MARKAN MEDITATIONS

Meditations in the Gospel of St.Mark

St. Mark 5:25-34

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THIS INCIDENT of the woman with continuous bleeding comes between the story of the raising of the daughter of Jairus. It has many similar lessons as the story of Jairus' daughter, like the faith of the woman, and the miraculous and divine power of Jesus, but it also has two very important insights that are very relevant for the church, not least for the church today.

The first insight is into the religious and moral prejudice of the Jewish church of the time. The affliction of this woman was that her normal menstrual cycle had become upset, and she had bleeding all the time. The physical pain and trial of this was bad enough, but much worse was the rejection and condemnation which she suffered from society, due to the attitude of the church of that time.

In the Old Testament, in the law of Moses, a woman was deemed to be unclean during her periods. This was another example of the problems upon humanity due to the sin of Adam. No reason is really given as to why a woman was unclean during this normal monthly condition, but because she was deemed unclean, she was protected by it from unwelcome sexual advances during that time, and so that this ceremonial uncleanness was in this respect a blessing.

There grew up over time the idea that the period was due to sin, and that this was why the law of uncleanness was in place. For a woman's bleeding to be permanent shut her out as an outcast, because she was deemed to be permanently unclean, and thus under judgement from God, and it was assumed that she was evil in some way, and that the continuous bleeding was due to her failings.

This woman was thus not only suffering the misery of the physical disorder, but suffered the total rejection of society and was despised and condemned. The effect of this is seen in the way she behaved in her desire to benefit from Jesus' healing grace. She was afraid that the crowd would chase her way if they knew she was there, and she even felt that Jesus held the same religious prejudices of the day, and would also reject her. Because of this she approached secretly, and just sought to touch the garment of Jesus.

It seems to us today quite incredible that such inhuman religious prejudice could exist. For someone to be ostracize because of a sickness which was not her fault, and had no sin in it, is awful. But there is similar religious prejudice today. Moral understanding becomes hardened in some particular way, and in the desire to preserve holiness and purity, people are condemned and rejected in the same way as this woman. The reason is that anything that seems to transgress the moral norm is classed as the same as known moral failure, even though people have not understood the problem, or sought to apply Scripture properly and honestly. There are people suffering today in a similar way to this woman through religious cultural prejudice. Views have been handed down which are not from true Biblical understanding, and once fixed in the mind, are almost impossible to correct. These people are usually very sure of themselves, and very ready to condemn others who would seek to question their position. This is an exact replica of the attitude of the Pharisees in the time of Jesus, as illustrated by the case of this woman.

The attitude of Jesus is so wonderful. When the woman touched his garment, he knew that power in him had been used to heal this woman, and being God he knew all about the woman and the attitude of the crowd to her. At first his action of demanding that the woman should come forward before the whole crowd seems to be cruel and callous. In fact it is not so. Jesus was seeking to do two things. Firstly to assure the woman of his love and acceptance, and to assure her that he did not hold the prejudices which caused her so much suffering and would heal her. Secondly he wanted to correct the prejudice of the people by owning the woman, and showing not only that she was now healed, but that the peoples prejudice against her and others like her was all wrong, and not of God.

When people take up hardened moral and self-righteous stances, invariably moral and religious pride develops, and the love that is in God disappears altogether. That is what had happened here, and religious ugliness had grown up, which does so much harm to the cause of the Gospel and the image of God. What a difference is the truth that Jesus portrays. He affirms the woman. He yearns in love for her. He desires her relief and heals her body. But more than that Jesus gives her the greatest gift, the healing of her soul. She was told her sins were forgiven. This was not a suggestion that she had been a sinner because of her bleeding, but acknowledged that fact that everyone of us is born in sin and are sinners, and need to be saved by Jesus, if we are to be in God's favour, and be heirs of heaven. Jesus gave her this supreme blessing of salvation.

This is the true image of God and his attitude towards us. We need to look at Jesus, and not at the religious prejudices of our day in the church.