Transcript

A Tacoma, Washington, newspaper carried the story of Tattoo the basset hound. Tattoo didn’t intend to go for an evening run, but when his owner shut the dog’s leash in the car door and took off for a drive with Tattoo still outside the vehicle, he had no choice.

Motorcycle officer Terry Filbert noticed a passing vehicle with something dragging behind it and running beside it: it was “the basset hound picking up his feet and putting them down as fast as he could” he remarked. The officer chased the car to a stop.

Tattoo was rescued, but not before the dog had reached speeds of 20 to 25 miles per hour, running and rolling over several times. The dog was fine but asked not to go out for an evening walk for a long time.

Many of us live like Tattoo, with our days marked by picking them up and putting them down as fast as we can. We are busy people. We move at a fast pace, engage in many activities, commit to many obligations. We’re afraid it’s rude to set limits on our time.

As a result, the to-do list never gets any shorter. It’s easy to view interruptions as distractions and hassles from real life when we’re always in a hurry.

But if we are so busy that we haven’t the time for interruptions, then we may be missing some of God’s best opportunities to serve Him.

We get going in one direction for a very noble cause, and we feel that we can’t stop or make time for anything else. In the account from Mark we’ll look at in this episode, we see the Lord going in the direction of a very noble cause to go to a young girl who was gravely ill. And yet He was interruptible.

And He stopped and made time for this woman in need on the way. Likewise, sometimes we need to allow our busy lives to be interrupted to help others in need.

Mark 5:24-26: “And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him. And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,

“And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse.”

The Lord, with His disciples, had just returned to the western shore of the Sea of Galilee after having been in Decapolis.

When they arrived and stepped off the boat, a large crowd gathered around Christ on the shore. In the midst of this crowd stood two people especially anxious to see Him: Jairus, a synagogue ruler with a dying daughter; and an anonymous woman suffering from an incurable disease.

The contrast between these two needy people reveals the wideness of Christ’s love and mercy. Jairus was a somebody, an important synagogue officer, the woman was an anonymous nobody. Yet Christ received and helped both of them.

They had no relationship to each other. They were a man and a woman, one was wealthy, one was bankrupt; one was respected, the other rejected; one led the synagogue, the other was excommunicated from the synagogue.

One had a twelve-year-old daughter who was dying, and one had a twelve-year disease who was suffering. Thus, Jairus had enjoyed twelve years of delight with his daughter; while this poor woman had endured twelve years of despair with her disease.

Both Jairus and the woman come together at this time to find their help at the feet of Christ (Mark 5:22,33). They both knew that Christ was their only hope.

After Christ stepped onto the shore, Jairus stepped forward, and “he fell at His feet.”

And Jairus passionately pleaded with the Lord and begged Him “that He would come into his house,” Luke 8:41 says, to help his dying daughter.

Without a word, the Lord immediately set out for this man’s house. “And Jesus went with him,” Mark 5:24 states.

And as Christ went with Jairus, the crowd refused to be left behind. As the Lord went to Jairus’s home, He did so against the crush of people surrounding Him, moving in the middle of a mass of people pressing in on Him as He walked.

But on the way to Jairus’s house, there was an interruption. Thus, the account shows that while Jairus approached the Lord first, it was the woman who was helped first.

A woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years appears on the scene. We don’t know her name, but we know her situation. And we see that her world was very dark.

The nameless woman is described in detail. And we learn first that she had a perpetual issue of blood, a chronic bleeding problem, and she had this problem for as long as Jairus’ daughter had been alive, twelve years.

Scripture does not tell us what caused it. She was hemorrhaging, having a constant flow and loss of blood, bleeding from the womb.

It sapped her of strength and left her tired, and it was obviously uncomfortable. And imagine having this “issue of blood” every day of your life for 12 years. That’s 4,383 days. 624 weeks. 144 months.

