First, I think that it would help if you were to understand something of the structure of the text, how it moves from the beginning of the story to the middle and on to the end. This is where those English composition classes that you thought were so boring can come in handy. What is the structure of our text? It can be divided into three sections. The first contains the woman’s background. Here, Mark sets the stage so that we may understand and appreciate what is about to occur. The second section is about the touch. Here we see the woman reaching Old Testament to touch Jesus’ garment. And then there is the third section, the confrontation where Jesus calls the woman forward to confess what had happened. There are probably other ways that the structure of the text could be understood but this will suffice for our purposes.

In each of the three sections Mark gives us some facts. Let’s list them. In the first section, the woman’s background, he tells us about the hemorrhaging. The woman has a flow of blood that is fairly serious. This has been going on for about 12 years. We also read that this woman has tried to be cured by doctors but to no avail and, in fact, has spent all that she has in her attempts to be cured. In the second section, the touch, we read that the woman heard about Jesus and so comes to see Him. She finds herself a part of a large crowd. Mark tells us that she approaches Jesus from behind and touched His clothing. Her act is rooted in her belief that if she were to touch His garments she would be made well. And then Mark reports the results, immediate healing. Then there is the third section, the confrontation. Here, we see that Jesus knew that power to heal had proceeded from Him. Mark tells us that Jesus asks a question in response, ‘Who touched My garments?’ The Twelve, not understanding what is going on, reprove Jesus for His question. The woman comes forward confesses all and Jesus blesses her.

Now, those are most of the facts. Now, we need to examine the facts to see what they reveal. Let’s start where Mark does, with the woman’s background. What do you think of the woman’s situation? It really is very hard. She has this flow of blood. There are several consequences of that. First, there are the obvious health considerations. Her body is probably in a perpetual state of weakness. She may be more sickly than others. And she is always tired. There are religious consequences to this. The woman is unclean. Leviticus 15 speaks to her situation. And so, ceremonially, she is in the same category as the leper in chapter one or the demon possessed man that we looked at last week. She, like they, was unable to approach God in His Temple because of her malady. And then, there are the effects on her relationships. Because she is unclean others must keep away from her lest they also become unclean. Now what if this woman had been married before all this hit her? What if she has children? Consider how her being unclean would have affected her family life. Or if she weren’t married, how could she hope to become married? Now, add to this the fact that this problem has been going on for twelve long years. That’s a long time to have to deal with something like this. Just to give you a sense of how long that is, what have you been doing since January 1989? To make matters worse this poor woman tried to get relief from the doctors. But what were the results? No cure and she became impoverished in the trying. Now, that’s quite a situation. Note how Mark describes it. In verse 29 he calls it ‘her affliction’. How apt. And yet to get the full force of what Mark is saying it helps to note the word that he is using here. It isn’t the common word that Scripture uses and is usually translated ‘affliction’. This is a different word. It is related to the word that means ‘to beat with a whip’ or ‘to scourge’. In John 19 we read of how Pilate had Jesus ‘scourged’. That is the verb. In our text we have the noun. And that really is an appropriate description of what her life is all about at this time: ‘her scourging’. This is really hard. And actually, you don’t need to know any Greek to see that. The last step here is to ask our text a question. Who is this woman? Is she some pagan gentile? No. She is Jewish. She is one of the people of God.

We’ve listed the facts. We’ve fit them together, including asking our question, to get a sense of what is happening. Now, we’re ready to draw a conclusion that other Scripture will bear out. God can be awfully hard on His children. Remember that nothing happens by accident. Fierce gale winds, cases of hemorrhaging, heart attacks, cancerous growths, diabetes, blindness, and whatever else you want to throw in, all of it is by God’s choosing. He causes it all.

Here, in our text, we find a woman who is being scourged, whipped and it is God who is doing it. Now, is God cruel? Is He heartless and just dumping on this poor woman? Absolutely not! Listen to something from Hebrews 12.

