<p>8:15&nbsp;<i>And he touched her hand and</i>- One of the colossal 28 references in the Gospels to the Lord touching needy and neglected people, thereby showing His desire to connect with us in our humanity. We noted under 8:14 that the belief was that this woman&rsquo;s high temperature was because of our fire deep within her. By touching her&nbsp;<i>hand</i>, an extremity, perhaps the Lord was showing that actually that belief was wrong. But as with the whole issue of belief in demons as a cause of unexplained illness, the Lord dealt with the issue by inference and implication rather than a direct statement that &lsquo;this is wrong&rsquo;. He reserved such a style for the condemnation of spiritual intolerance and other moral issues.</p>
<p><i>The fever left her</i>- Also the language of the day, because illness was understood as having to go somewhere when it was healed.</p>
<p><i>And she arose and ministered to him</i>- Her response to her healing was to serve the Lord and His people. This should be the underlying motive why we ask for healing and good health- so that we can serve. And our response to the Lord&rsquo;s touching of us can never be passive- it involves some level of active serving. Perhaps the use of&nbsp;<i>diakoneo</i>&nbsp;looks forward to the office and practice of women being deacons, ministers, in the early church. For the church of any age is to be an extension of the men and women who followed the Lord Jesus in Galilee.&nbsp; There was a Rabbinic prohibition of women serving men at table, so this is yet another instance of the Lord and His people being driven by their desire to respond to God's grace to breaking accepted social norms about gender.</p>