Daughter, your faith has made you well, go in peace (Luke 8.48).
This is intentional, because from a social, economic, and religious viewpoint, she is a nobody. But she was desperate for Jesus’ help.
This woman was suffering for 12 years from what we would call uterine bleeding. This condition was not only physically painful, but it also isolated her.
We don’t know if she was married or not, but her condition would most likely mean that she would not be able to get pregnant. And depending on what her husband was like, he could try and use this as a ground for divorce.
But we do know that according to the Jewish Law, any kind of bleeding, would render the woman ritually unclean (Leviticus 15.19), and unable to participate fully in her local synagogue.
She also had to be careful what she touched. She was considered unclean. Whatever the unclean touched became unclean. So, she lived with a profound sense of shame and isolation on top of the physical discomfort.
And just like today, when health care costs can put us into difficult financial situations, she experienced that as well: Luke tells us, “And though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone” (v 43).
The woman believed Jesus could still do something. So, as Jesus pressed through the crowds, she discreetly came up behind Jesus and touched just a fringe of his garment and Luke tells us: “Immediately her discharge of blood ceased” (v 44).
When no one else can do anything, Jesus can still do something! Jesus knew that he was touched in a way that was different from all the other people pressing in on him. Jesus wanted to highlight what had just happened. He wanted people to know about this woman’s faith in him and how he healed her.
So, Jesus asked, “Who was it that touched me” (v 45)?
Not only did Jesus heal her physically, but he was also restoring her socially and religiously. He publicly pronounced her clean, restoring her to participate in the synagogue. No one should isolate her anymore. The shame was gone.
She may have been a nobody to everybody, but to him she was a somebody—he called her daughter.
Let your heart rest in his care for you.