Mark 6:56
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And wherever He went—villages and towns and countrysides—they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged Him just to let them touch the fringe of His cloak. And all who touched Him were healed.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
THE SYROPHœNICIAN WOMAN AND HER DAUGHTER--A DEAF AND DUMB MAN HEALED. ( = Mat 15:21-31). (Mar 7:24-37) And from thence he arose, and went into the borders--or "unto the borders." of Tyre and Sidon--the two great Phœnician seaports, but here denoting the territory generally, to the frontiers of which Jesus now came. But did Jesus actually enter this heathen territory? The whole narrative, we think, proceeds upon the supposition that He did. His immediate object seems to have been to avoid the wrath of the Pharisees at the withering exposure He had just made of their traditional religion. and entered into an house, and would have no man know it--because He had not come there to minister to heathens. But though not "sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mat 15:24), He hindered not the lost sheep of the vast Gentile world from coming to Him, nor put them away when they did come--as this incident was designed to show. but he could not be hid--Christ's fame had early spread from Galilee to this very region (Mar 3:8; Luk 6:17).
Open source ↗A great variety of observable passages we have, in this chapter, concerning our Lord Jesus, the substance of all which we had before in Matthew, but divers circumstances we have, which we did not there meet with. Here is, I. Christ contemned by his countrymen, because he was one of them, and they knew, or thought they knew, his original (Mar 6:1-6). II. The just power he gave his apostles over unclean spirits, and an account given of their negotiation (Mar 6:7-13). III. A strange notion which Herod and others had of Christ, upon which occasion we have the story of the martyrdom of John Baptist (v. 14-29). IV. Christ's retirement into a desert place with his disciples; the crowds that followed him thither to receive instruction from him; and his feeding five thousand of them with five loaves and two fishes (Mar 6:30-44). V. Christ's walking upon the sea to his disciples, and the abundance of cures he wrought on the other side of the water (Mar 6:45-56).
Open source ↗6:56 The fringe of a garment refers to the tassels worn by Jewish men on their robes (see Num 15:38-39; Deut 22:12). Just touching the fringe of the garment of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, brought healing to the sick (see also Mark 3:10; 5:28).
Open source ↗Cross-references
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Suddenly a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak.
The entire crowd was trying to touch Him, because power was coming from Him and healing them all.
For He had healed so many that all who had diseases were pressing forward to touch Him.
As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.
She came up behind Jesus and touched the fringe of His cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.
Once, as the Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders, so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. And as soon as his body touched the bones of Elisha, the man was revived and stood up on his feet.
Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
If we are being examined today about a kind service to a man who was lame, to determine how he was healed,
You are to make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.
But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And He touched the man’s ear and healed him.