When the bleeding woman sought out Jesus, she was seeking healing. She assumed that physical healing would be her highest good. What she couldn’t imagine was that Jesus could offer her a recovery better than the physical healing and ceremonial cleanness she sought. All she knew was that if Jesus could stop her bleeding, she could gain her life back.
With one touch from Jesus, her body was healed, and for the first time in 12 years, she was also clean according to God’s law. This meant she could be part of her community again! Usually, cleanness came through washing, sacrifices, or showing oneself to the priest. In essence, the person who was unclean always had to do something to gain or prove their cleansing.
On this day, not only was the bleeding woman healed, but Jesus transferred his cleanness to her. No one had ever done this before! Any other man would have been made unclean by her touch, but Jesus reversed the order of things and his touch made her clean. Even though she hadn’t done anything to deserve it—she hadn’t made a sacrifice; she hadn’t proven she was worthy.
What a beautiful truth this moment foreshadows: that our status as sinners is changed by the status of Jesus as a perfect, spotless sacrifice. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus offered the ultimate cleansing to all who love him and believe in him. He took our sin upon himself and gave us his righteousness and purity.
No matter what kind of healing you’re waiting for, Jesus has already offered us the gift of ultimate spiritual healing in him, greater than any earthly healing we can imagine.
Ann Swindell is the author of Still Waiting: Hope for When God Doesn’t Give You What You Want(Tyndale). Learn more at AnnSwindell.com and on Twitter at @AnnSwindell.
