Mark 5:25-34 meaning

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In Mark 5:25-34, as Jesus makes His way to the home of Jairus to heal his dying daughter, a woman in the crowd who has endured a hemorrhage for twelve years quietly reaches out and touches His garment. Instantly, she is healed. Sensing that power has gone out from Him, Jesus asks who touched Him. The woman then steps forward and admits before everyone that she touched Him and has been healed. Jesus acknowledges her faith.

The parallel Gospel accounts for Mark 5:25-34 are Matthew 9:20-22 and Luke 8:43-48.

Mark 5:24-35 describes how a woman suffering from a twelve-year hemorrhage touched Jesus’s cloak in faith as He was made His way through the dense Capernaum crowds. The woman was instantly healed, prompting Jesus to stop, seek her out, and commend her for her belief.

Jesus was on an urgent mission to heal Jairus’s dying daughter (Mark 5:21-24) when the woman suffering from the hemorrhage made her way through the pressing crowd (Mark 5:24) toward Jesus.

Mark introduces the woman by describing her suffering:

A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse (vv 25-26).

The hemorrhage appears to have been severe and persistent menstrual bleeding. For twelve years, the woman endured physical suffering, financial hardship, and social isolation due to her illness. Notably, she had been afflicted for roughly the same duration that Jairus’s daughter had been alive (Luke 8:42).

Physically, her condition would have caused significant pain and exhaustion. The constant loss of iron from her bleeding likely left her feeling weak and fatigued. Although she had endured much at the hands of many physicians, she had not been helped at all. In fact, her condition had grown worse from their efforts.

The woman’s quest for a cure had ruined her financially. Mark writes that she had spent all that she had.

Socially, her hemorrhage meant the woman had lived in a continuous state of ceremonial impurity. This ritual uncleanliness would have prevented her from taking part in religious gatherings and limited her ability to engage in close relationships with others.

Under the Law of Moses, anyone she touched or who touched her clothing would also become ceremonially unclean until they bathed and waited for the start of a new day (Leviticus 15:19-30). Since her impurity was transferable through physical contact, she was likely isolated from society and treated as an outcast.

The woman’s ongoing state of uncleanliness kept her from entering the temple and severely limited her involvement in religious or community activities.

The gospels do not specify whether the woman was married, but it seems she was by herself. It is possible her condition made it difficult for her to marry, or perhaps she had been divorced or abandoned because of it.

In addition to the physical and financial struggles, the social isolation she experienced likely took a heavy toll on her mental and emotional health over the course of those twelve years. Her situation appeared to be without hope.

But this woman did not lack hope. She had heard about Jesus and His miraculous power to heal people of their infirmities.

After hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well” (vv 27-28).

At some point the woman became aware that Jesus was back in Capernaum. Perhaps she was waiting for Him. After hearing about Jesus’s miraculous healing powers and/or His return to Capernaum, the woman saw her opportunity to get close to Him in the anonymity of the crowd.

For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.” Luke says that she “touched the fringe of His cloak” (Luke 8:44). This woman had faith that Jesus had the power to make her well and that He would heal her if only she could touch His garments.

But touching His garments meant getting close enough to Jesus for her to be able to touch His clothes. She touched His garments because she believed His power would heal her through this action. She was right.

Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction (v 29).

In an instant, the woman’s long and hopeless affliction came to an end through the immense power that flowed from Jesus. What no physician could cure in twelve years, Jesus accomplished in a single moment without a word. This display reveals that healing was not merely incidental to His presence, but a direct manifestation of divine power uniquely His.

The construction of Mark’s narrative (which Luke follows) draws special attention to Jesus’s unmatched power. Jesus was so strong that power oozed out of Him—almost passively.

For Mark’s Roman audience, accustomed to celebrating strength and authority, this effortless display of power would have been intensely compelling. Unlike earthly rulers who exert force through command or violence, Jesus’s strength radiated from His very being.

When “she touched the fringe of His cloak,” as Luke describes it (Luke 8:44), she likely grasped the tassels of the rabbinical shawl Jesus wore. There are several possible reasons why she chose to touch His garment instead of His person in her pursuit of healing.

