Define “Desperate”:
- feeling, showing, or involving a hopeless sense that a situation is so bad as to be impossible to deal with.
- Cambridge Dictionary: very serious or bad.
- Feeling that you have no hope and are ready to do anything to change the bad situation you are in.
As we continue to journey with Peter, we find him a witness as two desperate people come to Jesus. The story we look at this week is in the middle of another story. The technical term for that is an “inclusio.” The word means a story within a story.
Jesus
has been asked to help Jarius. On the way to help this desperate dad He encounters a desperate woman. We will hear his story surrounding the experience of this desperate woman next week.
As Jesus is making His way towards Jarius’ home the crowd is pressing into Him. He is being jostled about. The Savior can hardly move because of the press of people around Him. No one would have noticed the woman who silently approached Jesus.
Mark 5: 25-26 introduces us to this woman.
25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.
She is suffering intensely from “an issue of blood.” She has almost constant bleeding. Her suffering was so much more than physical. This abnormal bleeding marked her with a social stigma.
She would have been ritually unclean. Her unclean state affected her relationships. No one would have contact with her. If she were married, she would be forbidden from having physical contact with him. If she had children, she would not have been allowed to contact them.
This “uncleanness” would extend even to her household items. Anything she touched was unclean for others to touch.
The worst part of her stigma related to the spiritual realm. Because she was unclean, she could not attend any worship events. She could not go to the temple. She was forbidden to gather with her family or friends. It was considered that God would not listen to her.
She had lived in this state for twelve years. She desperately pursued one possible cure after another. The Jewish Talmud listed eleven possible cures. Some of them were quite painful.
She had gone to every doctor and chased every possible cure. She was financially drained, emotionally exhausted, socially humiliated. She was the definition of desperation.
Into this situation comes word that Jesus would soon be in her area. How did she hear about Him? Who told her? What did she know? We don’t know all of these answers. But what we do know is that within her was a belief.
27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”
She makes a desperate touch. She is driven by a thought that consumed her. “If I can just touch his robe, I can be well.” The imperfect tense of this word tells us that she believes she can be well if she can just reach out to Him.
The thought must have compelled her. Did she sleep the night before? Or was her sleep consumed with the thought, “if only…” Doubtless the thought was one of her first when she got up that day.
So, she presses on. The crowd gathers around Jesus, pressing in. No one notices her as she seeks to blend in with the throng of people.
She makes a risky decision. Nothing will stop her. This is her last-ditch effort. With her last ounce of energy, she riches out. Her faith is not in her robe, but in the person of Jesus.
The result is immediate (Verse 29)
29 Immediately her bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
In one single moment. She is completely healed of her terrible sufferings. What a moment! In simple faith she reaches out and touches his robe. For the first time in twelve years, she is well.
The next interaction is unexpected. She would have been happy to fade into the crowd and go home well. Jesus changed the story forever by stopping. Everything grinds to a halt as Jesus turns around. (Verses 30-32)
30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.
Jesus recognizes that someone had touched Him. He is sensitive to the touch of faith and the release of spiritual power. It was a meaningful touch and Jesus responds.
When Jesus asked about the identity of the person, the disciples answer with human logic. Jesus was looking for something deeper. They answer naturally, He sees the supernatural.
Because Jesus continues to look for the person who touched him. In simple faith she steps forward.
33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.”
With good reason she is afraid. She touched Him. The very act has potentially made him unclean. Will He chastise her? Will she be judged because of her boldness? The religious system has offered her nothing.
Despite her fear she comes trembling to Jesus. She humbly kneels before the Savior and tells him the whole story. She recounts her struggle, her faith, and healing.
Jesus makes a momentous provision for this desperate woman.
34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
Read that again, very carefully. What is Jesus’ first word to her? “Daughter.” This is the only use in the New Testament of this word. Jesus expresses welcome to her. He accepts her. She is no longer an outcast. She can now have confidence.
She is restored to complete health. He gives her a message of peace. There is no message of hostility. She came for healing but received a relationship. She is free.
What do you need from Jesus? Reach out your hand. Touch Him for just a moment. People matter to Jesus. You matter to Jesus.