Is God scourging this woman? Yes, He is. Is He being cruel in doing that to her? No, He is not. It is part of His plan to bring her good, to discipline her so that she will enjoy ‘the peaceful fruit of righteousness’. Here the point that you need to consider is that God will be rough with you. You can count on it. Hebrews 12 calls it a proof of His Fatherly love. When He is being rough don’t doubt His good purposes in that situation. Don’t doubt His love. Remember the promise of Hebrews 12. Remember the good that happened to the woman in our text. Then entrust yourself to your faithful Savior who is working for your good, even as He did with that woman.

Let’s move on to the next section, the touch. Again, let’s list the facts that Mark gives us and then put them together to see what we’ve got. The woman’s touch was a touch of faith. The woman had heard about Jesus and so she acted. Her touching Jesus was the evidence of a true faith. And yet, you get the sense that hers was not a solid and mature faith. It was more like a timid faith. If it had been a bolder faith it would have acted like Jairus’ faith where he approached Jesus directly with his request. Or it could have been a much bolder faith, say like that of blind Bartimaeus who had to overcome the ‘shushing’ of the crowd. But that was not the kind of faith that the woman had. Hers was a more timid faith that was sneaking around behind Jesus. And when she was confronted she come with fear and trembling which reflects some doubt or maybe a guilty conscience or the like. But please note in all of this. Though she had a timid faith it was still a true faith. She really did believe what she had heard about Jesus. And this faith, as timid as it was, was rewarded. She was healed. Her touch of faith distinguished her from the rest of the crowd. There were many who were pushing to touch Jesus on that day. Isn’t that what the disciples were saying? And yet, only the woman was healed. That leads to a question. Was she the only one of the entire crowd with true faith? It does look that way since she was the only one who was healed. We can’t draw a definite conclusion from the Scripture alone, but maybe true faith is rarer than we assume. There are many today who are like that crowd. They give the appearance of having a great interest in Christ. And yet how many have a true faith in Him? The proof of faith is not in being a part of the crowd. It is in reaching out to touch Jesus. The important issue here is not to assess the professions of faith of others. It is to make sure that you are not one of the crowd, that you have true, saving faith. This woman’s faith resulted in her life being changed. True faith today shows in the same way.

Now, onto the third section of our text, the confrontation. One fact of this section that grabs your attention is Jesus’ question, ‘Who touched My garments?’ What’s going on with this question? Why does Jesus ask it? There is a division in the house as to how to understand this question and, therefore, how to understand what Jesus is doing in asking it. There are two basic views. There are those who say that Jesus really didn’t know who had touched Him though He knew that power had proceeded from Him. And so, He asked. This way of looking at the text emphasizes Jesus’ human nature and the limitations that He experienced because He is a man. A good example of this can be found in Mark 11. Jesus in hungry. He sees a fig tree in the distance. He doesn’t know whether the tree has any figs and so He does what we would do. He goes over to the tree to see. According to this opinion of our text Jesus doesn’t see the woman touch Him since she approached Him from behind. But He knew that someone had touched Him and so He turns and asks. He really didn’t know. Now, I have a problem with this way of understanding the text. The only way that this opinion works is if we understand the woman as essentially stealing power from Jesus. Jesus doesn’t act to heal the woman. How could He? He didn’t know she was even there. But she ‘took’ healing power from Jesus after which He became aware. If that is all true, then Jesus becomes something close to a talisman, a charm. If you are lucky enough to touch Him in the right way then you will be healed. That’s too close to magic for me. Now, we need to note the need for humility and reserve here. After all, who knows how Jesus healed people? But I do think that that alternative is better. Jesus knew all along who the woman was and what she was doing. Her healing wasn’t based only on her act of touching Jesus. It was also because Jesus acted to heal her. He responded to her faith which showed itself when she stretched out her hand. Now, it would be impossible for Jesus to know any of this according to His human nature. And so, He must have acquired this knowledge according to His divine nature. This sort of thing happened elsewhere.

