Where Virtue Flows

Jesus had a way of meeting people in the margins, of touching the untouchable and loving the unlovable. Perhaps that is why so many New Testament stories resonate deeply with us, even with the distance of time, language, and culture, which separates us. A Canaanite woman with a tortured daughter. A tax collector despised by his countrymen. A man born blind, begging by the roadside. A leper forced to live outside the city. A woman with an issue of blood. We read their stories today, and even two thousand years removed, it feels personal. We can identify with them being on the outside because that is how we feel. We feel their pain because it is our pain; we identify with their struggles because they are our struggles. Their stories are our stories. And because each of them had a life-changing encounter with Jesus, we somehow feel hope for our own circumstances. If Jesus could meet them, He can meet us. If Jesus could change them, He can change us.

Perhaps that is why the Holy Spirit inspired the Gospel writers to include these stories in the sacred story we call the Bible; not merely to document the miraculous deeds of Jesus’s ministry, but to hold out hope for the rest of us. To allow each story to serve as a visual aid to God’s continuing desire to save, to deliver, and to heal. To paint a path forward for those who find themselves in similar circumstances but don’t know how to take the next step. The lessons we learn from these encounters can teach us about our Savior, even as they teach us about ourselves, and provide us with valuable insights on how we might approach Jesus in our own times.

That lesson is perhaps most striking in the story of the woman with the issue of blood, which is the subject of this book. The bulk of this treatment can be traced to a sermon that I have preached on several occasions, usually by the same title, or some variation of it. Through careful study and prayerful reflection, I have concluded that there are at least three elements to this unnamed woman’s story that are deeply significant for us today: her desperate need, her determined heart, and her daring faith. Drawing these themes out of the text will be the main effort of this short book, with a concluding chapter to make an important personal application.

Let’s take a moment to survey her story:

Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.” Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?” But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”

She had what the King James Version of the Bible calls “an issue of blood,” an incurable hemorrhage that only got worse with time, even though she paid for the best medical treatment available (Luke 8:43). Then one day, she heard about a man from Galilee who was doing the miraculous. Blind eyes were being opened! The lame were walking! The deaf were hearing! Something within her own heart leapt with hope. I don’t have to stay this way. I can be healed!

With unshakable resolve, she found her way to where Jesus was. She spied Him through the crowd and thought, If I can just touch His clothes, I will be healed! She forced her way through the swarming entourage, finally inching her way on hands and knees until her prize was within reach. Then, in a moment of truth, she reached out and laid hold of her miracle.

I’ll save the rest for later. Suffice it to say, her story made such an impact on those around Jesus that day that three out of four Gospel writers included it in their narratives, and we are still talking about her today.

That being the case, one wonders what could possibly be said that we have not already heard. After all, adding all three Gospel accounts together, this incident comprises a grand total of only nineteen verses. Is that enough to merit the writing (or the reading) of an entire book, even a small one like this?

Absolutely.

I intend on taking you on a journey that will not only flesh out the details of this beautiful story, but will also reveal how her story is really your story, and how the lessons learned from this ancient text can make a difference in your life today.

You see, in the very moment she laid hold of Jesus, something extraordinary happened. Something happened for her that will just as certainly happen for you. Virtue flowed into her. The word virtue is King James English for power. In Chapter Four we will explore its meaning in more depth, but for now, let’s just consider what it meant for this woman: healing, wholeness, and restoration. She would never be the same again.

Let me make you a promise. If you will open your heart and receive with faith the message contained in this little book, you too will never be the same. Like her, you will find yourself in the most unlikely yet the most rewarding place, the place in His presence where virtue flows.