A woman who was ill for many years was healed as a result of her faith in the Saviour. Because of a man's faith in the Saviour, a member of his household who nearly died recovered instead. These healings were verified by witnesses and have been widely accepted and recognized as clear-cut evidence of the power of the Saviour to heal.
Nevertheless, there was a significant distinction between these two Bible healings. If Jesus were here today, we might find ourselves with the kind of faith the woman exhibited and be quickly healed, just as she was, by a personal Saviour. But Jesus is not here today. And so we are called upon to develop the kind of faith illustrated by the man whose servant was ill—faith in an impersonal Saviour, the Christ.
The woman, referred to by Mark, said of Jesus, "If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole." What one of us wouldn't have reached out to touch that precious individual, Christ Jesus—even the robe he wore—just as the woman did? Which of us wouldn't feel it a profound privilege to have been present with the Saviour and to have received the compassionate healing virtue, the power of goodness, that went out to the woman and freed her? Jesus said to the woman who had reached for him, "Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague." Mark 5:28, 34; Her faith had been rewarded. Her feeling that Christ Jesus could bless her had been proved true.
