THE WOMAN WITH THE ISSUE OF BLOOD- GOOD MORNING

The Woman with the issue of blood

CONTENTS
What the story is about
The woman approaches Jesus
The woman is cured
Activities and focus questions

What the story is about

The story of the woman with prolonged menstruation is situated within the story of the daughter of Jairus, whom Jesus raised from the dead. Both women were, in a way, dead. The daughter of Jairus was physically dead. The woman with prolonged menstruation had suffered for twelve years from her illness and from being ritually unclean. She had been unable to live a normal life, and therefore in a sense had been dead to herself and the people around her. Jesus returned both of them to life.

The story occurs in one episode. It is described in each of the Synoptic gospels:
Mark 5:24-34
Luke 8:43-48
Matthew 9:20-22.
Matthew’s coverage of the story is minimal. Mark and Luke give fuller details.

Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years; and though she had spent all she had on physicians, no one could cure her.

A beautiful hand-woven tallit,
or Jewish prayer shawl with fringe

She came up behind Jesus and touched the fringe of his clothes, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped. The Jesus asked “Who touched me?”
When all denied it, Peter said “Master, the crowds surround you and press in on you”. But Jesus said “Someone touched me; for I noticed that power had gone out from me”.

When the woman saw that she could not remain hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before him, she declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. He said to her “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace”.

The woman approaches Jesus

The story occurred in Capernaum, where Jesus was living at the time. (See Capernaum: the synagogue). Capernaum (the village of Nahum) was on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, on a main highway. It was probably only a small settlement at the time, with several rows of houses along the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee. The apostle Peter had a house there.

The town was well situated as a headquarters for someone like Jesus. It was on a main highway, and had access to the water for travel by boat. It probably also had a tax or toll office, and a small garrison of soldiers.

During her menstrual period, a Jewish woman was relieved of many of her normal duties. She was not required to draw and carry water from the well. She did not have to serve food to members of the family. She did not have to go to the marketplace. She did not have sexual intercourse. The days of her menstrual period were regarded as a time out, a time for herself. Milestones in Women’s Lives
In the story, Jesus was making his way towards the house of one of the leaders of the local synagogue. He was surrounded by a large crowd of people, among whom was a woman who had been suffering with a prolonged menstrual flow.

She had endured this for twelve years.

Strictly speaking, she should not have been among other people. According to the laws of ritual purity, she should have been at home during her menstrual period, living quietly (see Leviticus 15:19-31). These laws worked very well for healthy women who had a menstrual period of five – seven days. It was a time out for them, when they were relieved of their normal duties and could rest.

Wall painting from Pompeii, with a doctor treating a patient

But the woman in this story was not healthy. Her menstrual flow had lasted twelve years, so the purity laws had become an impossible burden for her. She could not go out, she could not touch members of her family, she could not enjoy a normal life, and she was constantly debilitated. It is not surprising that she had used up all her money on doctors, or that she was prepared to flout the Law when she heard that a wonder-worker called Jesus was in the street outside her house.

Doctors in 1st century Palestine used a wide range of herbal cures to help their patients. Many of these were effective, and gave relief to the sufferer.

Surgery was only ever used as a last resort, because the patient often died of shock during the operation, which was performed without anesthetic.

But the woman hoped that Jesus could do what the doctors could not.

She pushed her way through the crowd, until she was close to Jesus. Then she reached out and touched the fringe on his shawl. Matthew mentions several times that Jesus’ clothing had the fringe which was part of the required clothing for a devout Jew (see Numbers 15:37-40). He was showing that Jesus was someone who respected the Law, and who should not have been executed as a criminal.

The woman is cured

The woman felt an immediate transformation within her body, and knew that she was cured.

At the same moment, Jesus felt power go out from himself. He looked around, and asked who had touched him. Peter pointed out to him that he was so closely surrounded by people that he was constantly being touched by them, but that was not what Jesus meant. He looked around at the people near him.

The woman was terrified, because she had broken the purity laws and, in touching Jesus, had made him ritually unclean as well – no small thing for a respected rabbi like Jesus. Any person she had touched in the crowd was also ritually unclean. Each of them would have to go through a process of ritual cleansing which involved bathing, changing their clothes and being alone until the evening.

Even though she was shaking with terror, she came forward and told Jesus the truth. He was gentle with her, calling her ‘daughter’. He told her that it was her own faith that had cured her, and he blessed her.

Jesus’ statement about the woman’s faith was meant to emphasize to the people of the time that the cure was not done by magic. This might seem obvious to us, but it was not so obvious to people in 1st century Palestine. Many people at that time believed that magicians could do astounding things, and some of them might have believed that Jesus’ shawl had some magic power that cured the woman. Jesus emphasized that it was her own faith that effected the cure.