Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 5:25
And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,
25 34. The Healing of the Woman with an Issue of Blood
25. a certain woman ] “Such overflowing grace is in Him, the Prince of Life, that as He is hastening to the accomplishing of one work of His power, He accomplishes another, as by the way.” Trench, p. 188.
an issue of blood ] Her malady was especially afflicting (Lev 15:19-27), for not only did it unfit her for all the relationships of life, but was popularly regarded as the direct consequence of sinful habits.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 25. A certain woman] See Mt 9:20.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
See Poole on “Mat 9:18“, and following verses to Mat 9:22, upon this whole history, containing a passage which happened in the way between the place where our Saviour first heard of the sickness of Jairuss daughter and his house, whither our Saviour was now going. We shall in these histories observe our Saviour propounding several questions to persons: of the matter to which they related, he could not be presumed to be ignorant, being as to his Divine nature omniscient; but he only propounded them for the bettering of the knowledge of those to whom or amongst whom he spake, that his miracles might be more fully and distinctly understood. So also he is said to have known many things (as here,
that virtue had gone out of him) which he only knew as he was God, and knew all things. It is also observable how Christ encourages the first rudiments of saving faith in him. All that we read of this woman is, that she said,
If I may but touch his clothes, I shall be whole: this was much short of her owning and receiving him as her Lord and Saviour. It amounted to no more than a persuasion she had of his Divine power and goodness, and that with respect to the healing of a bodily distemper; neither doth it import her believing him to be the eternal Son of God, but one to whom God had communicated a power of healing. In this confidence she cometh unto him, and toucheth the border of his garment. She is presently healed. Christ saith, her faith had made her whole. Christ measures her faith by the light and means she had received, and accordingly rewards it; and if the notion be true, that where he healed the body he also healed the soul, this was the beginning of a greater faith in her.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And a certain woman which had an issue of blood twelve years. [See comments on Mt 9:20]. This woman was in the crowd that thronged Jesus, as he passed through the streets of Capernaum. Eusebius relates o, that it was reported, that this woman was of Caesarea Philippi, where her house was to be seen; where were extant some wonderful monuments of the benefits conferred upon her by Christ; as that at the door of her house was an effigy of a woman in brass, set upon an high stone on her bended knees, and arms stretched out like a supplicant; and opposite to her, another effigy of a man, of the same metal, standing, and decently clothed in a tunic, and his hand stretched out to the woman; at whose feet, upon the pillar, a strange form of a plant arose, reaching up to the border of the brazen tunic, which is a remedy against all diseases; and he says it remained to his times, and was then to be seen: and Theophylact p says, in the times of Julian the apostate it was broke to pieces. But this woman rather seems to be an inhabitant of Capernaum, in the streets of which the after cure was wrought; and therefore what credit is to be given to the above accounts I leave to be judged of. It may be more useful to observe, that this profluvious woman is an emblem of a sinner in a state of nature: as her disease was in itself an uncleanness, and rendered her unclean by the law, whereby she was unfit for the company and society of others; so the disease of sin, with which all are infected, is a pollution itself, and of a defiling nature; all the members of the body, and all the powers and faculties of the soul are polluted with it, and the whole man is filthy in the sight of God, and is pronounced unclean by the law of God; and such persons are very unfit for the society of saints on earth, and much less to be with those in heaven, nor even to be with moralized persons; for evil communications corrupt good manners: openly profane and impure sinners are infectious, and to be avoided. Likewise, as this woman’s disease was of long standing, she had it twelve years, and it was become inveterate and stubborn, and not easy to be removed; so such is the disease of sin, and indeed it is much worse; it is what is brought into the world with men, and is as old as themselves; is natural to them, and cannot be removed by any ordinary and natural methods, but requires supernatural power and grace; and it is in such a like case and condition, that the Spirit of God finds his people, when he quickens, sanctifies, and cleanses them: “and when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live”, Eze 16:6.
o Eccl. Hist. l. 7. c. 18. p In Matt. ix. 20.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
WOMAN WITH ISSUE OF BLOOD HEALED V. 25-34
1) “And a certain woman,” (kai gune) “And a woman,” a specific, certain, or definite woman, as also related, Mat 9:20-22; Luk 8:43-48.
2) “Which had an issue of blood twelve years,” (housa en hursei haimatos dodeka ete) “Who had a flow of blood (hemorrhage) for a period of twelve years,” during which time she had been condemned as unclean under the law, Lev 15:25-33.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
b. THE TIMID WOMANS 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.
Hadnt 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 ACCOUNTSMat. 9:18-26; Luk. 8:41-56. See also Mat. 9:10-17, for intervening incidents.
OUTLINE.1. The Womans Faith. 2. The Woman Healed. 3. The Womans Confession.
ANALYSIS
I.
THE WOMANS FAITH. Mar. 5:25-28.
1.
The Suffering Woman. Mar. 5:25-26; Mat. 9:20; Luk. 8:43.
2.
She Touches Christ. Mar. 5:27; Mat. 9:20; Luk. 8:44.
3.
Moved by Faith. Mar. 5:28; Mat. 9:21.
II.
THE WOMAN HEALED. Mar. 5:29-31.
1.
Saved by Faith. Mar. 5:29; Mat. 9:22; Luk. 8:44.
2.
The Secret Made Manifest. Mar. 5:30; Luk. 8:46.
III.
THE WOMANS CONFESSION. Mar. 5:32-34.
1.
The Woman at the Feet of Christ. Mar. 5:33; Luk. 8:47.
2.
The Sympathy of Christ. Mar. 5:34; Mat. 9:22; Luk. 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 (Mat. 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 Farrars Life of Christ gives a birds 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 WOMANS FAITH.Mar. 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!
Mar. 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 (Num. 15:38-40. Deu. 22:12). One of the four tassels hung over the shoulder at the back, and this was the one which the woman touched.
Mar. 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 womans 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.Mar. 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 womans 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.
Mar. 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 (Luk. 8:47), but to draw out her confession of her faith. For illustration of similar questions, see Gen. 3:9; Gen. 4:9; 2Ki. 5:25; Luke: Luk. 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.
Mar. 5:31. And his disciples said. Peter and they that were with him (Luk. 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 WOMANS CONFESSION.Mar. 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 womans 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.
Mar. 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 Christs 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.
Mar. 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. Christs 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 womans 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.
Wasnt 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 womans 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 elses 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.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
25. A certain woman She intercepts him as he passes on, followed by a pressing crowd, to the house of Jairus.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And a woman who had had emissions of blood for twelve years, and had suffered many things under many doctors, and had spent all that she had, and was not any better but rather grew worse, having heard things about Jesus, came in the crowd behind and touched his clothing, for she said, “If I touch but his clothing I will be made whole.” ’
This long complicated sentence is unusual in Mark, but was necessary in order to present the position succintly. It sums up the sad medical situation of the woman. Strictly she should not have been in the crowd. Her continual emissions of blood rendered her ritually ‘unclean’ (Lev 15:25-27). She would not have been welcomed in the synagogue nor among her friends. She could not touch people or have relations with her husband. She was supposed to keep apart until she was whole.
Her history was equally sad. She had been under many doctors. God alone knew what humiliations she must have suffered, for there was a huge variety of doctors and many practised outlandish ‘cures’. When much of medicine was trial and error, with genuine cures mixed with old wives’ tales, it was inevitable. They had so few effective medicines. A passage in the Mishnah says, when discussing men’s occupations, ‘the best among doctors is destined for Hell’, (the writer had no doubt suffered under them), although not all were as pessimistic as that. And their ministrations had all been to no avail, for it had only made her worse. And it had made her financial security worse too for she had spent all that she had on the attempts to find a cure. ‘All that she had’. She had probably been a wealthy woman. (We note that Doctor Luke softens down this criticism of doctors – Luk 8:43).
And now she had heard about this prophet Jesus, Who could do wonderful things, and how people had been healed of scourges by touching Him (Mar 3:10). And how unclean lepers had been cleansed (Mar 1:40-45).
But as a haemorrhaging woman, as one who was ritually unclean, she knew she dared not approach Him openly, and seemingly there was no one to act on her behalf. Penniless she was friendless. So she devised a plan. She would approach Him secretly in the crowds and touch His clothing. From what she had heard about Him and His power there was a good chance that that might be enough.
