When she had heard of Jesus, came in the crowd behind him, and touched his garment.
ακουσασα περι του ιησου ελθουσα εν τω οχλω οπισθεν ηψατο του ιματιου αυτου
11 Church Fathers comment on this verse
During the journey of the Lord, a woman who was bleeding experienced healing. Her profound faith rested solely on the belief that touching the Lord's robe would bring her restoration; and because of this faith, she was made whole. Symbolically, her healing occurred the moment she came into contact with Christ's garment, which represents His physical being. Indeed, it is those who have faith in the incarnation of Christ who truly reach out to touch His garment.
The woman suffering from constant bleeding, upon hearing Christ's words to the synagogue leader—‘Believe, and your daughter shall live’—reflected that the One capable of restoring the soul of a twelve-year-old girl could likewise cleanse and eradicate her twelve-year affliction. As she listened to His insistence to ‘Believe steadfastly, and your daughter shall live,’ she recognized that her faith alone could be the offering to the Healer. Scripture recounts that ‘in fear and trembling ... she came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth.’ If she approached Him with such reverence to touch the fringe of His robe, how much greater should be our sense of awe when we partake of His Body and Blood, which assure us of eternal life.
O glory be to You, mysterious Son of the Everlasting, for through the concealed ailment of this afflicted woman, Your healing grace was made evident, allowing us to perceive the invisible Divinity. By partaking in His healing grace, we discern the divine essence of the Son; moreover, the faith of the suffering woman was simultaneously revealed through her healing. In this manner, she testified to His Divinity, while also declaring her own faith, which shone through the same witness. He first recognized the hidden faith of the woman and then bestowed upon her the visible healing.
A woman afflicted with bleeding had exhausted all her wealth in seeking medical help. In her despair and weakened state, she experienced great hunger and thirst. Having lost everything - akin to the church composed of the Gentiles - she turned her heart to the Lord and reached out to Him. By touching the hem of His robe, she demonstrated her faith and desperation.
It often occurs that those in need of healing turn to various healers without finding relief, as illustrated in the Gospel account of the woman afflicted with a hemorrhage (Mark 5:25-26). Similarly, a struggling Christian, aware of their deep spiritual afflictions, seeks assistance from various sources but ultimately remains unhealed. They may strive to read numerous texts with great effort, yet healing eludes them. Beloved Christian! No matter your efforts or where you seek help, true healing is found only through Christ. Indeed, engaging with Christian literature is valuable and important; such writings illuminate the mind, stimulate reason, inspire repentance, and foster a spirit of prayer.
Nonetheless, all these texts lead us to Christ, urging us to seek our restoration and salvation exclusively from Him. Christ alone, as the Light, opens the eyes of the blind, as the Healer, restores the afflicted, as the Source of Life, revives the dead, and as the Almighty, repairs the broken and restores the weak.
The woman suffering from bleeding, unable to find healing from any physician and experiencing even greater despair, learned of Jesus, who was widely known to welcome all and heal every ailment not through medicinal means, but through His command and divine power. She resolved in her heart, saying: "I will seek that great Healer, and though I feel shame for my condition, I will approach Him from behind and touch His cloak, trusting that this touch will bring me healing." With this firm conviction, she pressed through the crowd and touched His garment, believing: "If only I can touch His garment, I will be made whole." Instantly, her flow of blood ceased, and she felt within herself that she had been freed from her affliction (Mark 5:27-29).
Observe, Christian, the faith of this humble woman! Witness the potency, impact, and the fruits of her faith! She demonstrates to us the path to seek healing for our spiritual ailments—specifically from Christ through faith. Her declaration—"If I touch His garment, I will be restored"—illustrates the essence of faith, and she received the healing she earnestly sought. Where there is true faith, there is hope. Let us follow her example. When we approach Christ, let us do so with faith and hope, laying ourselves before His all-knowing presence in silent trust. In our prayers, we ought to beseech Him with genuine faith and hope. As we partake of His holy and life-giving Sacraments, we should come in anticipation of healing and renewal, remembering the example set by the woman who suffered from a hemorrhage. In this manner, our spiritual ailments will be addressed, and the source of our troubling passions will be diminished.
The evidence that our soul's maladies are beginning to heal is the reduction of harmful passions—less pride, self-love, avarice, hatred, jealousy, wrath, greed, and other evils manifesting within us, akin to the body beginning to heal as it sheds harmful substances. Just as detrimental fluids torment the body and lead toward death, sinful passions burden the soul and cause eternal separation from God. The body regains its health when freed from harmful substances; thus, the soul is restored when liberated from sinful passions. "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter (my soul) is severely demonized… Lord! Help me" (Matthew 15:22, 25). The great tormentor of the soul is sin, which disrupts inner peace and inclines the soul towards various temptations and distractions. "Lord! Help me! But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." May I too, though unworthy, hear the words, "Let it be done for you as you desire," just as the Canaanite woman did (Matt. 15:27-28).
The depths of the two seas rarely intermingle, much like the turmoil within this woman’s soul, fraught with uncertainty. After futile endeavors by physicians, costly treatments with no effect, and traditional remedies that proved inadequate, she found no accidental but rather a miraculous healing. What had resisted human expertise for years was ultimately restored through faith and humility. The woman remained at a distance, weighed down by natural modesty and deemed unclean according to Jewish law, which dictated her impurity and prohibited her from touching anything pure (cf. Lev. 15:25-27). She feared reaching out, worried about inciting the ire of the Jewish leaders and breaking the law.
