“For she said, ‘If I touch even his garments, I will be made well’” (Mark 5:28 ESV).
In Mark’s gospel, he recorded that a woman who had suffered twelve years with a discharge of blood believed that if she could only touch Jesus’ garments, she would be made well. Reading this story in today’s One Year Bible assignment, along with the Old Testament reading from Leviticus, made for a revealing juxtaposition. For according to Leviticus 11–12, a bleeding woman was ceremonially unclean. Anyone she touched became unclean. Yet Mark presented a stunning reversal: instead of her impurity defiling Jesus, His holiness overcame her uncleanness.
The Greek word she used for “made well” (sōthēsomai) also carried the meaning “to save.” Mark intentionally employed salvation language to hint that Jesus’ power extended beyond physical healing. In the same chapter, Jesus touched a dead girl and raised her. Leviticus had taught that touching a corpse brought defilement. Mark demonstrated that when the Holy One was touched, life replaced death and cleansing replaced impurity. What the Law condemned, Jesus overcame. Her trembling reach toward His garment revealed her belief that Jesus alone was sufficient.
Leviticus 11–12 detailed how easily uncleanness spread—through touch, through blood, through death. It helps us to see how serious sin and impurity are before a holy God. Yet in Mark 5 we see something greater: when we reach out to Christ by faith, His holiness flows toward us. Our uncleanness does not contaminate Him; His righteousness cleanses us.
Like this woman, we may come with desperate, imperfect faith. We may feel unworthy or ashamed. But if we believe that Jesus alone is sufficient, we too will find that His saving power is greater than our sin. The Law shows us our need; Christ shows us the cure. And when we reach out for Him in faith, we find that His hand was already reaching out to touch us.
PRAYER: Dear Father, we confess that we are unclean apart from You. Thank You for sending Jesus, whose holiness overcomes our impurity and whose touch brings life from death. Let us live in the joy of knowing that He has touched us and made us whole. In Jesus’ name, amen.