For 12 years this woman had steadily grown weaker, and her health deteriorated. Such a condition would be difficult for any woman of any era or time. But being a Jewess under the law, this was especially a problem, as this made her ceremonially unclean.

Leviticus 15:19,20,25 says: “If a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean…And everything that she lieth upon…[and] sitteth upon shall be unclean…if a woman have an issue of her blood many days…all the days of the issue…she shall be unclean.”

According to the Law, if an issue of blood extended many days, she was unclean “all the days of the issue.” This woman had an issue of blood for 12 years and so she was unclean for 12 years! This continual flow of blood rendered her perpetually unclean!

And an unclean person was not permitted to go to the synagogue or to the temple. She was an outcast in Israel’s spiritual life. This uncleanness did not allow them to take part in any aspect of Israel’s worship.

This malady kept her from participating in Jewish religious life, and it also left her socially ostracized and prevented her from joining normal everyday activities.

Thus, people avoided her and refused to come near to avoid becoming ritually unclean themselves.

This woman never was able to rise beyond this. For 12 years she had no reprieve, living on the periphery of society, shunned by all.

Verse 26 shows her desperation and tells us that she had tried her hardest to be relieved of her problem. She had sought help from doctors, “And had suffered many things of many physicians,” we are told.

She had tried hard to find a cure from multiple doctors, so hard that verse 26 says she “had spent all that she had.” She was now in poverty and bankrupt. And so now you add financial strain on top of physical strain and this made her situation even more difficult.

All her money was out of her pocket and in the physician’s pockets. The doctors cost her everything she had. Not much has changed, because healthcare still puts people in the poor house. And we see that physicians weren’t cheap in Christ’s day either.

As a result of seeing all these doctors and getting all their treatments, and spending all this money, she was not helped at all. Mark wrote that she “was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse.”

Enduring many disappointments with the doctors, she did not improve, she was not helped or healed, and she only got worse as well as poorer.

This is not an advertisement for the first-century Galilean medical association. They didn’t help her at all.

Luke, who was a doctor himself, wrote in his Gospel of this woman that she could not be healed. So there was no hope for her ever becoming better or ceremonially clean.

Mark 5:27-29: “When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. “And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.”

It was at this incredibly low point in her life, when she was at the end of her rope, that this bleeding, broken, and bankrupt woman, “heard of Jesus,” verse 27 says.

This woman had heard the reports in Galilee of Christ’s healings and kindness. She then decided to find Him, believing that He could deliver her from her incurable ailment.

She had learned about the Lord’s return from Decapolis, and made the bold choice to violate the acceptable boundaries of the Law and her uncleanness, and to go to the beach and stand on the fringe of the crowd.

She had no money, no clout, and no solutions. She was a penniless outcast, and all she had was hope and faith that Christ could help.

Mark tells us of her inner dialogue with herself, and that in her faith she had said, “If I may touch but His clothes, I shall be whole.”

Because she was ceremonially unclean and would be condemned for touching Christ or for even being in and around this crowd, she decided to do this secretly.

She did not say to herself, “If I ask Him, He will heal me.” She decided to not openly ask the Lord to be healed, but instead she thought, “If I just touch His clothes, I know I will be made well.” She believed that since Christ’s touch healed people, if she touched Him she would get the same result.

As Christ arrived on the seashore, He was surrounded by people. Jairus, an important man in her community then begged the Lord to come to his home.

As the crowd begins to move, she knows she would have to rub against people, and who knows how many, defiling them all ceremonially. But she also knew that her disease was not contagious, so it was not dangerous for anyone for her to do so.

She could have said: “Look, He’s going with Jairus; I can’t bother Him now.” She could have argued that nothing else had helped her, so why try again. And she might have worried that someone would recognize her in the crowd and call out that she was making them all unclean and embarrassing her in front of all these people.

But she laid aside all these arguments, obstacles, and excuses that might have made her stop, and she came by faith to Christ. She decided to take the chance, to risk it.

