Jesus Heals a Bleeding Woman & Restores a Girl to Life
Matthew 9:18-26, Mark 5:21-43, Luke 8:40-56
- The report of this miracle swept the entire countryside.
- Jesus has returned from his attempt to reach the pig farmers and is welcomed by a crowd. A synagogue leader falls at his feet (offering respect and worship despite all the pressure not to support Jesus’ claim/ministry) and begs Jesus to help his dying 12-year-old girl. Jesus is moved by his faith and agrees to help.
- On the way there, the crowd is jostling around Jesus, trying to get a closer look at this curious man but completely oblivious to the change contact could bring.
- A woman that’s been bleeding for 12 years pushes and fights through the crowd. Not to get a better look or out of curiosity but to just juuust touch the hem of Jesus’ coat, believing that this bare minimum contact will change her life.
- Jesus immediately stops because he is fully aware of what just happened. He can tell when someone comes in contact with him believing it will change them versus a casual touch that carries no expectation.
- He demands that the woman reveal herself and she does, knowing this could be bad. In Jewish culture, when a woman was bleeding (whether menstrual or by disease) she was ceremonially unclean. Touching her or being touched by her, would make one unclean. She would have been excluded from social interactions for a dozen years already. She had with full intent gone and touched someone, knowing it would make them unclean.
- Matthews telling is dry and factual but Mark and Luke write in more detail on the incident. It was an amazing miracle for all involved, though whether everyone grasped all the facets of its meaning is anyone’s guess.
- Why does Jesus demand she present herself?
- If she’d have left without speaking with him, her opportunity to know him personally would have been lost. He couldn’t have explained to her that it was her faith in him that healed her, not any magical threads in his coat.
- He couldn’t have shown her she was important enough to stop for.
- He couldn’t have shown her that he healed her voluntarily and purposefully.
- He couldn’t have proclaimed on her behalf to the entire town that she was now clean and could join her community again.
Everything Jesus did or said had meaning and long-term significance, often 3 layers deeper than the surface lesson.Â
- Messengers arrive bringing the saddest news any parent can ever receive. Your child died and you weren’t there. I can only imagine the grief that tore through this man. He obviously adored his daughter, since he risked his station and standing to find help for her.
- Jesus, as usual, is compassion personified. Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.
- Since denial tends to be the first sensation (or so I’m told), hope must have immediately soared when hearing these words. His intellect would have told him it was unreasonable hope, but there it was all the same. Hope in Jesus to not only be willing, but able to help.
- Jesus takes his 3 (Peter, John & James) along with the girls parents into the house. All mourners, professional or otherwise, are ordered to leave since the girl is only sleeping. (It was extremely disrespectful not to mourn with crying and wailing. This led some to be for hire to wail and cry at funerals. It was no wonder they could pause amidst their ‘sorrow’ to laugh at Jesus)
- Jesus allows only 5 people to witness this. 3 of his closest companions that are technically in training, and the parents. This way they can experience his grace as a family and explain what happened to their little girl. The parents are beside themselves, knocked completely off their rocker. I can only imagine their overwhelming emotion.
- It was important that he not become known as just ‘a miracle worker’. A curiosity that needed to be taken advantage of while it lasted. Jesus needed people to realize where his power came from and that our access to that power would continue to exist because of his resurrection. To accomplish that, he needed his message to be heard and allow it to bring change into people’s lives. Therefore he, once again advises the witnesses to keep silent.
- I love the purely human instruction Jesus gives the parents. Give her something to eat. Looking at the little girl, he knows the comforting effect that routine has and that due to her sickness she likely hasn’t eaten in a good long while.
Jesus expresses concern not just for the father’s faith but also full understanding of this little persons human need. He had an understanding for the sick womans need for companionship and inclusivity as well as concern for the state of her faith and forgiveness of her sins. The whole package matters to him.
I marvel at the coincidence/significance of the number 12 in this chapter and Jesus response to those of us that humble ourselves before him, glorifying God in our need.
Wildwspr 