The Woman with the Flow of Blood

Mark 5:25-34, Matthew 9:20-22, Luke 8:42-48

On his way to a proper healing for someone important, someone sneaks up on our man from behind. "A certain woman", my KJV calls her. We know an amazing amount about her. She has been suffering for 12 years with a continuous flow of blood. Smart money says it's menstrual blood, and she, like the woman at the well, would have been persona non grata in her community. If she'd ever had a husband, he would have been within his rights to leave her, perpetually unclean and childless as she was. She certainly shouldn't have been out among a crowd like this. She had gone to numerous physicians, spent all she had and "endured much" under them - ineptitude, disappointment, and probably contempt. We even hear her thoughts, "If I touch but his clothes, I will be made well (whole, King James says)." She touches "the edge of his cloak" - and right away she feels the change in her body. The bleeding just stops. Just as quickly, Jesus feels power leave him, and demands to know who touched him. The disciples say, "Dude, there's a crowd. Everybody's touching on you." In the middle of the ruckus, she steps forward, shaking and terrified. She tells "the whole truth" like admitting to a crime. And he says, "Daughter," bringing her back into the family with one word, as Virginia Stem Owen says. "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your illness."

The first thing I'd like to know is, why do they tell this story? I am embarrassed to bring it to my adult Bible study which includes one or two men. Even in this day and age of TV commercials for all manner of "feminine products", it still doesn't make for a nice church discussion. For the early Christians, this topic must have been of unspeakable shame. No wonder she felt she had to steal her healing instead of asking outright. She would have made Jesus unclean by touching him - thus her rationalizing that she was just going to touch the very edge of his sleeve...

Exaggeration in the Bible works like big arrows pointing to something. So this isn't just a story about a woman. It's about a scheming, underhanded woman who sneaks up on you. It's about a woman who was unclean with her period. An unclean woman who has had her period for twelve years. And Jesus says "You are a daughter of God. Your faith is the real miracle." Thanks be to God.