Our story begins with Jesus, His disciples, and a very large crowd rushing to the house of Jairus, a very important man, the ruler of the synagogue. Jairus had come to Jesus with an urgent need. His daughter was extremely sick and on the verge of dying. Try to place yourself into the scene as Jesus agrees to accompany him, and everyone rushes to get to his house before his daughter dies.
Mark 5:24 “So Jesus went with him, and a large crowd was following and pressing against Him.” (HCSB)
The term Mark uses to describe the crowd is synthlibō (soon-THLI'-bo): “to press together on all sides.” This was the word used in pressing grapes, when all the juice was squeezed out of them. Luke also uses graphic terms to describe the crowd:
Luke 8:42b “While He was going, the crowds were nearly crushing Him.” (HCSB)
Luke’s term here is sympnigō (soom-PNEE-go): “to strangle, choke, suffocate.” This is the same verb used to describe how the thorns choked the word in the parable of the sower (Luke 8:14). Later in verse 45 he uses synechō (soon-EKH-o): “to compress, siege, constrain.” This word was used of holding prisoners in jail or of being locked in a siege.
Furthermore, keep in mind that the crowd wasn’t rushing down a nicely paved, smooth wide path. The trail was likely rocky and uneven, and considering the vast crowds Jesus attracted, people were jostling and bumping into each other. Picture the end of a ball game or a sold-out concert, when everyone leaves at the same time. Now imagine everyone rushing to leave. Even if you’re paying attention and careful where you step, it’s not uncommon to bump into each other even on a smooth corridor, let alone a rocky and uneven trail. Keep picturing that scene, as we continue on in this story.
Matt 9:20a “A woman who had been bleeding for twelve years came up behind Jesus.” (CEV)
In the midst of this suffocating crowd, an unnamed woman makes her appearance, trying to be as inconspicuous as she can. Matthew uses a rare verb, found only this one time in the Bible, haimorroeō (high-more-REH-o), which means “to flow blood.” This is the term from which the English word “hemorrhage” is derived. Her condition is amplified in the original Greek text, which literally reads, “a woman hemorrhaging twelve years.” Written in the present active (tense and voice), she had been bleeding in a continuous manner for twelve straight years. The pitiful nature of her plight is expanded upon by Mark:
Mark 5:26 “And had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse.” (NKJV)
The Greek term here for “suffered” is paschō (PAS-kho), which refers to enduring both physical and emotional trauma. Mark later in verse 29 uses another graphic expression to further describe her condition, using the term mastix (MAH-stix), which literally means “whip.” This word refers to the Roman cat-o-nine whip, used to scourge the worst of criminals. It became figuratively used of a plague or affliction so severe as to combine physical suffering and shame, hence something akin to punishment.
In her desperate desire to be healed of this scourge, she had undergone many forms and types of treatments at the hands of many doctors, enduring a steady cycle of physical and emotional trauma. All to no avail. Instead of getting better, her condition had only gotten worse. She had spent all she had, financially, emotionally, mentally and physically, and in the words of Luke, the physician:
Luke 8:43b “[she] could not be healed by anyone.” (NASB)
The term Luke uses here is therapeuō (ther-ah-PYOO-o), meaning “restore to health,” and it is the root for the English word “therapy” or “therapeutic.”
This woeful woman was financially bankrupt, her condition had deteriorated, and she had suffered tremendous emotional and mental anguish in her desperate attempts to find healing. We can only imagine the agony and despair that sapped her strength day after day. Her pitiful situation from our view today would be pretty grim indeed, but if we consider her circumstances from the perspective of her culture, it is unimaginable how she survived as long as she did.
The world in which she lived was a very male-dominated society, with women often regarded as mere possessions and inferior not only to the men, but also to the children they bore to their husbands. The regulation of a woman's life was considered so important that the Mishnah, one of the two parts (the other being Gemara) comprising the Jewish Talmud, the codification of oral laws and traditions, devotes one of its six orders, or major divisions, Nashim, for the many laws governing women. As if to illustrate this striking contrast in societal value, note how we are given Jairus’ name, a wealthy, religious leader, a man; vs. this lowly woman, who is anonymous.
