Woman With Issue Of Blood: A Desperate Faith Is Rewarded

Photo by Oliver Pacas on Unsplash

This is post two in a three-part series about the Woman With The Issue Of Blood.

Head back to post One: Context to catch up.

Welcome And Recap!

When thinking back to your time as a new believer, did you have a Bible verse that comforted you, that helped bring Jesus nearer, or encouraged you to press on? The story of the Woman With The Issue Of Blood was the story a troubled 17yo me found when I opened up a Bible for the first time.

It was clear to me as a teenager, that I was this woman. She was an outsider, afflicted with an illness I had no power to change or cure (at least that's how it felt). Neither of us had a lot of confidence, and both of us were desperate for change, for hope. Can you relate to any of that?

And Jesus healed her. Yes, but no. Her FAITH healed her. To my teenage self, there was a democracy in that healing, it was something she had control of, something no one could steal from her.

So I'm revisiting this story some 30-odd years later to see what I make of this woman and her journey now. I asked six questions at the end of the first post of this series - questions that linger after reading this passage, so we're looking at those questions here. I'm assuming you've read the story in Mark 5: 21-43 -- the rest of this post won't make sense if you haven't read the text. So go do that and come back.

What Are We Told About This Woman?

Mark only includes the information we need to understand the point he’s making (writers don’t bog down readers with details that aren’t relevant to the story being told). He gives us two details about the woman with the issue of blood:

One: she is not referred to as anyone’s wife/widow, mother, sister, or daughter. The majority of woman mentioned in the Bible are referred to by their relationship to a man.

Two: we know she has been bleeding for twelve years.

Ugh. How exhausting would that be? Imagine the various medical issues that would create – anemia, fatigue, low blood pressure, low iron, etc. If you Google chronic blood loss, the reams of complications this type of condition can create are pretty scary: bowel problems, liver problems, heart problems, fertility issues, etc. Additionally, in this culture, bleeding made one “unclean” and there were social and religious consequences to that.

Clean vs Unclean

The Old Testament’s clean vs unclean dichotomy generally designated what was suitable (clean) or unsuitable (unclean) for use in corporate worship. This could refer to animals, actions, objects, clothing, or even people.

Pigs were “unclean” and therefore not to be used as sacrifices. Touching a dead body made a person “unclean.” For some things, being “unclean” lasted only until evening and required the individual change clothing and perform a ritual washing or mikveh. For some things, performing mikveh was not enough and a sacrifice had to be made also.

This idea of remaining clean was taken very seriously. Archaeologists have found ritual baths inside Priests’ homes in ancient Jerusalem (like this one or this one which date to the second temple period 650BC-70AD), where each time a man returned home from being out in the community he would wash in case he had touched or been touched by someone or something that was unclean without his knowledge.

Most women, of a certain age, experience menstrual bleeding at regular intervals. Bleeding made one unclean, so everything she touches, everywhere she sits, anyone who touches her, becomes unclean also. A husband could not be with his wife sexually when she was bleeding. (see Leviticus 15) A man who cannot lay with his wife will not have any children with her.

So, this issue of blood is about exclusion from community, from worship – from life.

And Jesus Was All About Seeing And Including Outcasts

I’ve observed throughout the ministry of Jesus how he sees those on the outside – those who are outcasts, who are shunned or looked down on, and he invites them in. Think of the Samaritan woman, Mary of Bethany, Zaccheus, the paralytic he heals, the woman doubled over, the widow who’s lost her only son, Matthew (the tax collector turned apostle)... There are many.

Theories About This Woman

We like to read between the lines, fill in the gaps, where the gospel writers have left out details. I don’t spend a lot of time on these theories – because they can never be more than speculation, but in this case, there’s two that seem plausible and offer explanations for details that don’t seem to make sense to us modern readers. We’ll get to the second plausible explanation in a bit.

Tyler Dawn at The Ancient Bridge writes about Jewish divorce laws in a post about this story. Now, the sources cited do not predate the first century when the book of Mark was written, so further research needs to be done there, but the theory put forth is that there was precedent for setting aside sick or ailing wives in certain circumstances.

