1. Write down each instance of faith, fear, and amazement from our passage. In each instance, state who is amazed, frightened, or trusting, and why.
2. What was this woman's illness? (vv. 25-26, cf. Lev 15:25-27 for its social consequences)
3. What is the character, and result, of this woman's faith? (vv. 27-28, 33-34)
4. Why do you think Jesus is determined not to keep this miracle a secret? (vv. 31-34)
5. What things would threaten or strengthen Jairus' belief that Jesus could help?
6. Why does Jesus tell Jairus and his wife to keep the miracle secret? (vv. 43, cf. 6:6, 12)
7. What does this miracle hint about Jesus? (John 11:25-26)
Note: Jesus told us in Mark 1:38-39 why he has come: to preach and drive out demons. In this passage, out of mercy Jesus deviates from his plan to respond to an emergency, the death of a little girl. Mark here uses a literary device, found elsewhere in the Gospel, of sandwiching one story between the beginning and the end of another (cf. Mark 3:20-33, 6:6-31). Faith is contrasted with fear, and is also mixed in with fear. The trembling hand that takes hold of the hem is faith, albeit fearful.
I have made three sandwiches here. I need a volunteer, preferably someone without too many food allergies. I have a blindfold. Now, our volunteer needs to tell us what is on each sandwich. What type of sandwich is it?
We are looking at the second half of Mark Chapter 5, and this chapter has one of Mark’s sandwiches. Mark assembles a few in his Gospel. There is another one in Mark 6:1-31, where the story of John the Baptist’s murder is sandwiched between the mission of the twelve. Then there is one in Mark 11:12-25, where the cleansing of the temple is sandwiched between the story of Jesus cursing the fig tree.
In our passage, there are two stories interwoven, one found complete in the middle of the other. Both stories here are miracle stories. The story of Jairus and his daughter is the bread. The story of the bleeding woman is the filling.
Let’s set these two accounts in the context of Mark’s Gospel and history. Jesus has just sent demons out of a demon possessed gentile man in gentile territory, and told him to go and spread the news. Now Jesus has crossed back over to the Jewish side. He is in Galilee and a crowd has been waiting for him (Luke 8:40).
There are two people in this crowd in particular need who come to Jesus for help. The first is one who everyone knows about. That’s Jairus. He’s a synagogue ruler: in Anglican speak, a warden, or in Presbyterian speak, an elder. He is an influential person in his religious community, but in this matter, he has no power or influence, for his twelve year old daughter is terminally ill.
Jairus takes the full frontal approach. He comes up to Jesus, falls at his feet, and implores and begs him. Everyone knows his need and his desperation.
But the unnamed bleeding woman comes in by the back door. No one knows she is there. She is quiet. She slips in quietly behind Jesus, and she would have slipped quietly away, too, but for Jesus spilling her secret.
And in this story, it is the unnamed, bleeding woman who is the one that Jesus wants us to learn from. So I want us to look at this woman first. That way, we will get a taste for what these two intertwined stories are all about. It will tell us the type of story we are eating. For the account of the bleeding woman flavours the account of Jairus’ daughter. And that flavour, that sandwich filling, is salvation by faith.
Look at verse 25:
And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years. (NIV)
It appears this poor woman suffered continual menstrual bleeding for twelve years. This was a personal disaster, and in more than one way. The word that Jesus uses to describe her suffering (Greek, ‘mastigos’, v. 34) normally means a roman whip of leather thongs with pieces of metal sewn into it. This woman had been flogged by this disease.
Her bleeding meant she couldn’t have any (or any more) children. This is bad enough. But she was also perpetually ceremonially unclean. Leviticus 15:19-30 tells us about this condition and its consequences: “Anything that touched her became unclean.” She was a spreader of religious uncleanness, according to God and his Old Testament Word.
I remember hearing about a group native to Iran who follow John the Baptist, the Mandeans. When these people would go into a Muslim shop in Iran, they have to use tongs, for any food they touch becomes unclean, and they have to buy it. That is a picture of this woman’s life: she was a humiliated outcast.
Now Leviticus was God’s instruction to Israel. So, you can understand this. God’s view according to the Old Testament was that she was ceremonially unclean. So added to everything else, there was the thought that God had cursed her, keeping her in this state of uncleanness.
And her condition was beyond human hope. She had already tried every human remedy, verse 26:
She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. (NIV)
Some of the treatments of the day for this type of bleeding could only be described as either painful or bizzare. A common treatment was sudden shock treatment. Another was drinking wine with ground rubber in it. Another was eating certain onions. My particular favourite is the one where you carry the ashes of an ostrich egg in a cloth, and that this was to bring healing.
The effect of these ‘medical’ treatments were either that they made her physical suffering worse, or they consumed everything she owned. It is interesting that Luke the doctor omits to say that the doctors made her worse. Perhaps Dr Luke had some professional sensitivities.
