Matt 9:18–26 — Laying Hold of Christ By Faith

Matthew 8–9 records ten miracles performed by Jesus. Most are healings, although the stilling of the storm is a nature miracle. Together they demonstrate Christ’s divine power to save. The angel declared before his birth, “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” These miracles unfold the many facets of that salvation.

The Miracles Reveal Christ’s Salvation

The first miracle is the cleansing of the leper. The man knelt before Jesus and said, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” Jesus touched him and answered, “I will; be clean.” The second is the healing of the Roman centurion’s servant. The centurion did not consider himself worthy to receive Jesus into his house, yet he trusted that Christ needed only to speak a word for his servant to be healed. Jesus marveled at his faith.

The third miracle is the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. Jesus entered Peter’s house, saw her lying sick with a fever, touched her hand, and the fever left her. The fourth is the stilling of the storm. As the sovereign Lord of creation, Jesus rebuked the wind and sea. This nature miracle demonstrates his deity and power over the created order.

The fifth is the deliverance of the two Gadarene demoniacs. The demons recognized Jesus as the Son of God and asked whether he had come to torment them before the appointed time. At his command they entered a herd of pigs, which rushed down the bank and drowned in the sea. Jesus thereby displayed his authority over demons.

The sixth is the healing of the paralytic. Before healing his body, Jesus said, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” When the scribes questioned his authority to forgive sins, he healed the man as an outward sign of that inward grace.

Matthew now brings the seventh and eighth miracles together in one narrative: the healing of the woman with the flow of blood and the raising of the ruler’s daughter. The ninth and tenth will be the healing of two blind men and the deliverance of a demon-oppressed man who could not speak.

All these miracles display Christ as the divine Savior, but they illuminate different dimensions of salvation. The leper and the woman with the flow of blood portray cleansing from impurity. The centurion’s faith anticipates the inclusion of the Gentiles. Jesus says that many will come from east and west to recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. The paralytic depicts the forgiveness of sins. The Gadarene demoniacs show deliverance from the devil’s tyranny and transfer into Christ’s kingdom of salvation.

The miracles also announce that the kingdom has arrived in Jesus, the powerful kingdom-bearer. Like Atlas bearing the world upon his shoulders in ancient mythology, Jesus bears the kingdom and brings it to his people. Yet his kingdom is not a restoration of national Israel to its former earthly privileges. It is the spiritual kingdom of forgiveness, cleansing, deliverance, grace, and salvation, into which Gentiles are also welcomed.

The two miracles in today’s passage emphasize the kingdom’s eschatological character. “Eschatological” refers to the realities associated with the end of history: the resurrection of the dead, the lifting of the curse, the renewal of creation, and the restoration of paradise. These future realities already begin to break into the present through the person and ministry of Christ. In the face of death, Jesus brings resurrection life. In the face of the curse, he brings restoration and renewal. This account also reveals the nature of faith as reaching out to Christ to receive these eschatological blessings.

The Ruler’s Confident Faith

Verse 18 says, “While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, ‘My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.’” Mark identifies the man as Jairus, one of the rulers of the local synagogue. He was not a civil official but a leader among God’s people, comparable in some respects to an elder who helped oversee the synagogue.

Jairus kneels before Jesus, humbly acknowledging his authority as the Messiah and kingdom-bearer. His request displays remarkable confidence. He does not ask Jesus merely to try to help his daughter. He says, “Come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” He has no doubt that Christ’s touch can restore her to life.

Jesus rises and follows him, but the journey to Jairus’s house is interrupted. Matthew places one miracle inside another: Jairus asks Jesus to raise his daughter, the woman touches Jesus and is healed on the way, and then the narrative returns to the girl. The two healings form a literary sandwich, and their connection is theologically significant.

The Woman With the Flow of Blood

Verse 20 says, “Behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment.” Her reproductive system was not functioning properly. A twelve-year flow of blood was an agonizing manifestation of the curse upon creation.

After Adam and Eve sinned, God said to the woman, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children” (Gen. 3:16). This woman experienced the effects of that curse in her own body. This does not mean that God was punishing her for a particular sin. Nevertheless, all illness, suffering, and death entered the world because of sin. She labored beneath the curse that had fallen upon creation.

Her Ritual Uncleanness

Her condition also rendered her ceremonially unclean. Leviticus 15:25 says:

If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, not at the time of her menstrual impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her impurity, all the days of the discharge she shall continue in uncleanness.

Everything upon which she sat became unclean, and everything she touched was affected by her impurity. The law imposed comparable requirements upon men with bodily discharges, so this legislation was not uniquely directed against women.

The regulations concerning bodily discharges, leprosy, and other forms of uncleanness illustrated sin and its consequences. Sin separates human beings from God. After Adam and Eve sinned, they were expelled from Eden, the holy sanctuary where God met with them. God had warned, “In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Although they did not immediately die physically, their expulsion from God’s presence placed them in the realm of death. To be ceremonially unclean likewise meant exclusion from the sanctuary, the place of life and communion with God.

The Mosaic law offered no means of healing leprosy or an abnormal discharge. It provided only a procedure by which someone who had recovered could be examined by a priest, offer the required sacrifice, and regain access to the temple. The law could identify and exclude uncleanness, but it could not heal, save, or restore. Its inability prepared the way for Christ, who alone possesses the power to make the unclean clean.

Her Bold Act of Faith

The woman said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” This was a remarkable act of faith. For twelve years, her condition had effectively told her, “Do not touch that. Do not sit there. Stay away.” Everything she touched became unclean. Yet she boldly reached out and touched the fringe of Jesus’ garment.