So this woman had faith in Jesus. It was a strange faith, almost a superstitious faith, but it drew her to Him. And that would prove enough. For joining the bustling crowd and forcing her way through them by the fierce strength of her desperation she reached out tentatively and touched the tassels of Jesus’ robe (Mat 9:20; Luk 8:44). There were many jostling Jesus in that crowd. But only she ‘touched’ Him. This tassel was one of the tassels or ‘fringes’ required by Law (Number Mar 15:38-39). They were required as a reminder to God’s people of the commandments by which they were bound. Now two desperate people were depending on Him at the same time.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The woman with an issue of blood:
v. 25. And a certain woman, which had had an issue of blood twelve years,
v. 26. and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,
v. 27. when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched His garment.
v. 28. For she said, If I may touch but His clothes, I shall be whole.
v. 29. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. While Jesus was, at the urging of Jairus, hurrying towards his house, there was an interruption on the way. A woman, otherwise unknown, had had an issue of blood for twelve years, which rendered her Levitically unclean, Lev 15:25. It excluded her from public worship in Temple and synagogue, and isolated her even from the company of her relatives. The manner of Mark’s putting it is rather expressive: She had suffered much from, at the hands of, many physicians; she had become impoverished, she had spent all her substance in her quest for health; and all this had been of no benefit to her; instead of getting better she rather became worse. This description is particularly suitable in the case of those people, both within and without the medical profession, who think that science is paramount and must say the last word. In spite of the great advance in medicine and surgery in the last century, and especially during the last decades, there are still many individual sicknesses and epidemics that baffle the entire medical profession. This is not said in disparagement of the profession, but in the interest of truth. People that make the doctor their god, and trust in him absolutely, may under circumstances find themselves in the position of this woman. It remains true to this day, and the more skillful and conscientious the physician is, the more freely will he acknowledge it: the Lord must direct the diagnosis and bless the medicine, otherwise the science of the greatest physician will avail nothing. This woman had now heard of Jesus, the many laudatory things that were being circulated through the country concerning His ability and willingness to work healing in cases which seemed hopeless. Her condition and the consciousness of her Levitical uncleanness, also her deep humility would not permit her to come forth openly before the multitude and address the Lord. From what she had heard concerning Him, she had come to believe with a conviction born of faith in this Messiah of the world, that the mere touch of the hem of His garment would restore her health. She could carry out her intention all the more easily in this great crowd since they pressed upon the Lord. She hoped thus to remain unobserved. Only to touch His clothes, that was her one thought. And her faith was rewarded. Without delay, at once, the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she knew with a happy conviction that her body was cured of that scourge which the Lord had laid upon her these many years. There is food for thought, as Luther suggests, in the fact that the Buffering of this woman had begun at the same time that the daughter of Jairus had come to gladden the hearts of her parents. To bear such a burden as this woman did for so many years, and then to be released from the afflicting bonds, is an experience which should rightly cause the deepest thankfulness in the hearts of all such sufferers.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Mar 5:25. Which had an issue of blood Who had had a bloody flux. The circumstances in the next verse are mentioned by the Evangelist, to shew that the woman’s disease was incurable, and that she herselfknew it to be socircumstances, which at one and the same time demonstrate the greatness of the miracle. See Dr. Friend’s History of Physic, page 37.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mar 5:25-34 . See on Mat 9:20-22 ; Luk 8:43-48 .
Mar 5:26 . Mark depicts with stronger lines than Luke, and far more strongly than Matthew.
] what was of her means . How manifold were the prescriptions of the Jewish physicians for women suffering from haemorrhage, and what experiments they were wont to try upon them, may be seen in Lightfoot, p. 614 f.
Mar 5:27 . ] subordinated as a prior point to the following . Comp. on Mar 1:41 .
The characteristic addition in Mat 9:20 , Luk 8:44 , would be well suited to the graphic representation of Mark (according to Ewald, it has only come to be omitted in the existing form of Mark), but may proceed from a later shape of the tradition.
Mar 5:28 . ] without (see the critical remarks) does not mean: for she thought (Kuinoel, and many others), which, moreover, used absolutely never does mean, not even in Gen 26:9 , but: for she said. She actually said it, to others, or for and to herself; a vivid representation.
Mar 5:29 . . . .] like (Lev 12:7 ; Lev 20:18 ), not a euphemistic designation of the parts themselves affected by the haemorrhage, but designation of the seat of the issue of blood in them.
] , Euthymius Zigabenus. Still this by itself could not as yet give the certainty of the recovery. Hence rather: through the feeling of the being strong and well, which suddenly passed through her body.
] as at Mar 3:10 .
Mar 5:30 . ] stronger than the previous .
] in His own consciousness, therefore immediately, not in virtue of an externally perceptible effect.
. .] the power gone forth from Him. What feeling in Jesus was, according to Mark’s representation, the medium of His discerning this efflux of power that had occurred, we are not informed. The tradition, as it has expressed itself in this trait in Mark and Luke (comp. on Mat 9:22 ), has disturbed this part of the narrative by the view of an efflux of power independent of the will of Jesus, but brought about on the part of the woman by her faith (comp. Strauss, II. p. 89), the recognition of which on the part of Jesus occurred at once, but yet not until after it had taken place. This is, with Weiss and others (in opposition to Holtzmann and Weizscker), to be conceded as a trait of later origin, and not to be dealt with by artificial explanations at variance with the words of the passage (in opposition to Ebrard and Lange), or to be concealed by evasive expedients (Olshausen, Krabbe, and many others). It does not, however, affect the simpler tenor of the history, which we read in Matthew. Calovius made use of the passage against the Calvinists, “vim divinam carni Christi derogantes.”
.] who has touched me on the clothes? Jesus knew that by means of the clothes-touching power had gone out of Him, but not, to whom. The disciples, unacquainted with the reason of this question, are astonished at it, seeing that Jesus is in the midst of the crowd, Mar 5:31 . In Olshausen, Ebrard, Lange, [91] and older commentators, there are arbitrary attempts to explain away that ignorance.
Mar 5:32 . ] namely, by any resulting effect that might make manifest the reception of the power. The feminine . is said from the standpoint of the already known fact.
Mar 5:33 . ] the whole truth , so that she kept back nothing and altered nothing. Comp. Plat. Apol. p. 17 B, 20 D; Soph. Trach. 91; and see Krger on Thuc. vi. 87. 1.
] , 1Sa 1:17 ; 2Sa 15:9 ; Luk 7:50 , al.: unto bliss , unto future happiness. In (Jdg 18:6 ; Luk 2:29 ; Act 16:36 ; Jas 2:16 ) the happy state is conceived of as combined with the , as simultaneous.
. . . ] definitive confirmation of the recovery, which Schenkel indeed refers merely to the woman’s “religious excitement of mind” as its cause.
[91] According to Lange, for example, the conduct of Jesus only amounts to an appearance ; “He let His eyes move as if (?) inquiringly over the crowd” ( . . . .).
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1426
THE WOMAN WITH A BLOODY FLUX HEALED
Mar 5:25-29. A certain 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, when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.
THE miracles of our Lord afford much useful instruction. They were not perhaps always intended as types; but they afford a just occasion for spiritual observations.
To improve the miracle now before us, we observe,
I.
Sin has introduced many lamentable evils into the world
[Sickness and pain and death are the effects of sin. If our first parents had not sinned, these things had never existed. The infirmities of the weaker sex are especially noticed in this view [Note: Gen 3:16.]. Deplorable was the condition of the woman mentioned in the text: but incomparably worse effects have proceeded from sin: our souls are altogether diseased in every part. The prophets description of the Jews is applicable to us [Note: Isa 1:5-6.]. Our own confession is but too just a picture of our state [Note: There is no health in us.]; and, if we should die in this state, we must surely perish [Note: 1Co 6:9.].]
II.
