Nielsen’s Nook

Mark 5:24-34 (ESV)

²⁴ … And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. ²⁵ And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, ²⁶ and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. ²⁷ She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. ²⁸ For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” ²⁹ And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. ³⁰ And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” ³¹ And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’ ” ³² And he looked around to see who had done it. ³³ But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. ³⁴ And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

Meditation

Jesus is on his way to heal the daughter of Jarius, a ruler of the synagogue. Embeded in the account of the healing of Jarius’ daughter is this account of the woman with the discharge of blood.

What struck me this morning was the question Jesus asked, “Who touched my garments?” The apostles give the obvious answer reflecting that all sorts of people would have been touching him given that a great crowd thronged about him as they walked.

The difference between the great thronging crowd and the woman with the discharge revolves around faith, hope and love. She had touched Jesus with purpose that is only spawned out of hope and that hope had produced faith and had come to find the healing powers of love. For Jesus does not turn as one perturbed by the power that had gone out from him; rather, he approaches our hope and faith in him as our Good Shepherd, the Caretaker of our Souls. He wants to personally know and comfort those whose hope and faith drives them to him. He heals not from a distance but as a Physician who deeply loves the infirmed. The woman was already healed, but Jesus wanted to stop and bless her face to face.

O Lord, our God, would you so stir us to hope that our faith would be expanded, our hearts dilated, that we might have greater capacity to receive and relish your love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord, who loves together with you and the Holy Spirit. Amen.