Further underscoring the plight of this penniless, inferior woman, her physical affliction was compounded by significant social implications. Her physical ailment was likely a uterine hemorrhage, possibly caused by a tumor or other disease of the uterus. This was a condition that was not altogether uncommon in those days, though the extreme length of time she had been suffering from this malady only highlights the hopelessness of her situation. The Torah, or Mosaic Law, specified that a woman who suffered from such “a discharge of her blood many days…is unclean.” After seven days without any bleeding a woman was considered ceremonially clean and could then offer the prescribed sacrifices. However, if she had a protracted gynecological problem, as this woman does, she remained unclean throughout its entire duration. Anyone who came into direct or indirect contact with her would likewise be considered unclean, which included touching, sitting or lying on anything she had been in contact with (Lev 15:19-27).
This concept of being unclean is quite lost on our modern, Western way of thinking. To us, this may not seem to be anything particularly significant. In her culture, it meant nearly everything. This woman had no cessation of bleeding for twelve years and was therefore perpetually in a state of ceremonial uncleanness, a far greater and heavier matter than her physical suffering. The stigma and humiliation of such a hemorrhage were perhaps second only to those of leprosy. Her bleeding condition made her religiously and socially an outcast – she was an untouchable, unable to participate in the religious or social life of her community and the nation. Being ritually unclean would have precluded her ability to live normally with others, as they would have continually run the risk of becoming unclean themselves. Her condition caused her to be excluded from the synagogue and the Temple, because she would contaminate anyone and everything she touched, and render them unable to participate in worship. Later Jewish traditions made this condition even more serious than the Mosaic Law specified, so many teachers and religious leaders avoided circumstances in which they could come in contact with a woman, even to the extent of crossing the road to avoid a woman, lest they become accidentally contaminated.
The significance of her condition in the Jewish culture is highlighted by the Mishnah, in which an entire tractate in the sixth order, Tohoroth, which deals with laws of purity, is devoted to this hapless woman’s circumstances (Zavim), including providing some of the “remedies” for staunching the flow of blood, or “flux.” Keep in mind the medical art of that age was crude at best. The Talmud prescribed eleven different cures for this malady. Among the remedies, most of them superstitious, was that of carrying the ashes of an ostrich egg in a linen bag in the summer and in a cotton bag in the winter. Another involved carrying around a barleycorn kernel that had been found in the dung of a white female donkey. Other remedies prescribed:
“Take of the gum of Alexandria the weight of a zuzee (a fractional silver coin);
of alum the same; of crocus the same. Let them be bruised together, and given in
wine to the woman that has an issue of blood. If this does not benefit, take of
Persian onions three logs (pints); boil them in wine, and give her to drink, and
say, ‘Arise from thy flux.’ If this does not cure her, set her in a place where
two ways meet, and let her hold a cup of wine in her right hand, and let some
one come behind and frighten her, and say, ‘Arise from thy flux.’ But if that do
no good, take a handful of cummin (a kind of fennel), a handful of crocus, and a
handful of fenugreek (another kind of fennel). Let these be boiled in wine and
give them her to drink, and say, ‘Arise from thy flux!’ ” If these do no good,
other doses, over ten in number, are prescribed, among them this: “Let them dig
seven ditches, in which let them burn some cuttings of vines, not yet four years
old. Let her take in her hand a cup of wine, and let them lead her away from
this ditch, and make her sit down over that. And let them remove her from that,
and make her sit down over another, saying to her at each remove, ‘Arise from
thy flux!’” (Quoted from Lightfoot by Geikie, “Life and Words of Christ”)
Can you see why Mark would say she “had suffered many things from many physicians?”
