Some worshipped him while some decried him. Some believed him even as others rejected all he had to say. Some praised him, and many passively ignored him. But wherever Jesus was, a crowd was either very near or not far away.

They watched him all the time. There was no getting away from it. On the one hand, they knew an oppressive regime led by narcistic and paranoid leaders, the kind that would strip away rights for their own sick requirements. On the other, they had no recourse for even their own leaders held them by laws that kept them under religious thumbs. The crowds, diverse in background, status, even political persuasion, pressed in close to see if Jesus had it in his power to offer them something better.

Desperation though can sometimes change even hardened minds. And changed thinking can make all the difference. A leader of the local synagogue no less came to Jesus begging for a saving miracle for his little daughter. Jarius pleads, “My daughter is about to die. Please come and place your hands on her; heal her so she can live.” With the crowd squeezing close and surrounding him, Jesus agreed to go.

Twelve Years a Slave

But somehow within that crowd was another female, this one much older, and for the most part, knowing a living death. For twelve years she suffered with a “hemorrhage,” a menstrual period that would not end. The disease had taken away the freedoms of life. Doctors had compounded her pain, taking all her money while not providing relief or a cure, as her condition only worsened. Likely covered and heavily veiled, she sneaked up behind him and “touched the fringe of his robe. For she thought to herself, ‘If I can just touch his clothing, I will be healed.’”

Monthly Quarantine

On one hand, you would think she didn’t have much to lose at this point. But she did. By her very presence there, she had made virtually an entire crowd, and specifically Jesus, unclean. Every Jew knew that the law of Leviticus was strict in delineating how a woman was made ceremonially unclean with each menstrual period. Not only that, but anyone touching her or that which she touched, even if one sat on a bed where she had been, would be infected by her uncleanliness. If a person touched her bed, one had to bathe, wash clothes, be considered defiled until evening. Washing and bathing were no easy tasks given that water often had to be carried, so this in effect isolated her for several days. Then she had to quarantine another seven days.

Finally considered ceremonially clean, she had to present herself to the priest with two offerings, one a sin offering and another a burnt offering. “In this way, the priest will make atonement for her before the Lord for her menstrual discharge.” (Leviticus 15:19-30 NLT) Bad enough she was socially isolated for likely two weeks at a time, but also there was the shameful implication that she was sinful for having a period. Under such circumstances, women were subjected to lives lonely and dependent on the rigors of the law. There was no way to protest but to endure.

This was her danger. With the crowd pressing against him, they could not avoid also pressing upon her. In effect, she could infect everyone there. Would her determination for deliverance from this illness matter to the crowd as much as what she would bring upon them? Her healing could mean her death if Jesus called her out.

A Movement of Power

Instead, Jesus senses a power has been called out of himself. It was only a touch, a mere brush of fingertips on the small decorative hem of his robe. He couldn’t have seen her bend low as she fought through the bodies in the throng. But he knew.

When he asked who touched him, the disciples have one of their moments, moments which reveal they think they know better than he, at least more so than they usually say out loud. “How can you ask that?” they point out, disdainfully referring to the crowd closing in.

Now she’s really scared. Healed of that which had robbed her of health and happiness, she is just as doomed again by what she risked for it to happen. In the posture of confession, taking the same position as that which gave her back her life, she kneels before her healer.

“Daughter,” he calls her. Jesus did not seem to care about ritual cleanliness. Instead, he affirms her efforts and desire to be made whole by saying, “Your faith has made you well. Go in peace.” She was healed in body and saved from those who would take her life away again.

Powered Touch

Almost immediately, another female is nearly lost. Messengers deliver the news that Jarius’ precious child has died. Taking cues from the disciples and not from what they just have seen him do, some in the crowd laugh at Jesus’ claim that the official’s little girl is not dead but asleep.

Dismissing the negativity, Jesus only allows her parents and three disciples as witnesses. In his native tongue, Aramaic, he takes her hand and gently, intimately speaks to her, “Talitha cumi,” that is “Little girl, rise up.” Touch again connects him to the one needing his power.

Thus, in one day, Jesus bestowed a God-power on two females who could have been written off and forgotten by all around her. (Mark 5:21-43)

By Unnamed Daughters

Jesus makes a connection between a synagogue leader’s daughter and the value of her young life with this woman who for years may have thought she would be better off dead. Neither of these females is identified by a given name. But “Daughter,” he says, and all females, young girls and mature women, are touched in that place which distinguishes them as feminine. It is by faith that women are raised up, healed of whatever takes away life, and receive a transfer of a power that is only of God.

Power transferred is power that heals the powerless. For a little girl and a sick woman, power was known in healing that offers more than a physical change. This power raises precious life when others see no hope, and just fringes of faith bring release from oppression. It’s the kind of power which redeems and restores any who in life will leave and follow Jesus.

Jesus told the family not to tell anyone what had happened. Yet, with the child healed, walking, even eating food, it was evident who had made her well. The unnamed woman would forever be known as one restored to health by reaching for hope in Jesus. People were beginning to change the way they understood Jesus.

The following crowd carried the story.

Mark 5:21-43

Coming Soon!

The Trouble with Jesus: Considerations Before You Walk Away by Constance Hastings

 Preorders Available Wherever You Buy Books!

Subscribe to The Trouble with Jesus Blog Here.