We are prone to rest in carnal methods of removing them
[The woman had employed many physicians, and had spent her substance on them without any benefit. We blame her not for using all possible means of relief: but she had looked no higher than to the creature for help. This conduct incensed the Lord against good King Asa [Note: 2Ch 16:12.]; and in every age it provokes the eyes of his glory. In spiritual things we generally act the same part. Under slight convictions of sin we rest in purposes of amendment. If guilt lie heavy on our souls, we flee to duties, and hope by them to compensate for past neglects [Note: Mic 6:6-7.]. Not but that it is right to use the means of salvation: but we should look through the means to the Saviour, and expect mercy, not for our diligence, but for his names sake [Note: Rom 9:31-32.]. Unless we do this our labour will end in disappointment.]
III.
However desperate our disorders be, the Lord Jesus is able to heal them
[The womans disease had baffled all the art of medicine; but she hoped to find relief from the Lord Jesus. Nor was she disappointed in her application to him: there went virtue out of him and healed her instantly. The same power will he exercise over the diseases of the soul. The most heinous sins may be purged away by his blood; the most inveterate lusts may be subdued by his Spirit [Note: 1Co 6:11.]. A whole cloud of witnesses have testified of this truth [Note: Manasseh, David, Solomon, Paul, &c. See 1Ti 1:16.]: nor are there wanting many living monuments of his power and grace.]
IV.
The more we honour Jesus by faith, the more will he bless and honour us
[Greatly did this diseased person honour Jesus by her faith. She had heard of his unbounded power and benevolence towards others: she trusted that he would exercise them towards herself. Nor did she at all stagger through unbelief. Jesus therefore determined to bless and honour her. His inquiries were made, not for his own information, but to bring her into notice, and to propose her as a pattern for the encouragement of others. He not only conveyed, but expressly confirmed, her cure, and dismissed her with the endearing appellation of daughter. Thus will he testify his love to all who rely upon him. How gloriously did he reward the confidence of the Hebrew Youths [Note: Dan 3:17; Dan 3:25; Dan 3:27.]! Nor shall any put their trust in him in vain. Their sins, however numerous, shall surely be forgiven [Note: Mat 12:31.]: their difficulties, however great, shall surely be overcome [Note: Mar 11:22-23.].]
Address
1.
To those who are unconcerned about their spiritual maladies
[We all are sensible that we are sinful creatures, and profess an intention to seek forgiveness: yet for the most part we defer this necessary work. If our bodies were disordered, we should apply to the physician; we should even spend our substance in procuring his aid, and this, with only an uncertain hope of obtaining relief. But we account the smallest labour too much for our souls: we will not apply in earnest to our Almighty Physician, notwithstanding we could not fail of success in our application, and should be sure to obtain healing without money and without price. What strange infatuation possesses impenitent sinners! What extreme folly is it to prefer the transient welfare of a perishable body, before the eternal welfare of an immortal soul! Let the conduct of this woman put such persons to shame, and let them instantly avail themselves of the Saviours presence.]
2.
To those who desire to have their disorders healed
[Man is ever prone to seek help in the creature first. The Jews of old did this to their own confusion [Note: Hos 5:13.]: and God has declared, that all who do so shall fail of success [Note: Jer 17:5-6.]. Let us then be convinced that the sinners help is in God alone, and that all others are physicians of no value. Let us never question the power or willingness of Christ to save. Let us make our way to him through all difficulties and obstructions. Let us stretch out our hands with humble boldness and confidence, nor doubt but that virtue shall proceed from him to heal our souls.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,
Ver. 25. And a certain woman ] This history happened fitly, that Jairus might be confirmed, and the different degrees of faith in several saints the better discerned.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mar 5:25-34 . The woman with an issue .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mar 5:25 . . = of Mt.: in or with a flux of blood. So in Lk. also.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mark
THE POWER OF FEEBLE FAITH
Mar 5:25
In all the narratives of this miracle, it is embedded in the story of Jairus’s daughter, which it cuts in twain. I suppose that the Evangelists felt, and would have us feel, the impression of calm consciousness of power and of leisurely dignity produced by Christ’s having time to pause even on such an errand, in order to heal by the way, as if parenthetically, this other poor sufferer. The child’s father with impatient earnestness pleads the urgency of her case-’She lieth at the point of death’; and to him and to the group of disciples, it must have seemed that there was no time to be lost. But He who knows that His resources are infinite can afford to let her die, while He cures and saves this woman. She shall receive no harm, and her sister suppliant has as great a claim on Him. ‘The eyes of all wait’ on His equal love; He has leisure of heart to feel for each, and fulness of power for all; and none can rob another of his share in the Healer’s gifts, nor any in all that dependent crowd jostle his neighbour out of the notice of the Saviour’s eye.
The main point of the story itself seems to be the illustration which it gives of the genuineness and power of an imperfect faith, and of Christ’s merciful way of responding to and strengthening such a faith. Looked at from that point of view, the narrative is very striking and instructive.
The woman is a poor shrinking creature, broken down by long illness, made more timid still by many disappointed hopes of core, depressed by poverty to which her many doctors had brought her. She does not venture to stop this new Rabbi-physician, as He goes with the rich church dignitary to heal his daughter, but lets Him pass before she can make up her mind to go near Him at all, and then comes creeping up in the crowd behind, puts out her wasted, trembling hand to His garment’s hem-and she is whole. She would fain have stolen away with her new-found blessing, but Christ forces her to stand out before the throng, and there, with all their eyes upon her-cold, cruel eyes some of them-to conquer her diffidence and shame, and tell all the truth. Strange kindness that! strangely contrasted with His ordinary care to avoid notoriety, and with His ordinary tender regard for shrinking weakness! What may have been the reason? Certainly it was not for His own sake at all, nor for others’ chiefly, but for hers, that He did this. The reason lay in the incompleteness of her faith. It was very incomplete-although it was, Christ answered it. And then He sought to make the cure, and the discipline that followed it, the means of clearing and confirming her trust in Himself.
I. Following the order of the narrative thus understood, we have here first the great lesson, that very imperfect faith may be genuine faith.
The imperfections, then, of this woman’s faith were many. It was intensely ignorant trust. She dimly believes that, somehow or other, this miracle-working Rabbi will heal her, but the cure is to be a piece of magic, secured by material contact of her finger with His robe. She has no idea that Christ’s will, or His knowledge, much less His pitying love, has anything to do with it. She thinks that she may get her desire furtively, and may carry it away out of the crowd, and He, the source of it, be none the wiser, and none the poorer, for the blessing which she has stolen from Him. What utter blank ignorance of Christ’s character and way of working! What complete misconception of the relation between Himself and His gift! What low, gross, superstitious ideas! Yes, and with them all what a hunger of intense desire to be whole; what absolute assurance of confidence that one finger-tip on His robe was enough! Therefore she had her desire, and her Lord recognised her faith as true, foolish and unworthy as were the thoughts which accompanied it! Thank God! the same thing is true still, or what would become of any of us? There may be a real faith in Christ, though there be mixed with it many and grave errors concerning His work, and the manner of receiving the blessings which He bestows. A man may have a very hazy apprehension of the bearing and whole scope of even Scripture declarations concerning the profounder aspects of Christ’s person and work, and yet be holding fast to Him by living confidence. I do not wish to underrate for one moment the absolute necessity of clear and true conceptions of revealed truth, in order to a vigorous and fully developed faith; but, while there can be no faith worth calling so, which is not based upon the intellectual reception of truth, there may be faith based upon the very imperfect intellectual reception of very partial truth. The power and vitality of faith are not measured by the comprehensiveness and clearness of belief. The richest soil may bear shrunken and barren ears; and on the arid sand, with the thinnest layer of earth, gorgeous cacti may bloom out, and fleshy aloes lift their sworded arms, with stores of moisture to help them through the heat. It is not for us to say what amount of ignorance is destructive of the possibility of real confidence in Jesus Christ. But for ourselves, feeling how short a distance our eyesight travels, and how little, after all our systems, the great bulk of men in Christian lands know lucidly and certainly of theological truth, and how wide are the differences of opinion amongst us, and how soon we come to towering barriers, beyond which our poor faculties can neither pass nor look, it ought to be a joy to us all, that a faith which is clouded with such ignorance may yet be a faith which Christ accepts. He that knows and trusts Him as Brother, Friend, Saviour, in whom he receives the pardon and cleansing which he needs and desires, may have very much misconception and error cleaving to him, but Christ accepts him. If at the beginning His disciples know but this much, that they are sick unto death, and have tried without success all other remedies, and this more, that Christ will heal them; and if their faith builds upon that knowledge, then they will receive according to their faith. By degrees they will be taught more; they will be brought to the higher benches in His school; but, for a beginning, the most cloudy apprehension that Christ is the Saviour of the world, and my Saviour, may become the foundation of a trust which will bind the heart to Him and knit Him to the heart in eternal union. This poor woman received her healing, although she said, ‘If I may touch but the hem of His garment, I shall be whole.’