We don’t know how the woman heard about Jesus. But we do know that while Jesus often commanded secrecy, news about him spread far and wide.
So she conceived a plan, that if she could just somehow touch his clothes, she would be made whole. Let’s look at her plan. Verse 27:
If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed. (NIV)
It wasn’t an original plan. She wasn’t the first, for in Mark 3:10 we read that sick people would be pushed forward to touch Jesus as he walked past. And she wouldn’t be the last, for in Mark 6:56, again sick people beg Jesus to let them touch the border of his garment, and they did so with similar results that this woman experienced.
What sort of sandwich has Mark assembled for us here? It looks like a healing sandwich. The woman expects that one touch will heal her. But literally, what is written is, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be saved.” Mark could have chosen other healing words to describe what she sought (e.g. Greek, therapeuō, iathō). But Jesus uses the word for ‘save’ (Greek, sōzō). She expects ‘one touch salvation’.
So what we have is a salvation sandwich. She thinks, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be saved.” Now this is amazing. If she simply went on what Leviticus said, she would have thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will make him unclean.” But she seem to expect that this Old Testament ceremonial law doesn’t apply to Jesus. Now for an unclean woman, this was a bold step, a risky step, but a step that led to her salvation. Verse 29:
Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. (NIV)
The passage literally says that, “the stream of her blood was dried up.” This is pretty much a word for word quote of Leviticus 12:7. Leviticus 12 outlines the procedure for cleansing a woman who has just given birth. If she had a boy, she had to wait a month, but if a girl, then two months! After that time, she would have to offer a costly animal sacrifice to atone for her uncleanness and sin, and after that she would be cleansed.
Now, this woman touches Jesus, and immediately the flow of blood is dried up. Her touch should have made Jesus unclean, but the touch actually healed her. She knew it in herself, in her body. Jesus knew it in himself. He knew something had happened. Verse 30:
At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him (NIV)
The translation could be a little better here. That way of putting it makes it seem that her touch sucked Jesus’ power from him, as if he had a full petrol tank at the start of the day, but this lady secretly siphoned out some of his petrol, and now he is running spiritually lower. A better translation of the original is this:
Jesus immediately knew in himself that power originating from him had gone out.
Some commentaries bring this out.[1] That is, the emphasis is not on his power going out from him and draining him,[2] but on it being his power, power originating from him. It is his power that is going out.
And so Jesus turns around and asks, “Who touched my clothes?” He says it in a way to emphasize his person, “Who touched me, my clothes?” Why does Jesus ask, “Who touched me?”
It may be that Jesus asks this because he doesn’t know. There are some things that Jesus as fully and truly human decides not to know, though the divine Logos as fully God is omniscient. But in any case, Jesus knows the effect of that touch. Jesus may not have felt the touch from behind, but he knew that the touch was a saving touch. And I think that he probably knew not only the going out of his power, but its destination. And so I think it is most probable that Jesus asks the question for the sake of the woman. That is, Jesus wants to draw attention away from his clothes and to his person. Jesus is no lucky charm. He saves because of personal encounter. For on that day and in that crowd, many people touched Jesus and his clothes, but only one type of touch saved.
And so, with Jesus peering around, the woman sees she can’t be a secret disciple any longer. She cannot keep the miracle hidden, for Jesus is looking around to see her.[3]
Now the woman has been exposed. Her stolen touch is made known. Hiding is no good, for she is dealing with Jesus. So, with fear and trembling she comes out.
No doubt, she was in shock, for she felt herself healed. What 12 years of medical help could not do, Jesus did with a touch. But perhaps she also had other fears. Would Jesus rebuke her for defiling him? Had she made Jesus unclean? Would he expose her to the anger of the crowd that she had also defiled as she brushed by them in her secret quest for wholeness?
So like Jairus before her, she falls before him and confesses all.
Now we should probably ask the question, “Why does Jesus make this healing public?” For when he is in Jewish areas, Jesus generally commands silence of the people he heals. And he will later command Jairus and his wife to silence. Why does he make this healing public knowledge?
Is it for the sake of the woman? Probably, but it is more than that. I think it is because Jesus wants to explain to her, the watching crowd, and us as Mark’s readers, the nature of the salvation that has come to her. To go back to our sandwich analogy, this sandwich of Mark’s is not just a salvation sandwich, but a ‘salvation by faith’ sandwich. Look with me at verse 34:
He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed [literally, ‘saved’] you. Go in peace, and be freed from your suffering.” (NIV)
This is a ‘salvation by faith’ sandwich. The woman was saved by faith, and so it is with us:
For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no-one can boast.’ (Eph 2:8-9 NIV)
Because this woman has been saved by faith, she may go in peace. She is freed from her scourge.
I wonder why Jesus doesn’t say, “Go and offer a sacrifice for your cleansing?” He had said this before, to the leprous man in Mark 1:44. Jesus told him to go and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded as a testimony to them.
