Faith's Touch.
Notice:
I. What this woman did. "Jesus said, Who touched Me?" That more is meant here than the mere manual or external touch is evident, not only from the whole circumstances of the narrative, but from the explicit and emphatic testimony of our Lord Himself. He expressly distinguishes between her touch and that of the unthinking crowd around as a thing totally and essentially different; and then, in His closing words, He declares plainly what that thing was. "Daughter: thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace." That is, it was not the mere bodily contact that constituted the saving touch, but that living faith of the heart, of which it was but the instinctive and touching expression. Hers was (1) secret faith, (2) trembling faith, (3) an imperfect faith, (4) a strong faith, (5) an earnest and resolute faith.
II. What the multitude did. Note the difference between the attitude of this woman and that of the multitude around her. Theirs was the mere contact of the body, hers of the heart and soul; theirs a mere external and unmeaning pressure; hers a living act of trust and love. The human eye, indeed, could detect no difference. To a mere spectator, all stood in the same relation to Him. Surely it were vain amid such a crowd, all of whom are pressing on Him, and thronging His path, to single out any one to whom more than another the charge may be applied. But no; while thousands throng the Saviour, one alone toucheth Him. Jesus answered, " Somebodyhath touched Me."
III. The test to distinguish between the one touch and the other. "Jesus said, Somebody hath touched Me: for I perceive that virtue hath gone out of Me." This, then, was the test; the sacred touch was proved by the outflowing of the healing virtue. There is no healing influence without faith no true faith without healing influence. Therefore, the fact so well known to Him who is the one Source and Dispenser of grace, that such influence had gone forth from Him to this woman, was the decisive and infallible proof that she had touched Him in a way that none of the throng around her had. Thus alone can we surely know that we have truly believed in Jesus to the saving of our souls; when it has become manifest to all men and ourselves that a saving virtue has come from Him to us, and that through that mighty virtue old things are passed away, and all things are made new.
I. Burns, Select Remains,p. 46.
I. In the case of this woman, we perceive that two things went together an inward act of faith, and recourse to something external; both the internal and the external bearing upon Christ. She touched the hem of His garment. Our Lord in all His miracles required a susceptibility on the part of the applicant for His mercy, and an outward action as regarded Himself. He required faith on the part of the person seeking His aid; and then He touched that person, or spake certain words to him, or anointed his eyes with clay, or bade him have recourse to some action insignificant in itself. The two acts were combined, the inward and the outward; one suffered not without the other, but both went together.
II. It is not superstition, then, for faithful men to use and rely upon the ordinances of the Christian religion; there is no superstition in having recourse to actions, between which and their results there exists no discernible connection, if only those actions be either enjoined or sanctioned by God. It would not be superstitious for a man, sick of the palsy, to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, in expectation of a cure, if the Lord God had commanded him to do so, and had promised restoration to health as the reward of his obedience; but to do this, or any similar thing, without a promise, this would be superstitious. The superstitious property in an act consists not in having recourse to means, apparently inefficacious, but in having recourse to them without a sufficient warrant from reason or from revelation. It is through things external that many of the gifts and graces which we expect to realise in the Church are to pass from Christ, from whom alone the virtue emanates, to our souls. Love Christ and prove your love by keeping His commandments. But having done all, remember that, notwithstanding your love, the disease of sin is upon you, and touch the hem of His garment. Rely on Christ only for salvation, and prove that you do so, not by pleading your faith, as if faith were anything meritorious, but by permitting your faith to lead you to Christ, that you may touch the hem of His garment.
W. F. Hook, Sermons on the Miracles,vol. i., p. 242.
We have here (1) a touch incited by past failure; (2) a touch effective through faith; (3) a touch publicly acknowledged.
E. Mellor, The Hem of Christ's Garment,p. 1.
References: Luke 8:45. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. ii., p. 251; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iii., p. 281.Luke 8:46. Preacher's Monthly,vol. iv., p. 227. Luke 8:47. Spurgeon, Evening by Evening,p. 45.Luke 8:48. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iii., p. 283.Luke 8:49. Expositor,1st series, vol. iv., p. 31; Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxviii., p. 184.Luke 8:52. T. Gasquoine, Ibid.,vol. viii., p. 58. Luke 9:1-6. Preacher's Monthly,vol. iii., p. 253.Luke 9:1-11. A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve,p. 99. Luke 9:1-48. F. D. Maurice, The Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven,p. 150. Luke 9:10-17. Preacher's Monthly,vol. iii., p. 291.Luke 9:11. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxvii., No. 1624.Luke 9:12-17. A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve,p. 120.