The woman with the issue of blood

“Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at His feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched Him and how she had been instantly healed.” Luke 8:47
The account of the woman with the issue of blood who touched Jesus’ cloak while He was on His way to raise Jairus’ daughter from the dead, is included in three of the four gospels (Matt. 9:18-22, Mark 5:21-34, Luke 8:41-48). There are a number of things to note about this woman. We are told about her condition – that she had been haemorrhaging for twelve years – and about her resolve to try and touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, believing that if she did, she would be healed. This was a very brave act on her part, and went against the Law. In Luke 8:48 Jesus calls her “Daughter”, which indicates that she was Jewish. As a Jewish woman, she would have known that the law rendered her ceremonially unclean because of her bleeding (Lev. 15:25-27). She should not have been in the crowd, because anyone she came into contact with would also then become ceremonially unclean. No wonder she was afraid when Jesus stopped and demanded to know who had touched Him. But Jesus did not rebuke her. He announced that she had been healed because of her faith, and told her to “go in peace” (Luke 8:48).
This is yet another example of how meeting a person’s need is more important than the keeping of ceremonial laws (see Matt. 12:1-12, which contains several examples). There is a question here for us too: are we more interested in seeing people’s needs met, or in seeing them conform to certain written or unwritten standards?