Her error was akin to one which is starting into new prominence again, and with which I need not say that I have no sort of sympathy,-that of people who attach importance to externals as means and channels of grace, and in whose system the hem of the garment and the touch of the finger are apt to take the place which the heart of the wearer and the grasp of faith should hold. The more our circumstances call for resistance to this error, the more needful is it to remember that, along with it and uttering itself through it, may be a depth of devout trust in Christ, which should shame us. Many a poor soul that clasps the base of the crucifix clings to the cross; many a devout heart, kneeling before the altar, sees through the incense-smoke the face of the Christ. The faith that is tied to form, though it be no faith for a man, though in some respects it darken God’s Gospel, and bring it down to the level of magical superstition, may yet be, and often is, accepted by Him whose merciful eye recognised, and whose swift power answered, the mistaken trust of her who believed that healing lay in the fringes of His robe, rather than in the pity of His heart.
Again, her trust was very selfish . She wanted health; she did not care about the Healer. She thought much of the blessing in itself, little or nothing of the blessing as a sign of His love. She would have been quite contented to have had nothing more to do with Christ if she could only have gone away cured. She felt but little glow of gratitude to Him whom she thought of as unconscious of the good which she had stolen from Him. All this is a parallel to what occurs in the early stages of many a Christian life. The first inducement to a serious contemplation of Christ is, ordinarily, the consciousness of one’s own sore need. Most men are driven to Him as a refuge from self, from their own sin, and from the wages of sin. The soul, absorbed in its own misery, and groaning in a horror of great darkness, sees from afar a great light, and stumbles towards it. Its first desire is deliverance, forgiveness, escape; and the first motions of faith are impelled by consideration of personal consequences. Love comes after, born of the recognition of Christ’s great love to which we owe our salvation; but faith precedes love in the natural order of things, however closely love may follow faith; and the predominant motive in the earlier stages of many men’s faith is distinctly self-regard. Now, that is all right, and as it was meant to be. It is an overstrained and caricatured doctrine of self-abnegation, which condemns such a faith as wrong. The most purely self-absorbed wish to escape from the most rudely pictured hell may be, and often is, the beginning of a true trust in Christ. Some of our superfine modern teachers who are shocked at Christianity, because it lays the foundation of the loftiest, most self-denying morality in ‘selfishness’ of that kind, would be all the wiser for going to school to this story, and laying to heart the lesson it contains, of how a desire no nobler than to get rid of a painful disease was the starting-point of a moral transformation, which turned a life into a peaceful, thankful surrender of the cured self to the service and love of the mighty Healer. But while this faith, for the sake of the blessing to be obtained, is genuine, it is undoubtedly imperfect. Quite legitimate and natural at first, it must grow into something nobler when it has once been answered. To think of the disease mainly is inevitable before the cure, but, after the cure, we should think most of the Physician. Self-love may impel to His feet; but Christ-love should be the moving spring of life thereafter. Ere we have received anything from Him, our whole soul may be a longing to have our gnawing emptiness filled; but when we have received His own great gift, our whole soul should be a thank-offering. The great reformation which Christ produces is, that He shifts the centre for us from ourselves to Himself; and whilst He uses our sense of need and our fear of personal evil as the means towards this, He desires that the faith, which has been answered by deliverance, should thenceforward be a ‘faith which worketh by love.’ As long as we live, either here or yonder, we shall never get beyond the need for the exercise of the primary form of faith, for we shall ever be compassed by many needs, and dependent for all help and blessedness on Him; but as we grow in experience of His tender might, we should learn more and more that His gifts cannot be separated from Himself. We should prize them most for His sake, and love Him more than we do them. We should be drawn to Him as well as driven to Him. Faith may begin with desiring the blessing rather than the Christ. It must end with desiring Him more than all besides, and with losing self utterly in His great love. Its starting-point may rightly be, ‘Save, Lord, or I perish.’ Its goal must be, ‘I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.’
Again, here is an instance of real faith weakened and interrupted by much distrust . There was not a full, calm reliance on Christ’s power and love. She dare not appeal to His heart, she shrinks from meeting His eye. She will let Him pass, and then put forth a tremulous hand. Cross-currents of emotion agitate her soul. She doubts, yet she believes; she is afraid, yet emboldened by her very despair; too diffident to cast herself on His pity, she is too confident not to resort to His healing virtue.
And so is it ever with our faith. Its ideal perfection would be that it should be unbroken, undashed by any speck of doubt. But the reality is far different. It is no full-orbed completeness, but, at the best, a growing segment of reflected light, with many a rough place in its jagged outline, prophetic of increase; with many a deep pit of blackness on its silver surface; with many a storm-cloud sweeping across its face; conscious of eclipse and subject to change. And yet it is the light which He has set to rule the night of life, and we may rejoice in its crescent beam. We are often tempted to question the reality of faith in ourselves and others, by reason of the unbelief and disbelief which co-exist with it. But why should we do so? May there not be an inner heart and centre of true trust, with a nebulous environment of doubt, through which the nucleus shall gradually send its attracting and consolidating power, and turn it, too, into firm substance? May there not be a germ, infinitesimal, yet with a real life throbbing in its microscopic minuteness, and destined to be a great tree, with all the fowls of the air lodging in its branches? May there not be hid in a heart a principle of action, which is obviously marked out for supremacy, though it has not yet come to sovereign power and manifestation in either the inward or the outward being? Where do we learn that faith must be complete to be genuine? Our own weak hearts say it to us often enough; and our lingering unbelief is only too ready to hiss into our ears the serpent’s whisper, ‘You are deceiving yourself; look at your doubts, your coldness, your forgetfulness: you have no faith at all.’ To all such morbid thoughts, which only sap the strength of the spirit, and come from beneath, not from above, we have a right to oppose the first great lesson of this story-the reality of an imperfect faith. And, turning from the profitless contemplation of the feebleness of our grasp of Christ’s robe to look on Him, the fountain of all spiritual energy, let us cleave the more confidently to Him for every discovery of our own weakness, and cry to Him for help against ourselves, that He would not ‘quench the smoking flax’; for the old prayer is never offered in vain, when offered, as at first, with tears, ‘Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.’
II. The second stage of this story sets forth a truth involved in what I have already said, but still needing to be dealt with for a moment by itself-namely, that Christ answers the imperfect faith.
And so it is ever. Christ’s mercy, like water in a vase, takes the shape of the vessel that holds it. On the one hand, His grace is infinite, and ‘is given to every one of us according to the measure of the gift of Christ’-with no limitation but His own unlimited fulness; on the other hand, the amount which we practically receive from that inexhaustible store is, at each successive moment, determined by the measure and the purity and the intensity of our faith. On His part there is no limit but infinity, on our sides the limit is our capacity, and our capacity is settled by our desires. His word to us ever is, ‘Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.’ ‘Be it unto thee even as thou wilt.’
A double lesson, therefore, lies in this thought for us all. First, let us labour that our faith may be enlightened, importunate, and firm: for every flaw in it will injuriously affect our possession of the grace of God. Errors in opinion will hinder the blessings that flow from the truths which we misconceive or reject. Languor of desire will diminish the sum and enfeeble the energy of the powers that work in us. Wavering confidence, crossed and broken, like the solar spectrum, by many a dark line of doubt, will make our conscious possession of Christ’s gift fitful. We have a deep well to draw from. Let us take care that the vessel with which we draw is in size proportionate to its depth and our need, that the chain to which it hangs is strong, and that no leaks in it let the full supply run out, nor any stains on its inner surface taint and taste the bright treasure.
