Matthew 9:18-26
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
November 10, 2024
I want to tell you this morning of a beautiful faith of a beloved daughter of God. Faith is the belief and trust that a person has in the heart. And the Holy Spirit gave us a vivid picture of this woman’s faith, when He caused St. Matthew to write, “For she said in herself, ‘If only I shall touch His garment, I will be saved.’” Now, was this a right faith the woman had in her heart? Absolutely. We know that her faith was good and right, because of how Jesus praises it. “Take heart, daughter; your faith has saved you.” (The English translators often translate the word for saved in both cases as “made well,” but it is best to leave the word as saved, because it encompasses both her physical health and her eternal salvation.) The point is, her faith said, “If I only touch His garment, I will be saved.” And Jesus told her, “Your faith has saved you.” So, if you want a sure and certain example of saving faith, you have it right here.
Yet, what did the woman mean by, “If only I touch his garment…”? Did she trust in Jesus’ cloak? No. She trusted in Jesus, who wore the cloak. And she believed that He who could raise the dead was so powerful that if she even touched the clothes He was wearing that her ailment would be healed. And Jesus commended her for this thinking.
Yet, there are those who say, “Baptism does not save, because faith alone saves;” and “The Lord’s Supper cannot save, because only faith saves;” and “A minister cannot forgive sins, because only God can forgive sins.” Yet, does the teaching that faith alone saves (Ephesians 2:8) mean that Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and the preaching of the Gospel do not save? Certainly not. They say that water Baptism cannot save, because it is just water; and that the Lord’s Supper cannot save, because it is only bread and wine; and that the preacher’s words cannot save, because he’s just a man. Well, who doesn’t know that water is just water, and that bread and wine are just bread and wine, and that a man is just a man, and that a cloak is just a cloak?
But if the cloak is worn by Christ, why can’t she who touches it be saved? She is not placing her faith in the cloak, but in Christ, who wears the cloak. How much more should the water, which Christ clothed Himself with save the one who is touched by it? The woman didn’t even receive a promise that if she touched His cloak she would be made well. She simply inferred it. Yet, Jesus gives us a beautiful promise that whoever believes and is baptized will be saved (Mark 16:16). And He has joined Himself to these baptismal waters when He Himself was Baptized and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him and the Father declared, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Of the Baptism water, St. Paul writes, “As many of you as were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ,” (Galatians 3:27) and again, he writes so clearly in Romans 6, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 We were buried therefore with Him by Baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.” Jesus joined Himself to the baptismal waters, putting them on Himself as a garment. And St. Paul tells us that all who join themselves to that baptismal garment join themselves to Christ. So, as the woman’s beautiful faith told her that if she but touched Jesus’ garment, she would be saved, so we ought to believe that if we are baptized into Christ we are rescued from sin, death, and eternal condemnation.
Likewise, of the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper, Jesus says, “This is my body given for you; this is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:26-28) And St. Paul assures us that as many eat and drink of the bread and cup of the Lord participate in His body and blood (1 Cor. 10:16). So, as the woman trusted that by touching His cloak, she was touching her Savior Jesus, so we believe that when we eat His bread and wine, we are eating the body and blood of our Lord for our forgiveness and salvation.
Furthermore, Jesus said to His ministers, “The one who hears you hears me.” (Luke 10:16) So, we know that Jesus clothes Himself in the minister’s words, when he preaches Christ. Christ wants to come to you through His Word spoken by His servant. So, you know that when the minister declares your sins forgiven, whether in the absolution or in the preaching, it is true before God in heaven. Jesus did not put this woman to shame for her faith that if only she touched His garment she would be saved, how much less will Jesus put you to shame when you trust His promise in Baptism, in the Lord’s Supper, in the Absolution, and in the preaching of the Gospel, that whoever receives these things receives Christ Himself? No, as He told the woman who touched His garment, “Take heart, daughter, your faith has saved you,” so Jesus tells you every time you remember your Baptism, hear the Absolution, receive the Lord’s Supper, and believe the preaching of the Gospel, “take heart my son, my daughter, your faith has saved you.”
