The story of the sick woman in Mark 5:24-34 has long intrigued me, if for no other reason because Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers put it to music in Touch the Hem of His Garment. The story is easy to lose as it is only ten verses of a miracle that is buried amongst the unfolding story of a larger miracle (Mark 5:21-43). Jesus is literally on his way to raise a young girl from the dead when this event occurs. The woman, destitute because of her ongoing illness, is certain that she will be healed “if I may but touch his clothes.” She does and she is.
But the interesting part of the story to me is the aftermath. The woman is part of “a large crowd [that] followed and pressed around” Jesus, yet as the woman touches Jesus’ garment, he recognizes it. The New International Version notes Jesus “realized that power had gone out from him” whereas in the King James version it talks of “virtue” leaving him. “Power” or “virtue,” the lesson here to me is what Jesus tells the woman – “[Y]our faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
Okay, all that to get to a single point. Jesus doesn’t say “I have healed you” or “God has healed you.” Instead he credits the woman and her faith with the healing.
It occurs to me... 