BACKGROUND MATERIAL

Jesus' performance of miracles was now assuming a rapid pace. Great crowds now came to meet him wherever he went, and they brought with them their sick and lame to have the Master apply his healing powers. Here Jesus sets out, in response to a plea from one of the rulers of the synagogue, who asks him to come to his home to heal a sick daughter; on the way, still another miracle comes to pass. The interruption was unusual. A miracle was performed without a request. A woman who had suffered for years had some kind of bleeding problem. Without asking anything of Christ, she simply got up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. She had suffered long and found no cure, and had spent all her money on a string of physicians. But she believed her long quest for heali…