But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.
Ver. 22. But Jesus turned him about] To take notice of it himself, and to notify it to others. For these reasons, saith Chrysostom: 1. To free the woman from fear, lest her conscience should call her recreant, as one that had stole a cure. 2. To make up in her what was wanting to her faith, if she should have any such thought to do Song of Solomon 3:1,11. To manifest her faith, for other men's imitation. 4. To make known his omniscience, and so his Divinity. 5. To confirm the ruler's faith, and so fit him for further mercy. 6. To teach her and us that not his garment, but himself, did the cure. This makes against that Popish foppery in worshipping relics, as the clothes wherein Christ's body was enwrapped, of the virtue whereof Paleottus, Archbishop of Bonony, set forth a great book, A. D. 1617.
And the woman was made whole, &c.] That fable recorded by Eusebius is scarcely worth relating; that this woman should set up at her door in Caesarea Philippi a statue of brass in honour of our Saviour; near whereto grew a certain herb good for all diseases. Irenaeus (far more ancient than Eusebius) reproveth the heretics, called Gnostici, for that they carried about them the image of Christ made in Pilate's time, after his own proportion; using also for declaration of their affection towards it to set garlands upon the head of it. And in Epiphanius's time (who lived soon after Eusebius) images and statues of Christ or the saints were abhorred by Christians. The Turks will not endure any image, no not upon their coin, because of the second commandment; and the Papists, for their imagery, they call idolaters.