The miracle of the Healing of a bleeding Woman

(Tuesday, October 7, 2014, 2:11)

A problematic miracle

Many (most) miracles of Jesus seem to have in common these factors:

1. They are occasioned by sympathy and compassion for people in difficulty;

2. They are deliberately operated by Jesus to remedy the situation of difficulty, and, at the same time as an occasion to affirm that the coming of the Kingdom of God is made manifest in his miracles.

Is this picture complete?

As regards no.1, some miracles seem an exhibition of supernatural power not motivated by compassion: just think of Jesus Walking on Water (Matt 14:22-33; Mark 6:45-52; John 6:16-21) and his Stilling of a Storm (Matt 8:23-27; Mark 4:35-41; Luke 8:22-25).

As for no.2, all of Jesus' miracles can be read as an affirmation of the deliberate manifestation in Jesus of the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven.

There is a miracle, though, that I believe is an exception to no.2 and, unless I missed something from reading the Gospels, the only exception. I am talking about Jesus healing the Woman with an Issue of Blood, an episode that, in all three Synoptic Gospels, is almost casually interwoven with the Raising of Jairus' Daughter (Matt 9:18-26; Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:40-56).

Let me quote from Mark's Gospel, which makes even more evident than the other two the point I am trying to make:

₂₅ Now a woman was there who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years. ₂₆ She had endured a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all that 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 for she kept saying, “If only I touch his clothes, I will be healed.” ₂₉ At once the bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. ₃₀ Jesus knew at once that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” ₃₁ His disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing against you and you say, ‘Who touched me?’” ₃₂ But he looked around to see who had done it. ₃₃ Then the woman, with fear and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. ₃₄ He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” (Mark 5:25-34)

Notice how the Evangeliest underlines the unintentionality of the miracle on the part of Jesus: “Jesus knew at once that power had gone out from him.”

Notice Jesus' evident surprise: “Who touched my clothes?”

More, notice how the reply of the disciples makes Jesus' question appear almost silly: “You see the crowd pressing against you and you say, ‘Who touched me?’”

To end with, notice how it is only from the "confession" of the woman that Jesus seems to learn that, apart from his will, she has "tapped" at his healing power.

All the above seems to make Jesus appear as though he is "charged" with power (in particular healing power), that flows spontaneously from him towards those who have faith in him.

A tentative explanation of the miracle

Let's consider the text again. As I have already done, I will examine Mark's text. As I have already noted, the narration of Jesus healing the Woman with an Issue of Blood ... in all three Synoptic Gospels, is almost casually interwoven with the Raising of Jairus' Daughter.

I believe that the explanation of this "casual interweaving" of the two narrations is very simple: the narrations of the two miracles are interwoven for the simple reason that things went exactly that way. The narration can be easily and naturally divided in its component parts, to which I will add my comments.

1. Fist Jesus was met by Jairus who “asked him urgently” to heal his “little daughter [who] is near death”. So, “Jesus went with him, and a large crowd followed and pressed around him.” (Mark 5:21-24). At this point, Jesus had already decided to operate a miracle on Jairus' little daughter, and, to that end, he was already, so so speak, in "healing mood", ready to send the gift and power of the healing Holy Spirit upon a person seriously ill, a person in need.

2. Then, a woman serioulsy and cronically ill (“who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years”), secretly approached him and, with faith (the same faith that moved Jairus), put herself, so to speak, "in the way" of the power of the healing Holy Spirit emanating from Jesus, so that, unbeknown to Jesus she got healed first. Both the woman and Jesus knew "at once" that the miraculous healing had taken effect. But Jesus "had to figure out" from the woman's confession who it was that had been actually healed: “Then the woman, with fear and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.” (Mark 5:25-34)

3. Finally, Jesus resumed his way, to see Jairus' little daughter, and operated the healing miracle on her. Actually, the miracle became even more dramatic because, in the meantime, the girl had died, so Jesus raised her, but pretended that “the child is not dead but asleep”. (Mark 5:35-43)

Interestingly, while Mark does nothing to hide the unintentionality and the spontaneity of the miracle of healing of the Woman with an Issue of Blood, both Matthew and Luke minimize, to some extent, these aspects:

• Matthew (Matt 9:18-25) gives a short summary of the two miracles, and makes it appear as though Jesus is perfectly aware of what's happened, and in favor of whom, so much so that he doesn't need the woman's confession to recognize her, and proclaim, “Have courage, daughter! Your faith has made you well.”.

• Luke (Luke 8:40-56) is much more in line with Mark's account, but simply says that the woman “came up behind Jesus and touched the edge of his cloak” without mentioning explicitly the faith that motivated her gesture.