Mark 5:25-34

b. THE TIMID WOMAN'S TOUCH 5:25-34

TEXT 5:25-34

And a 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, having heard the things concerning Jesus, came in the crowd behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I touch but his garments, I shall be made whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her plague. And straightway Jesus, perceiving in himself that the power proceeding from him had gone forth, turned him about in the crowd, and said, Who touched my garments? 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 had been done to 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.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS 5:25-34

230.

What is an issue of blood?

231.

Why mention the fact she had suffered from the physicians?

232.

What had it cost this woman to find out she could not be helped?

233.

What had she heard about Jesus?

234.

Show the determination and faith of this woman.

235.

What was it that healed the woman?

236.

How can we explain the perception of Jesus in this case?; was this true everytime He healed someone?

237.

Did Jesus know who touched Him before He asked the question?

238.

Hadn-'t others touched Him?; why no effect?

239.

Did Jesus see the woman when He looked about the crowd?

240.

Why did the woman make the confession she did?

241.

Why refer to the woman as daughter?

242.

How is the word whole or saved used in this connection?

COMMENT

TIMEAutumn, A. D. 28. Probably in the afternoon of the same day that Christ healed the demoniac of Gadara, or on a day or two after.

PLACE.Capernaum. At the house of Matthew; on the way to the house of Jairus; at the house of Jairusall within or near the city. A comparison of the three accounts makes it probable that the Lord was at the house of Matthew, at a feast, when Jairus sent for him to save the life of his daughter, and that the woman was healed while he was on the way. PARALLEL ACCOUNTSMatthew 9:18-26; Luke 8:41-56. See also Matthew 9:10-17, for intervening incidents.

OUTLINE.1. The Woman's Faith. 2. The Woman Healed. 3. The Woman's Confession.

ANALYSIS

I.

THE WOMAN'S FAITH. Mark 5:25-28.

1.

The Suffering Woman. Mark 5:25-26; Matthew 9:20; Luke 8:43.

2.

She Touches Christ. Mark 5:27; Matthew 9:20; Luke 8:44.

3.

Moved by Faith. Mark 5:28; Matthew 9:21.

II.

THE WOMAN HEALED. Mark 5:29-31.

1.

Saved by Faith. Mark 5:29; Matthew 9:22; Luke 8:44.

2.

The Secret Made Manifest. Mark 5:30; Luke 8:46.

III.

THE WOMAN'S CONFESSION. Mark 5:32-34.

1.

The Woman at the Feet of Christ. Mark 5:33; Luke 8:47.

2.

The Sympathy of Christ. Mark 5:34; Matthew 9:22; Luke 8:48.

INTERVENING HISTORY.Having been besought by the Gadarenes to leave their country, Christ passes over the lake again to the western side, to Capernaum, where he was immediately surrounded by the multitude, who had been waiting for him. Being invited by Matthew to a feast at his house, he there held conversation with some Pharisees, and afterwards with some disciples of John (Matthew 9:10-17). While yet speaking with them, Jairus, a ruler of the Capernaum synagogue, came to him, praying him to heal his daughter. While on his way the woman with the issue of blood, timidly pressed through the throng, touched him and was healed.

INTRODUCTION

The following from Farrar's Life of Christ gives a bird's eye view of the whole incident and its meaning. Among the throng there was one who had not been attracted by curiosity to witness what would be done for the ruler of the synagogue. It was a woman who had suffered for twelve years from a distressing malady, which unfitted her for all of the relationships of life, and which was peculiarly afflicting, because, in the popular mind it was the direct result of sinful habits. In vain had she wasted her substance, and done fresh injury to her health in the direct effort to procure relief from many different physicians, and now, as a last desperate resource, she would try what could be gained without money and without price from the great Physician. Perhaps, in her ignorance, it was because she no longer had any reward to offer; perhaps because she was ashamed in her feminine modesty to reveal the malady from which she was suffering; but from whatever cause, she determined, as it were, to steal from him, unknown, the blessing for which she longed. And so, with the strength and pertinacity of despair, she struggled in that dense throng until she was near enough to touch him; and then, perhaps all the more violently from her extreme nervousness, she grasped the white fringe of his robe. It was probably the tassel that she touched, and then feeling instantly that she had gained her desire and was healed, she shrank back unnoticed into the throng. Unnoticed by others but not Christ, who stopped and asked, Who touched me? * * * She perceiving that she erred in trying to filch a blessing that would have been graciously bestowed, came forward fearing and trembling, and, flinging herself at his feet, told him all the truth. All her feminine shame and fear were forgotten in her desire to atone for her fault. Doubtless she dreaded his anger, for the law expressly ordained that the touch of one afflicted as she was, caused ceremonial uncleanness until the evening. But his touch had cleansed her, not hers polluted him.

