My studies at Asbury and Harding have been helpful in a lot of ways, and one of the most significant things I’ve gained is a better understanding of what the Bible says and what it leaves unsaid. A great example of this is found in Mark 5:24-34 where we read about a woman with a hemorrhage who fought her way through the crowd to touch just the hem of Jesus’ outer cloak. Mark notes that the woman had been suffering this way for 12 years and spent all of her money seeing doctors who ultimately could not help her. When she heard that Jesus was in the area she decided to fight her way through the crowds that were pressing in on Jesus just so she could try to touch his clothes—she wasn’t even expecting to ask Jesus to heal her! She was clearly trying to keep a low profile.
What the Bible Doesn’t Say …
I don’t know about you, but I don’t really like crowds of people I don’t know, and the worst one I’ve ever been in was on a ferry boat that I was honestly expecting to sink. I vividly remember thinking, “Well, if this thing sinks I’m pretty sure I can swim back to shore.” I was genuinely scared for my life. Undoubtedly this woman was afraid too, if not of the crowd then perhaps she was afraid to approach Jesus face to face to because of what she sought healing for. As she bravely fought her way through the crowds that were pressing upon Jesus, this is what Mark (and Matthew and Luke) don’t say: because she was suffering with an ongoing issue of blood (a hemorrhage of some type), this would have made her ritually unclean for as long as she dealt with it. One of the strangest chapters in the Bible, Leviticus 15, discusses bodily fluids and how these make one ritually unclean or impure. It’s important to keep in mind, too, that ritual cleanness or purity is not the same thing as moral purity or cleanness. Leviticus 15 does not say that a woman dealing with an issue of blood is somehow morally unclean – it only says that she is ritually unclean and must engage in a process of washing herself and her clothes before she can go to the Tabernacle to present an offering, etc. (Elsewhere in Lev 15 there are similar prescriptions about men and what bodily fluids make them ritually unclean, too.) Anyway, as the woman came in contact with other people they too would have been made ritually unclean, according to Lev 15 – and because of the crowd she definitely came in contact with other people to get to Jesus. Jesus knows what makes someone ritually unclean and also knows how the crowd would react if he mentions what she was healed from – they would turn on her and shame her for bringing her uncleanness into public. Mark and the parallel accounts in Matthew and Luke don’t spell that out for us, but if we know about the culture of Jesus’ day and time then we can read between the lines.
When Jesus turns around looking for whomever touched him, it’s clear from what happens next that Jesus is not wanting to scold this woman for touching him.
Instead of shaming her, he welcomes her faith by reaffirming her position in God’s family by calling her “Daughter” and relieving her of any potential concern that she might have done something taboo when he tells her “Your faith has made you well. You may go in peace …” (Mark 5:34).
The woman knew all she had to do was to get to Jesus, and that by being in His presence, however momentarily, she could be healed.
The space that Jesus occupies is safe space of the purest and truest kind, where this woman’s dignity and honor were protected. Jesus refuses to shame her or anyone else who came to Him seeking to be made whole – and that’s the very challenge for the church today as we follow in Jesus’ footsteps.
– Kevin