"Real Faith" by Raelene Hodge (Mark 5:22-36)

In this reading, we find Mark presents us with a story within a story – a Markean sandwich! What is so important about this passage? Why was this woman important enough to rate a mention in a way that could be seen as an afterthought – an interruption to a great story of healing. What significance could she possibly have had, in Mark’s time as well as our own?

Both these stories present us with examples of faith, though different. Mark commences what appears to be an account of a great miracle. We see Jesus, approached by Jairus a synagogue ruler seeking help for his daughter lying ill, so ill in fact that she was on the brink of death. Jesus, sensing the urgency, immediately agrees to go with him as requested. On the way, we are treated to another example of faith, and to me, a far more impacting one.

They were different in the following ways: Jairus, a synagogue ruler, a man of wealth and position who had servants and possibly a large house. He is named by Mark so we can assume he is obviously well known by both Mark and his readers. A man who publicly came to Jesus.

On the other hand we have the woman, not named, and due to her condition, approaches Jesus in secret for she is:
- outcast from society
- unclean
- suffering
- broke.

The news of Jesus’ miracles had spread rapidly, Jesus and his disciples were surrounded by people, pressed in by the crowd, jostled by those who would get nearer to the healer and in the midst of this crowd was a woman. Yet, in spite of this overwhelming crush of humanity, he feels someone touch him.

This woman has had a chronic illness for many years and has ‘suffered much’. She has tried everything that the doctors and healers have advised – to no avail, in fact, she was worse than she had been (who knows what sort of treatment she had endured over the years!). Now she had no more money and no-where to turn. Jesus was her last hope.

It appears that she had heard of this wonderful new healer - as in verse 28 we are told because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." (Possibly the stories of other healings such as the leper or the lame man we read about earlier in Mark), if Jesus had healed people maybe he could heal her too. And was it not so with other healers – you only had to walk in their shadow or touch their garment and you could be healed?

But dare she expose herself in this way? To speak out loud of her need? We are told that this woman ‘came up behind him’ - why not approach Jesus openly? She could not openly approach Jesus for a number of reasons: This woman was considered ceremonially unclean. This resulted in the belief of those around her that whoever she touched would also become ceremonially unclean. This meant that for 12 years of her life she had only been allowed limited participation in village life, shut off from her friends and family and denied the privilege of attending the temple for worship. It took great courage to go out amongst the town, knowing her state of uncleanliness and possible repercussions if anyone drew attention to her. She could not expose her need publicly (as Jairus had done).

Knowing this, she hoped to be able to approach without drawing attention to herself and just touch the garment for she believed it would be enough. She believed that Jesus power was so great that if she just came in contact with him in the least possible way she would be healed – what faith.

We see that faith rewarded as she reaches out her hand, touches, and receives healing - the bleeding stops and her suffering ceases. Her body tells her that this is so. But before she can escape undetected, just joyfully accepting the gift that was offered - Jesus stops. She had been discovered. What had seemed so simple and could be done so silently had become the centre of attention. Jesus stops – the crowd stops. He has felt her touch and the healing power leave his body. So he turns to his disciples and asks who touched him. The response to this question would appear to be obvious, we cannot condemn the incredulous response from his disciples as we would ask the same thing. How could Jesus even ask such a question considering the large crowd that pressed in on him. But Jesus knew that amongst all the others that had touched him in the jostling of the crowd only one person had touched him with intent, someone who was in desperate need and had reached out to Him. (A lesson for both the disciples and us – nothing, no matter how small or apparently insignificant, escapes his notice.) Once again the disciples are portrayed in an unflattering light. As with the time that Jesus calmed the storm in Mark 4:41, they were still unable to understand or see who Jesus really was. Even though they had been told by Jesus himself in Mark 4 vs 11, that they had been given “the secret of God’s Kingdom”, they were still blinded by their own prejudice or lack of vision. The disciples also show a lack of patience and understanding with what appears to be an unimportant event. So, someone had been healed, but amongst this crowd – who cares? Jesus’ response was perhaps more admonishing than anything he may have said to them, in asking who, and waiting for, a response from the one who had touched him, he gave an example of the need to look beyond the obvious. In their anxiety to hurry on to what they thought was a real need, Jairus’ ill daughter, they were unable to see the significance of the faith displayed by the woman and never seemed to fully grasp the real purpose behind these acts of healing – the faith being displayed and responded to, or to realise that healing comes at a cost, both to the healer and the one being healed.