And the other lesson is this. There can be no faith so feeble that Christ does not respond to it. The most ignorant, self-regarding, timid trust may unite the soul to Jesus Christ. To desire is to have; and ‘whosoever will, may take of the water of life freely.’ If you only come to Him, though He have passed, He will stop. If you come trusting and yet doubting, He will forgive the doubt and answer the trust. If you come to Him, knowing but that your heart is full of evil which none save He can cure, and putting out a lame hand-or even a tremulous finger-tip-to touch His garment, be sure that anything is possible rather than that He should turn away your prayer, or His mercy from you.
III. The last part of this miracle teaches us that Christ corrects and confirms an imperfect faith by the very act of answering it.
She had thought of the healing energy as independent of the Healer’s knowledge and will. Therefore His very first word shows her that He is aware of her mute appeal, and conscious of the going forth from Him of the power that cures-’Who touched Me?’ As was said long ago, ‘the multitudes thronged Him, but the woman touched.’ Amidst all the jostling of the unmannerly crowd that trod with rude feet on His skirts, and elbowed their way to see this new Rabbi, there was one touch unlike all the rest; and, though it was only that of the finger-tip of a poor woman, wasted to skin and bone with twelve years’ weakening disease, He knew it; and His will and love sent forth the ‘virtue’ which healed. May we not fairly apply this lesson to ourselves? Christ is, as most of us, I suppose, believe, Lord of all creatures, administering the affairs of the universe; the steps of His throne and the precincts of His court are thronged with dependants whose eyes wait upon Him, and who are fed from His stores; and yet my poor voice may steal through that chorus-shout of petition and praise, and His ear will detect its lowest note, and will separate the thin stream of my prayer from the great sea of supplication which rolls to His seat, and will answer me . My hand uplifted among the millions of empty and imploring palms that are raised towards the heaven will receive into its clasping fingers the special blessing for my special wants.
Again, she had been selfish in her faith, had not cared for any close personal relation with Him; and so she was taught that He was in all His gifts, and that He was more than all His gifts. He compels her to come to His feet that she may learn His heart, and may carry away a blessing not stolen, but bestowed
‘With open love, not secret cure,
The Lord of hearts would bless.’
Thus it is with us all. We may go to Him, at first, with no thought but for ourselves. But we have not to carry away His gift hidden in our hands. We learn that it is a love-token from Him. And so we find in His answer to faith the true and only cure for all self-regard; and moved by the mercies of Christ, are led to do what else were impossible-to yield ourselves as ‘living sacrifices’ to Him.
Again, she had shrunk from publicity. Her womanly diffidence, her enfeebled health, the shame of her disease, all made her wish to hide herself and her want from His eye, and to hide herself and her treasure from men. She would fain steal away unnoticed, as she hoped she had come. But she is dragged out before all the thronging multitude, and has to tell the whole. The answer to her faith makes her bold. In a moment she is changed from timidity to courage; a tremulous invalid ready to creep into any corner to escape notice, she stretched out her hand-the instant after, she knelt at His feet in the spirit of a confessor. This is Christ’s most merciful fashion of curing our cowardice-not by rebukes, but by giving us, faint-hearted though we be, the gift which out of weakness makes us strong. He would have us testify to Him before men, and that for our own sakes, since faith unacknowledged, like a plant in the dark, is apt to become pale and sickly, and bear no bright blossoms nor sweet fruit. But, ere He bids us own His name, He pours into our hearts, in answer to our secret appeal, the health of His own life, and the blissful consciousness of that great gift which makes the tongue of the dumb sing. Faith at first may be very timid, but faith will grow bold to witness of Him and not be ashamed, in the exact proportion in which it is genuine, and receives from Christ of His fulness.
And then-with a final word to set forth still more clearly that she had received the blessing from His love, not from His magical power, and through her confidence, not through her touch-’Daughter! thy faith’-not thy finger-’hath made thee whole; go in peace and be whole’-Jesus confirms by His own authoritative voice the furtive blessing, and sends her away, perhaps to see Him no more, but to live in tranquil security, and in her humble home to guard the gift which He had bestowed on her imperfect faith, and to perfect-we may hope-the faith which He had enlightened and strengthened by the over-abundance of His gift.
Dear friends, this poor woman represents us all. Like her, we are sick of a sore sickness, we have spent our substance in trying physicians of no value, and are ‘nothing the better, but rather the worse.’ Oh! is it not strange that you should need to be urged to go to the Healer to whom she went? Do not be afraid, my brother, of telling Him all your pain and pining-He knows it already. Do not be afraid that your hand may not reach Him for the crowd, or that your voice may fail to fall on His ear. Do not be afraid of your ignorance, do not be afraid of your wavering confidence and many doubts. All these cannot separate you from Him who ‘Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses.’ Fear but one thing-that He pass on to carry life and health to other souls, ere you resolve to press to His feet. Fear but one thing-that whilst you delay, the hem of the garment may be swept beyond the reach of your slow hand. Imperfect faith may bring salvation to a soul: hesitation may ruin and wreck a life.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mar 5:25-34
25A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, 26and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse 27after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. 28For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.” 29Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. 30Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?” 31And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?'” 32And He looked around to see the woman who had done this. 33But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.”
Mar 5:25 “hemorrhage for twelve years” This would have made her ceremonially unclean (cf. Lev 15:25-27) and, therefore, excluded her from all forms of Jewish worship (i.e., synagogue and temple).
Mar 5:26 “and had endured much at the hands of many physicians” Luke, the physician, leaves this comment out in Luk 8:43 ff.
“had spent all she had and was not helped at all” The Jewish cures for this problem listed in the Talmud were (1) carrying the ashes of an ostrich egg in a linen rag around one’s neck in summer and in a cotton rag in winter or (2) carrying barley corn from the dung of a white female donkey (cf. Shabb. 110 A & B).
Mar 5:27 “touched His cloak” Probably what she touched was His prayer shawl, used by men for covering their heads during worship. It was called the Tallith (cf. Num 15:38-40; Deu 22:12). For a ceremonially unclean woman to touch a rabbi was an inappropriate act. This woman was desperate!
Mar 5:30 “Immediately” See note at Mar 1:10.
“Jesus perceiving in Himself that the power” The exact nature of this power is uncertain. It was obviously from God (cf. Luk 5:17). Jesus felt its affect. Jesus was able to bestow it to others in the missions of the Twelve and the seventy.
“proceeding from Him had gone forth” Mat 8:17 quotes Isa 53:4 that the Messiah would heal us because He bore our infirmities.
“Who touched My garments” There was a great crowd (cf. Mar 5:31). Mat 9:20 has “tassel.” The prayer shawl had thirteen blue tassels, commemorative of the Mosaic Law.
Mar 5:32 “And He looked around” This imperfect tense implies He began to look over the crowd. On this occasion Jesus was not supernaturally informed about who or what had happened. Possibly the question was meant for the woman (i.e., an opportunity to publicly express her faith).
Mar 5:33 “fearing and trembling” Women had such a low place in society. She was reluctant to speak in public. She also knew that since she was ceremonially unclean she was not permitted to touch a rabbi.
Mar 5:34 “‘Daughter'” The teachings of Jesus reveal the profound truth that human beings, through faith in Jesus, can become family members of God. Salvation is described in birthing or legal terms, indicating a family relationship. What powerful metaphors for the Christian experience!
“‘your faith has made you well'” Not her touch, but acting on her faith in Him was the key. Faith itself is not the issue, but the object of faith (i.e., Jesus). There was nothing magical here, nor was it the power of positive thinking, but the power of Jesus. This is another use of the Greek sz in its OT sense (cf. Mar 5:23). Here it is a perfect active indicative, which implied she was healed and remained healed of the physical problem.
“‘go in peace and be healed of your affliction'” These are both present active imperatives. The term peace (eirn) has the connotation of wholeness and well-being, not just the absence of problems. The term “affliction” is from the root “to whip.”
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
which had = being in (Greek. en. App-104.)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Mar 5:25-34
4. THE WOMAN WITH AN
ISSUE OF BLOOD HEALED
Mar 5:25-34
(Mat 9:18-26; Luk 8:41-56)
25 And a woman, who had an issue of blood twelve years, –This woman had an incurable disease so far as human skill was concerned. She was able to walk, and was among the multitude that followed Jesus. She had a chronic disease, which according to the law rendered her unclean. (Lev 15:25.) It was of a long continuance, twelve years. This was a hemorrhage of some kind, which for these long years had been a source of much suffering. A remarkable case of wasting disease. She really, by rabbinical law, had no right in a Jewish crowd. How many, many reasons women have to love the Lord Jesus Christ! Even this very disease illustrates it. In Oriental nations where Christianity has not gone, the unfortunate victim has, added to her physical sufferings, social contempt and partial ostracism. Christianity has done this away under its sway.