She may have reached for the tassels of Jesus’s rabbinic shawl because she believed they held special significance. Tassels (along with phylacteries) were worn by Jewish religious leaders, including Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes, who often exaggerated the size of their adornments to display their perceived righteousness (Matthew 23:5). Since tassels were associated with a leader’s holiness, the woman may have been drawn to touch Jesus’s garment, believing in the power and righteousness it represented.
She may have been considerate of the fact that touching Jesus directly could render Him ceremonially unclean. This seems the more likely reason, as Jesus later commends her faith in Him. If her belief had been based on a superstition about the tassels rather than trust in Jesus Himself, it is unlikely that He would have praised her faith.
She may have felt ashamed of her condition. Stopping Jesus or directly grabbing Him would have drawn attention to her and possibly added to her humiliation. By quietly touching His garment, she hoped to be healed without making a scene.

The woman may have been motivated by more than one of these reasons. Regardless, the moment she touched Jesus’s garment in faith, the flow of her blood immediately stopped.

Jesus was instantly perceptive to what had happened.

Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?” (v 30).

To the outside observer, Jesus’s question may have seemed unusual, given that many people were pressing against Him as He moved through the crowd. However, He was fully aware that power had gone out from Him.

Luke’s account observes how “they [the crowd] were all denying” that they had touched Him or His garments (Luke 8:45). Many of them likely had touched Jesus, as they were “pressing in on Him” (Mark 5:24). But apparently, they were not willing to admit to touching His garments now.

His disciples too, were baffled by Jesus’s question to the crowd.

And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’” (v 31).

The disciples likely saw Jesus’s question as unanswerable. Everyone was touching Him. And He is asking which one person touched His garment. Luke’s account states that it was Peter who spoke up and said: “Master the people are crowding and pressing in on You” (Luke 8:45b).

The disciples’ response to Jesus was something like: “You’re asking something impossible to determine.” They may have been frustrated or confused by what seemed like an unreasonable inquiry at that moment.

But Jesus knew exactly what had occurred and who it was who had touched Him. Once again, Luke’s account describes Jesus’s awareness: “But Jesus said, ‘Someone did touch Me, for I was aware that power had gone out of Me’” (Luke 8:46).

Jesus’s question was not for His own knowledge, nor was it primarily directed at His disciples. Instead, He asked it for the sake of the woman who had reached out to Him in faith and desperation. By doing so, Jesus provided her with an opportunity to step out of the shadows of shame she carried due to her condition.

And He looked around to see the woman who had done this (v 31).

This verse indicates that since no one in the crowd was responding to Jesus’s question, He looked around the crowd and His eyes stopped when He saw the woman who had touched Him. And He looked at her, knowing what she had done.

The woman knew Jesus was speaking about her when He asked: “Who touched My garments?” As Luke wrote: “the woman saw she that she had not escaped notice” (Luke 8:47a). Her discreet act of faith was not so discreet after all.

But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth (v 32).

Realizing that Jesus knew what had happened and that it was her touch which had caused the power to go out of Him, the woman understood she could not remain hidden. The woman was now trembling with fear.

The woman’s trembling reveals the depth of her emotions. She was likely overwhelmed by a mixture of shame for her condition, joy for her healing, and fear of how Jesus might respond to her touch.

Mark’s description of the woman fearing and trembling likely means that her arms, legs, and voice were shaking. Her secret but bold act of faith was likely an adrenaline rush. And now she was the unwanted center of attention. She may have been afraid at what Jesus might say to her. The woman may have even previously experienced the wrath of other rabbis or crowds when they realized that she was ceremonially unclean. If this was the case, she may have been fearing a stern rebuke from Jesus, whom she had just touched and possibly defiled.

Her attempt to avoid attention suggests that she likely felt some level of embarrassment or shame due to her hemorrhage and the ceremonial uncleanness it brought upon her.

She came forward once more, this time in full view of the crowd. Trembling, she presented herself and fell at Jesus’s feet.

The woman’s act of falling down before Jesus was a humble acknowledgment of her own unworthiness in contrast to His complete worthiness. It served as a public expression of worship, showing her reverence and faith in Him.

The woman then openly shared her story, and told Him the whole truth. Luke’s gospel recounts that she “declared in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched Him, and how she had been immediately healed” (Luke 8:47).

She shared her story with the crowd, explaining how her desperate attempts to find healing had failed, and that her faith in Jesus was the only hope she had left.

And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction” (v 34).

Jesus showed His care and compassion for the woman by calling her “Daughter.” He highlighted that it was her faith that had made her well.

While Christ’s power healed her, her faith in His ability, even though timid, was the means through which she received His healing. Matthew adds that Jesus reassured her with the words, “take courage” (Matthew 9:22).

With her body healed and her faith affirmed, Jesus encouraged the woman to go in peace. This was a joyful moment for her. However, as this miracle unfolded, heartbreaking news was on its way to Jairus, the father of the terminally ill girl (Mark 5:22-23, 35).