Please help me to understand Matt. 9:20-22.
Let’s read that portion. Matthew 9:20-22 says, “And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.” For a little more background information about this lady, let’s read Mark 5:26 which says she, “…had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse.”
According to Mark 5:22; the Lord had been approached by a man named Jairus, one of the very few leaders of the synagogue who believed on Him. His 12 year old daughter was very sick and he asked the Lord to come to his house to heal her. Mark 5:24 tells us, “And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him.” It was while the Lord was on His way to Jairus’ house that this woman who had ‘an issue of blood twelve years’came to Him. Under the law, this woman would have been considered ‘unclean’ as we read in Leviticus 15:25, “And if a woman have an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or if it run beyond the time of her separation; all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation: she shall be unclean.” Yet she approached the Lord believing that if she should just touch the hem of His garment, she would be healed. What faith this woman had! She had struggled with this disease for twelve years, visited many doctors, and spent all her money trying to find a cure. Yet, after realizing there was nothing that any man could do; there was nothing any money could buy, she turned, in faith, to the Lord Jesus. The Lord, who can look on the heart said to her, “Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole.”
This is a wonderful lesson for us. Once we finally realize that we are ‘unclean’ before the Lord; once we realize there is no one, or no amount of money that can bring us relief from the consequences of our sins, if we simply turn to the Lord Jesus in faith, He will immediately heal us of our ‘sin sickness’ and make us whole. The Lord calls all men to come to Him that they might be saved. He said in Matthew 11:28, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
I encourage you to read the rest of the story in Matthew 9:23-25. After healing this woman, the Lord proceeds on to Jairus’ house where He finds that his 12 year old daughter had died. Showing His boundless love, sovereignty, and power, the Lord takes this young girl by the hand and raises her from the dead. Notice that the woman had been dying for 12 years and the Lord healed her. This little girl had been living for 12 years and died. In both of these instances, the Lord did the impossible by healing what man could not and by raising a child back to life once she was dead. Who else but God Himself could do such things? This speaks volumes to us about the person of the Lord Jesus. He is God!
Let me end with a quote from A.C. Gaebelein, an excellent expositor of God’s Word. He brings out a scriptural dispensational truth from this event. He wrote, “The daughter which had died is the type of the daughter of Zion, spiritually and nationally dead. The Lord is on the way to raise her up. The woman, who touches Him and is healed, represents Gentiles, who touch Him in faith. This miracle is a parenthetical event, just as the present age with its era of salvation to the Gentiles is a great parenthesis. And as He raised the daughter of the ruler, so will He in the future raise up Israel.” (177.5)