Perhaps she had no need of sacrifice because the point of the sacrifice of the leprous man was as a way of witnessing to the cleansing, and Jesus by making the miraculous healing public had already provided a testimony to the healing of the woman. Perhaps the sacrifices were rendered unnecessary by the publication that Jesus himself had made. After all, the healing of the woman itself had transcended the provisions of the Levitical laws, because those laws were meant to point to Christ, and now, with the healing, they had performed that task. With Jesus, we have now moved beyond and outside what the Old Testament had provided for the people of Israel.
Certainly, in addition, no sacrifice was required because Jesus will provide for her eternal salvation by his own sacrifice of himself. For Jesus himself came to earth to take up our infirmities and carrying our diseases (Matt 8:17; Isa 53:4). Jesus not only cleansed and healed her, but also saved her, in the sense that he atoned for her in his body. In himself, Jesus knew that power had gone out from him. In herself, she was healed. And this points us to the cross. The same Peter who saw these unfolding events later wrote.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. (1 Pet 2:23-24)
So we’ve now looked at the filling, and we’ve seen that at first glance it is a healing sandwich, but when we bite into it, it is more like a being saved sandwich, and as we chew, we think, no, it is a ‘saved by faith’ sandwich.
Well now I want to see how the filling has flavoured the bread. We shall look at Jairus and his dead daughter.
Unlike the woman, Jairus takes the full frontal approach. He might be a respected church leader, but desperate times call for desperate measures. He throws himself at Jesus’ feet. He pleads earnestly. The bleeding woman suffered twelve years, but that’s all his daughter had lived. And now she is about to die. So he wants Jesus’ touch for his little daughter. In verse 23, he says to Jesus:
Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed [literally, saved] and live. (NIV)
So the filling has been smeared over the top piece of bread. The story of Jairus also is a salvation story.
The case is urgent, so Jesus goes with him.
But on the way home, Jairus’ hopes are dashed. A bleeding woman has jumped the queue, absorbing precious minutes with her case. And while Jesus is speaking to her, news arrives from Jairus’ house. The interruption has cost his daughter her life. Verse 35:
“Your daughter is dead,” they said, “Why bother the teacher?” (NIV)
“Don’t trouble Jesus anymore. Death is beyond even Jesus’ saving touch. Bleeding, sure, Jesus can do this, but not death. Don’t trouble him with that.”
Jesus overheard them, and ignored them. He says, “Don’t be afraid, just believe.” Don’t fear. Only believe. And in so doing, Jesus is pointing Jairus to the unnamed woman. Jesus says to Jairus, “Remember the woman? Her faith saved her. She went in peace. Don’t be afraid. Only believe (Greek, monon pisteue). Jairus, that is the one thing I require of you: faith. Put your trust in me.”
And so it is with us. We too must entrust ourselves to Christ and only believe. It tastes like a ‘being saved by faith sandwich’, doesn’t it?
So Jesus dismisses the crowd and his disciples. He follows Jairus, and takes only Peter, James, and John, the inner circle. They arrive at the house. Already the mourners have arrived. Jesus puts them outside. For what he is about to do must be kept quiet.
According to Leviticus, dead bodies are like bleeding bodies: one touch, and you’re unclean. Priests were even forbidden to enter a room where a dead body lay (cf. Lev 21).
The parents of the girl, the three—Peter, James, and John—and Jesus go to the girl’s deathbed. And Jesus reaches down and touches the dead body. A normal man would be rendered unclean, but not Jesus. For the unclean does not make Jesus unclean, but he makes the unclean clean. Jesus transcends the Levitical laws. As far as Jesus is concerned, the girl is not dead, but asleep.
When Jesus faced another dead body, he said of himself:
I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die. (John 11:25-26)
Jesus has life in himself, and so he raises this twelve year old girl with a gentle cleansing touch and kind command. Verse 41:
He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). (NIV)
But Jesus must keep this miracle quiet, because it points forward to his own resurrection, and to ours. And at this stage, they can’t handle the truth, for resurrection means death, and Jesus hasn’t yet told that part of the story.
The mourners mock because resurrection seems impossible. And many in our world mock as the mourners do. But for Jesus, death is but a sleep, for Jesus rose from the dead. And so shall we, as Paul says:
We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. (1 Thess 4:14)
So now, here is the salt and pepper on our sandwich. It looks like a healing sandwich, but it’s a being saved sandwich. But it’s not just a being saved sandwich, but a being saved by faith sandwich. And it is about being saved by faith into new life. It is being saved by faith by Jesus Christ who will give life to the dead.
Let’s pray.
[1] E.g that of Morna D Hooker.
[2] Literally, “Jesus knowing in himself [that] the ‘from him’ power [was] going out.”
[3] Note the feminine participle, which may suggest that Jesus knew who he was looking for, contra Lane and Cranfield.