As if all this were not enough, it was believed that personal tragedy and suffering was brought upon oneself due to their sins. Recall the remonstrations from Job’s friends – surely he must have sinned greatly to have suffered so terribly. Consider the disciples’ question to Jesus when they encountered the blind man: “Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2). How greatly must this woman have sinned, that she should suffer and be unclean for over a decade?
So in other words, she was physically, emotionally, economically, spiritually and socially bankrupt. She could not touch or be touched, was probably now divorced or had never married, was separated from any friends or family, and was marginal to Jewish society. Scripture and tradition are silent on the source of this woman’s livelihood. Perhaps she lived off an inheritance, or perhaps she was divorced and her dowry had been returned to her. Whatever her means of support had been, it was now gone. She had nothing left.
After twelve years as an outcast and untouchable woman, what would have been left of her self-esteem, self-image and self-worth? She was defiled, destitute, discouraged, and desolate. What possible hope was there left for her? She had nowhere to go, no one to turn to, until:
Mark 5:27a “When the woman heard about Jesus” (NCV)
How did she hear about Jesus? Who had shown enough compassion for this outcast woman that they had reached out to her with the Good News of Jesus?
Rom 10:14 “But how can people call for help if they don't know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven't heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them?” (MSG)
What had she heard? Undoubtedly she had heard of all the miraculous healings He had performed, and how He reached out to the sick, the sinners and even the unclean, like her. Finally – a glimmer of hope!
Matt 9:20b-21 “[she] came behind Him and touched the tassel of His cloak” (WNT) “For she kept saying to herself, ‘If I only touch His garment, I shall be restored to health’.” (AMP)
Notice how she approached Jesus from behind, not wanting to draw any attention to herself and her desperate plan. Yet recall the “crush” of the crowd. How much pushing, shoving and elbowing did it take for her to reach Jesus? She should not have been anywhere near even the fringe of the people, let alone in the midst of this heavy crowd. How long would it have taken this untouchable woman to reach Him, and how many people, especially men, had she contaminated in the process? If any of the men had even an inkling of how terribly contaminated she was causing them to be, she very well could have been stoned to death for her scandalous actions.
The phrase “she kept saying to herself” is in the active voice and conveys the idea of repetition. She was saying over and over to herself, “If I only touch His garment, I will be healed.” “If I only touch His garment, I will be healed.” It’s like she was keeping up this mental repetition as if to drown out the thunderous, heart-pounding fear within her, as she was carrying out this horrifically scandalous act, one that could potentially mean death for her, if she was found out.
However, her desperation mixed with her faith in Jesus’ healing power gave her the resolve to overcome her fear, and to continue pushing through the throng until at last she was able to reach out and touch the fringe of His outer robe. Jewish men wore tassels of blue, twisted cords on the corners of their outer garments, as a reminder that they were to obey God's commandments (Num 15:37-40; Deut 22:12). The woman’s determination to touch Jesus’ clothing reflects the ancient idea that the power of a person extended to one’s clothing (Mark 6:56; Acts 19:11–12) or even one’s shadow (Acts 5:15).
Mark 5:29 “And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her plague.” (ASV)
This key word “straightway” is the Greek euthys (yoo-THUSS), meaning “straight” in the sense of “free from obstacles,” and is very characteristic of Mark. While this word occurs 54 times in the New Testament, 42 of those occasions are found in Mark’s gospel. The significance of this term suggests not so much the speed of action, as would be connoted by “immediately,” the most common rendering of this term in modern translations, but rather, the sureness and inevitability of God’s sovereign plan, which may or may not be manifested instantly. In the three Synoptic Gospels this term is used in referring to the preparation of a straight path for the coming of the Messiah (Matt. 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4, 5), as foretold by Malachi (3:1) and Isaiah (40:3).