EXPLANATORY NOTES

I. THE WOMAN'S FAITH.Mark 5:25. And a certain women. Like many of the New Testament characters this woman appears once and then disappears to be seen no more. Tradition has been busy weaving a fiction to supply the lack of facts. Eusebius records a tradition that she was a Gentile, a resident of Cesarea Philippi (or Banias), It is reported that she caused to be erected in front of her residence a bronze monument in commemoration of her cure, It consisted of two statues, one representing herself in the attitude of supplication; the other, her Deliverer. Elsewhere she appears under the name Veronica, who, in the presence of Pilate, proclaimed the innocence of Jesus, and on the way to Golgotha wiped his face with her handkerchief. Dismissing these fables the suggestion of Dr. W. Thompson is more to the point: I think the circumstances of the New Testament narrative render the inference almost certain that this account was meant for the consolation of those multitudes of stricken women in all ages who seem to be afflicted with sorrows in very unequal measure, compared with the stronger, and so generally, also, the more depraved sex. An issue of blood. A hemorrhage either from the bowels or the womb, probably the latter. The precise nature of the malady is of no importance. Instead of dwelling upon this point the evangelists direct attention to its long continuance and hopeless state. Perhaps the reason she turned to Jesus was that she had spent all and had nothing left to tempt the cupidity of the quack doctors. Had they not secured all she had, they would still have some way to excite her hopes. It is when our earthly resources are at an end, and human helps are powerless, that we are ready to go to the great Physician with the ailments of the soul. How sad her condition! Impoverished, sick, growing worse, helpless!

Mark 5:27. When she had heard of Jesus. She had never met him, did not it is probable live at Capernaum, but she had heard of the wonderful teacher, and of his divine power over disease. She had, it would appear, made herself acquainted with his character and conduct, with the facts of his career, and had thence come to believe that he was full of a divine and gracious energy. Came in the press behind and touched his garment (Matthew and Luke give it, hem or border of his garment); or rather, approaching from behind, touched the tassel of his outer robe. The word which we translate by the hem of the garment denotes one of the four tassels or tufts of woollen cord attached to the four corners of the outer robe. The ordinary outer Jewish garment was a square or oblong piece of cloth (worn something like an Indian blanket, or with a hole in the center for the neck) with tassels at each corner, and a fringe along the two edges. A conspicuous deep blue thread was required to be in the tassels (Numbers 15:38-40. Deuteronomy 22:12). One of the four tassels hung over the shoulder at the back, and this was the one which the woman touched.

Mark 5:28. For she said. Matthew says, within herself; but it is possible that she may have murmured it again and again as she tried to get through the crowd.Schaff. If I may touch but his clothes. She was timid, not doubtful. It is implied that she wished only to touch some part of his clothes, no matter which. She may have looked for some magical influence, but twelve years in the hands of physicians in those days would certainly excuse such a thought. If I but touch his clothes. This woman's faith was real, notwithstanding many errors. Trench says; it would appear as though she imagined a certain magical influence and virtue diffused through his person and round about him, with which if she could put herself in relation, she would obtain that which she desired. And it is probable that she touched the hem of his garment, not merely as the extremest part most easily reached, but attributing to it a peculiar virtue. The error of her view was overborne, and her weakness of apprehension of truth covered, by the strength of her faith. And this is a most encouraging miracle for us to recollect when we are disposed to think despondingly of the ignorance or superstition of much of the Christian world: that He who accepted this woman for her faith, even in error and weakness, may accept them.Alford.

II. THE WOMAN HEALED.Mark 5:29. She felt in her body that she was healed. Literally, knew (i.e., by feeling) in the body. The first clause tells of the cessation of the ordinary symptom of her disease: this points to a new sense of health. The cure was effected by an exercise of Jesus-' will, which responds to the woman's faith in his miraculous power, not through the mere touching of the garment. The result was instantaneous and complete. Sharing the superstition, and imagining that Christ healed by a sort of magic, this woman touched it in hope of cure. An ordinary teacher would have rebuked her superstition; Christ used it to teach her better, but Christ, full of compassion, overlooking the errors of her ignorance, put forth his power and healed her. She had faith, even if not intelligent and clear. She believed that she was to receive something, a real blessing from Christ. This was that in her which was not in the crowd around her. They all traveled on in the highway together, talked about Christ, were interested in him in various ways, discussed his origin and nature, hoped that some good would come of him to the nation. But the woman believed that she should personally receive new life from him.

