Faith In Healing

Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment.

For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.” Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?”

But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’” And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came 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 affliction.”

Mark 5:25-34

Everything in Mark chapter 5 concerns itself with healing and restoration: from the healing and restoring of a demon possessed man to the resurrection of a little girl. In-between these two healings are that of the woman in our opening scripture. A progression is shown in this chapter:

1. A healing that was not directly asked for, but was implied by the demon possessed man

2. A direct request by a religious ruler to heal his daughter

3. A healing that came by the faith in the power of Jesus by the woman

Notice that Jesus tells her it was her faith that made her whole. Again, notice that He said whole and not just well! Some of the medications we take for our illnesses never cure, but only mask the symptoms. Jesus’s healings are whole and complete. Not only is the base issue resolved, but everything else related to it is resolved. In all these healings there were social, economic, mental, and emotional issues besides the base issue being healed.

• Spiritually defeated demon possessed man because many demons he had lost his mind. In that mental state he was a social leaper. Being that he was a social leaper, he could not be employed or be an employer, so there was no income. Even though he was possessed with demons his emotional state was in the deepest of depressions.

• The death of the religious leader’s daughter brought a depressed mental state. In the Jewish custom they believe that tragedy in one’s life is brought on by the amount of sin in your life. So, the leader was going to be shunned by his peers and others, because no one wanted to be associated with a sinner. The grieving is one of emotion and anyone who has lost a loved one knows this emotional state. Lastly, he would be in danger of losing his job because of the sin they believed he had in his life.

• Social leper that the woman would be because of her discharge of blood, which labeled her as unclean. The Mosaic states that any woman with an issue of blood past her normal time of discharge shall be put away from others for the duration and labeled unclean. She can have contact with others, but if they touch anything she sat on, laid on, or touched would also be unclean until the evening, so people would normally avoid her. In this state she could not make a living if she were a single woman. Throwing in the mental state of not knowing when one would get better could be nerve racking. Not to mention the emotional state she must be in being alone and forgotten.

Being made whole is far better than just being healed. Our wounds can be healed, but one or more of the other related issues may not be. Here is a real-life illustration of this point.

For two decades, Wayne Messmer, forty-nine, was an announcer and singer for sports teams in the Windy City. After singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at a Chicago Blackhawks game in 1994, Messmer was shot by two teenage boys. The bullet passed through the singer’s throat, so doctors weren’t sure if Messmer would sing again. Amazingly, six months later, Messmer returned to the microphone.

Physical healing was one thing; emotional release of the hatred and resentment he felt was another. For that, Messmer had to trust Christ, his Savior, to help him reach the point where he could forgive his shooters. When he did, he found freedom. As he says in The Voice of Victory, “Over a period of contemplative and reflective prayer and meditation, I was confident I had set myself free from the chains that had connected me to the incident.”