Faith does not save you because it is some great work you do. Faith only saves because it trusts in and receives Christ Jesus. Had the woman put her trust in any other man, she would not have been healed. But since she put her trust in Christ, she was saved. So, faith depends on Christ, not on your own worthiness. The woman’s faith did not tell her that she was worthy of Christ. The woman’s faith told her that Christ was willing and able to save her. This woman had been afflicted with this bleeding for twelve years, the entire lifetime of the little girl Jesus was going to raise. This left her not only miserable, but unclean. According to the Law of Moses a woman with a discharge was not permitted to touch holy things (Leviticus 15). Yet, this unclean woman touched Jesus, who is the Holy of Holies. And instead of her being condemned for breaking the ceremonial Law, she was cleansed.
The woman’s unclean bleeding represents our own uncleanness. Jesus says in Matthew 18, “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person.” So, as this woman walked the entire lifetime of this girl in uncleanness, so we spend our lives unclean by our own sin. We are unworthy to come into Christ’s presence. We are unworthy to worship Him, let alone touch Him. Yet, faith sprouts from neediness, not worthiness. We are not worthy of Christ, but we need Him. We need Him to forgive us. We need Him to cleanse us. This woman with the beautiful faith did not consider whether she was worthy of Christ, but her faith told her that she needed Him. So, she reached out and touched Him, and she was healed. So, we come to church to be with Christ, to touch Him through His Word and Sacraments, not because we are worthy (we’re not), but because we desperately need him. This teaches us that only those who recognize their sin and their need for cleansing will have true faith in Christ. If you do not think you need to be cleansed, then you do not have true faith.
The woman interrupted Jesus when He was busy with an important and urgent task. The ruler of the synagogue, Jairus, had come to Him and told Him that his daughter had died. Mark and Luke tell us that he said that his daughter was about to die and that they learned that she died on their way to his house. Matthew jumps ahead and says that she had already died. Regardless, they are hurrying to Jairus’s home to save his daughter from death. The matter is urgent. This woman’s situation, on the other hand, does not seem so urgent. She had been bleeding for twelve years. She was bleeding yesterday. She was bleeding that day. She would be bleeding the next day. Most people would not consider this an emergency, not urgent, but something that could have been dealt with later. Yet, Jesus stops his rush to the dying girl’s home to help this woman. He treats here condition as if it is urgent.
This teaches us about faith in Christ and about Christ. Faith desires urgently to hear Christ’s preaching and to receive His Sacrament. Faith treats these things as its greatest need. However, our sinful flesh does not. We think it can wait. We think there are other things more urgent than receiving God’s healing. I’ve been unclean with my sin my whole life. I was unclean yesterday. I’m unclean today. I’ll be unclean tomorrow. I will go and be cleansed by Christ another time.
I feel this attitude a lot in hospitals when I am visiting the sick and dying. Although often the staff at hospitals are respectful and treat the pastor’s visit as important, they often do not. The pastor seems to be in the way. There are more urgent things to be taken care of than religious stuff. Yet, Jesus teaches us here that what He does for us in cleansing us and saving us is significantly more important than anything else going on. Even when a girl is on her deathbed, Jesus sees the urgency in cleansing a daughter of God. And so, what the pastor does by absolving, praying for, preaching to, and giving the Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood to a person in the hospital or in the nursing home is significantly more important than any other task that is done. Likewise, coming to church on Sunday morning to receive this cleansing is significantly more important than anything else you have going on. And we are wise to recognize that.
Saints Mark and Luke tells us that the woman spent all her money on physicians, but they could not help her, rather she grew worse. And it is still the same today. Sure, medicine has its place. There are wonderful treatments that can even save your life for a while. But that’s the most they can do. Eventually, you will still die. And many medications, especially after they get piled upon each other, cause bad reactions, and make a person worse. You can eat healthy, cut out seed oils, exercise an hour a day, take all the supplements and medicine the doctors tell you to take, every vaccine, follow every doctor’s order. And you know what will happen? You will die.
Every effort of man to save will fail, whether that comes from the religious works-righteous pharisees, who proclaim salvation by works of the Law, or from the secular do-it-yourselfers. These human efforts will fail, no matter how much money or sweat you spend on them. Only Christ Jesus can save you. He who can say of a dead child lying in a bed, “The girl is not dead, but sleeping,” before He takes her hand and raises her from the dead, is the only one who can save you from death. He is the only one your faith needs or wants. And healing you of your uncleanness, forgiving you of your sins, and saving you from hell is always His top priority. So, we should follow the example the woman’s beautiful faith, and recognize that our most urgent need is satisfied in Jesus alone, and reach out to touch that in which He cloaks Himself: His Word and Sacraments. Amen.