Christ's Particular Sympathy and Friendship
H. Bushnell, D. D. Luke 8:43-48 And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living on physicians, neither could be healed of any,… When a lone woman came up in a crowd to steal something, as it were, some healing power out of His person, or out of the hem of His garment, He would not let her off in that impersonal way. He compelled her to show herself, and to confess her name, and sent her away with His personal blessing. He pours out everywhere a particular sympathy on every particular child of sorrow. We have seen that He can love as a man loves another, and that such is the way of His love. He has tasted death, we say, not for all men only, but for every man. We even dare to say for me; who "loved me, and gave Himself for me." Nay, He goes even further than this Himself, calling us friends, and claiming that dear relationship with us. "The servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends." He even goes beyond this, promising a friendship so particular and personal that it shall be a kind of secret or cipher of mutual understanding open to no other — a new white stone given by his King, "and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." (H. Bushnell, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, WEB: A woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her living on physicians, and could not be healed by any,