Rending the Veil Part 2: The Woman with the Issue of Blood

 Mark 5:25-34

Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.”

Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?”

But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ”

And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”

Jesus had just healed a demon possessed man, before this incident with this woman. He had been asked to leave the area (Gadarenes) so He took a boat and crossed over the other side of Galilee to Capernaum. Many people had gathered to Jesus to see Him. One of the rulers of the Synagogue came to Jesus and fell at His feet and 'begged Him earnestly' to come and heal his daughter who was dying. Jesus and the multitude of people went with Jairus  and it's on the way to Jairus's house that Jesus encountered the woman with the issue of blood. We're not told anything else about the woman other than she had had a flow of blood for 12 years. 

Under Levitical Law the woman was unclean. Leviticus 15: 25-27

‘If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, other than at the time of her customary impurity, or if it runs beyond her usual time of impurity, all the days of her unclean discharge shall be as the days of her customary impurity. She shall be unclean. Every bed on which she lies all the days of her discharge shall be to her as the bed of her impurity; and whatever she sits on shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her impurity. Whoever touches those things shall be unclean; he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.'

For twelve years the woman would have been unclean and anybody who touched her would have become unclean and would have had to have gone through ritual cleansing as prescribed in the Law. Everything she touched or she sat on, laid upon would have also become unclean and those who sat or lay in the same place would have become unclean. More than likely she would have been ostracised by society and she wouldn't have been able to go to the Temple or local Synagogue to worship the Lord. We don't know her marital status. Maybe some friends brought her food and left it outside her door or perhaps she had to forage for food, but this is conjecture as we don't know, but basically she was a sad sight.  

She was so desperate she suffered at the hands of the physicians who had taken her money and had actually made her worse. What a desperate state the woman was in. 

Somehow she had heard about Jesus, and He was in her area that day - the Man who could heal people. She had nothing to lose, because she had lost so much already: her dignity, freedom, permission to worship God in the Temple or local Synagogue, money, so she pressed her way through the crowds.

She came behind Jesus and reaching out 'anonymously', she touched the hem of His garment - saying something truly amazing: "If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well." She had such faith, she knew she only had to touch Jesus' garments and she would be healed. As soon as her fingers touched the garment, the flow of blood she had had for twelve years dried up, and 'she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.' We cannot imagine the relief she must have felt, but wait, that is not the end of the account. 

I wonder if she had hoped to sneak away quietly, but Jesus felt power going out of Himself so He turned around in the crowd and asked "Who touched My clothes?" He knew who had touched Him but this is where her story of restoration begins and there was a lesson for the crowd also. 

The woman was in fear and she trembled because she had been shunned by society because of her uncleanness and as we saw in part 1 women weren't looked favourably upon so to venture out in such an unclean state, would more than likely have been frowned upon. She fell before Jesus, an act of reverence, respect and worship. 

Restoration for the woman:

• As we saw in the Levitical Law, this woman had been unclean for twelve years, we don't know if she had family, if she was married or not but by Jesus bringing this woman into the open, the whole of society could see she had become clean again and could enter back into it.
• From the above, she had spent all of her money on quack physicians so was poor, but now she could be restored back into her family and her circle of friends, who could help her. If she was married her marriage could be restored and her husband could provide for her again. 
• Jairus was there, the leader of the Synagogue - he could see that she was now free from the condition which ailed her for twelve years, so she could go back into the place of worship to bow down to the God who had healed her.
• Because of her faith, the Prince of Peace tells her to go in peace. He also restores her to Himself, by calling her 'daughter' - she is the only person in the Bible whom Jesus calls anyone with such endearment. 

Lessons:
  

• This was also another lesson for Jairus, because if Jesus Christ could heal a woman by her just touching His garment, then He Himself was more than able to heal his daughter, or as we find out later on, raise her from the dead.
• The disciples had seen Jesus perform other miracles, but they still didn't fully understand who Jesus was. They learned that day that faith in Jesus Christ can and does heal. The act of reaching out and touching the garment didn't save the woman, as Jesus clearly states "Daughter, your faith has made you well." Her faith made her well.  This was a lesson for the crowd and us as well. 
• If we want to be spiritually healed, then the only place we can come is to the Saviour He is THE only One who can heal us from our sin and restore us to the relationship we were created to have with our Creator. 
• The woman came to Jesus because she couldn't make herself clean. That's the same for us. Jesus came to live the perfect life we could not and die the death we deserve. You come only to Jesus, not doing anything, just come to Him and Him alone as you are.

1 John 1:9 

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

Rending the Veil Part 1: Women and Freedom in Christ

In the days when Jesus walked on the earth there was animosity towards women - they weren't treated as equals. 

I was reading a couple of quotes written by rabbis during that time period and they didn't look favourably upon women. In the Talmud, Rabbi Judah ben Elai (c. AD150) 

'A man is bound to say the following three blessings daily: "[Blessed art thou...] who hast not made me a heathen", "...who hast not made me a woman"; "...and who has not made me a brutish man"'

It was common thought that women were incapable of learning about religious things, some rabbis forbade them to be instructed in religious affairs. 

Women were looked upon as second class citizens, but when Jesus came to earth, He turned that thinking upside down. He treated women with the dignity and respect they were created to receive.  

