It was common in Jesus’ day to believe that the clothes (Mark 6:56) or shadow (Acts 5:15) of an important person held special power to heal and bless.1. On face value it would seem that this woman held a similar view. But, much to our surprise, Jesus does not rebuke her for her faulty doctrine. In fact, in Mark 5:34 he validates her approach as one of faith. Mark is not sharing this information with us to judge her. On the contrary, she shows us how a true disciple responds: she heard about Jesus’ miracles, she came to him, and she touched him, thereby acting on what she believed to be true.2
27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment.