***** (continued)
She was bleeding for 12 long years. Various versions of the Bible describe her as the woman with the issue of blood, the bleeding woman, the hemorrhaging woman, or the woman with the discharge of blood. Whatever the description, imagine having your monthly period or something like it, unending for 12 years!!
She suffered because of doctors. Countless doctors’ appointments and she became worse.
She had no money. She had spent all her money on doctors’ bills.
She was considered “unclean” according to Jewish law. In Leviticus 15:25 we read the regulations concerning women and bleeding. “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. And she is considered unclean until 7 days after her bleeding stops and anyone who touches her is unclean.” Unclean for 12 years!!
But she had heard about Jesus and believed he could heal her. She did not dare approach Jesus like others, probably because she was considered unclean and should not come near any man especially a rabbi. To ask Jesus to heal her, like others had, would be to ask Jesus to become unclean.

Imagine with me the range of emotions she experienced.

First,12 long years of despair, desperation, and shame.
Then hope and anticipation: “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.”
Then incredible joy, feeling the healing and relief in her body.
Then fear, being discovered, angering Jesus, and unintentionally stealing his power. When Jesus asked, “Who touched me?!”, the woman no doubt thought, “Oh what have I done now?” Unable to hide, she had to fearfully explain herself: “And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed.”
Then came even more joy when Jesus released her from her fear: “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.” “He called me daughter! He affirmed my faith in him! He knows me!”

Jesus could have let her slip quietly back into the crowd and disappear, but he took the opportunity to love her and affirm her faith and courage, showing her that physical healing was not the most important thing. Rather, her faith in him and her relationship to him were of the greatest value to him.

She reached out and touched him, then he reached out and affirmed and loved her.

I imagine she repeated and treasured the precious, personal words from Jesus over and over for the rest of her life.

If you were to reach out and touch Jesus, what would you want most from him? And what do you hear him saying to you, his beloved daughter?