31 Days of Healing: Woman with the Issue of Blood

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.

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