Luke 8:40-56

8:43 | For 12 years, this woman had endured pain and despair. Under Jewish law, her sickness was a defilement that made her an outcast (Lev. 12:4-8; 15:19-33).

8:44 | This woman was so determined to reach Jesus that the crowd could not prevent her. Believing that touching His robe would heal her, she acted on that belief – and Jesus met her at her point of need. This is how Jesus still works whenever a person believes the Word concerning Him and then acts in faith.

8:47 | The woman wanted to remain anonymous, perhaps because her plan called for her to touch Jesus or His clothing, and such a touch would render Him unclean. Or perhaps she had suffered enough unsympathetic stares that she wanted to remain invisible. But Jesus forced her out into the open – not to ridicule or rebuke her but to set her free completely.

8:48 | This is the only time in the NT where Jesus calls a woman daughter. She was now part of His family.

8:49-53 | By this time the synagogue ruler’s daughter had died, but it is truly never too late with Jesus. Some have imagined that the girl had only slipped into a coma, but Luke’s later comment that her spirit returned indicates she had, in fact, died. Jesus was aware of her true condition; He simply saw past it to what He intended to do.

8:54-56 | Luke uses an emphatic term to describe the parents’ astonishment at her resuscitation – existemi, which means “to lose one’s wits, to go out of one’s mind.” Luke does not say why the Lord instructed the girl’s parents to keep quiet about the miracle, but perhaps He did not want more people following Him merely hoping to see another corpse revived.