NOTES for Mat 9:18-26
The healing of the woman with the flow of blood is a very impressive miracle. The point is not even that, according to the rules, she was not supposed to touch anyone, yet dared to do so. In any case, we should not always use this example to justify our disregard for rules. This is not why the evangelist records the story, nor is this what Christ approves in her actions. What contrasts most sharply with the behavior familiar to us is that she truly needs the Lord desperately. All her hope is concentrated in Him, and all the strength of her spirit is directed toward attaining this touch. She truly can no longer live unless she touches the Lord Jesus.
It was precisely this need for God that earned the Lord’s praise. Compared with it, much in our “religious practice” will seem weak and, to use the term from Revelation, lukewarm. Perhaps what matters to the Lord above all is the strength and all-embracing nature of this need, burning within an ordinary person just like each of us.