I am hoping to write a series about women encountering Jesus and how He turned their lives and the thinking of others on their heads as they showed society what God intended for women, not how men misinterpreted the role of women. 

Firstly we have to go back to Genesis with the creation of woman. 

Genesis 2:18-22

And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

Matthew Henry in his famous commentary has something beautiful to say about the creation of woman (I'd recommend reading the whole exposition of the creation of woman): 

That the woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved. Adam lost a rib, and without any diminution to his strength or comeliness (for, doubtless, the flesh was closed without a scar); but in lieu thereof he had a help meet for him, which abundantly made up his loss: what God takes away from his people he will, one way or other, restore with advantage. In this (as in many other things) Adam was a figure of him that was to come; for out of the side of Christ, the second Adam, his spouse the church was formed, when he slept the sleep, the deep sleep, of death upon the cross, in order to which his side was opened, and there came out blood and water, blood to purchase his church and water to purify it to himself.

Woman is to be a help meet to man - someone equal but with different roles. Woman wasn't created to be inferior to man, but to stand alongside him, making him complete. Matthew Henry's commentary again:

If man is the head, she is the crown, a crown to her husband, the crown of the visible creation. The man was dust refined, but the woman was dust double-refined, one remove further from the earth.

Unfortunately after the fall of humanity God's plan for humanity became skewed, throughout the ages women have been treated like second-class citizens, used and abused. These days it seems that women are now wanting the same roles as men. Men are the bad guys, women are the victims etc but this isn't how God intended our relationships to be with one another. Misogyny, misandry, feminism and chauvinism aren't what God intended for humanity.  Jesus Christ came to fix broken relationships, show us how we should treat one another as God intended. 

I'm calling the series:

Rending the Veil: Women Encountering Jesus. 

God guards His own

I used to write my spiritual thoughts etc on cards and keep them in a box. The other day I was reading through some of them and came across this account of God protecting His people, which an Indian friend told my husband and I in April 2007

Two missionary girls in India went to a village one day, but on the way home it got dark so they had to sleep in the forest. In that area there were Hindu fanatics so it really wasn't a safe place to sleep out in the open! As the girls slept some of the Hindus came to take the girls' lives but they saw fifteen guards surrounding them so they thought better of attacking them, and left. 

The following day when the girls got back home, somebody told them what had happened the previous night, that they were going to be attacked but the fanatics saw fifteen guards around them. The girls said they were alone and had no guards protecting them. All through the night fifteen people had been praying for them - the fifteen guards were angels sent by God to protect the girls as they slept. 

I remember hearing about a similar thing which happened in China in the 1940s as Mao's troops advanced on a village - they by passed it because they saw soldiers surrounding it. There were no soldiers, but again God sent His angels to guard and protect the villagers.

Back to India: Many had been delivered from demons:

One such example was a demonic priest who put curses on people - a man came to him and asked him to put a spell on a woman he had fallen in love with, but when he sent out the demons to curse her nothing happened, they couldn't affect her because she was a Christian. The priest had never had a curse fail until that point. He saw that there was one greater than the demons he had been serving so he converted to Christianity. 

It may have changed now, but 20 years ago the Church in India had all night prayer meetings or early morning ones, they had prayer chains of 24 or 48 hours. They encouraged new Christians to get involved with evangelism and social work, like medical ministries in slums* and villages etc

*slums are where the untouchables live. They are outside of the Caste system because they are the lowest of the low and according to the teaching of reincarnation, anybody who is really poor shouldn't be helped because they must have done something really bad in their previous life and this is their punishment, so by helping them they're not being punished as they should be. In Hebrews 9:27 it says 'And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment...'

Reincarnation is a cruel belief (unless you are high in the caste system). We die once, then after that God will judge. There is no reincarnation. Apparently (according to my Indian friends) there are many converts amongst the untouchables because of the love and care Christians show to them. Let us be like Christ and love the unlovely. 

A note on demons - in the West we don't tend to believe in demon possessions or think it was only in biblical times this happened, but in places like Haiti and Africa where there are witch Doctors and Voodoo - it's prevalent. 

Ephesians 6: For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Zephaniah 3:17

 One of my favourite verses in Scripture is Zephaniah 3:17e:

“The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.”

I remember as a child, music being a big part of my life. My dad would sing hymns as he worked and my mum would sing nursery rhymes to my sister and I. As I got older I would sing and I learned to play the flute. I loved listening to classical music and I remember my first LP was James Galway playing the flute - it may seem a bit nerdy, but the melodies and harmonies, intertwined to produce some of the most amazing sounds. 

I had been a Christian for a fair few years before a dear brother in Christ pointed that verse out to me - I'd never seen it before. 

Dear reader, can you imagine a thrice holy, 100% righteous God singing - actually singing over His disobedient, rebellious people? What a song of love, grace, mercy, forgiveness. I can't imagine a more beautiful song. He doesn't just sing over His people, He REJOICES with singing over us. The perfect melodies of love and peace intertwined with harmonies of grace and mercy. His rejoicing is filled with gladness with pianissimo of love - this is no cacophony of sound, this is a throne room filled to overflowing with the heart felt music of our Creator as He delights in His people.