The Woman Who Touched His Cloak

A large crowd followed and pressed around Jesus. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.

When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, 'If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.' Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, 'Who touched my clothes?'

'You see the people crowding against you,' his disciples answered, 'and yet you can ask, "Who touched me?"'

But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.

He said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.'

For twelve years this woman had suffered—physically, financially, socially, and spiritually. Her condition made her ritually unclean; she couldn't worship at the temple or touch anyone without making them unclean too. She was isolated, hopeless, and desperate.

But she had faith. She believed that just touching Jesus' clothes would be enough. And it was. Jesus felt her faith amid the jostling crowd and stopped to honor her publicly, calling her 'Daughter'—restoring not just her body but her dignity.