26 and had suffered many things of many physicians,–The practice of physics in those days was in a very crude condition and no doubt most of it, as perhaps some of it is now, guesswork. The knowledge of the human body and its functions was exceedingly crude. The absurdest ideas passed current as medical knowledge. The most ridiculous experiments were made in the hope of lighting accidentally, as it were, upon efficient remedies. One with a baffling, long-continued disease, if he put himself in their hands at all, was tolerably sure to “suffer many things” of the physicians, including the pocketbook. The remedies that do not cure are likely to aggravate the disease. The many physicians, with their varied remedies, if there had been no malpractice, could scarcely avoid the result here mentioned, she “rather grew worse.”
and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,–Imperfect as was their knowledge and practice, they had carried one act to perfection–that of charging. But all that a man hath he will give for his life, and she had kept on, lured by one new, but equally false, hope after another till all her wealth was gone. When one recalls the kind of physicians and their methods of cure in those days, we do not wonder that she suffered, and that they failed to cure her, although she “spent all that she had” in the vain endeavor. How many things does the sinsick soul suffer from the quack physicians of the soul! Dr. Morality, Dr. Atheism, Dr. Deism, Dr. Spiritualism, etc. But it grows no better; rather grows worse. Miserable comforters are they all
27 having heard the things concerning Jesus, came in the crowd behind,–She had doubtless heard of his power over fever, and paralysis and unclean spirits, and her faith reached up to the hope that such a one might have power over even her apparently incurable malady. When Jairus came to Jesus he (Jesus) was surrounded by a great concourse of people, who followed him. Weak as she was, she pushed in among them. She saw now was her opportunity. The healer was near, and on the way to cure another person. She puts forth her supreme effort. Probably she came in the crowd behind to avoid being noticed. It was an act of faith. She was full of confidence that Jesus was able to heal;but she trembled on account of her conscious unworthiness.
and touched his garment.–[Matthew says: “She said within herself, If I do but touch his garment, I shall be made whole.” This showed her faith in his power and willingness to heal. She acted on this faith when, in her weak and enfeebled condition, she pressed through the throng of people that followed and jostled one another against him, and touched the hem of his garment. In response to this touch of faith healing virtue went forth from him, and her blood ceased to flow. Others in the throng that pressed upon him touched him, but no virtue or power to bless or heal went forth from him. It was only the touch of faith that could draw the blessings. She felt the healing power through her whole system giving vigor and strength to her body.] . There is only one who can heal the soul’s malady, only one who can stop this everflowing fount of sin.
28 For she said, If I touch but his garments, I shall be made whole.–Healed of my disease. Matthew and Luke both say that she touched “the border of his garment.” This woman’s experience with “many physicians” was enough to destroy all confidence in the healing art, at least for her case; but not withstanding all these failures and discouragements, she comes to Christ in great faith, not as a physician, but as a being in whom there was virtue and power to heal aside from any remedies.
29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of her plague. –The hemorrhage instantly ceased. The deep-rooted disease of twelve years standing was thoroughly cured. She perceived by the peculiar sensations she experienced in her body that health was restored and that she was healed. Thus, after twelve years of suffering, when all the skill of the physicians had failed, she finds relief in the healing power of Jesus. She felt it, she knew it. How? The fountain of blood was dried up. So we, when we have given ourselves unreservedly to Christ, when we have abandoned our sins, when through obedience to the gospel the fountain of sin, the rebellious will, is dried up, know we are saved. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” (Mar 16:16.)
30 And straightway Jesus, perceiving in himself that the power proceeding from him had gone forth,–He realized now this particular instance of transfer. Others touched him but felt no healing influence, because theirs was not in faith. Her cure was the result and answer of her touch of faith, which reached beyond the hem of his garment to his divine nature.
turned him about in the crowd, and said, Who touched my garments?–This question raises the question whether the healing was conscious or unconscious on his part–that is, whether he was only made conscious by feeling the abstraction of healing power through the woman’s touch, or whether, knowing supernaturally her approach, he voluntarily permitted the power to go forth. Most orthodox commentators agree with Trent, who says: “We cannot for an instant suppose that this healing power went forth without the full consent of his will. He did not ask the question to obtain information, for he had healed the woman, and must have known on whom the blessing was conferred; hut he did it that the woman might herself make a confession of the whole matter, by which the power of her faith and the greatness of the miracle might be manifested to the praise of God. “By grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” (Eph 2:8.) The healing virtue comes from Christ. Everything was voluntary on the woman’s part in being healed bodily; so on ours in being healed spiritually. But at the critical moment the power from Jesus goes forth; so with us. In either case this power is a gift. It cannot be bought. It is not for sale. The human and divine so overlap that we cannot separate them. The soul of the woman was not healed, only her body. She was healed physically, not spiritually.
31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?–Peter and his companions knew not yet the difference between mere contact and the believing touch, between thronging Christ and touching Christ. Many had brushed against him and were none the better; she had touched him and rejoiced. Jesus responded, according to Luke: “Somebody did touch me: for I perceive that power had gone forth from me.” As the people were in a dense crowd, “thronging” the Savior at the time, the disciples thought it a singular question to ask under the circumstances, but he knew what had taken place and they knew nothing of it.
32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.–Jesus was not in doubt as to the party who had touched him. He knew from the beginning the gender; “to see her” implies his knowledge as to her identity. Luke (Luk 8:47) also confirms this knowledge when he says: “When the woman saw that she was not hid.”
33 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.–She revealed her heart. Not in a secret whisper, for Luke (Luk 8:47) says she “declared in the presence of all the people for what cause she touched him, and how she was healed immediately.” Thus this magnificent cure became public property, and was added to the flowing tide of Christ’s fame, ever rolling on with fuller volume and to further shores. The woman was now in proper mental condition to receive the confirmation of her cure, to be disabused of all ideas of mere magical contact with Jesus, and to receive spiritual influence to go with her future life. It was her intention to keep the matter secret, but it was the will of the Savior that she should make it known. So she “told him all the truth” concerning the matter.
34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole;–Not faith of itself, for the touch which faith actuated evidently had an important part, from the question in the thirtieth verse. Midway between the faith and touch was the purpose which the faith caused her to form, and the touch executed.
go in peace,–All her self-reproach and self-questioning were now at an end. The Master had proclaimed peace, and what peace it was, after these twelve years of sickness, and shame, and pain, and contempt!
and be whole of thy plague.–Continue whole! It shall be to thee a permanent possession, this gracious healing. Probably this woman became a spiritual follower of Jesus Christ, and was saved at last. However, the Bible is silent on this point. Her faith was not a passive or inactive one; had it been, she never would have been made whole. It moved her and filled her with courage to press through the crowd and to touch the body of Jesus.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
a certain: Mat 9:20-22, Luk 8:43, Luk 8:44
an issue: Lev 15:19, Lev 15:20, Lev 15:25-27
twelve: Luk 13:11, Joh 5:5, Joh 5:6, Act 4:22, Act 9:33, Act 9:34
Reciprocal: Mar 9:21 – How
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE BELIEVING ONE AND THE UNBELIEVING MANY
And a certain woman when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched His garment.
Mar 5:25-27
I. The mighty difference.There is a great differenceit may be a difference for us as of life and deathbetween thronging Jesus and touching Him. The multitude thronged Him; only this faithful woman touched Him. There was nothing to the outward eye which should distinguish between her action and theirs. St. Peter and the other disciples could see nothing to distinguish this woman from any other member of that eager, inquisitive, unceremonious multitude which crowded around Him, as was their wont; so that St. Peter, who was always ready, and sometimes too ready, with his word, is half inclined to take his Lord up and rebuke Him for asking this question, Who touched My clothes? A question which had so little reason in it, seeing that the whole multitude were thronging and pressing upon Him at every moment and on every side. But Christ reaffirms and repeats His question, Who touched Me? He knew the difference, He distinguished at once, as by a Divine instinct, that believing one from the unbelieving many. There was that in her which put her in connection with the grace, the strength, the healing power which were in Him.
