1 As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him.

[43] And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. [44] She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. [45] "Who touched me?" Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you." [46] But Jesus said, "Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me." [47] Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. [48] Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."

Exposition
Jesus and his disciples have returned to Galilee from the land of the Garasenes, Lake of Gallilee, 5 or 6 miles North West to Capernaum @ but as their boat lands on the western shore of the lake, probably at Capernaum, a crowd is waiting. They have seen his boat from afar and have massed on the beach to welcome him. @This is what it look slike today and its more or less from here that Jesus sailed to over there

The Press of the Crowd (8:40-42)

We'll leave the mention of Jairus, the synagogue ruler, for now and consider him in the next lesson. But as Jesus heads for Jairus' house to heal his daughter, the crowd is especially thick. The NIV says "As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him" (8:42). The word translated "crushed" or "thronged" (KJV) is Greek sumpnigo, "as a hyperbolic expression for 'crowd around, press upon,' something like 'almost crush.' "[1] It is the same word used by the Gospel writers in the Parable of the Soils (8:14) to describe the thorns "choking" the wheat and making it unfruitful. As Jesus moves toward Jairus' house, the streets are utterly jammed. I imagine it like the crowd moving out of a sports stadium at the end of the game, except that Capernaum's streets are not designed to handle these kinds of crowds. Jesus is able to push forward only with difficulty and progress is slow. Jairus at his side is ever-mindful that his daughter's life is slipping away every moment that is wasted.

The Woman with the Hemorrhage (8:43)

"And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her." (8:43)

2 Among the pushing, shoving, elbowing crowd this day is a pale woman. For twelve years she has suffered from uterine bleeding and she is weak. Mark records, "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" (Mark 5:26). Edersheim Alfred, Jewish writer, convert to Christianity, notes, "On one leaf of the Talmud not less than eleven different remedies are proposed, of which at most only six can possibly be regarded as astringents or tonics, while the rest are merely the outcome of superstition, to which resort is had in the absence of knowledge."[2] Even today, with all our medical skill, a hysterectomy is the only treatment that helps many women. But in her day, nothing was really effective. Have you been sick for an extended period of time? Have you experienced the hopelessness of having physicians do all sorts of tests, put you through all sorts of treatments, charge huge medical bills, and leave you worse for all their doings? Occasionally this lady's friends would tell her of some doctor they had heard of in another town. When she was younger, she might make the journey to consult with them, but no longer. She is broke and hopeless. Why go to a doctor when nothing helps? Her faith in doctors' remedies is long since gone. There is no hope for her. But her problem is compounded by the way she is viewed by Jewish law -- as ceremonially unclean. Women were normally considered unclean during their period. "When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge, just as in the days of her period. Any bed she lies on while her discharge continues will be unclean, as is her bed during her monthly period, and anything she sits on will be unclean, as during her period. Whoever touches them will be unclean; he must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening." (Leviticus 15:25-27) Anyone who knew about her illness would shun her. She couldn't go about in society and mingle in the marketplace with the other women, since a touch from her would make someone unclean. She couldn't attend ceremonial occasions, or synagogue worship. And so she resorts to secrecy. Probably she isn't even known in Capernaum. She comes incognito, her condition carefully concealed. But she comes with determination.

Elbowing Her Way to Touch the Master's Clothing (8:44)

"She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped" (Luke 8:44). Word of Jesus' astounding acts of healing has spread all over Galilee, even to the village where his woman lives (Mark 5:27). And she determines to find him and be healed. When his boat is spotted coming towards shore she is among the crowd waiting. When Jairus prostrates himself before Jesus begging for his daughter's life, she is not far away. And when Jesus begins to move through the crowd toward Jairus' house, she is not far behind.

3 To reach Jesus she must push and shove and elbow her way between people when tiny openings occur. She is weak; her strength is drained, and yet she will not give up. She must reach Jesus, and so she continues to wedge her body through the crowd until she comes up behind him. She has decided in her heart, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed" (Mark 5:28). She doesn't want to confront him in public. She is too ashamed to admit the nature of her illness, and perhaps even be rebuked for mingling with others in her unclean state. She must do this without revealing anything. But she must touch him. She must.

First Century Clothing

Typical clothing for a man in the First Century seems pretty foreign to Westerners.

Tunic, Chaluq, Kitunna, or Colobium

Illustration from Madelieine S. and J. Lane Miller, Harper's Encyclopedia of Bible Life (Third Revised Edition, Harper & Row, 1978), p. 55.

