Why would this desperately ill woman be afraid to admit that she was the one who had touched Jesus (verse 33)? After all, a huge crowd was gathering around Him and pressing in on Him (verse 31), trying to get His attention, begging Him for many different kinds of healing. But she knew she was different, somehow unworthy to come into contact with Him.

For the Law of Moses was very specific: if a woman had a flow of blood beyond her normal menstrual period, she was to be considered unclean as long as she continued to bleed. Moreover, anyone who even touched a bed on which she lay or a chair on which she sat was also considered unclean (Leviticus 15:25-27). So that’s what she was afraid to admit to Jesus: that she had defiled Him with her touch.

But that’s the good news about Jesus, isn’t it? For our sin has in fact made Him unclean. In fact, Paul goes so far as to say that the Father “made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf…” But he goes on to say that the result for us was the same sort of miraculous healing and cleansing that this woman received: “… that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (II Corinthians 5:21).

Yes, that’s the good news for us today: all who come to Christ in faith, all who trust in His perfect sacrifice and receive His gracious pardon, all who fall down before Him, acknowledging His sovereign authority over us will not only be made clean and whole. When the Father looks at us, He will call us sons and daughters because He will see only the righteousness of Christ in us.

So today, let us follow this woman’s example, drawing near to Christ in faith. For if we only touch the hem of His garment, we will indeed be made whole.

Mark 5:25-34 (NASB)

25 And a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years,
26 and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse,
27 after hearing about Jesus, came up in the crowd behind Him, and touched His cloak.
28 For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I shall get well.”
29 And immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
30 And immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?”
31 And His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?'”
32 And He looked around to see the woman who had done this.
33 But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him, and told Him the whole truth.
34 And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”