Woman Healed from an Issue of Blood, Luke 8

While Jesus was making his way through a crowded street in Capernaum, a woman desiring to be healed touched the fringe of Jesus’ tallit’s tzitzit (see definition below):

“But as he went the people thronged him. And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.” Luke 8:42-48.

Can you imagine in the picture above what people would think if someone turned around and asked who touched me? People would think that person was crazy.

A tallit is a prayer shawl worn over or under a shirt. It is unique in having long dangely strings (called tzitzit). The wearing of this garment is a commandment found in Numbers 15:38-39, “Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them.” As a good observant Jew, Jesus would have kept all commandments in the Bible, but not the extra do’s and don’ts added later by sects such as the Pharisees. Jesus also observed all of the Jewish feasts, because the law of Moses was in effect until the death and resurrection of Christ.

The woman in Luke 8:42-48 would have been embarrassed and shamed to be identified, as an issue of blood would render her ritually unclean, and who she touched would also be ritually unclean (see Leviticus 15:19-29). But diseases, illness and other uncleanness had no power over the Son of God. It was he who gave the commandments to Moses.