²⁷When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸ because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” ²⁹ Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

³⁰ At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

³¹ “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

³² But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³ Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.

Mark 5:27-32

There is so much to just this section of this story – but the most amazing part is that Jesus genuinely doesn’t seem to know what’s going on. While there are certainly multiple ways to interpret this, I think this is one of the rare times when we’re shown an emphasis on Jesus’ humanity over his deity. Here’s how I read it:

• It was the Father’s will to heal this woman
• The Holy Spirit did so, from Jesus, without telling him of the plan
• Jesus was left by the Holy Spirit and the Father to assess the situation with his human understanding to figure out what was remaining that was required of him (he next proceeds to help reconcile the woman back to society – she has been an outcast for 12 years)

All of this shows something incredibly interesting: the Father and Holy Spirit, at least occasionally, only share knowledge on an as-needed basis – even with Jesus – trusting us to do our best with incomplete knowledge of the situation (but good wisdom, discernment, and prudence).