I’ve recently written about the woman who snuck up behind Jesus out of desperation. She was unclean from a many-year issue of blood. She is, for me, a model of hope and never giving up. I have been looking to her example for years and you know who I’m talking about. I’m currently reading ‘Gospel Meditations for Prayer’, co-authored by Chris Anderson, Joe Tyrpak, and Carl Trueman. I’ve learned that Mark, Chapter 4, is all about Jesus’ compassion for the unclean. I’ve focused on the woman and missed the man occupied by unclean demons, that the economy in that village was based on pig breeding – also unclean, and then the little girl who Jesus raised from the dead. All of them came into physical contact with Jesus which should have made him unclean but instead made each of these clean.
I wish I knew the woman’s name so I don’t have to refer to her by her ailment but sometimes don’t we all wear the name of today’s challenge versus “Follower of Jesus” or “Daughter of the Most High”. We obsess and want healing from today’s financial difficulty or our friend’s illness or our child’s welfare. We will always need something. It is fortunate for us that God does not grow weary of doing good and he is not the genie in the bottle and does not work for me.
I had pictured the woman as being modest and unassuming along with desperate but she was unclean and knew it. She should not have been in the crowd and did not want to be seen. When Jesus called her out (there was a great multitude pressing in on Him) He turned around to see the woman who had done this. She fell down BEFORE Him and told Him the whole truth. Jesus commends heals her and commends her – two healings. She is no longer unclean and can be with whomever she wishes without fear of rejection. She can go to the market. Maybe she had a husband. What if she had a child she can now care for. This is a miraculous healing yet so much more because her shame is behind her and her life is before her. Jesus sent her out in peace.