Mark 5:30. Knowing. that virtue (healing power) had gone out of him. Within that nature there was the inherent power to cure diseases, and a knowledge of all that was going on. He permitted power to go forth for the healing of the woman when her faith was properly exercised.George W. Clark. His healing was an overflow, not an efforta work so unconscious and so utterly passive that it seems like a miracle spilt over from the fullness of his divine life, rather than a miracle put forth.Gordon. Who touched my clothes? Not because he was ignorant, for his searching glance showed to the woman that she was not hid from him (Luke 8:47), but to draw out her confession of her faith. For illustration of similar questions, see Genesis 3:9; Genesis 4:9; 2 Kings 5:25; Luke: Luke 24:19.Abbott. If she had been allowed to carry away her blessing in secret as she purposed, it would not have been at all the blessing to her, and to her whole after spiritual life, that it now was, when she was obliged by this repeated question of the Lord to own that she had come to seek, and had found health from him.Trench. Christ demands that every soul that is healed should openly confess him. He will not permit that men claim him in secret who refuse to acknowledge him.

Mark 5:31. And his disciples said. Peter and they that were with him (Luke 8:45). It was much like Peter thus to speak, both for himself and as spokesman for the disciples. But Jesus affirmed that someone had touched him, implying a touch of intention and faith, and not a mere thoughtless and accidental pressing of the multitude.George W. Clark.

III. THE WOMAN'S CONFESSION.Mark 5:32. He looked round to see her. He required no one to point out the one who had pressed upon him the touch of faith, for it cannot be doubted that he was conscious all the time of what was in the woman's heart, His glance, therefore, at once singled her out in the crowd, and fell upon her with a searching glance that showed that all was known.

Mark 5:33. But the woman fearing and trembling. The timid woman felt that she had stolen a cure, was amazed at the sudden change wrought within her and knowing little of the tender compassion of Christ was filled with dread of the wonderful being who had wrought her cure. Perhaps, too, she expected to be rebuked for touching him without his permission; perhaps, also, the woman feared Christ's anger and his rebuke for polluting him by her touch; or, possibly, the indignation of others in the crowd, in which she had joined without in any way indicating her uncleanness, Knowing what was done in her. A sense of her cure brought her forward to testify to and for Christ. So, always, the sense of pardon and acceptance will lead the trembling believer to full confession and to an open testimony for Christ. It will embolden the timid to speak of the gospel, even before crowds. Told him all the truth. This, though it tried the modesty of the believing woman, was just what Christ wanted, her public testimony to the facts of her casethe disease with her abortive efforts at a cure, and the instantaneous and perfect relief which her touching the great Healer had brought her.

Mark 5:34. And he said unto her, Daughter. A term of affection, but, no doubt, as employed by our Savior, implying all that was spiritually distinctive in her character had been derived from himself. Thy faith hath made thee whole. Literally, thy faith hath saved thee, In the higher and in the lower sense, soul and body. Her faith, of course, had not been the efficient cause of her cure. Christ's power had been that. And behind his power was his person, the real healer. But her faith was the condition on her part, that rendered it fitting on his part to put forth his curative efficiency. Hence it might be represented as having in a certain subordinate respect made her whole.Morison. The student should observe that hers was not a passive faith, but it led to action. A passive faith is a dead faith. The cure was effected by an exercise of Jesus-' will, which responds to the woman's faith in his miraculous power, not through the mere touching of the garment. The result was instantaneous and complete.Meyer.

FACT QUESTIONS 5:25-34

261.

What social as well as physical difficulty did this woman suffer because of her illness?

262.

Wasn-'t the woman rather superstitious in her approach to healing? Explain why, and why excusable.

263.

What has tradition said about this womangive three traditional facts.

264.

How is she a grand example for us today?

265.

Discuss the portion of the robe of Christ touched by the woman.

266.

To whom had she said If I may touch but His clothes. ? When?

267.

Did Jesus accept the woman's error and weakness?what did He accept?

268.

How did the woman know she was healedwho told her? Was it complete, final and unchangeable? How does this compare with some present day healings?

269.

Attempt an explanation of how Jesus could heal almost accidentally through someone else's desire and faith and yet be aware of it?

270.

Who answered the question of Jesus?

271.

What evidence do we have that Jesus knew what was in the heart of the woman even before she touched Him?

272.

What filled the woman with fear and trembling?

273.

Did Jesus want a public confession from this woman? Explain.

274.

In what sense was the woman a daughter?

275.

Please discuss the wonderful wholeness of this woman.