Mark 5:26-30
Mark 5:26 (KJB)
And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had,
and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,
In ancient times there were many superstitions involved with healing practices.
They were all useless and most of the time they were just fanfare to make it
look like something was happening and once they got the person’s money, that was
as far as they would go. This is why this woman probably had gone to a number of
physicians because each one would have some kind of ritual. So since there was
no healing, the logical situation was that she was getting worse because she had
a debilitating disease. In fact, George Washington was killed by his doctors
because they kept bleeding him until his body was unable to produce any more
blood and he died. This woman kept trying and you have to admire her persistence
because she could have just left the place where she was living and gave up, but
she didn’t.
This scenario reminds me of people who go from one religion to another in search
of inner peace and they find none because all they visit are false religions.
Then there are those who go from church to church in hopes to find salvation but
all they find is ceremony and ritual. It is not until they come to the Lord
Jesus Christ and become saved by Him will they find what they are looking for.
Back in the 1960’s one of the biggest terms was “I need to find myself.” The
problem is that when you found yourself you were still lost and you would not
like what you found. It is only when you are found by Christ that life has
meaning.
Mark 5:27 (KJB)
When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.
With the crowd so pressing against Jesus it would have been hard for a sick lady
to make it through to Him but here is a good example of predestination. No
matter how big or rough the crowd is, if a person is predestined to be saved,
they will be saved. So somehow she had an opening in the crowd and capitalized
on it and touched the hem of His garment. She might have moved with the crowd
from behind.
Mark 5:28 (KJB)
For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
She had tremendous faith in believing that all she had to do was just touch the
hem of His garment and she would be healed. Her faith was like that of the
centurion. She believed that she did not even have to experience a touch by
Jesus but just the touch of the garment He was wearing. The fact also that she
was unclean may have also led to the reason that she wanted to touch His garment
in secret. She might have been reluctant to show herself in public or she may
have felt deep down that Jesus would reject her, yet she had enough faith to
seek Him and not be deterred by any feeling or thought. No matter what her
reasoning was to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment without being noticed, she
nevertheless was determined to touch it. Now maybe she thought that the garment
had healing powers but I doubt that because she was probably familiar with the
miracles that Jesus was doing in healing the sick, especially the paralytic who
may have been that way for many years. So she too thought that it would result
in her healing. If He could heal the paralytic, then He could heal her. Eusebius
in his Historia Ecclesiastica states that this woman is identified as Veronica
of Caesarea Philippi but that is hard to confirm if it is true.
Mark 5:29 (KJB)
And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body
that she was healed of that plague.
Once she touched the hem of His garment, immediately the fountain of her blood
stopped. The word “fountain” in this verse states that not only was the symptoms
of her disease healed but also the source of what caused the bleeding was now
healed. Jesus does not just take a sinner and cover their sins in salvation, He
removes them and that removal causes one to feel clean. This woman experienced
that in her body. Once the source of the disease was dealt with, she felt in her
body that great feeling of being truly healed. The word “plague” in the Greek
used here in this verse carries with it the meaning of “being scourged with a
scourge.” Her disease was so debilitating that every time it happened, it was a
weakening of her body as if she was scourged with a Roman scourge. That was how
powerful her disease was and after Jesus healed her, she felt real healing and a
strength returning to her body.
Mark 5:30 (KJB)
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?
Virtue - Power
Jesus knew immediately that someone had touched His garment and that resulted in
power going out of Him. The woman had much faith that Jesus could heal her and
that faith caused some type of power transfer from Jesus to the woman for the
purpose of healing her issue of blood. In that great crowd of people, many were
touching Jesus because they were literally pressing against Him. He asks the
question concerning who touched his clothes? He fully knew well who did it but
asks the question for the purpose of confirming the woman’s faith and to quell
any fears she may have had. This is just like today, when we pray, there are
probably a hundred million prayers or more going to Heaven at any time of the
day and even though it seems like big number, Jesus has personal time for each
believer. Just as He did in the case of this woman. The power which had come out
of Jesus did not diminish His power in any way but it was a faith lesson that
when we have faith in Christ, then He empowers us in our Christian lives. He
empowered the body of this woman to be healed without any ritual or cost to her
because He is the Great Physician.