As I mentioned last time, Mark Chapter 5 is all about setting prisoners free. In verses 1 through 20 we see Jesus release a man who had been held captive by thousands of demons. This time we see Him set free a woman held in the bondage of an incurable disease for more than a decade. Next time He releases a young girl from the grips of death itself. What we see in common in all of these accounts is the bowing before Jesus as Lord and three different admonishments. The man with the demons was told to “go back home and report what the Lord has done for you.” The woman was told to confess that she had reached out to touch Jesus, and Jairus, the synagogue leader must choose to believe and trust, or give in to fear. These admonishments work as well in your life as a believer in Jesus.
Notice as well that all three of the miracles in this chapter involve uncleanness. The man was unclean because he was a Gentile, lived in the tombs, and had a demon (an unclean spirit). The woman was unclean because of her flow of blood, and to touch a dead body made someone unclean. Today we read about the beginning of Jesus’ encounter with Jairus, and the woman with the flow of blood.
21
Jesus probably returned back where He had come from: Capernaum. It’s no wonder that a large crowd gathered after the miracles and parables Jesus had given them prior to taking off.
22 – 24
A synagogue ruler was more like a school superintendent and facility administrator. He was a lay person who oversaw the workings of the synagogue and the school for the boys associated with it. He would also arrange for rabbis to come and teach. It was a prestigious position and Jairus would have been well respected in his community. The fact that he approached Jesus, whom the religious leaders of Israel had not accepted, speaks to Jairus’ character and to his plight. It’s interesting to me that people are so reluctant to even think about what Jesus Christ means to them. Sometimes it takes a real crisis to bring into focus what’s important, and when brought to an end in himself (this was his only daughter), Jairus doesn’t care about public opinion or his own doubts, he wants help and knows Jesus can help heal the sick. What’s cool, of course, is that it turns into much more than just healing a sick person!
Jesus agrees to accompany him to the house, and the crowd moves along. Mark notes for us that lots of people were touching Jesus as He walked.
25 – 29
In 1st Century Palestine (certainly in the Roman Empire) there were hospitals, sort of. They were called Asklepion centers. They were more like places where pagan rituals for healing were performed. Given what Jesus said, it appears there were professional physicians that charged exorbitant prices for sub-standard care. We don’t know a lot about how physicians operated in Jesus time, but touching was part of the treatment. (Kitchen, 2009). There were no medical diplomas given out so charlatans were as common as “real” physicians. If properly trained, a doctor could prescribe herbs, and even perform surgery, though it was mainly constrained to traumatic wounds. The kind of menstrual or urinary tract bleeding here would have been beyond their capabilities.
So consider the plight of this woman. In some ways it is similar to the man possessed with the legion of demons. She has something is wrong inside of her, it is doing things to her that she doesn’t want, she cannot cure it herself, and it makes her unclean, cutting her off from fellowship. Remember, the Law is very specific that a woman with a flow of blood cannot go to the Temple, and she cannot touch or be touched (Lev 15:19-28). The other analogue to her plight is leprosy. She has spent all the money she had and has only gotten worse, so she hears about Jesus and the healings He has done. She comes up behind Him, and reaches out to touch the tassels (Luke tells us) of His robe. It was commonly thought that touching a holy man could impart spiritual or healing power (see Acts 19:11-12). She came up behind because perhaps she thought Jesus would not choose to touch her since she was unclean. She succeeds, despite the crowd and somehow knows instantly that she has been healed. I’m sure it was such an incredible shock to her that she probably held back, frozen in shock and awe. Or perhaps she wanted to slink away undetected at having made the affront to reach out and touch a man who was not her husband.
30 – 31
I find this fascinating. This is the only place that I can think of where Jesus makes a statement like this. There was no laying on of hands, no making of mud, not even a command to be healed. Jesus seemed to have no part in it, but power went out from Him involuntarily. Whether He already knew who the woman was or not, the point is that He wanted her to admit to the fact that she had reached out in faith to Him. You can imagine the scene: crowds pressing in on every side, jostling for position, and Jesus suddenly stops and says “who touched Me?” The disciples are a bit confused but it wasn’t the touch of proximity that Jesus spoke of, it was the touch of need and of faith.
32 – 34
Jesus isn’t going to let this alone and finally the woman admits that it was her, comes in reverential awe and fear before Jesus, and confesses with her mouth what her heart has already believed, that Jesus has healed the un-healable and rescued her from the prison of infirmity. I love what Jesus says to her: 1. He calls her “daughter” revealing a father/daughter relationship; 2. He focuses in on what it takes for that relationship and the healing: faith in Jesus; and 3) He gives her peace from her affliction and freedom to return at last to a real life.
Conclusions
Can we just pause for a moment and reflect on this incredible story and how much we are like this woman?
We too have been afflicted with brokenness—an infirmity that separates us from God, the source of which cannot be seen on the outside but we do see the result; just as sin causes our souls to degenerate even as the disease of this woman caused her body to waste away. We hear that there is a man who can bring healing. It is when she reaches out in that trust and comes in personal contact with Him that the healing takes place. She is so broken that she cannot even come to ask for healing face to face, even as in our state of brokenness we don’t even dare to look the Savior in the eye but reach out to Him. Jesus is so clean and pure that everyone that comes to Him with faith is healed—but notice that Jesus goes beyond just that and desires a relationship with her as a child, even as our faith reaching out to Jesus through the cross creates in us a relationship as a child of God. Then He declares peace and freedom, even as Jesus declares peace with us through the cross and freedom from brokenness. It is a wonderful picture of salvation!
Also notice something else: lots of people touched Jesus that day, but only one got healed. You can hang around the church and Christianity; you can “touch” it by singing the songs, reading the verses, and going to meetings. You can feel like you belong in the group with Jesus. But to healed of the affliction that keeps you unclean there is only one way and that is follow the steps of this woman who 1) realized her affliction and that it made her unclean, 2) came with humility before the Lord trusting that only He can offer healing 3) doing whatever it took to get to Him and then 4) confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord of your life.
You can’t become a Christian by hanging out with Christians or at church any more than going into a hospital makes you well. You have to ask for help, seek a professional and then apply the prescription they give you.
You may have tried really hard to find peace and satisfaction. This age offers many “cures” including pursuit of pleasure, intellect, physical beauty or prowess, and many philosophical and religious systems of thought. But everything out there that promises an abundant life if like going to a quack doctor who doesn’t really know the truth. Pursuing anything or anyone other than Jesus will only leave you penniless and worse off than when you began.
Jesus said:
Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
John 10:7-16
"I assure you: I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn't listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it in abundance.
11 "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and doesn't own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. 13 This happens because he is a hired man and doesn't care about the sheep.
14 "I am the good shepherd. I know My own sheep, and they know Me, 15 as the Father knows Me, and I know the Father. I lay down My life for the sheep.
There are plenty of thieves of robbers out there in this age. But there is only one Good Shepherd. Do you hear His voice calling you?
Have you come to your end? Have you expended everything in pursuit of satisfaction and the healing of your soul and come up empty? Reach out to Jesus.