II. In what it consisted.Do you ask me what this was? It was faith. It was her faith. She came expecting a blessing, believing in blessing, and so finding the blessing which she expected and believed. But that careless multitude who thronged the Lord, only eager to gratify their curiosity, and to see what new wonder He would next do, as they desired nothing, expected nothing from Him, so they obtained nothing. Empty they came, and empty they went away.
III. We are of the many that throng Jesus, not of the faithful few who touch Him. We bear a Christian name; we go through a certain round of Christian duties; we are thus brought outwardly in contact with the Lord; but we come waiting for no blessing, and so obtaining no blessing. Faith is wanting; faith, the divine hunger of the soul, the emptiness of the soul longing to be filled, and believing that it will be filled, out of Gods fullness, and because this is so, therefore there goes no virtue out from Him to us; it is never given to us so to touch Him as that immediately we know in ourselves that we are whole of our plague.
Archbishop Trench.
Illustration
Some remarks of Melancthons on this womans case are worth reading. We are doubtless to be careful that we do not hastily attach an allegorical and mystical sense to the words of Scripture. Yet we must not forget the depth of meaning which lies in all the acts of our Lords earthly ministry; and at any rate there is much beauty in the thought which Melancthon expresses. He says, This woman doth aptly represent the Jewish synagogue vexed a long time with many mischiefs and miseries, especially tortured with unconscionable princes, and unskilful priests, or physicians of the soul, the Pharisees and Sadducees; on whom she had wasted all her goods, and yet she was not a whit better, but rather much worse, till the blessed Lord of Israel in His own person came to visit and redeem her.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
IMPERFECT FAITH
We need to learn that very imperfect faith may be genuine faith. There was unquestionable faith in Christs healing power, and there was earnest desire for healing. Our Lord Himself recognises the womans faith as adequate to be the condition of her receiving the cure which she desired.
The imperfections of this womans faith were many.
I. It was intensely ignorant.She dimly believes that, somehow or other, this miracle-working Rabbi will heal her, but the cure is to be a piece of magic, secured by material contact of her finger with His robe. She has no idea that Christs will or His knowledge, much less His pitying love, has anything to do with it. She thinks that she may get her desire furtively, and may carry it away out of the crowd. He, the source of it, be none the wiser and none the poorer for the blessing which she has stolen from Him. What utter blank ignorance of Christs character and way of working! What complete misconception of the relation between Christ and His gift!
II. It was very selfish.She wanted health; she did not care about the Healer. She thought much of the blessing in itself, little or nothing of the blessing as a sign of His love. She would have been quite contented to have had nothing more to do with Christ if she could only have gone away cured. She felt but little glow of gratitude to Him whom she thought of as unconscious of the good which she had stolen from Him. All this is a parallel to what occurs in the early history of many a Christian life. The first inducement to a serious contemplation of Christ is, ordinarily, the consciousness of ones own sore need. Quite legitimate and natural at first, this faith must grow into something nobler when it has once been answered. To think of the disease mainly is inevitable before the cure, but after the cure we should think most of the Physician. Self-love may impel to His feet; but Christ-love should be the moving spring of life thereafter.
III. It was weakened and interrupted by much distrust.There is not a full calm reliance on Christs power and love. She dare not appeal to His heart, she shrinks from meeting His eye. She will let Him pass, and then put forth a tremulous hand. Crosscurrents of emotion agitate her soul. She doubts, yet she believes; she is afraid, yet emboldened by her very despair; too diffident to cast herself on His pity, she is too confident not to resort to His healing virtue.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
5. This woman was afflicted with a chronic hemorrhage of 12 years’ standing.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
As our Saviour was on his way to Jairus’s house, a diseased woman comes behind him, touches his clothes, and is presently healed. The virtue lay not in her finger but in her faith; or rather in Christ, which her faith instrumentally drew forth.
Observe here, 1. The diseased person, a woman with a bloody flux. Let women here take notice of the miseries which the sin of the first woman has brought upon all women, amongst which this is one, that it has made their bodies subject to unnatural issues and fluxes of blood.
Observe, 2. The long continuance of this disease, twelve years. It pleases God to lay long and tedious afflictions upon some of his children in this life, and particularly to keep some of them a very long time under bodily weakness, to manifest his power in supporting them, and to magnify his mercy in delivering them.
Observe, 3. This poor woman was found in the use of means; she sought to physicians for help, and is not blamed for it, though she spent all she had upon them.
The use of physic is not to be neglected by us in times of sickness, especially in dangerous diseases of the body. To trust to means is to neglect God, and to neglect the means is to tempt God. The health of our bodies ought to be dear and precious to us, and all lawful means to be used, both to preserve it, to recover it, and confirm it.
Observe, 4. The workings and actings of this poor woman’s faith: her disease was unclean by the ceremonial law, and therefore to be separate from society; accordingly she is ashamed to appear before Christ, but comes behind him to touch his clothes, being firmly persuaded that Christ had a power communicated by God unto him, miraculously to cure incurable diseases.
And see how our Saviour encouraged her faith, though she did not believe him to be the eternal son of God, but one to whom God had communicated by God, but one to whom God had communicated a power, of healing bodily diseases; yet, says Christ, This thy faith hath made thee whole.
Learn hence, That faith oftimes meets with a better welcome from Christ than it did or could expect. This poor woman came to Christ trembling, but went away triumphing.
Observe, 5. Christ would have this miracle discovered; he therefore says, Who touched me? and I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.
First, in reference to himself, to manifest his divine power, that by the touch of his clothes he could cure such incurable diseases.
Secondly, in relation to the woman, that she might have an opportunity to give God the praise and glory for the cure.
And thirdly, With respect to Jairus, that his faith might be strengthened in the belief of Christ’s power to raise his daughter.
Now from those words virtue went out of Christ, and he healed them, it is evident, that the virtue which did these miraculous cures resided in Christ, and was not communicated to him; and consequently proves him to be God; for the divine virtue, by which the prophets and apostles did their cures, is ascribed to God; God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul. Act 19:11 But the miracles done by Christ are ascribed to the divine virtue dwelling in him. Accordingly here he says, I perceive virtue is gone out of me.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
THE BLOODY HEMORRHAGE
Mat 9:20-22; Mar 5:25-36; Luk 8:43-50. Mark: A certain woman, being with a hemorrhage of blood twelve years, and having suffered much from many physicians, and spending all things in her possession, and being profited as to nothing, but rather having come to the worst, hearing concerning Jesus, coming behind in the crowd, touched His garment. For she said, If I may touch His garments, I shall be saved. And immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she knew that she was healed from her disease. The presumption is that this woman did not have lung hemorrhage, as they are not apt to survive so long. We have no intimation as to the character of the hemorrhage. It must have been very serious, as she had availed herself of all possible medical aid, even submitting to financial bankruptcy. We have the significant statement, polla pathousa hupo pollon iatron, having suffered much from many physicians, involving the conclusion that these physicians, instead of relieving the ailment, had greatly augmented her suffering. Doubtless this is a very significant truth; in the majority of cases, the medical treatment only adds to the suffering of the patient, without curing the disease. This poor victim of a twelve years hemorrhage had not only suffered much gratuitously, without receiving any benefit, but had expended all of her living and come down to poverty. Now that she has nothing, the physicians will not medicate her; therefore, in her hopeless desperation, she is in good fix to turn over the work to Jesus. You see, from this illustration, that there is no real conflict between Divine healing and medical treatment, as they seldom come in competition; the people, like this woman, going to the ultimata thula with physicians before they really turn over the case to Jesus, and trust Him alone to heal them. And immediately, Jesus knowing in Himself that the power had gone out from Him, turning in the crowd, He said, Who touched My clothes? And His disciples said to Him, You see the crowd treading upon You, and You say, Who touched Me? And He was looking around to see the one having done this. And the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had been done unto her, came and fell before Him, and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, Daughter, thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace, and be thou whole from thy disease. Here we see an indisputable confirmation of bodily healing through faith, precisely as the soul is healed through faith.
