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Acts 19:11-22
And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. 13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” 16 And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. 18 Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. 19 And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.
21 Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.” 22 And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.
On the one hand I don’t have a clue, so I could stop writing right now. On the other hand, I need to say something about the handkerchiefs and aprons people were taking – having touched Paul’s skin – and people’s “diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.” What is that all about? Superstitious nonsense? Overzealous embellishment? Wishful thinking? Propaganda?
One commentator opined, regarding the handkerchiefs and aprons:
These were not magical objects. Rather, the Holy Spirit was pleased to manifest his powerful presence so strongly through Paul that the Spirit’s presence sometimes remained evident in connection with objects that Paul had touched. As had happened at Samaria (8:9–13), Cyprus (13:6–11), and Philippi (16:16–18), the powerful forces of pagan magic (19:19) and religion connected to demonic activity (vv. 12, 15; cf. 1 Cor. 10:20; Eph. 6:12) were confronted by the far more powerful work of the Holy Spirit ministering through Paul. (ESV Study Bible Notes)
I think that’s a reasonable explanation. Something similar is recorded in Acts 5:15 where people sought to have even the shadow of Peter fall on them in hopes of being healed. No matter how you explain this, however, it is far removed from our modern day experiences. We call the doctor. We go to Urgent Care. We take a pill.
Of course we pray as well. But sometimes those prayers are a spiritual bandaid to cover all our bases rather than a first line of defence in the fight against disease. But we do pray. And sometimes we see the hand of God far more miraculously obvious than others.
That’s a good reminder that God is the true healer of our body and souls. He heals sometimes miraculously. Sometimes medically. And sometimes mercifully – when he takes us from this veil of tears into the clear and gracious presence of Jesus. And on the Great Last Day we will experience that full and complete healing ourselves – forever.
One more thought occurs to me in regard to this strange episode. There are times we just don’t know how to understand a particular Scripture. I like the advice of Martin Luther in those instances: When you come to a part of the Bible you don’t understand, praise God and keep on reading. In other words, don’t let the few confusing parts of the Bible keep you from dealing with the clear passages. There is plenty to understand and apply to our lives.
A second thought: don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know,” when it comes to spiritual truths and Bible passages. That’s one thing Lutherans are supposed to do well. When we don’t know, we admit it. And we don’t bind people’s consciences to things in the Bible that are not clear. After all, We know precious little about the totality of God’s character and being, but the little we do know is precious!
David Bahn - Reflections 
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