What Does Matthew 9:22 Mean?

(22) **Be of good comfort.**—The same word of tenderness is spoken to her as had been spoken to the paralytic. What each needed, she the most of the two, was the courage, the enthusiasm of faith. **Thy faith hath made thee whole.**—Literally, *thy faith hath saved thee.* The rendering of the Authorised version is not wrong, and yet it represents but part of the full meaning of the word. Her faith had saved her, in the higher as well as in the lower sense. The teaching of the narrative lies almost on the surface. There may be imperfect knowledge, false shame, imperfect trust, and yet if the germ of faith be there, Christ, the Healer both of the souls and bodies of men, recognises even the germ, and answers the longing desire of the soul to be freed from its uncleanness. Other healers may have been sought in vain, but it finds its way through the crowd that seems to hinder its approach, and the “virtue” which it seeks goes forth even from the “hem of the garment,” even through outward ordinances (for thus we interpret the miracle, which is also a parable), which in themselves have no healing power. Eusebius, in his *Church History* (vii. 13), states that the woman belonged to Cæsarea Philippi, and that, in thankfulness for her cure, she set up two statues in bronze—one of herself in the attitude of supplication, and the other of our Lord standing erect and stretching forth His hand to her—and that these were shown in his own day, in the early part of the fourth century. In the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus (v. 26) she is called Veronica. The other Gospels relate more fully that the issue of blood ceased; that “she felt in her body that she was healed of her plague;” that Jesus perceived that “virtue had gone out of Him,” and asked the question, “Who is it that touched Me?” that the disciples answered—Peter as usual foremost (Luke 8:45)—“The multitude throng Thee and press Thee, and askest Thou, Who touched Me?” that our Lord then give His reason for the question. He had felt a touch, the touch of faith and unspoken prayer, which was very different from the pressure of the eager, curious crowd.