Written by Lisanka Martinez, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Venezuela
To rejoice in good health is a blessing that few people actually get to enjoy. Between contamination, inadequate nutrition, stress, and emotional conditions, we tend to suffer with some physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual illness.
The majority of women experience many of these interrelated conditions at the same time. Among them is PMS (premenstrual syndrome). These disorders are very common among the women in my family, and for many years, for that very reason, I suffered from intense pain and discomfort for more than a week every month. For this reason, the Bible story about the ill woman or the woman who touched Jesus’ robe (that we see in the gospels of Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:25-34, and Luke 8:43-45), has always seemed extremely extraordinary—to think of a woman who was bleeding for twelve years, in the health and hygiene conditions of that time. And the part to most highlight is that she was considered impure or unclean (as some traditions say) and what the laws of the Jewish people stated, as we see in Leviticus 15:25. With no remedy for such a lengthy time, her physical, mental, and emotional strength must have diminished.
However, the story, although brief, gives us an excellent example of the love of God, shown through His Son, for someone who dared to risk this step with a humble act of faith, which brought about her desired healing.
I read one perspective about this woman that showed that she was someone who had lost all of her money on doctors who couldn’t heal her. She had nothing to lose and might gain everything. The only thing she could receive was to be rejected and she had already faced rejection. Even still, to avoid this risk, she sought the blessing by trying to sneak by. Impossible! God always notices us. Even though she was invisible to the multitude, in this way, she was able to touch our Savior’s robe in spite of all the people that separated her from Him. That didn’t stop her. She was able to approach Him. In her mind, she knew that one touch would heal her and that it wouldn’t hurt anyone.
There are some who see this from Jairo’s perspective and reason that this desperate father that begged for healing for his daughter, could have thought that this woman, in her act of desperation and faith, had detained the Teacher, that time and the possibility of healing for his daughter had been taken away. Yet we know that it was not like that. Quite the opposite. Jairo witnessed a miracle even greater than healing. When it comes to blessings of healing, there are always enough for everyone.
The woman who touched Jesus’ robe knew that the minimal contact with Him would be a blessing in her life, just as many of us have experienced in our own lives. She did it and immediately felt the healing power in her body. Jesus noticed it, stopped, and asked who had touched Him. Even though His disciples tried to explain the obvious, that it could’ve been anyone who touched Him, Jesus awaited the faith-filled response to His spiritual question. The healed woman, still trembling, is seen as a testimony of the reach of God’s power for those who have faith and, through that faith, receive the greatest blessing. Jesus speaks to her directly and tells her that she is healed from her physical illness, along with the valuable addition that she has also been saved by her faith. What a wonderful reward! She was seeking physical healing and also received salvation, declared from Jesus’ own lips.
Can we say that we will ask for and await our own healing miracle? Or, like the woman in the story, will we, through faith, touch Jesus’ robe and obtain the marvelous blessing of first spiritual healing, and also physical healing? In what ways are we seeking healing?
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