Here we see that Jesus, the Great Physician, in an instant heals an affliction that no one else had been able to heal for 12 years. Not only was her flow of blood (the symptom) stanched immediately, but the root cause of the hemorrhage was completed cured, insomuch that by her bodily sensations she immediately knew herself to be perfectly healed. The Greek term for “healed” here is iaomai (ee-AH-oh-my).
Mark’s use of tenses is significant. In the English language we have past, present and future tense. In the Greek the tenses are considerably different. The verbs translated “dried up” (“stopped”) and “felt” are in the aorist tense, which reflects a completed action. The verb translated “was healed” is in the perfect tense, which depicts the lasting effects of the completed action. In other words, this was no temporary healing – she was healed of this plague, once and for all, at the instant moment of her touch.
One can only imagine the pain and emotional agony that had sapped this woman’s strength, energy and hope day after day. She came to Jesus for physical healing, acting in desperate faith, and in the instant she touched the tassel on His robe, she was healed. How to even attempt to capture the joy and emotional release she would have felt at that moment? Her heart soaring and full of gratitude to God for this miraculous healing, she starts to slip away unnoticed into the heavy crowd.
As she turns away, the full-chorus singing and rejoicing within her came to a screeching halt, when Jesus spoke. Her grateful and soaring heart instantly plunged to the pit of her stomach and pounded with fear as Jesus stops her dead in her tracks, when He asks a simple question.
Mark 5:30 “At once Jesus realized in Himself that power had gone out from Him. He turned around in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched My robes’?” (HCSB)
Not only had something happened to the woman when she touched Jesus’ clothes, He immediately knew within Himself that healing power, some of His inherent essence, had gone forth out of Him. Fully God as He was fully human, Jesus wasn’t asking His question out of ignorance. This would be similar to God asking Adam and Eve, “Where are you?” when they were trying to hide from Him in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:8-10). Just as God knew where they were, here Jesus knows the answer as well. Power did not leave Him without His knowledge and will. The touch of the tassel had no magical effect. It was He who had healed, not His garment.
Luke 8:45 “While everyone was denying it, Peter said, ‘Master, people are crowding all around and pushing You from every side’.” (CEV)
Mark 5:31 “His disciples said to Him, ‘You see the crowd pressing against You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me’?’” (HCSB)
How absurd Jesus’ question, “who touched My cloak?” (His outer garment), would have seemed to His disciples, in view of the crush of the crowd all about Him. They’re so utterly amazed by this ridiculous question, when Jesus should have been focused on the urgent matter of Jairus’ daughter, that they lose all composure and in front of the entire crowd, respond with unmitigated sarcasm. Their sarcastic implication is, “Are you crazy? Don’t ask ‘Who touched My cloak?’ You should ask instead, ‘Who hasn’t touched Me’?” Clearly this was an unnecessary delay in getting to where the real emergency was, and didn’t He realize who Jairus was and therefore how important his daughter was?
Luke 8:46 “But Jesus said, ‘Someone deliberately touched Me, for I felt healing power go out from Me’.” (NLT)
Mark 5:32 “[And] Jesus continued looking around to see who had touched Him.” (NCV)
Can you hear the Jeopardy theme playing here as Jesus and the bewildered disciples looked around the crowd? As absurd as His question seemed to the disciples, Jesus obviously was not going to simply let the matter go. How frantic would Jairus and his friends be at this moment? They did not have a moment to spare! Did Jesus not understand that every second of delay was a matter of life-and-death for Jairus’ daughter? Yet He’s simply standing in the middle of a suffocating crowd, asking “Who touched My cloak?” while the annoying Jeopardy theme keeps going. Would any man dare to step forward at this point? Who would want to claim credit for delaying this rush to save Jairus’ daughter? But Jesus continued looking around…
The expression “kept looking” is in the imperfect tense, placing emphasis on the intensity and persistence of His search. He “was looking penetratingly” and persistently in His search for the culprit. The multitude “thronged and pressed Him.” They had likely jostled against Him, but all involuntarily. This woman’s touch was different from the crowd’s. Only one person out of the masses had touched Him purposely in faith for healing. This emphasized Jesus’ divine ability and compassion to distinguish the touch of one who in faith and desperation reached out to Him for deliverance, from the inadvertent touch of those crowding against Him. There was, and still is, a great difference between the two.