Tunic, the Chaluq, Kittuna, or colobium, a long, close-fitting tunic made of linen or wool and worn next to the skin. It had an opening for the neck and sometimes sleeves. It was worn long, perhaps to the ankles, and fastened with a girdle or belt of linen or leather around the waist or under the breast. We know that Jesus' garment was seamless (John 19:23). http://jesuswalk.com/images/tunic.gif Cloak, the Tallith or Goltha. This was a square garment that bore tassels at the corners in fulfillment of the commands in Numbers 15:38-39 and Deuteronomy 22:12 as a reminder to obey the laws of the Lord. The strands that made up the tassel probably included at least one of hyacinth (light violet to moderate purple) color and several strands of white. In Luke 8:44 the outer clothing is expressed by the Greek word himation, "cloak, robe."[3] Head-gear, possibly a turban, or a covering for the head, back of the neck, and shoulders. There is some dispute about whether men wore these in Jesus' day, since there is no mention in the New Testament. Sandals[4]

4 Sometimes Bible commentators refer to undergarments and outer garments, but the inner garments were not like our underwear that are worn invariably under our other clothing. In Jesus' day the tunic was visible under the cloak. It was more the "layered look" that was fashionable around the turn of the Twenty-First Century. Where Luke records, "She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak" (8:44), the word translated "edge" is Greek kraspedon, " 'edge, border, hem' of a garment." But it can also refer to the "tassel" that Israelites wore on the four corners of the cloak.[5] We're not exactly sure which is referred to in this verse.

The Touch that Taps into Jesus' Power (8:45-46)

Whichever the lady touched, the effect was powerful and immediate. "She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. " 'Who touched me?' Jesus asked. "When they all denied it, Peter said, 'Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.' "But Jesus said, 'Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.' " (8:4546) Mark says that immediately "she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease" (Mark 5:29). Jesus feels it too. Though the press of the crowds against him are jostling and bumping him constantly, their touch doesn't have any effect. But when the woman touches him, Jesus is suddenly aware of it: "I know that power has gone out from me" (8:46). The Greek word translated "power" (NIV) or "virtue" (KJV) is Greek dunamis, from which we get our English words "dynamo" and "dynamic," and means "power, might, strength, force."[6] Jesus felt the flow of power out of him. And whether it is a physical sense or spiritual sense or no sense at all depends upon how God is working through the person doing the praying. The irony of this story is that dozens of people had been touching Jesus in these few minutes of moving towards Jairus' house, but only one had touched Jesus with faith that released saving power -- a sick but determined woman. It is quite possible to be in the immediate vicinity of Jesus without receiving his salvation through faith.

Your Faith Has Healed You (8:47-48)

"Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. " (8:47-48) The unclean woman who has secretly pushed her way next to Jesus to touch his cloak has no place to hide. She is suddenly afraid and trembling. What will people say? What will the rabbi say when he finds out that an unclean woman has deliberately touched him? But she falls at Jesus feet and tells her story. She has no choice.

5 Why has Jesus' exposed her secret? Luke's account doesn't tell us, but I see two reasons: 1. This is the first step in removing the terrible burden of uncleanness from the woman. Jesus accepts her. He isn't angry. He blesses her with God's peace. He tenderly calls her daughter. This both helps restore her own self-esteem, but also her standing in the community, if she is from Capernaum. 2. He is clarifying what had happened so that it wouldn't fall into the realm of magic and superstition. "Your faith had healed you," he acknowledges. Her faith surely wasn't in his clothing. It was in God's working through Jesus. The clothing didn't impart healing, he is saying, her faith in God has brought that about.

Pushing-Through Faith vs. Propped Up Faith

1. When I think about this story, I am amazed by this woman's faith. It is a pushy faith. An elbow-my-way and don't-take-no-for-an-answer faith. It is a faith that doesn't quit. And I think that Jesus, was pleased. The disciples were to learn from this "that they should always pray and not give up" (18:1). "Ask and it will be given to you," Jesus is saying to us disciples. "Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened" (11:9-10). This week we're looking at the story of a determined woman whose pushy faith in Jesus brought her the salvation she sought. Next week we'll consider the story of Jairus, whose faith in Jesus took a blow when reports reached him that his daughter had died. In his case, Jesus propped up his faith with the words, "Don't be afraid, just believe." Jesus is seeking to produce in you and me the kind of faith that motivated the hemorrhaging woman to touch the hem of his garment. But if we aren't quite there yet, he is entirely willing to prop up and encourage our faith until it can grow some more. Faith is often expressed in us at that raw, growing edge of life that is acquainted with fear but not overcome by it. Our woman has spent twelve years in sickness, embarrassment, and frustration. But she has pushed through. She has just been powerfully and instantly healed, and she is aware of the healing. The next moment Jesus stops, asks "Who touched me?" and she is trembling again. How true to life. Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."

Dear child of God, Jesus loves you and is fully aware of the vulnerability of your faith. But he is encouraging you to take courage, put your fears aside, and "go for it." If you falter, he is by your side and he will help you. He is teaching you to trust in him. And he says to you, as he said to the sick woman who pushed through her fears, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go forward in peace."