints, that crowns believers, that same hand will touch every seeking sinner and in a moment make him clean.  The love of Jesus is the source of salvation.  He loves, He looks, He touches us, and we live!  -Charles H. Spurgeon