Jesus' Power and Superstition

Among the signs and wonders that Jesus performed, the healing of the woman with the twelve-year hemorrhage is remarkable. While Matthew streamlines the account compared to Mark and Luke, excising much of the drama found in the complementary accounts, he retains the woman’s rationale for her actions, which will be the subject of this reflection. The main takeaway is that a superstitious view of Jesus and his power to save cannot stand for those who will truly benefit from his saving power. As we reflect on this idea, it’s worth briefly setting the scene.

Matthew 9 consists of a series of encounters between Jesus and people from the crowds. In these encounters, Jesus testifies to his identity and mission by working miracles of healing and exorcism. Most of Jesus’ signs and wonders in Matthew 9 are opposed in one way or another, though the nature of the opposition is quite varied. In the case of the woman with the twelve-year hemorrhage, the opposition was subtle and implied. In short, by her actions, she opposed Jesus’ true identity as the messiah and savior of sinners by approaching him and his person as a talisman. That is to say, she approached Jesus according to a superstitious view when she said to herself, “If I merely touch his cloak, I will be healed” (Matt 9:21). J.H. Bavinck summarizes the situation well when he writes,

From this action she appears to have great faith, a faith that almost falls into superstition. This woman feels the miraculous power of Christ so strongly that she thinks that it radiates out of Jesus, as it were. Even Jesus’ clothes are imbued with power. Here, she approaches dangerously close to superstition. Among many peoples is the thought that the clothes, even the sweat of a miraculous teacher, are full of magical power. Well, something of that notion also resides in the heart of this woman, and that drove her to touch Jesus’ clothing, without asking the Savior himself for help.[1]

To be sure, we must factor into this analysis the shame and desperation that would have accompanied a twelve-year hemorrhage that made this woman ritually unclean and, for all practical purposes, an untouchable in society. It is reasonable enough to think that she would have had a hard time drawing near to Jesus in a crowd in a direct kind of way, like the leper who boldly approached (Matt 8:1-4). And yet, it was that superstitious notion that impelled her to risk the more secretive action of coming up behind Jesus and touching the fringe of his cloak in the hope of healing.

Considered more broadly, the woman’s line of reasoning is a species of what Paul calls exchanging the truth for a lie, particularly the inclination to transfer God’s eternal power to created things, whether objects, as in magic, or the creation in general, as in animism and polytheism.[2] But Herman Bavinck points out that while superstition is the exchange of true revelation, revelation is also the remedy against it: “Superstition and magic could not have arisen if the idea of another world than this world of nature had not been deeply imprinted on man’s self-consciousness. … Hence religion is, not only with reference to its origin and essence but also with reference to its truth and validity, founded in revelation. Without revelation, religion sinks back into a pernicious superstition.”[3] But with revelation, as in the revelation of Jesus Christ to this woman who had suffered so much, the truth is made known, and the opposition of superstition is cleared away. That is why Jesus is not content to allow this woman’s skewed notion of his identity and mission to remain. Instead, he addresses her directly and corrects her notion, even as he graciously gives her what she so desperately desired. But she has to know that Jesus is the one who saves, not his clothes nor some abstract power radiating from him. J.H. Bavinck thus comments, “In reality, [this woman] is healed by Jesus’ will.” Indeed, Bavinck goes on to point out that she is healed on account of the great love of Jesus, for though her superstitious inclination was not good, Jesus allowed the situation to play out as it did so that she might be healed in the end of both her physical illness and her false notion. From this we see the greatness of his heart, for the “Savior is always full of tender care for people. He does not turn away shamed people.”[4]

[1] J. H. Bavinck, Geschiedenis der Godsopenbaring: Handboek voor de Kennis van de Bijbelsche Geschiedenis (J. H. Kok, 1938), 2:224–25.

[2] J. H. Bavinck, “Het Probleem van de Pseudo-Religie En de Algemeene Openbaring,” Publicaties van de Reunisten-Organisatie van de N.D.D.D. 12 (1940): 9.

[3] Herman Bavinck, Philosophy of Revelation: A New Annotated Edition, ed. Nathaniel Gray Sutanto and Cory Brock (Hendrickson Publishers, 2018), 141.

[4] Bavinck, Geschiedenis, 2:226.