After Jesus had healed the daemon-possessed man in the land of
the Gerasenes, he returned by boat to the more familiar Galilean side of the Sea
of Galilee, where he was soon surrounded by a great crowd. There a man named Jairus
"repeatedly" begged Jesus to come to his house and "lay hands"
on his desperately sick daughter, so that she might be made well and live. Jairus was a "leader in the
synagogue," and although the exact nature of Jairus' office is difficult
to determine, it was evidently a position of some status. As Jesus followed Jairus toward his house,
large crowds followed Jesus and pressed upon him. Mark's narrative indicates that Jesus'
journey to Jairus' house was interrupted by a woman who had been hemorrhaging
for twelve years, despite the efforts of many physicians.
According to Mark, the woman had "endured much," at
the hands of the physicians, and had spent "all she had" on their
unsuccessful efforts to cure her. Have
you known people who have spent almost everything they had on medical
care? It is easy to imagine the frustration
and desperation that such efforts could have generated, especially where the
treatments had failed to produce any benefit.
In the woman's case, the problems would have been compounded by
the fact that chronic bleeding may have left her in a continuous condition of ritual
impurity. See Leviticus 12:1-8 and
Leviticus 15:19-30. Not only was the
woman apparently "unclean," but everyone who touched her might also
be considered unclean. According to
Leviticus 15:19, anyone who touches a woman during her "regular
discharge" is also unclean "until evening." Leviticus 15:25 indicates that "If a
woman has a discharge of blood for many days, not at the time of her impurity,
or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her impurity, all the days of the
discharge she shall continue in uncleanness; as in the days of her impurity,
she shall be unclean."
This ritual uncleanness also presented a special problem for the
woman who now hoped to be healed by Jesus.
She presumably knew that Jesus was on his way to "lay hands"
on the daughter of Jairus, in order to heal the girl of her sickness. Jesus might be able to heal the woman's
bleeding condition on the way, but if he "laid hands" on the bleeding
woman, he would make himself "unclean" until evening. In that case, Jesus might not be able to
attend to Jairus' daughter in time to save her.
On the other hand, if the woman did not reach out for Jesus' help now, she
might never see him again. Have you ever
been in a situation in which the apparent solution of your own problem would
apparently cause a problem for someone else?
In which an affirmative answer to your prayers meant a denial of someone
else's prayer request? How would you
decide what to do or pray for?
The unnamed woman in Mark's
account evidently decided upon a plan that would attempt to obtain a cure
without making Jesus "unclean."
She seems to have rationalized that if she touched only the fringe or
hem of Jesus' garment, Jesus would not have consciously "touched
her," and he would still remain ritually pure. Perhaps that minimal, indirect contact would
still be enough to provide her some relief from the bleeding condition. Managing to touch the hem of his garment in
the midst of a large and pressing crowd, though, would be difficult and perhaps
even dangerous. She would have hurry her
way through the crowd (without angering people by touching them), and she would
have to kneel down, reaching out toward his feet, probably from behind. It would have been humiliating, and she could
have been accidentally trampled in the process.
Have you ever known anyone who was willing to do something totally
humiliating or dangerous, to gain some great reward?
In the midst of the raucous crowd, Jesus surprised his followers
by asking who had touched him. Was he
kidding? There were whole masses of people
touching him--why would he ask that? He
said he felt his power being used. The
woman came forward "in fear and trembling" and confessed her whole
plan. Had she been secretly trying to
"take advantage" of Jesus' power?
Have you ever been caught out, in the midst of a secret plan, worried
about how your efforts would be received?
Why did Jesus then address the woman as "daughter"?
If Jesus knew she was there, why did he not simply turn and heal
the woman? Amazingly, the woman was already
healed, apparently without Jesus' having to do anything. According to Jesus, her faith had resulted in
her healing. Yet he had earlier
indicated feeling "power" going forth from him. Is faith alone ever enough to result in
healing? It is interesting to note that
the word translated "healed" also means "saved" or
"rescued" or "restored."
Is the story really more about a physical cure, or restoration to social
and spiritual wholeness? Or both?
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