Because of the size of the crowd, she hoped to avoid notice, and with a strong and desperate faith, she came in among the people by stealth, she snuck her way in, and then she pushed and worked her way through the tightly compressed throng of people from “behind” to get to the Lord.

She let nothing stand in her way, and she finally reached Christ. And as soon as she was close enough, she bent low to the ground, and she lunged and reached out, and she grabbed the bottom of His cloak.

Luke says she touched the “border of His garment.” Matthew stated that she “touched the hem of His garment.”

The word “touched” means “to fasten one’s self to, to adhere to, to cling to.” It was a desperate grasping. She did so with all kinds of thoughts swirling in her mind about being where she shouldn’t be, contaminating people, but with hope, that if she could just reach out and grab that robe just for a moment, she fully believed she would be made whole.

And the healing was instant. As soon as the woman’s fingers contacted the robe, she immediately felt a sudden rush of vitality flow through her body.

Immediately the flow of blood stopped, the hemorrhage was dried up, and she knew and felt in her body that she was healed of her infliction.

What twelve years of medical appointments and treatments by doctors could not cure, the power of God healed in a split second.

Time froze, the world stood still for her in that moment. Her physical problem was gone. In a moment of time, 12 years of chronic bleeding, baffled doctors, and shunning family and neighbors suddenly stopped and completely ended.

All she did was extend her arm through the crowd. And with that small, courageous gesture of faith, she experienced Christ’s tender power and healing.

Her faith was not in His clothing. This was not about superstition with a robe. It was about faith in the power, provision and mercy found in the Person of Christ.

I visited Israel in 2018. Being there for the first time, I had many special moments knowing I was where our Lord walked this earth and ministered to Israel.

One unexpected moment for me was when we visited a church on the Sea of Galilee. It had a boat for a pulpit which, as a pastor, I found interesting.

But when we went downstairs in this church there was this beautiful, moving picture on the wall of the account that we are looking at.

I just stood there, stunned by it, staring at it for a while, thinking about this account, thinking about the faith that led this woman to reach through the crowd to touch the hem of our Lord’s garment.

Then it dawned on me that the location of this church and this picture, was very near where this event actually took place. And that blew me away.

The next year, on a tour I co-led, I had the special opportunity to share a devotion with the group about this amazing story, with this picture behind me.

Mark 5:30-34: “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?

“And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.

“But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.”

Immediately this woman was healed. Immediately Christ felt the power go out of Him. And immediately He stopped.

God honors radical faith. As it’s been said, “When an ark was built, lives were saved. When soldiers marched, Jericho tumbled. When a staff was raised, a sea opened. When a lunch was shared, thousands were fed. And when a garment was touched by the hand of an anemic woman in Galilee…Christ stops.”

Faith stops the Lord. Christ distinguished between the touch of the crowd and the agonized touch of a needy soul by faith from one who needed His help.

One commentator put it well that “[This woman] had begun with FACT. The Lord’s power was so absolute, He was so mighty to save, that a touch would do, even a touch of His robe, even a touch of its hem.

“FACT had been followed by FAITH. She came! She touched! It worked! It was faith, her personal faith in Christ, that distinguished her from all of the others who thronged Him. They touched Him, too, but nothing happened to them. Even today, many people brush up against Him, but they go away the same as they came.” John Phillips

God is personally involved and engaged in every act of power, from the power in the creation of all things, the power revealed in the sustaining of His universe, the power revealed in the resurrection of Christ, and so on.

Christ stopped, turned around, and asked, “Who touched My garments?” He didn’t ask the question for information. He knew what had happened and who had touched Him.
She knows she’s been healed. He knows she’s been healed. But everybody else in that crowd did not know.

The Lord asked the question to bring the woman out of hiding, to draw her out, because He wanted to do something special for her.

Initially, no one admitted they had touched the Lord. Luke adds that everybody was denying it, “It wasn’t me….” It makes me imagine people looking around, pointing at other people, some nodding their heads to the person next to them.

