The Woman and the Girl: Faith in the Face of Death
July 7, 2025 - Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Matthew 9:18-26
In Matthew’s Gospel so far, we have seen Jesus' power over sickness (Matt 8:1–17), over the forces of nature, and even over demonic powers (Matt 8:23–9:8). Now, a new dimension emerges: Jesus’ power to restore. As Revelation proclaims: “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev 21:5).
A synagogue leader comes to Jesus—not asking for help in desperation, but with bold, daring faith: “My daughter has just died. But come, lay your hand on her, and she will live” (Matt 9:18). Unlike Mark’s version, where the child is still alive when the father first approaches (Mark 5:23), Matthew emphasizes the finality of death—and the radical hope this father places in Jesus.
Jesus rose and followed him. It’s the same verb later used when Jesus raises the girl from death (Matt 9:25). The One who brings life rises to confront death. The girl, too, will rise. These are quiet echoes of Easter—Christ rising, and through Him, we too shall rise.
“The girl is not dead but sleeping,” Jesus says (Matt 9:24). The crowd laughs, but Jesus reveals a deeper truth: for those who belong to Him, death is not the end. Paul will later write to the Thessalonians that we do not grieve as others do, “for we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him” (1 Thess 4:13–14). The girl becomes a sign of us all: dead in sin, but made alive with Christ (Eph 2:5).
But before the girl is raised, another woman appears—unannounced, unnamed, unnoticed. She has suffered twelve years from a condition that made her ritually unclean. She dares to reach for just the fringe of Jesus’ garment. And that, according to the Law, is no small thing.
According to Numbers 15:38–39, every Jew wore fringes on their garments as reminders of God's commandments. A blue cord—also worn on the high priest’s turban (Ex 28:37)—symbolized holiness and obedience. By touching the fringe, the woman reaches for the Law’s fulfillment—and finds not judgment, but healing.
She represents more than herself. Her twelve years of suffering echo the twelve tribes of Israel—wounded by disobedience, distant from life. Yet now she touches the One who came “not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it” (Matt 5:17). Jesus, the true High Priest (Heb 4:14), brings her into the new covenant of mercy and restoration.
Both the woman and the girl are healed not simply by power—but through faith. One reaches in hope. One is raised by the word. Both reveal the heart of the Gospel: that Jesus came to restore what is lost, revive what is dead, and renew what is broken.