In order for a man to divorce his wife, he had to pay monies to her in compensation for breaking that contract (the compensation is called ketubah). Dawn writes, "I submit that this woman, sick for twelve years, had probably been cast off and paid off by her husband once it became clear that her disease would render her unable to provide him with children. A woman who was constantly bleeding, as per Torah Law, could never be approached sexually – it was an abomination (Lev 18:19). Because he could no longer derive that benefit from her, he divorced her and gave her the (probably) 200 dinars owed to her by the ketubah." source here

As with a variety of other issues, the Mishnah allowed for some things even if the Rabbi's were clear it was not wise, or kind, or proper. It seems generally agreed that a dinar was about a day's wage, so 200 dinar would've been roughly two-third’s of a year’s wages. That is not an insignificant amount of money (how long could you live on two-third’s of a year’s wages today?), but hardly enough for a woman to support herself for the rest of her life.

The text says the woman "had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse..." v26.

This is one explanation as to how a woman would find herself living alone at this time in history, but with the resources to pay for doctors.

Why Touch His Cloak?

The word translated cloak in most English Bibles (garment in the KJV and NKJV), according to Marty Solomon at BEMA Discipleship, is poorly translated. What is more popularly believed now is that she reached out to the tassels (literally corners) on Jesus' prayer shawl.

This is a rectangular piece of fabric with tassels at each of the four corners called a tallit. The prayer shawl would be worn with two corners visible at the man's back and two on his front (some wore smaller versions with wool strings hanging from a belt). The Chosen depicts these tassels as hanging from the hem of their garments.

There was a lot of symbolism attached to the tallit. It was worn to remind them of God and His commandments, to remind them of God's mission for them. Tyler Dawn proposes there was a tradition that the tassels worn by a first-born son carried the authority of the family.

This woman isn't the only one who believed there was power in Jesus' garments as this is mentioned again in Mark 6. Marty Solomon proposes the practice of touching the tallit goes back to a verse in Malachi 4:2 "But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in it's wings..." The Hebrew uses the same word for corner and wings.

Was this woman aware of this writing in Malachi? What faith that would require to continue to study, and believe, and store up God's Word in her heart even though she would've been excluded from all rituals, festivals, and corporate worship -- considered unclean and untouchable.

Daughter, Your Faith Has Made You Well...

The Greek word for daughter Mark uses here is found in a variety of other places in Scripture, but Mark uses this word just once -- here. He doesn't use this word to describe the daughter of Jairus. So, that's an intentional choice. When these kinds of intentional choices are made, we should lean in and ask why? Mark is using this word to draw our attention to it.

Let's Summarize This Woman's Story

She hears of Jesus' return and joins the crowd who's gone out to greet him. Jesus begins walking with the synagogue official Jairus, and she's wrapped all her hope and faith in this encounter. He would never stop to speak with her, she was no one. She was unclean.

But, there had been promised healing in the wings (corners/tallit) of his prayer shawl. In Jerusalem, intentionally touching someone and making them unclean might get you stoned, but what has she got to lose?

She touches just the tassels of his garment and feels this miraculous change in her body. I can only imagine this would have been a sudden and dramatic shift in her body. She'd been healed. She only needed to wait the seven days before performing mikveh, and she would be restored!

Then Jesus turns and asks his Talmidim who touched him. No one could point her out in this jostling crowd. His Talmidim hadn’t seen her. But she stepped forward to take whatever punishment might be forthcoming. "...But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him..."

And Jesus’ Reaction To This Woman Changes Everything

She tells him, "her whole truth" which I can only imagine would include her affliction, the many treatments she'd undergone, the hopelessness and despair; the abandonment of friends, family, and likely a husband. Twelve years was a long time. He listened and he heard her.

What a balm to her soul that must've been. Just blessing after blessing.

And then -- he calls her Daughter. She's not an outcast, an alien or orphan any longer. She's daughter of the Most High God. Be healed of your affliction, he says. How many afflictions did she bear? The physical affliction, yes and along with it the unclean status. She’s no longer a woman without a man in a patriarchal culture, now she is daughter.

I wish I knew what happened to this woman following her encounter with Christ.

Are there tears in your eyes yet?

Questions:

Have you ever been healed of anything? Some have miraculous stories of physical healing, but many of us have been healed of much smaller afflictions -- emotional pain, trauma, bad habits, or thinking patterns. Describe that feeling of being free from whatever it was. How did it affect your faith?

Can you think of a time when you, or someone you knew, felt like an outcast? We've all been left out of something, but think bigger. Were you excluded from some family event? What about being excluded for your membership in a community or for a viewpoint you held? How did that season affect your faith and your prayer life? What can you learn from that time? What would you do differently, or looking back, what is now an encouragement?

If you were mentoring a younger person through a season like the one this woman lived through -- being an outcast, being unseen or overlooked, completely alone -- what encouragement or exhortation would you give them? What story or insight from your own life could you share?

Read Part Three Here