Complete Healing

Mark 5:21-43

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea.

Jesus leaves one crowd only to meet another one on the other side of the Sea of Galilee.  And in today’s Gospel He has two encounters, one with a sick woman and the other with a dying girl in Capernaum.  These encounters came at a time when He was at His most popular.  In paintings, we always see Jesus with the small group we accept as “the crowd”, but, especially in Mark’s Gospel, the reality is different.  Literally hundreds of people followed Jesus wherever He went.

He has just arrived by boat and is immediately surrounded by people who need to hear words of hope, by those who are sick and need to be healed, and by the curious.  A man, obviously important in his city and synagogue, runs to Him, falls on his knees and begs for the life of his child. Jesus does not hesitate. He leaves the crowds to go with this father in need.

As He makes his way to Jairus’ home, Jesus is interrupted by an encounter with a woman who would most likely have been destined to die unknown, unremembered, and unremarked.  She is ill, and as we learn from Mark’s Gospel, for twelve years, “She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse.”

The faithful Jewish response to her illness would have been to travel to the Temple in Jerusalem, seeking healing by offering sacrifices. But just as with the lepers Jesus made whole, this woman would have been declared unclean.  Because of her hemorrhaging, she was no longer fit to be in the Temple—not even in the Court of the Women. In fact, she was excluded by law.  And so, she would have had to seek other means for her cure.

Knowing the state of medicine in the first century, she would have eaten every conceivable combination of herbs, applied endless creams and ointments, done anything someone asked, and paid everything she had. It is quite possible she was originally a woman of some means, now reduced to poverty.  And there would have been another, harsher, side to her malady.  Jesus often contends against the perception in the culture of His day that if someone was suffering, this was God’s punishment for sin. The ongoing hemorrhage and the belief she had sinned would have left her increasingly cut off from community.

We know about this because we still have diseases that come with a stigma. Fighting cancer is seen as heroic, but less so mental illness, chronic pain, or addiction.  As soon as anyone found out that she had been bleeding for five years, seven years, ten years - whatever it was by that point - judgment would follow. The sickness came to define her for everyone who knew how she suffered - that is, everyone except for Jesus.

Beyond this, we also know that her standing in society should have been in relation to a man. Just as Jairus goes to Jesus on behalf of his daughter, in that part of the world in Jesus’ day a woman would be required to be in the company of a husband, brother, uncle, or son.  Instead, she is presented as without family.

Through her faith that she just needed to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, we see how much she invested in this one last hope of healing. Some people spoke of Jesus’ teaching with great authority. Others speculated he was Elijah or one of the other prophets returned.  Many hoped Jesus would overthrow the Romans so that Jews could once more rule Israel on their own. But for the real sufferers, cut off from others because of disease, there would have been only one tidbit about Jesus that mattered. His reputation was clear. Wherever Jesus went, He cast demons out of the possessed. Jesus touched people who were blind, deaf, and lame, making them see, hear, and walk. Jesus was a healer.

For the woman in today’s Gospel, the most difficult part of her disease was that her bleeding did not just make her ritually unclean, and so unable to worship in the Temple; the religious law of her time mandated that anyone she touched would also become unclean. To have Jesus touch her might bring her healing, but it would have made Him ritually unclean as well. She would have to push against a lot of pressure from her society just to reach Jesus.

He would have been difficult to find in those days anyway, as He was always crossing back and forth around the Sea of Galilee and then traveling down to Jerusalem for the festivals. Then, in what must have been for her a moment of joy, she finds Him that day on the seashore.  How to reach Him?  As she gathered with a large crowd of others, all bent on hearing Jesus, many wanting healing, an important religious leader named Jairus came to implore Jesus to heal his daughter.

This woman has great faith, and struggling through the throng, trusting that all she needed to do was reach out and touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, she does just that.  For her, nothing more was required, but nothing less would do.  She is sure Jesus is the cure she is seeking.

As Jesus started toward Jairus’ house, the woman knelt down.  Hoping to go unnoticed, believing in her heart and soul that “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well”, she reached out for the barest edge of His robe.  Grabbing hold as if touching the very throne of God, life and healing from the One True God flowed through her. The bleeding stopped. Her body was finally healed after twelve years of suffering.

Then - everything the woman had planned went wrong.  Jesus stopped.  He stopped everyone. The whole crowd. Jesus cried out wanting to know who touched Him. His disciples couldn’t believe the question. With such a great crowd rushing around, a lot of people had been bumping into Jesus. But Jesus kept looking, because He too had felt the miracle.

There is so much power in this moment as the woman everyone came to ignore became the center of attention. Mark’s Gospel tells us that in fear and trembling she fell down before Jesus. How could she not be terrified? In so many ways, everyone told her she was unworthy, cursed by God.  And now this - once more, she would be humiliated. She throws herself at Jesus’ feet and recounts her whole story. Twelve years of suffering. Trembling, she tells Jesus the whole truth down to the hem of His garment.

After so many people had cast her down, Jesus lifts her up, looks into her eyes and says the words which make her healing complete. With the eyes of love on her, He said, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

“Daughter.” Not an outcast. Not a woman alone in a society that treated you in connection to the men in your life. She was a beloved child of God. In Jesus naming as daughter the woman afflicted with suffering for twelve years, we see the very heart of God. Others may have judged her harshly, but God never forgot her, always loved her, and wanted to welcome her home.

“Your faith has made you well.” Jesus knew what great faith she had come to have that even the very hem of his robe could heal her. His disciples were often clueless. The crowds were fickle. But this woman’s faith knew no bounds.

“Go in peace,” He said. Shalom means so much more than a lack of war. This peace is health, well-being, and wholeness. Her body healed, but Jesus was equally interested in healing her mind and soul - He was interested in complete healing and setting her free from the prison of suffering.

We here at Mystic Side are a small group of loving souls, not given to judging others.  Some of us have experienced what it means to be on the outside, through our race, our sexual orientation, our special needs, or even our age.  We are called to be grateful for anything we have suffered, because it gives us closeness to and empathy with others who also suffer.  We know that our society has a long way to go before people look at each other with love and compassion and not with judgment.  In the news these days we are often confronted by frightening words, divisive words, words from many sources that wish to negatively define and divide us.

But we are blessed, baptized.  We are the ones who strain to be close to Jesus, that we may cling to the hem of His garment, and always know His love.  We are the ones who have suffered, and may suffer again, but have the faith to hang on.  Then, filled with love and acceptance, our work as sons and daughters of the Living God, is to offer to each other and all we meet, the love and acceptance, support and comfort, the release from suffering that marks us as Jesus’ own.  Like the woman afflicted with suffering, we live in hurtful and even hate filled times, but we do not fear, or fail, because we believe.

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, every good thing comes from you.  Fill our hearts with love for You, increase our faith, and by Your constant care, protect the good You have given us, that by Your grace we may spread Your Love and acceptance throughout the world.  This we ask for Your love and mercy’s sake.  Amen.