Week 6 – Jesus Meets Us in Our Suffering – Part 2
(video is not available for this week’s lesson)
Woman with the Bleeding Issue – Mark 5:21-34
Last week in the story of the woman at the well, we encountered a woman who suffered from loneliness and in her relationships. We saw in her encounter with Jesus that she continually redirected the conversation to focus on the external, and he continually pointed her to look inward. He knew her intimately and that her greatest need was salvation (the gospel). He met her greatest need with His presence and His grace. She believed and trusted that He was who He said he was, the promised Messiah, and the living water and life He could give her, and it changed her perspective and her circumstances (to some degree). She told the entire town about Jesus, and many came to believe first because of her testimony and then because they heard the truth from Jesus.
This week we look at the woman who suffered with bleeding issues for 12 years. How will her encounter with Jesus change her life?
AUTHOR: anonymous, but attributed to John Mark (by Papias, AD 125) a sometime companion of Paul (Col 4:10) and later of Peter (1 Pet 5:13).
DATE WRITTEN: AD 65
AUDIENCE: Church in Rome (according to Papias)
“THEM/THEN” — Literary and Historical Context
How is the passage structured? Structure is one of the literary tools we can use to see the passages overall theme or intended message of the author to the original audience.
Structure of Mark 521-34:
- The passages in Mark 5:21–6:6 contain three accounts emphasizing the need for faith in those who respond to Jesus. The account of Jairus (5:21–24, 35–43) is interrupted by the account of the woman with the issue of blood (5:25–34). But in both difficult cases, Jesus’ stunning power is once again exercised for believers, this time climaxing in his ability to overcome even the fall’s greatest curse—death (5:41; Gen 2:17). After these two examples of Jesus’ power, the third account presents him going to Nazareth, where few believe and where he does few miracles (6:1–6). Faith (or lack thereof) is mentioned in all three accounts (5:34, 36; 6:6).
- The narrative about Jairus’ daughter (vv. 21–43) frames the interrupting story of a hemorrhaging woman (vv. 25–34). Both stories show Jesus’ incredible and surprising power.
Historical Context
Note: read Mark 1:1-15; 3:7-12; 4:35-41 for context on our focal passage.
In Mark 1:14. Jesus begins his earthly ministry in Galilee by inaugurating the kingdom of God. Jesus states, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” Jesus’ statement gives us the main purpose for the entire book of Mark, and the gospel. He has come to usher in the kingdom of God, the fulfillment of the Old Testament covenant promise that God would one day redeem His people by a descendant of Eve (Jesus), and that He would be their God, they would be His people, and He would dwell among them forever. As the story of Mark continues, Jesus begins to heal physically, pointing to when He will bring about spiritual healing through His death and resurrection.
In Mark 5:25-26, we read that this woman “had suffered.” To be taken, as everywhere in the New Testament, in the sense of suffering pain, not merely subjected to treatment. What she may have suffered can be gleaned from the prescription for the medical treatment of such a complaint given in the Talmud. Below are some common medical treatments according to the Talmud:
- Take of the gum of Alexandria the weight of a zuzee (a fractional silver coin); of alum the same; of crocus the same. Let them be bruised together, and given in wine to the woman that has an issue of blood. If this does not benefit…
- Take of Persian onions three logs (pints); boil them in wine, and give her to drink, and say, ‘Arise from thy flux.’ If this does not cure her, set her in a place where two ways meet, and let her hold a cup of wine in her right hand, and let someone come behind and frighten her, and say, ‘Arise from thy flux.’ But if that do no good…
- Take a handful of cummin (a kind of fennel), a handful of crocus, and a handful of fenugreek (another kind of fennel). Let these be boiled in wine and give them her to drink, and say, ‘Arise from thy flux!’ ” If these do no good…
- Other doses, over ten in number, are prescribed, among them this: “Let them dig seven ditches, in which let them burn some cuttings of vines, not yet four years old. Let her take in her hand a cup of wine, and let them lead her away from this ditch, and make her sit down over that. And let them remove her from that, and make her sit down over another, saying to her at each remove, ‘Arise from thy flux!’ (Quoted from Lightfoot by Geikie, “Life and Words of Christ”) Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament, vol. 1
Can we just pause for a moment and take that all in! As if her suffering was not enough due to her continual bleeding, she would have been subjected to even further suffering through the treatments she probably spent all she had in hopes of some healing.