The woman intended to remain incognito, and to allow the crowd to pass on, hoping to shrink back unnoticed from the crowd and then to return to her home and a normal life.

The disciples respond to the Lord’s question, “Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?” Or, “With all these people pressing in all around you on all sides, it would be easier to answer who hasn’t touched You?”

The Lord continued to look all around at the faces in the crowd. Verse 32 literally means that “He looked penetratingly into the crowd.” He scanned the crowd, looking and searching for her, looking from one side to another with a searching gaze.

The question of what one person touched the Lord, when all kinds of people touched Him as they walked, and what separated one face from all the other faces in that crowd as Christ searched for her, was faith.

Only one person in that throng of people knew why He asked “Who touched My clothes?” and she froze in her tracks.

The woman had not expected or wanted to be detected, but when Christ turned and asked the question, she knew that He knew.

The woman remained silent at first. Upon being detected, she was seized with a feeling of fear, and the trembling that resulted showed itself visibly. Finally, she stepped forward and revealed that it was her.

Fearing and trembling, knowing that she was in the presence of God, she “came and fell down before Him, and told Him all the truth.”

She explained what He knew: how she had suffered for 12 years with her infirmity, how she had lost all her money to doctors trying to find a cure, and how she believed that just touching His garment she would be made whole, and that when she did grab His garment she had been healed and cured immediately.

In her fear and trembling at that moment, she may have expected a rebuke, but instead, she heard words of kindness flowing from a heart full of compassion and love.

And Christ called the woman “Daughter.” He called her by a term of family endearment. She had been separated from her family, and Christ calls her by a family term out of His love. It’s the only time in the Gospels that Christ called any woman, “Daughter.”

Imagine how that made her feel! Who could remember the last time she received and heard a term of affection?

Christ commended her faith in Him because that was what was most often missing when people came to Him.

He wanted Israel to see this humble woman who had crawled in under the vision of everybody, grabbed His robe, fulling believing that by doing so, she would be healed.

But Christ called this woman forward to commend her faith, but also for her sake going forward. Luke 8 says “she declared unto Him before ALL THE PEOPLE.”

Everybody heard her story. It would have taken time for her on her own to convince people that after 12 years she was fully healed and not unclean anymore.

Having her declare her healing, with the Lord affirming it, before this great crowd, He wanted the people in that community to know that she was now healed and clean, and could be and should be fully welcomed back into life in Israel.

She had been restored back to health, restored back to society, restored back to her family, restored back to the worship of God in the synagogue.

The Lord then sent her off with a final blessing of assurance, “Go in peace.” She had lived a hard life for 12 years and knew anything but peace.

But now everything was new, and she could now “Go in peace” and live in the peace and comfort of her healing and wholeness, with her disease no longer troubling her.

After this account, the funny thing is that many more did what this woman did:

Mark 6:56 tells us: “And whithersoever He entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they …besought Him that they might touch if it were but the border of His garment: and as many as touched Him were made whole.” This woman started something!

This anonymous woman had been perpetually unclean, unable to fix the problem herself. No physician could help. She couldn’t buy her healing. She was bankrupt.

She saw Christ as her ONLY option. She went to Him in faith, and Christ took her uncleanness away, by His power, mercy, and grace.

And we find a picture of salvation in this. This anonymous woman stands as a picture of all people. Because of our sins each of us is unclean perpetually, unable to fix the problem ourselves; no physician can help this spiritual problem. And we can’t buy our spiritual healing. And sin leaves each of us spiritually bankrupt.

Christ is the ONLY option, and we must go to Him in faith. And those who come to Christ in faith and desperation to be saved from their sins are treated by the Lord as He did with this woman, with kindness and love.

And under grace today, by just believing that Christ died for our sins and rose again, in that moment He instantly makes us whole and takes our uncleanness away by His power, mercy, and grace.

And after our cleansing, we too are told by Christ, to “go in peace,” to live in the peace, comfort, and blessing of our wholeness in Him.