When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet 23 and pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” 24 So Jesus went with him.
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?'”
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” (Mark 5:21-34)
This record in Mark chapter five of God’s word tells of a contrasting pair of incidents in the ministry of Jesus featuring two different daughters. One, the daughter of a prominent member of their community who came boldly to Jesus on her behalf to plead for her healing to save her life. The other a lonely, rejected outcast who approached Jesus secretly in a desperate attempt to be healed also. The plea in both cases was the same: please heal her body; but the needs were entirely different.
The father came confidently to invite Jesus into his home while the lonely woman sneaked up behind Jesus only hoping to touch his garment without daring to even speak to him. Without friends or family to help her, ashamed to even be seen in public, struggling just get some relief from her pain and misery, never daring to hope for anything more in life.
And Jesus responded to the needs of both daughters, not exactly in the way they expected. Yet he provided them with so much more than they sought. Even though neither one of these situations were on the agenda for that day, Jesus stopped what he was doing to go to the father’s home and heal his daughter until he was interrupted again by that touch on his garment from a bleeding woman who couldn’t even dare to speak to him personally.
But her need was so great that Jesus stopped everything to help her. The bleeding stopped as soon as she touched his garment according to verse 29, but she still had other needs. So, Jesus called out for her to come to him. He knew who she was, but he was going to introduce her to the crowd that day. Note that verse 29 clearly states that “she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.” It doesn’t say that she was healed.
Like many of us she still suffered from guilt, shame, rejection and neglect. So, Jesus called her to him, gave her his undivided attention in front of the crowd, listened to her whole story and then gave her his approval and affirmation in verse 34. (He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”) Only then was her healing complete.
I believe the Holy Spirit inspired this record to teach us that we need to complete the healing process in our own lives by confessing the whole truth to Jesus about our lives and receive his blessing and affirmation after we have received his payment for our sins. Freeing us from the guilt, shame, regret and despair we are keeping hidden from those around us.
As great as our eternal salvation is, there is still more that needs to be corrected in our lives to make us whole. Making our transformation complete as children of God. He doesn’t want to see us limping into eternity carrying the weight of the past with us. He continues to call to us to come to Jesus and be set free from the chains of our own making. Our offenses against our Heavenly Father may be gone but the damage of our mistakes and foolish choices remain until we confess the whole truth as that dear woman did. Setting her free from the nightmare of her past once and for all.
Only when we bring everything to Jesus and release it to his loving mercy can we experience the true freedom and joy he is offering us. A relationship with no hidden barriers or secrets that hold us captive to fear. Trusting that he can heal us from it all. That is the faith that will ultimately free us from the fear and despair that our guilt, shame and regret produce in our lives. That woman’s bleeding may have stopped when she touched Jesus’ robe, but her healing didn’t come until she fell before Jesus and personally confessed everything to him, surrendering to all of his mercies.
And, yes, Jesus did go on to heal the other daughter that day in response to her father’s faith, even though she had already died. In this case Jesus healed both daughters, freeing them from death and a living nightmare. Jesus met their needs beyond the requests made that day in the same way that he stands ready to meet all of our needs today, if we just trust him.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us (Eph 3:20)
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. (Heb 10:23)
By Gary DeRemer
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