Literary Context
Let’s examine the passage once again and make some literary observations by asking some questions.
How was the woman suffering when she encountered Jesus? Her suffering was physical in the form of menstrual bleeding that had been ongoing for twelve years. This would have made her “unclean” according to Jewish law (Leviticus 15:1-33), preventing her from worshiping in the temple or joining her people in everyday activities. She would have been ostracized from society.
In contrast to others who approach Jesus directly, this woman is cautious and hesitant—perhaps because her condition makes her ritually impure. Alternatively, this might be the only way the woman could reach Jesus through the crowd. There are many people touching Jesus in that throng, but she is the only one whose faith draws power from him.
Did Jesus recognize her suffering? He knew she had faith when she touched him as his healing power went out to her.
What did Jesus address first, and how did He address it? Her faith. He declared that her faith had made her well v. 34.
Some of the Key Words in this passage to consider are: faith, twelve years, healed.
The author uses the reference to twelve years in both the story of the bleeding woman and the story of Jairus’ daughter to link the two. This story and the story of Jarius’ daughter focus on the relationship between power and faith. Belief gives people access to Jesus’ life-giving power; unbelief blocks it (e.g., Mark 2:5; 9:19–24).
Take a look at the word faith in the original language of the Scriptures:
“pistis” (Greek 4102):
- conviction of the truth of anything, belief; in the NT of a conviction or belief respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, generally with the included idea of trust and holy fervour born of faith and joined with it relating to God the conviction that God exists and is the creator and ruler of all things, the provider and bestower of eternal salvation through Christ
- relating to Christ a strong and welcome conviction or belief that Jesus is the Messiah, through whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God
- the religious beliefs of Christians belief with the predominate idea of trust (or confidence) whether in God or in Christ, springing from faith in the same
- Subjectively meaning firm persuasion, conviction, belief in the truth
AUTHOR’S AIM
Faith is a main point in this passage. Jesus tells the woman, “your faith has made you well, go in peace.” Belief gave people access to Jesus’ life-giving power. Unbelief blocked that power. The woman found peace and healing for her suffering by putting her faith/trust in Jesus, without a guarantee of the outcome.
As we consider the author’s aim to the original audience, as well as how the gospel impacts that message, we arrive at the timeless truth. A truth for all people in all times. How does this story of one woman’s physical suffering help us in our times of hardship and suffering? The timeless truth of the passage helps provide an answer.
TIMELESS TRUTH
Faith is a timeless truth for us today. Peace in the midst of our suffering comes when we trust Jesus with our deepest hurts and needs. We experience His power in our lives when we place our trust in Him.
We are now ready to make some personal application because we have done the hard work of reading and re-reading and observing the text in its literary, historical and theological context.
“US/NOW” — Application
2 Corinthians 5:7 says, “for we walk by faith, not by sight.” This means that which appears before us may not be what it seems to be, while faith is something which stands on proof arrived at inductively, apart from our circumstances and suffering. Our faith is based on the character and natures of the Lord God. He is sure and steadfast. He does not change. He is always with us. His presence goes before us and behind us. He does not waste one moment of our suffering but uses it to draw us closer to Him, grow us in Christian maturity, and to encourage one another. We can rest in the character of God because it is the one, sure, steadfast thing we can count on. We can rest in the grace of God because He lavishly pours it out on us by His Spirit which indwells us as Christ-followers.
As I considered how this passage might apply to my daily life, one question that came to mind for me was this: In who or what are you placing your faith or trust instead of trusting Jesus and laying your needs at His feet?
Commenting on Soren Kierkegaard’s book The Sickness Unto Death, Tim Keller says, “Sin is the despairing refusal to find your deepest identity in your relationship and service to God. Sin is seeking to become oneself, to get an identity, apart from God.”
We were made for God, to center our entire life on him and find our sense of worth and purpose in him. Anything other than that is sin.
“Sin is not just the doing of bad things, but the making of good things into ultimate things. It is seeking to establish a sense of self by making something else more central to your significance, purpose, and happiness than your relationship with God.” —Tim Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (2009)
What do you need to lay at the feet of Jesus today? How do you need to lean into God’s goodness and grace in your life?
Rejoicing in Christ Jesus,
©2024, Susan Cady
