Matthew 9:21

Sunday, 20 April 2025   For she said to herself, “If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.” Matthew 9:21   “For she said in herself, ‘If only I shall touch His cloak, I will be saved’” (CG).   In the previous verse, it noted the woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years. She came behind Jesus and touched the hem, meaning the tassel, of His garment. In doing this, we read, “For she said in herself.”   The verb is imperfect. It would be as if she was saying, “This will work, this will work, I know this will work.” She didn’t just say it as a passing thought, but it was an ongoing motivation that she was saying to herself, “If only I shall touch His cloak, I will be saved.”   Whether she had seen other miracles of Jesus or whether she had only heard of His power to heal, she was internally convinced that He could do what she hoped for. In fact, the parallel accounts in Mark and Luke tell us that this was her only hope –   “Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, 44 came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped.” Luke 8:43, 44   This woman had not only had a bleeding discharge for twelve years, but she had taken every path she could in order to find healing, and none could help. In the process, she had spent everything she had, but nothing worked. In hearing about Jesus, she had either seen or heard of healings that were completely effective.   Because of this, she trusted that the God of Israel had sent a Person who could tend to the needs of the people. Whether she felt He was the coming Messiah or just a prophet of the Lord, her faith in the God of Israel who had sent her was sufficient to save her from her affliction.   Life application: Matthew’s gospel noted that Jesus healed a leper on the way to Capernaum. It also noted that Jesus healed the centurion’s servant by a mere spoken word. Taking these two accounts together is probably what forms the basis for this woman’s faith.   She knew He could heal someone with a bodily affliction that rendered that person unclean according to the Levitical law. And not only could He do so, but He was also willing to do so. Further, she would have heard that Jesus, by a mere spoken word, was able to restore a paralytic.   Taking these two accounts together, which surely would have circulated in the area, this woman was able to deduce that Jesus could heal her and that it did not require His actively reaching out to touch her.   In her humility concerning her shameful condition, something that would have caused the people around her to avoid her at all costs, she determined to not bother Jesus with a direct appeal. Instead, she possessed the faith that He could save her apart from such things.   We can learn from her example. The Bible provides various truths about Jesus and salvation, but they are not all lumped into one paragraph. Rather, there will be instruction about what Jesus’ ministry means to us in Romans. There will be an explanation of how to appropriate that in Romans as well, but also in 1 Corinthians.   Ephesians and Colossians will build upon those things and explain the underlying process of how that takes place. In other words, like the woman who probably pieced together the basis for her faith from the accounts she had heard about, we also must piece together the basis for our faith from the record of Jesus and the explanation of what He has done.   God has logically structured the Bible to give us a full and detailed explanation of what He would do, what He was doing, and what He did in and through Jesus. He has also explained that process in detail after His coming.   The more we read the details provided in Scripture, the more perfectly we will understand the process. And further, the more we understand the process, the more grounded our faith will be. When troubled times come to our lives, we will be able to firmly avow that our faith remains strong. How will we do that without being grounded in the word that explains our salvation and position in Christ?   Lord God, thank You that we are saved by grace through faith. It takes the pressure off us to know that Jesus has done it all for us. Help us contemplate this marvelous salvation, study the process of it, and catalog what occurred so that we will stay strong and resolute in the faith we now possess. Amen.