The Faith Of An Unnamed Woman Series

An unnamed woman characterized and remembered by her physical suffering.

Day in and day out, this woman was reminded of her uncleanliness

She was forbidden from worshiping God in the temple

And she was to be removed from society so as not to contaminate others

Our Bible’s refer to her as the Hemorrhaging or Bleeding woman.

Maybe if she had a name we could call her by that

“Bleeding Joan” or “Hemorrhaging Kathy”

I’m not really sure why we focus on the bleeding of this woman.

Why don’t we call her the “woman of faith” or the “courageous woman”

B/c that’s really what this story is all about.

This unnamed woman’s gift to us all is her faith.

Well, let’s step back a moment and paint the whole picture for you today

Luke writes that Jesus was returning from the region of the Gerasenes (or better known as Gentile area) and a large crowd had gathered to welcome Jesus.

As Jesus was being welcomed by the crowd of people, Jairus, a synagogue rule, falls at Jesus’ feet and begs Jesus to come and heal his daughter.

Jesus agrees to heal this little girl and He begins His journey to Jairus’ house

As Jesus is traveling to the house, he notices that power has been taken from Him

He turns around and begins to look for the person that touched Him

Now, I personally believe that Jesus knew it was the lady that touched Him b/c Jesus is omniscient.

But for show, He looks around.

Out of fear, the lady approaches and admits that she touched Jesus and now is healed.

We are told that this woman had been subject to bleeding for 12 years

She sought all of the medical treatment and everything else under the sun, but nothing would heal her.

And when she heard that Jesus was there, she had faith that if she touched his robe, she would be healed.

If we spent time looking at this passage from many different angles, we would see that there were a lot of miracles that day.

With the crowd pressing in, it was a miracle that the woman was able to reach in and touch Jesus’ robe.

It’s a miracle that she was heal after 12 years of bleeding

And some might argue that it’s a miracle that Jesus didn’t get upset for being touched or violated.

With no way out of the situation, the woman stepped forward, fell at Jesus’ feet and admitted that she touched Jesus.

I remember when I was a little kid getting in trouble b/c something broke.

My dad was very upset and he approached my brother and I to see who broke it.

I was scared.

Have you ever been in those situations and you start to feel light headed and warm and wished you could turn around and run?

Jesus wanted to know who touched Him

I’m sure this woman was scared to death

But in the mist of her fears, she stepped forward and admitted what happened.

This unknown woman was brave and honest

She had the faith that many of us wished we could have

And she also had the integrity to be honest with God.

When’s the last time you had the integrity to be honest with God?

When’s the last time you where brave enough to approach Jesus and admit what happened?