A large crowd followed Jesus and pushed very close around Him. Among them was a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered very much from many doctors and had spent all the money she had, but instead of improving, she was getting worse. — Mark 5:24–26 NCV
She was a bruised reed. “Bleeding for twelve years.” “Suffered very much.” “Spent all the money she had.”
“Getting worse.” A chronic menstrual disorder. A perpetual issue of blood. Such a condition would be difficult for any woman of any era. But for a Jewish woman, nothing could be worse. No part of her life was left unaffected.
Sexually... she could not touch her husband.
Maternally... she could not bear children.
Domestically... anything she touched was considered unclean. No washing dishes. No sweeping floors.
Spiritually... she was not allowed to enter the temple.
She was physically exhausted and socially ostracized. She had sought help “under the care of many doctors” (verse 26). The Talmud gives no fewer than eleven cures for such a condition. No doubt she had tried them all. Some were legitimate treatments. Others, such as carrying the ashes of an ostrich egg in a linen cloth, were hollow superstitions.
She “had spent all she had” (verse 26). To dump financial strain on top of the physical strain is to add insult to injury. A friend battling cancer told me the hounding of the creditors who demand payments for ongoing medical treatment is just as devastating as the pain.
But “instead of getting better she grew worse” (verse 26). She was a bruised reed. She awoke daily in a body that no one wanted. She was down to her last prayer. And on the day we encounter her, she was about to pray it.
By the time she got to Jesus, He was surrounded by people. He was on His way to help the daughter of Jairus, the most important man in the community. What were the odds that He would interrupt an urgent mission with a high official to help the likes of her? Very few. But what were the odds that she would survive if she didn’t take a chance? Fewer still.
So she takes a chance. “If I just touch His clothes,” she thinks, “I will be healed” (verse 28).
Risky decision. To touch Him, she will have to touch the people. If one of them recognizes her... hello rebuke, goodbye cure. But what choice does she have? She has no money, no clout, no friends, no solutions. All she has is a crazy hunch that Jesus can help and a high hope that He will. Maybe that’s all you have: a crazy hunch and a high hope. You have nothing to give. But you are hurting. And all you have to offer Him is your hurt. Maybe that has kept you from coming to God. Oh, you’ve taken a step or two in His direction. But then you saw the other people around Him. They seemed so clean, so neat, so fit in their faith. And when you saw them, they blocked your view of Him. So you stepped back.
If that describes you, note carefully, only one person was commended that day for having faith. It wasn’t a wealthy giver. It wasn’t a loyal follower. It wasn’t an acclaimed teacher. It was a shame-struck, penniless outcast who clutched onto her hunch that He could and her hope that He would.
Which, by the way, isn’t a bad definition of faith: a conviction that He can and a hope that He will. Sounds similar to the definition of faith given by the Bible.
Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. — Hebrews 11:6
Not too complicated, is it? Faith is the belief that God is real and that God is good. Faith is not a mystical experience or a midnight vision or a voice in the forest... it is a choice to believe that the one who made it all hasn’t left it all and that he still sends light into shadows and responds to gestures of faith.
There was no guarantee, of course. She hoped He’d respond... she longed for it... but she didn’t know if he would. All she knew was that he was there and that he was good. That’s faith. Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want.
- Faith is the belief that God will do what is right.
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