We do not get what we ask for, but what we believe for, our faith being the measuring line of our reception from God. The human side of Divine healing is simple faith in Jesus for that very thing, as He is no respecter of persons. The great law, As your faith is, so be it unto you, is applicable to the body as to the soul. We do not say you must discard your physician, but we do say that you must have faith in Jesus alone to heal you. Perhaps if Jesus had come along at an earlier day, when she was paying out her money and looking to those physicians to heal her, her faith in them would have vitiated her faith in Jesus, and thus defeated her healing. Your physician may help you, like your nurse; but you make a great mistake when you look to them for healing. In this I do not depreciate the medical profession, as the most competent physicians I have met in my extensive travels have confessed to me their utter incompetency to heal the sick, but only to assist nature, it being the province of God alone to give health and life.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, 26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, 27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. 28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. 29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? 31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. 33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. 34 And he said unto her Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.
As usual some questions arise.
1. How did Christ know that the woman touched His garment? If He knew that power had left Him would he not know that there had been contact. He probably did not feel physical contact so assumed it was contact with His clothing. Since we have no such power to feeling leave us we probably do not know how or why He knew, only that He knew. It is the fact that He knew and that it mattered that might be of interest. Imagine being in such a throng (“in the press” vs.30) with people jostling you around on every side being bumped and touched by many, to know one had touched in faith is probably the real key to the point. He knew that one of all those that had touched him that day did so in faith and that something had happened.
The apostle’s reaction is interesting also. “In this mob how would we know who touched your garment?” might have been their logical reaction to such a question.
2. What “power” did He feel leave Him? Both Mark and Luke mention this item of information. Luke in verse 46 mentions that Christ felt “virtue” leave Him. Which is it? Virture or Power – what was it that the Lord “felt” in this situation? Some translations use “power” and the King James uses “virtue.” Power is probably the better translation since the Greek term is “dunamis” the word we get dynamite from. It is translated “virture” three times in the New Testament and two of the times is in this parallel account. The other account is very similar in Luk 6:17 where a large group were healed with a touch of His garment. “And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases; 18 And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed. 19 And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed [them] all.”
When I was a little boy my father purchased a little clock radio for me. I used to lie in bed tuning around the dial late at night. One of the stations I would tune in was in Deeeeellllll Riiiiiiiooooo Texxxxaas where the faith healers loved to sell their wares. The station, I was told was just across the border into Mexico where US laws did not bind the advertizing. These faith healers were constantly selling their prayer clothes that were guaaaaarrrrrrannnnttteeeddd to heal all your ailments.
No this is not what the Bible is talking about but it is valid information for us. The touch of cloth in faith had healing power in the time of Christ and shortly after when the gift of healing was still present in the church. We also see a similar miracle working from cloth in the book of Acts when the apostle Paul was early in his ministry. Act 19:12 “So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.”
I would be remiss to not note that later in Paul’s life he did not have this gift to heal, for he could not heal himself of his thorn, nor could he stop Timothy’s stomach trouble and a couple of others mentioned in the epistles that were sick, one near to death, and he had no power over their ailments. The gift of healing was one given for the validation of the good news that the apostles were preaching and validation of God’s own son living among men.
What that power was we are not told, but it was most certainly related to the power of God and His mercy.3. Luk 8:43 mentions that the woman touched His garment – not his ankle, or leg, but His garment and she was healed. What is going on here that allows cloth to heal? Since cloth has no healing power in and of itself we need to understand that the healing was due to the special healing ability of some in the time of Christ and the apostles. We know Paul was quite a healer as well, though his ability waned toward the end of his ministry on earth. There were some that he could not heal toward the end.
There is also clarity that the woman was healed because of her faith, not by the cloth itself. It was the power of God, but it was her faith that brought that power forth to her benefit.
Many years ago I was privileged to meet a pastor in Ireland. He was with a Holiness group that believed in healing however they held a much more Biblical standard than most of the Charismatic movement today. They held that there were people who were healed but that it was not due to the power of the people involved, but rather founded squarely upon the faith of the person in need of healing.
If you want to hold to healing for today and get past the fact that Paul’s gift of healing went away in his own lifetime, then at least hold to the idea that healing is due to the faith of the person in need of healing rather than someone with the supposed gift of healing.
One must wonder of this woman’s life after this point. Did she go back to those lousy doctors and tell them off, did she tell them of the Lord? What might her life have become without such a malady? Happiness must have been a big part of her life knowing that she would not have to face such a thing again. A good witness for the Lord would most likely have been a part of her life as well.
4. How is it that He could know He had healed someone and not know who it was? How is it that an omniscient God did not know who it was? (Many believe that He was fully cognizant of all His deity while on earth, but this would indicate this to be faulty thinking.)
It seems obvious to some that He did this for effect rather than showing his lack of knowledge. We will discuss this a little further in the application section. Others reject the thought that Christ was fully cognizant of his attributes of deity and that He was relying on the ministry of the Holy Spirit through Him in his earthly walk. It seems that He wanted the woman to come publicly with her faith in Him. He could have continued on as though nothing had happened, yet he stopped and took time out of a life and death situation to cause the woman to make public proclamation of her faith in being healed by the Lord.
Some say that the Bible requires a new believer to make public testimony before man to his/her salvation before one can know that they are truly saved. It is not a proven fact from my viewpoint, however there seems to be strong indication that a valid faith will produce public testimony. It is similar to the thought of baptism. A valid faith in Christ will naturally lead to obedience in baptism though it is not a requirement for salvation, only an indicator of it.
I personally from my quiet to private personality tend toward not sharing my inner feelings andthinking – not that one would believe that from reading any of my works but when I accepted the Lord I went immediately to see my girlfriend. She was with me when the pastor asked to talk with me. She asked what had happened with the pastor and I did not tell her. I did not fully understand what all had gone on, only that it was something big. It was much later that I finally shared my new faith with her.
To make a public profession a requirement of salvation is probably not a good thing for many people of quiet personality type. They will make testimony when they are ready, not in someone else’s prescribed time frame.
5. Where did this woman find such confidence that if she could only touch His garment that she would be healed? Only speculation can take over on this point. She may have heard Christ sometime previous, she may have only heard of His healing powers from someone else. She may have been an Old Testament believer that realized this was the Messiah and just had faith that God would deal bountifully with her.
It is not so much the how and/or why, but the action that she took. She acted upon what she knew in her heart to be.
6. Why would the woman have been in fear and be trembling when Christ asked who it was that touched Him? Why a response of falling down before Him? Since fear is part of the context it could well be assumed that she was afraid Christ was upset with her for coming into contact with Him. The society could not have been one where a woman could touch a man in public and be accepted. In some eastern cultures today a woman cannot even be with a man not of her own family for conversation.
There may have been some understanding in her mind that this man was deserving of such honor. She knew that she had been healed – what must have been going through her mind about who this man was and what power He must have controlled to be able to have healed her with a touch of His garment.
7. Why does Mark record “telling him the truth?” Was there some falsehood in the account that we are not told of? From the texts it seems there was some commotion among the apostles and the Lord about who it was that touched Him. I rather suspect that this was Christ’s way of moving the woman to declare her actions to the public. She had come to Christ in private, but He wanted her to give public acknowledgement of what had been done for her.
Both Mark and Luke mention that the Lord told the woman who it was her faith that had healed her. Note that faith brings a response of power from God. The faith moved her to touch Him but I suspect that the touching was just an act of the faith and that the faith would have brought forth the healing even though there had been no actual touch – only the faith and the attempt were needed and from there God was the One to do the rest- as always I might add.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
5:25 {2} And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,
(2) Jesus being touched with true faith, although it is but weak, heals us by his virtue.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Mark stressed the desperate condition of the woman by recording details of her history that the other evangelists passed over. Uncharacteristically, Mark described the woman’s plight with a series of seven participles. She was, before she met Jesus, incurable. She had faith in Jesus’ ability to heal her and a belief that she could obtain healing by touching His clothing (cf. Mar 3:10; Mar 6:56). She tried to remain unobtrusive since her condition rendered her and all who contacted her ritually unclean (Lev 15:25-27). Perhaps she had come from some distance since no one in the crowd apparently recognized her or objected to her being there.