Speaking was equally daunting; she feared drawing attention to herself and burdening others with her long-standing suffering. Her relentless agony grew increasingly unbearable, and the swift-moving Christ offered no opportunity for contemplation. She recognized that if she continued to remain silent and hide her affliction, her healing would elude her. In the turmoil of her thoughts, she discovered her sole avenue to salvation: to quietly seize her healing without uttering the words that terrified her, both out of shyness and deep respect for the One before her. Unworthy in a physical sense, she moved toward the Healer with faith in her heart, reaching out to touch the hem of His garment. She understood that such an act, though unconventional, would not only be forgiven but would also restore her, for her cunning was born not of greed but of desperate need. She realized that in her quest for healing, she would cause no harm to the One from whom she sought assistance. For twelve long years, what had defied human medicine was finally healed through her steadfast faith, transcending the constraints of time.
All the afflicted sought to touch His garments; among them was a woman who had been hemorrhaging, and upon experiencing healing, she contemplated retreating into obscurity. Rather than immediately moving to her, Jesus paused, facing the crowd, and inquired, "Who touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me?" He scanned the crowd, and realizing she could not remain concealed, the woman approached and fell at His feet, confessing the entire truth. Jesus praised her faith, saying, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace." What was the purpose of this? Did He who instructed the demon-possessed to remain silent desire recognition? The Savior performed this act to bolster Jairus' faith. He addressed Jairus, saying, "Do you see this woman?
She had suffered from bleeding for twelve years, expending all her resources on physicians, yet found no relief. Now, through touching the hem of My garment, she is healed. Witness this and let your faith be strengthened." At that very moment, as the Lord spoke, messengers arrived bearing the news to Jairus that his daughter had passed away.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jairus informs Jesus that his daughter has already passed away (ετελέυτησεν v. 18), prompting him to seek a resurrection. Conversely, the Gospels of Mark (εσχάτως έχει v. 23) and Luke (αυτη άπεθνισκεν v. 42) indicate that she was merely on the brink of death, leading Jairus to initially petition the Lord for his daughter’s healing; news of her death reached him a bit later. Given the condition of the afflicted woman and Jairus's emotional state, it seems unlikely that his words were entirely precise or devoid of uncertainty; he likely intended to convey that upon his departure from home, his daughter was in her final moments, and now she may indeed be dead.
However, since Matthew does not mention the arrival of the messengers with the news of the girl's death, the phrase, αΰτη ετελέυτησεν, fits the context better: Jairus’s initial request for healing must have transformed into a silent plea for her resurrection upon receiving the tragic news, even though he did not articulate this change verbally.
The woman suffering from hemorrhage hesitated to approach Jesus directly due to her condition, which rendered her ceremonially unclean (Luke 15); yet, her faith was so profound that she believed merely touching the fringe of His garment (κρασπεδον Mt. 20. Lk. 44 cf. Num. 15:38. Matthew 14:36. 23, 5. Lk. 8:44. Mk. 6:56) would suffice for healing. Jesus called her to openly profess her faith and acknowledge the miracle she experienced, asking, ‘Who is he that touches Me? I am the one who touched Me (Luke).’ His final remarks suggest that divine power could sometimes flow from Him involuntarily. Nevertheless, it is clear that Jesus was aware of the woman’s intentions and actions when she reached out to Him, and He spoke to her spirit, saying, ‘Courage, woman, thy faith shall save thee’ – a reassurance He later expressed aloud to her. It is noteworthy that while many thronged around Him and touched Him, only her faith drew forth healing power from Him. This illustrates that the act of touching Jesus carried significance not for Him, but for the woman, symbolizing the tangible expression of her faith that connected her to Christ.
As Jesus made his way to Jairus' residence, a woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve years approached him through the throng. This woman had long since lost all hope for healing, having sought remedies for her affliction without success. She came up from behind and touched the hem of his garment. Fearful of confronting Jesus directly and requesting healing, she recalled that, according to the law of Moses, a woman afflicted with such a condition was deemed unclean and was required to remain isolated during her illness, avoiding contact with others (Lev. 15:25-28). Nevertheless, her faith in Jesus' miraculous ability was so profound that she resolved to reach out and touch him discreetly, fully convinced that a mere touch would suffice for her healing.
Out of a sense of modesty, she felt apprehensive about disclosing the affliction she was enduring, yet she remained resolute in her quest for healing, seeking it discreetly. With unwavering determination and strength, she navigated through the throngs of people, striving to make contact with Him. At last, she succeeded in touching His robe in secret. The moment she realized she had received the healing she longed for, she hurried to blend back into the crowd, eager to remain unnoticed.
The account in Matthew 9:20-21 provides further detail: "She suffered many things from many physicians," highlighting the significance of this miracle and the extraordinary nature of the healing. Despite her desperate pleas to the doctors and her willingness to exhaust her resources in pursuit of relief, her condition only worsened due to the ineffectiveness of human expertise. In this context, it becomes evident that what medical practice could not accomplish was achieved in an instant through a mere touch of Christ’s garment, fueled by her faith in His miraculous power (Mark 5:27-28). She immediately sensed that her affliction was gone, as she later testified (Mark 5:33).
Among the throng, there was a woman who had suffered from a persistent hemorrhage for twelve years. She had sought the aid of numerous physicians, expending all her financial resources, yet rather than finding relief, her condition had worsened. In her desperation, she resolved to seek the assistance of the Great Physician, with a firm belief that healing was finally within reach. Ashamed of her affliction and considering herself unclean according to Jewish law (Leviticus 15:25), she could not bring herself to reveal her condition publicly. She thought to herself, "If only I can touch His cloak, I will be healed." Quietly and discreetly, she approached from behind Jesus and touched the fringe of His garment. St.
Philaret of Moscow noted that "the very Deity of Jesus Christ saw, knew, and truly revealed to His humanity who had touched Him," yet He chose to pose the matter outwardly to draw attention to the remarkable act and the wondrous result that followed.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 13 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS