The Cure of the Bleeding Woman
James Tissot (French, 1836-1902). The Woman with an Issue of Blood (1886-1896). Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper. Brooklyn Museum.
Perhaps the greatest insight into how Jesus performed his miracles comes from the story of the woman with a hemorrhage who got cured by touching Jesus' cloak.
“As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately the bleeding stopped.
”Who touched me?” Jesus asked.
When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”
But Jesus said, “Somebody touched me; I know that power has gone out of me.”
Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed.
The he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.””
Under Jewish law (Leviticus 15:19-30), this woman was unclean, an outcast. She couldn't touch anyone, not could anyone touch her.
This is the reason she dared to touch only the edge of Jesus' cloak. It was a sign of desperation and faith, tempered with a conscious concern not to contaminate the holy man.
Significantly, this miracle occurred with no direct action by Jesus himself. Jesus and the woman both witnessed the event, as he felt the power go out of him and she felt the cessation of her symptoms. Jesus pointed out to her that it was her faith which had affected the cure.
Instantaneous cures do not fall within the realm of natural science - they are deemed to be impossible. It is perhaps appropriate to wonder whether there is a "science of the impossible".
Faith is a word. Understanding what Jesus meant by it is worthy of study.
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