Mark 5:25-34 — Stop the Bleeding

Mark 5:25-34
v. 25-26 "And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse."

In the crowd that was thronging Jesus as he went with Jairus was a woman who was at the end of her rope. She had been ill for 12 years with a disease that in addition to the physical discomfort and emotional trauma would have socio-religious consequences as well. She would have been ceremonially unclean and that prevented her from taking part in the religious life of her faith. She wanted to get better and had sought help everywhere she could and spent all she had to spend. How could she have any hope left? She must have heard great things about the Lord, and perhaps watched a few things too as she came along behind him. She also seemed to recognize that she had no right to take Jesus' time or interfere with his day. All that the woman wanted to do was to come up behind him and touch the hem of his garment. What courage it took for this woman to open herself up to trust and to hope one more time after all the bitter disappointments she had faced—but she did it. She was determined enough to get up and to fight her way through the crowd to get to Jesus, to bend down and touch his hem although she ran the risk of being trampled or laughed at. All she knew was that Jesus' touch, even through the clothes that he wore, would certainly heal her of her affliction.

v. 27-29 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.

Luke’s account adds the therapeutic detail that she touched “the corner of his garment” The corners of the prayer shawl are also called the “wings” and the same word is found in the Greek translation of Malachi 4:2,

“But for you who fear my name, 
the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. 
You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.”

I believe it likely that this was not a superstitious act by the woman, but an act of Messianic faith. By intending to tough the corner of his garment she was declaring her faith in him as the Messiah who comes with healing. J.R.R. Tolkein captured this idea in the lament of an old healer woman at the plight of the wounded steward, "Alas if he should die. Would that there were kings in Gondor, as there were once upon a time, they say! For it is said in old lore: The hands of the king are the hands of a healer. And so the rightful king would ever be known." (The Return of the King, 136)

In our passage in Mark, as the bleeding woman touched Jesus' clothing and she was healed immediately. What she didn't plan on was being noticed and called out. Jesus knew what she had done and asked who had touched him. The disciples incredulously responded, “Everybody is touching you!” Yet he knew that she had touched him in faith and wanted her to come forth in honesty and obedience for her own good. So that she might be made completely well in soul as well as in body.

In response, she stepped forward, to be honest with God and he was honest with her.

v. 33-34 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her,

came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.

And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

It should be noted, that since she had suffered so long and been a social outcast as a result, that Jesus' very public recognition of her physical healing served to expedite her restoration into every aspect of society without any further victimization!

 So, does our faith move us to desire and seek to touch the Lord? Or do we prefer the pain, the hurt, and the rejection we are so familiar with to the risk and exposure it takes to “stop the bleeding” in our lives and be made whole? Do we tell God the whole truth without curating the facts? Will we admit that we are bankrupt and hopeless apart from his healing touch? I guess we first have to realize it ourselves. Do we listen to his whole message in response? It's more encouraging than you might think!

His parting message to this amazing woman is relationally tender, and yet tenacious, in bringing her into the full experience of wholeness, never again to be hopeless, fearful, and alone. Hear it again as a blessing.

“Daughter, 

your faith has made you well; 

go in peace, 

and be healed of your disease.”

May her experience fortify our own trust, as Jairus must have been, to face the challenges to follow.