“Your faith has saved you”

Read Luke 8:40-48

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The next two miracles go together in order to show the great power of Jesus over both serious illness and even death. A local synagogue leader asked Jesus to heal his dying daughter (41-42). But on the way there Jesus stopped to heal a woman with a serious menstrual disorder (43). The long-standing nature of the problem emphasises the severity of the condition and her utter helplessness.

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Apart from her physical distress, the woman would have suffered socially too for this problem made her ceremonially unclean (Lev.15:25-27). This is probably why she tried to approach Jesus secretly, trying to “remain hidden” (44,47). She believed not only that Jesus could heal her but that he would be able to do so by minimal contact (cf. Mt.14:36).

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Jesus “realised that power had gone out from him” (46; Mk.5:30). He knew what had happened but he wanted others to know too, so that people no longer saw her as unclean and so that it was clear that her healing resulted from her faith in him (47-48). The words he spoke to her are those which he’d said to the sinful woman (Lk.7:50). The healing is a sign of the salvation “peace” which Jesus gives to all who in their helplessness cry out to him.