Throughout His earthly ministry thousands of people came in contact with Jesus, but how many of them intentionally reached out to touch Him? Throughout the history of the church, countless others have also come in contact with Jesus, and many attend church today and walk through the motions of being His followers in this “Christian nation.” Yet how many truly are indeed followers of Jesus, and how many in our churches today are truly seeking a relationship with Him? Some go to a physical church each Sunday morning and consider it a religious experience or perhaps a good thing that they’re supposed to do, without ever having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Others go to Church purposefully to worship Him and to further their personal relationship with Him. That’s what being a Christian, a Christ-follower, was always intended to be. Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship. As with this woman, He still knows the difference between the person who approaches Him out of mere religious curiosity or duty, and the one who comes to Him in desperation and genuine faith.
Luke 8:47 “When the woman saw that she had not escaped notice, she came trembling and fell down before Him, and declared in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched Him, and how she had been immediately healed.” (NASB)
This unclean, hapless woman had planned to slip away and get lost in the crowd. Now terrified and trembling, the only one in the entire throng who understood Jesus’ question, in the frightening presence of the entire multitude, she came and fell at Jesus’ feet, and told Him everything, not daring to look into His face. There could have been no greater sense of shame, humiliation and fear than what she was going through at that very moment. She understandably would have feared the dire consequences of defiling a holy man by touching Him in her unclean state, let alone all the men in that crowd she had pushed and shoved. Would He in His anger remove the blessing of His healing, would the men stone her to death?
Why did Jesus do this? Why did He make her go through this fear and very public confession and humiliation? Hadn’t this poor woman suffered enough? This seems so absolutely cruel! Why did He not simply permit her to remain anonymous and go her way with the healing she had so desperately sought?
Mark 5:34 “And He said to her, ‘Daughter, thy faith hath saved thee; go away in peace, and be whole from thy plague’.” (YLT)
To her wonder and immense relief, her fear and trembling was not met with reproach or censure, but with tender compassion. When this untouchable woman reached out in faith, she found Jesus was touchable and compassionate. While she sought physical healing, He had so much more in store for her.
First of all, everyone who knew this woman also knew of her unclean condition. If everyone knew that Jesus had very publicly healed her and therefore had made her clean again, it would be far easier for her to assimilate back into her community and spiritual life, than if she had just slipped off unnoticed. Who otherwise would accept the word of an outcast woman that she was healed and clean, after such a long history of medical futility? His public acceptance of her would have helped to overcome the extreme social ostracism she had been living under, just as His power overcame her disease.
More importantly, Jesus wanted to be to her something far more than a healer. He wanted to establish a personal relationship. He wanted her to look full into His face. In the culture of that time, you did not dare to look openly and fully into the face of someone who was so far above you, unless they condescended to give you that permission. If a ruler felt so inclined to grant a bowing subject, just as the woman is at Jesus’ feet, the opportunity to look him in the face, he would “lift up his head,” a sign of great honor. This is what was pictured when David wrote, “But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head” (Psa 3:3).
In looking into the eyes of Jesus, she would have seen and felt His love and tenderness towards her. Had she stolen away in the crowd as she had planned, she would not have met Jesus personally nor have heard His words of assurance and comfort. His purpose was not to rebuke her but to make personal contact with her. By the time He finished speaking to her, she experienced something far more than physical healing.