Still no-one really knew who had reached out to him – but she knew, and Jesus was looking all around, seeking the one had needed him. Knowing that she had been healed she stepped forward. In fear and trembling we observe the hesitant steps of the women as she approaches Jesus. This woman who no-one would look upon let alone associate with, had now been called publicly before the healer – no wonder she was trembling with fear. What would he ask of her, would he do?

With Jesus’ compassionate eyes upon her she found herself pouring out her story in a faltering voice as she confesses everything – her pain, suffering and loneliness. We are told she tells him the truth, to do this, she does the one thing that she wanted to avoid, she exposes herself, but what a relief if must have been to finally tell someone of her need in spite of the humiliation.

Our timid and fearful woman is transformed and no longer cares what others may think, this is between her and Jesus, the one who has given her this wonderful gift and done this marvellous thing, healing to her body and relief from her suffering so, even though fearful of exposing herself publicly in this way she tells her story, giving testimony of her condition, her faith and the wonderful healing she had received.

Instead of the shame and condemnation she may have expected to receive, Jesus quietly speaks to her, calling her daughter and saying, ‘your faith has healed you’. Here we see further evidence of Jesus compassion in addressing her as daughter. Jesus offers her firstly the physical healing, followed by the emotional healing by using the term ‘daughter’ - a word that must have been wonderful for a person who had been deprived of the normal familial relationships brought about by her unclean state. Jesus then offers her the greatest gift, that of spiritual healing by making it clear to her that it was through her faith and NOT superstition that she has been healed. Jesus thus, welcomes her into his family, his Kingdom; showing her, and all those around them, that she is accepted by God and therefore should be acceptable to them.

This women, without any other hope, believed wholeheartedly in the power of Jesus and had acted upon this faith.

Although the two people in this story are decidedly different in their social standing, both are in need of Jesus, both are not ashamed to show that need in that they both publicly ‘fall at his feet’. In Jesus stopping to acknowledge this woman’s faith it served a number of purposes, firstly, it gave her back her dignity, secondly, publicly ‘cleansed her’ - for the Jews believed that as the touch of an unclean person made you ritually unclean so the touch of a holy person restored holiness thus allowing her to return to her family and community and thirdly, allowing her to return to public worship in the temple.

We then return to the earlier story of Jairus and his daughter.

35While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. "Your daughter is dead," they said. "Why bother the teacher any more?" 36Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, "Don't be afraid; just believe."

Immediately following this healing, messengers bring the news that it is too late for Jesus to go with Jairus as his daughter has died. Jesus reassures Jairus that there is still a need for him to go that he should not fear but continue to believe. We can assume from Jesus’ response to the information brought by the messengers that Jesus sensed Jairus, in his despair and grief, may have agreed with the messengers - what need for Jesus now?

Jairus had showed a measure of faith in that he came to Jesus publicly and begged Jesus to come and heal his daughter – even to the point of publicly humbling himself by falling at Jesus feet. Jairus had also just been witness to a perfect example of faith in the women being healed in a miraculous way, surely this would encourage him but the evidence would say otherwise. Jesus appears to gently rebuke Jairus, acknowledging his fear yet encouraging him to continue to believe. It is obvious that Jairus does not see Jesus as anything more than a healer and even after his daughter is raised from the dead, the significance of who Jesus is still eludes him.

It is the same with the disciples’, both their insensitivity and inability to see beyond what was immediately apparent is obvious and it is, painfully clear from this passage that, despite having been given examples of Jesus’ power over nature as evidenced in the calming of the sea, and over demons – the healing of the demoniac we read about last week, the result of faith at work in the lives of people – even raising the dead, that while admiring, respecting and loving Jesus as a teacher and healer, they were still unable to grasp what it was that Jesus was responding to or who Jesus really was.

For Mark’s audience and for us, these two illustrations highlight the importance of faith in Jesus, not just as a prophet or healer, but as the Son of God. They symbolise the significance of faith. No matter how small of insignificant we think our faith may be, it is in the positive action of faith, the actual COMING to Jesus, believing that he is the Son of God that is important. It also illustrates the rewards of faith. In the case of the women, she was free of all that had isolated her from society and granted the special privilege of an intimate relationship with Jesus, to the extent she was called ‘daughter’.

What a difference a little contact with Jesus can make to people’s lives – our lives. Even though, as with Jairus, we feel that all is lost we must continue to not be afraid but just believe. As with the example of the unnamed woman we see that just a small touch can make an amazing difference – Jesus will meet us at out point of need if we but take the first step and reach out to Him – believing that we too can receive healing and transformation in our lives, opening the way (making it possible) to enter into a privileged personal relationship with Jesus.