Now a certain woman had a flow of
blood for twelve years, and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent
all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made
well.”
Immediately the fountain of her
blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out
of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?”
But His disciples said to Him,
“You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’”
And He looked around to see her
who had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to
her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be
healed of your affliction.”
-Mark 5:25-34
I love this story. I am pretty sure it is one of my
favorites. I cannot wait to meet this
woman in heaven and tell her thank you. Thank
you for being brave.
At the beginning of the account Mark says, "Now a certain woman..." Not all translations include the word certain
when referring to her, but some do. I
looked it up in the Greek, and it says the word certain is used when “the writer either cannot or will not speak more particularly.”
It made me wonder if she was known by the person (possibly Peter), that relayed
the account to Mark, the author of this Gospel.
I wonder if she was one of the other women who was named that followed
Jesus.
The Bible says she had been
bleeding for 12 years. That is a long
time. We don’t know how much she was
bleeding, just that it didn’t stop. She
must have been tired physically. I am
sure she was tired emotionally. The
scriptures say she “suffered many things from many physicians” and she didn’t
get any better. How difficult that must
have been for her, to get her hopes up, thinking someone would have a cure,
thinking the next thing would be it.
This next thing would be what solves my problem. But it didn’t.
Then the Bible says, “She heard
about Jesus.” It doesn’t say she heard
Jesus. It says she heard about Him. You and I haven’t heard Jesus preach in front
of us. He speaks to our hearts. He speaks through others to us, but we haven’t
heard Him in the flesh. We have only
heard about Him. So, in a way, we have
had the same experience she had.
I wonder what she heard. If you look through the scriptures, and other
accounts of healing, we might be able to understand what she heard. She heard that He was healing everyone who
came to Him. She heard that He was healing people on the Sabbath. She heard
that He was healing people and forgiving them of their sin all at once. She heard that he wasn’t even asking people
about their sin-He was just freeing them from whatever kept them bound. She
heard that He was touching people that were considered unclean. This built
faith in her heart.
So she gets brave. She is not supposed to be out in the
crowd. Under the law, she was considered
unclean because of her flow of blood. Everybody
she was touching, and I am sure she was touching a lot of people, would have
been considered unclean as well.
She finally gets close enough to
touch his garment. And when she touches
Him, the flow of blood stops immediately. I love immediately.
And then Jesus realizes someone
touched Him differently. Oh my. There were lots of people touching Him. There are lots of people touching Him
today. He lives in us. But, not everybody is touching Him, or
drawing on Him with their faith to be healed.
So many people have set that aside.
But oh! What if we picked it up
again?!
He turns to her, and the Bible
says she comes before Him with fear and trembling, and tells Him the whole
truth of what happened to her. I believe
she was so overwhelmed with the magnitude of God and the power that had just
changed her life-that is why it says she came before Him with fear and
trembling.
And then Jesus tells her that
her faith has made her well. That phrase “made you well” is translated several
different ways, based upon which translation of the Bible you read. It says, “made you whole” or “healed you” or “saved
you.” The phrase comes from the Greek
word “sozo.” It means to “save, heal,
preserve, and rescue.” There are 108 occurrences of it in the New
Testament.
When He tells her that her faith
has made her well, it is an all-encompassing phrase. It means salvation, healing, and
rescuing. That is why in the next breath
it seems like He repeats Himself and says, “Go in peace, and be healed of your
affliction.”
When we gave our lives to Jesus,
we were sozo(ed). We were rescued,
healed, preserved, and saved. We touch Jesus with our faith. Continue to hear what she heard about Him.
So faith comes through what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.-Romans 10:17(HCSB)
Beth
*If you are not a Believer, He
will heal you too. It doesn’t matter
what you have done. He loves you and
will heal your physical body right now.
The greatest miracle though is getting to know Him. If you haven’t heard about Jesus, I wrote a
post just for you to tell you how you can come to know Him. He came and found
me when I was in a bad place, and now He sends me out to help others find their
way to Him. Please go here and read
about salvation and new life in Him.
Great job Beth!!
ReplyDeleteSo good, my friend!... Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThis is probably my favourite story in the Bible and I loved your reflections here. I love that Jesus not only healed the woman physically but that he affirmed her faith in front of the crowd and called her "daughter."
ReplyDeleteThe scripture is absolutely beautiful to me. It is one of my favorites also. Thank you Beth for writing this and inspiring us. I love how you talked about it, I love how you said immediately, so we didn't miss it. Thank you again for what you do.
ReplyDelete