Jesus addressed her by the affectionate term “daughter” – the only occurrence in the entire Gospels of Jesus addressing a woman by that term. Consider how He had addressed even Mary, His mother, so formally at the marriage feast in Cana of Galilee, when He performed His first miracle:
John 2:4 “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come’.” (NKJV)
How long had it been since this woman had heard such an embracing and loving word and voice? Can you understand or imagine what this reassurance and acceptance would have meant to this untouchable outcast? Why did He call her “My daughter?” Why such a term for this particular woman? Who was He on His way to heal? Jairus’ daughter. The disciples and the crowd were completely focused on Jairus’ daughter. The interruption by this unclean woman was an unnecessary and unwelcomed delay in reaching his daughter. However, the Creator of the universe reaches down and stops the crowd and the urgent to connect with a woman who they saw as simply an irritating interruption and delay. Jesus wanted all of them to know that this poor woman was His daughter – just as important to Him as Jairus’ daughter was to Jairus.
It didn’t end there. Jesus explains it was not simply her touching of His garment that healed her, for others in the crowd came into contact with Jesus as well; it was the faith that caused her to touch Jesus that brought healing. Yes, her cure had been the result of the mighty power inherent in Jesus, but it only came to her because of her faith, not because of magic in a touch.
Moreover, look carefully at the term used here for “healed,” as translated by the NIV and several other versions: “your faith has healed you.” Unlike the previous usage of therapeuō and iaomai, which clearly refer to a physical healing, here “healed you” is literally saved you. Jesus said to her, “you are a saved woman” (Bruce). While physical healing is certainly prominent in this story, the term used here is sōzō (SODE-zoh), the most common verb in the New Testament meaning “save, deliver, make whole.” The term occurs around 110 times in a variety of contexts, although the most common of these refers to being saved, or delivered, from the penalty of sin and death. Recall the message of the angel to Joseph when he said of the child that was conceived in Mary, “He will save His people from their sins” (Matt 1:21). While sōzō certainly can be used of physical healing from sickness and disease, it is used with a spiritual meaning when connected with faith. So this moment was not only of physical healing, but a fuller and more wonderful salvation as well.
And it still didn’t end there. He further pronounced the peace of God upon her. The biblical concept of peace does not refer to the absence of war and other kinds of trouble. To the contrary, it is something that can exist even in the midst of conflict. It is a status of wholeness, completeness and well-being because of a right relationship with God. When was the last time this woman had experienced true internal peace?
Look how Jesus concludes His blessing upon her: “be whole.” She was more than just physically healed. Jesus had made her whole. He had healed her physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually. This outcast woman had been healed and made whole, the daughter of the King. Only Jesus can do that – and He still does that today.
Yet recall that for this woman to have had this moment of connection with Jesus, someone first had compassion on her and reached out to her. Do you have such compassion? Do you notice the untouchables and outcasts in the world around you and around the globe? Do you see the ones who are desperately reaching out for help? Will you take a moment to stop the maddening rush of the crowds and the urgent, to notice and reach out with Christ’s love?
Matt 25:40 “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of My family, you did it to Me’.” (NRSV)
As an aside, according to later tradition, likely influenced by legends, the woman’s name may have been Bernice (Acts of Pilate, 7) or Veronica. Eusebius refers to a bronze statue of Veronica in Caesarea Phillipi (Paneas), where she was alleged to have lived. At the entrance of the house, on a stone pedestal, stood two brazen statues – one represented a woman kneeling; the other, a man with his cloak over his shoulder and his hand stretched out toward the kneeling woman (Hist. Eccl. vii. 18). If indeed true, the story of this woman is greatly enhanced, for a bronze statue of such an event would only be conceivable in a Gentile setting. This would mean that the woman was a Gentile, making this story even more shocking. In the Hebrew mindset, the only thing lower than an unclean woman, would have been an unclean Gentile woman. In the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, the name of the woman is Veronica, and it was she, who, on the Via Dolorosa, when the Lord, on His way to Calvary, stumbled and fell under the weight of the cross He was carrying, gave Him a handkerchief to wipe His face.
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