She reasoned that there was more cleanness and power in Jesus than there was uncleanness in herself. Her impurity could contaminate ordinary things, but it was powerless before Christ’s ability to make clean. She believed that touching him would not defile him; instead, his holiness and healing power would overcome her uncleanness.

Jesus immediately turned and saw her. Matthew does not explain why he turned, but Mark records that Jesus “perceived in himself that power had gone out from him” (Mark 5:30). Jesus did not rebuke the woman for touching him. He spoke words of gospel comfort: “Take heart, daughter.”

He understood the devastation of being excluded from God’s presence and the covenant community for twelve years, with no end in sight. His words mirror those spoken to the paralytic: “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” Jesus does not explicitly mention forgiveness to the woman, but the parallel suggests its presence. He comforts her and receives her as a daughter.

The expression “made well” occurs three times. The woman says, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” Jesus answers, “Your faith has made you well.” Matthew then reports, “Instantly the woman was made well.” The Greek verb can also be translated “saved.” It is the same verb used in Matthew 1:21: “He will save his people from their sins.”

The immediate reference is physical healing, which explains the translation “made well.” Yet the miracles point beyond bodily restoration to Christ’s deeper salvation. The woman was saved by reaching out to Christ in faith and touching his garment.

The Ruler’s Daughter Raised

The narrative then returns to Jairus’s daughter. When Jesus arrived at the house, he saw flute players and a crowd making a commotion. Families commonly hired professional mourners and musicians after a death. The mournful music, wailing, beating of breasts, and lamentation announced that death had claimed the girl and that her life had ended.

Jesus said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” He did not deny that she had physically died; Jairus had plainly said, “My daughter has just died.” The crowd also knew that she was dead and laughed at Jesus because they did not share Jairus’s faith. Jesus meant that her death was not permanent. She had fallen asleep, and he would awaken her.

His words give the church a hopeful vocabulary for believers who die. First Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15 speak of Christians who have “fallen asleep” in Christ. They truly die, but death is not their end. On the resurrection morning they will awaken when Jesus raises them to immortal life.

After putting the unbelieving crowd outside, Jesus entered the room, took the girl by the hand, and she arose. The gesture is strikingly tender: he takes her hand and lifts her from death. This is what he will do for all his people at the last day. He will raise us, bring us into God’s presence, undo the effects of the fall and the curse, defeat death, and renew creation.

Why the Two Miracles Belong Together

The woman’s healing and the girl’s resurrection are intertwined because uncleanness is closely related to death. Under the Mosaic law, contact with a corpse made a person unclean. Leprosy also bore the appearance of death as the body deteriorated. Bodily discharges symbolized death because uncleanness excluded a person from God’s life-giving presence.

Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden demonstrates this relationship. God said that they would die on the day they ate the forbidden fruit, and that death first appeared as separation from his presence. The woman with the flow of blood was therefore as good as dead. When Jesus cleansed and restored her, he gave her a form of resurrection. When he raised Jairus’s daughter, he displayed the same saving reality in its most direct form.

The Gospels record only three people whom Jesus raised from the dead: Jairus’s daughter, the widow of Nain’s son (Luke 7:11–17), and Lazarus (John 11). The widow’s only son was restored to a mother who otherwise faced destitution without a male relative to care for her. Each resurrection points forward to the last day, when Christ will raise all who belong to him.

The other healings belong to the same pattern. Lepers, fevered people, paralytics, and the ceremonially unclean all experience Christ’s resurrection power to restore life and renew creation. The kingdom’s presence in Christ is like a stream flowing through a desert, producing life where death had reigned and making the flowers of paradise bloom where the curse had left only barrenness.

Jesus accomplishes the renewal of creation through his own death and resurrection. In this life we experience its beginnings through salvation: forgiveness, cleansing, and restored fellowship with God. These blessings anticipate the bodily resurrection and the renewal of all things at the end.

The Confidence of Saving Faith

This account teaches something precious about saving faith. Saving faith is confidence in Christ’s promise and power. Jairus says, “Come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” The woman says, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” Both emphasize the word “will.” They are confident that Christ can save.

Their boldness does not arise from contemplating their own godliness or the strength of their faith. They are convinced that Jesus possesses all power. They have seen or heard that he casts out demons, heals paralytics, and restores the sick. His power draws needy people to himself like a magnet.

Neither Jairus nor the woman focuses upon the act of believing. They do not congratulate themselves for laying hold of Christ or admire the greatness of their faith. Their attention rests upon Jesus. Certain of his divine saving power, they come to him in their need and reach out to receive his grace. The power of faith resides in its object, not in faith itself.

The Zip-Line Analogy

Faith may be compared to attaching the clip of a safety harness to a zip line. The clip connects the rider to the cable, but the act of attaching it does not bear the rider’s weight. The strength of the cable holds the rider safely. Security does not depend upon how forcefully or skillfully the rider fastened the clip.

In the same way, faith connects us to Christ, but faith itself does not save. Christ saves by his power and grace. We are not saved because our grasp upon him is strong. We are saved because the Christ whom faith receives is strong.

Jesus does say to the woman, “Your faith has made you well,” or literally, “Your faith has saved you.” This does not transfer saving power from Christ to faith. The woman had said, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” The word “only” is decisive. Faith is nothing meritorious in itself. It simply touches Christ and lays hold of him.

The power is not from us; it is from Christ. Otherwise, salvation would depend upon the strength of our faith and the firmness of our grasp. The woman knew that she needed only to touch his garment because Christ possessed the power to cleanse her uncleanness, save her, and raise her from the realm of death. Saving faith rests not in its own strength but in the almighty Savior whom it receives.