Mark 5:21-34
“When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet 23 and pleaded earnestly with him, "My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live." 24 So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 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. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. 30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?" 31 "You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?'" 32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
Jesus dealt with both an enemy and an untouchable in this passage. It was synagogue rulers like Jairus who were among those who wanted to see Jesus done away with. The woman with the flow of blood, be it menstrual or not, would have automatically been excluded from all social interaction by the Jewish Law. She would not have been allowed into the synagogue or into most social scenes, because by Law she was considered unclean. She had been perpetually unclean for twelve years.
And yet Jesus is confronted with both types of people here. In compassion I have yet to comprehend, he proceeds to travel to the home of His enemy to heal this enemy’s daughter. This “repulsive” woman bores through the crowd thronging Him on every side and grabs at the hem of his robe, no doubt hanging about 6 inches off the ground and therefore quite dirty. She dives into the dirt behind Him and hopes for the best.
And Jesus feels power drawn out of Him. This is the only time I can think of when this happens. Usually, Jesus wields power by word or touch. But this time, it says that power was drawn from Him, like a bucket of water from a well. The original language of the book of Mark states that she is cured from her disease. But when Jesus inquires about who had drawn power from Him, two things happen. First, the disciples, once again a day late and a dollar short, look at Him like He is crazy, since He is in the middle of a crowd. Second, the woman comes, fearfully and trembling, and once again hits the dirt, this time in front of Him. Then Jesus says, Daughter, your faith has healed you, go and be whole again. There are three different words used in this passage for her restoration: cured, healed, and whole. The first refers to the simple ending of a medical problem, but the last two refer to deeper implications, namely that this Daughter would now be welcomed back to life in all its fulness.
What about us? Do we treat Jesus like a genie, granting wishes, or do we want a real relationship with Him?
Are we simply after the cure, or do we want to be made whole?
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