<p>6:56 <em>And wherever he went, into villages, or into cities, or into the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces- </em>See on Mt. 9:21. His preaching campaign is spoken of as focusing on the towns, villages and &quot;country&quot; - in modern terms, the villages, hamlets and isolated rural dwellings. He made the effort to get out to the individuals, the poorest and loneliest of&nbsp;society.</p><p><em>And pleaded with him- </em>The Greek&nbsp;<em>parakleo</em>&nbsp;means literally 'to call near' and in this case we can understand it literally. They felt that they had to touch Him in order to be healed (unlike the cases of faith in His spoken word which the Lord so commends). Therefore, needing that physical presence, it makes sense to understand&nbsp;<em>parakleo</em>&nbsp;here as meaning to literally call near. They called Him near so that they might touch the hem of His garment.</p><p><em>That they be allowed to touch the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched him were cured- </em>The Law of Moses commanded the Jews to make &quot;borders&quot; of blue upon their clothes (Num. 15:38), presumably to remind them of Heaven in daily life. But the same Hebrew word is found in Mal. 4:2, speaking of how the Messianic &quot;sun of righteousness&quot; was to arise with &quot;healing in His hems&quot;. Their seeking for healing in the hem of the Lord's clothes was therefore a sign that they accepted Him as Messiah. But the 'arising' of Malachi 4 is the time of the Kingdom established on earth, with Judah freed from her oppressors. The time for Mal. 4:2 was not then. They thought it was. And yet the Lord still goes along with their misunderstanding, by granting them healing from His hems. This may have been simply from compassion of the moment towards human need; or it could be that the Lord was happy to reward faith when He saw it, even if it was based upon somewhat wrong interpretation of the Father's word.&nbsp;</p>