The Longest 12 Years She Ever Endured Series

Text: Mark 5:21-34 KJV: 21 And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him: and he was nigh unto the sea. 22 And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet, 23 And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: (I pray thee), come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live. 24 And (Jesus) went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him. 25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, 26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, 27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. 28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. 29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in (her) body that she was healed of that plague. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? 31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. 33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. 34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

Introduction: This healing is unusual in a number of ways. First, it happened while Jesus was on the way to heal or save a man’s daughter from impending death. Second, it happened in the presence of a crowd. Several of our Lord’s miracles took place where only the people involved or a small group of people could observe it. Third, Jesus didn’t touch the woman involved, nor did He heal her with a spoken word (compare this with the man at Bethesda, John 5). Finally, this is the only time recorded in Scripture when someone received healing without directly asking for it from Jesus.

I The woman’s disease

None of the Gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, nor Luke) tell us exactly what this woman was suffering from. Luke says she had “an issue of blood” but did not specify what this “issue of blood” really was (he did, however, mention a “fountain of blood” in verse 29). The important thing is that she had been dealing with this illness for 12 years.

Even worse, Luke states she had spent all her money on doctor bills (verse 26, paraphrased) but she never got better! Some of this was not the fault of the doctors of those days: research and practical experience over the years have led to a very advanced level of care that Luke may have only been able to dream of!

The woman may have dreaded every doctor’s visit she ever endured. Who knows what she might have been told: one such response might be, “I’m sorry, ma’am, we don’t know what your problem is”, or, “you definitely have a problem and we need to run some more tests (hey, it could have happened, even then!)” Another response might have been, “may I refer you to another doctor or specialist?” Please don’t misunderstand: doctors generally do all they can for their patients but there are times even doctors don’t know what to do. For this woman, she had spent all she had in terms of money and time, hoping, perhaps, she wouldn’t bleed to death before she found healing. We are not told just who informed her about Jesus, if anyone, but now here was her chance to at least request to be healed.

Would she make it in time?

II The woman’s determination

Verse 27 says that the woman “heard of Jesus”. Who told her about Jesus? If someone, whether a doctor, a friend, or a family member, told her about Jesus, that person will no doubt receive a reward because the woman received some life-changing--and perhaps life-saving--advice. The human body only holds a limited amount of blood and no person can afford to lose too much blood, either too fast or too often. Death could be the result.

But this woman didn’t want to die. After all, she had spent a lot of time and all of her money (where and how did she get it?) on doctors and had never yet been healed. Now she hears about Jesus and now she is on her way to find Him.