It’s clear that according to His human nature Jesus hadn’t seen Nathanael. And yet, He must have according to His divine nature. The same sort of thing is happening in our text.

Now, that sets up a question. If Jesus knew who the woman was and what she was doing, why did He ask the question? Here, let me mention a pattern in Scripture. [This is where your daily Bible reading comes in handy.] Have you ever noticed that God asks questions? Let me give you just a couple of examples. There are others. In Genesis 3 God asks Adam, ‘Where are you?’ In Genesis 4 God asks Cain, ‘where is your brother Abel?’ In 1 Kings 19 God asks Elijah, ‘Why are you here?’ Why is God asking these questions? Is it that He doesn’t know the answer and He needs help in getting the information? That is clearly impossible. So there must be another reason. God doesn’t ask questions for His sake. He asks them for ours. Sometimes He asks questions to get His people to stop and think about what they are doing. And that’s what we have in our text. Jesus knows what has transpired. Yet for the sake of the woman He asks a question, ‘Who touched My garments?’ Now, the woman has a choice. She can come forward or she can hide in the crowd. Because of her faith, weak though it was, she chooses to come forward and ‘told Him the whole truth’. You have no idea how difficult that was for her. This woman is no brash and bold modern American female who is ready to take on the world. She is a Middle Eastern woman raised to be quiet and in the background. Jesus calls this timid woman into the center of attention of the whole crowd. Every eye is on her as she tells her tale. And what does she speak about? She speaks about something that is very personal and private before all those people, before all those men. How embarrassing! To her credit, though with fear and trembling, this woman comes forward and speaks. Again we see how Jesus can be rough with His own. And again, I ask, why does He do this? He isn’t being cruel, is He? No, He does this for the sake of the woman and the people in the crowd. These people need to know that a miracle has occurred. But it didn’t happen because of magic. It happened because of faith in Jesus. The woman is telling her story of the grace of the Gospel that has changed her. And that story is being used as an evangelistic call to faith in Christ. That woman is being used to proclaim the grace of God to the crowd, something I doubt that she ever contemplated ever doing. And remember that poor Jairus is in that crowd. But Jesus also asks the question for the sake of the woman. Note how He speaks tenderly to her calling her ‘daughter’. Then He says, ‘Your faith has made you well.’ These are not throwaway words just to fill the air. Jesus is defining what had happened. And it wasn’t magic. Jesus emphasizes that she is healed because of her faith.

Unfortunately, there are many today who misunderstand this statement of Jesus. They assume that faith has some power of its own, that by itself it causes things to happen. They think that the faith of the woman produced the healing. And so, they assume that faith has a life of its own. As long as you have faith then all will be well. But faith has no power of its own. Rather, it is the acknowledgment of the absence of any power and the looking to another to act with power. And so, the key to faith is what or whom you are looking to. There are many who have placed their faith in Mary, the mother of Jesus. They acknowledge that they have no power so they look to her to act, to save. But Mary is without power to save so these have misplaced their faith. Jesus communicates to this woman and to the people in the crowd that because the woman looked *to Him* in faith her life was changed. Consider the potential affect in the life of the woman. As she contemplated the miracle of her healing Jesus gave her the words to understand what happened. ‘It was because I placed my faith in Jesus that I am now healed.’ Out of this comes a greater assurance, a strengthening of that faith so that this woman might become less timid and more bold. Out of this also comes the proper praise of Christ. After all, He is the one who did the work of healing her.

We have by no means exhausted our text. But we have looked at enough for you to have something to ponder. I hope that you are able to see some of what I aimed at for this morning’s sermon. Again, I showed you how to work at understanding a text of Scripture. You can do what I did this morning as you read your Bibles. It is a skill that takes time to develop but it can be developed in your lives. You have also seen how Jesus interacted with this woman. I hope that this changes the Gospels from ‘this happened and then that happened’ interspersed with some teaching, to seeing how Jesus relates to real people with real problems and real faith. And that should lead to a clearer understanding of the ways of Christ with His people. He can be rough, but always because of His love for us.