Refined Faith

“At once Jesus realized in Himself that power had gone out from Him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My robes?” ...Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came with fear and trembling, fell down before Him, and told Him the whole truth” (Mark 5:30, 33).

As followers of Jesus, we know that it is inevitable that our faith will be put to the test. It comes as no surprise when we walk through seasons of hardship. The Word tells us that we’ve had to struggle through various trials so that the genuineness of our faith, which is more valuable than gold and which is refined in the fire, will result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:7).

As we’ve been studying the man Jairus and the woman of affliction in Mark 5, we see two different kinds of faith. Both Jairus and the woman sought Jesus out for help, but there’s a lot more depth to this story than two people finding healing.

As we know, Jairus is a synagogue official, but we know almost nothing about this woman aside from her affliction. We don’t know if she was married before her illness started, but had she been married. It would have been considered acceptable for her husband to divorce her because of her illness. She most likely lived away from everyone else, completely isolated, and might’ve even had to walk around ringing a bell so that everyone would know to stay away from her because she was “unclean.”

If she bumped shoulders or touched someone by accident, that person would be considered unclean for an entire day until the ruler of the synagogue approved them. This would’ve been Jairus’ job.

God loves irony. Jairus seeks Jesus out to heal his daughter and on the way to the house, a woman touches Jesus to receive healing. The very man who worked at a place of worship, who was the only one who could deem a person either clean or unclean, asks Jesus—a friend of sinners—to heal his daughter. And then an unclean woman interrupts them.

She’s not supposed to touch anyone. This story is full of tension because these two people both seek Jesus’ help, but Jesus heals the most unlikely one first. Why? Because Jairus asked Jesus to go with him to the house to heal his daughter, but all the woman did was touch Him. She didn’t even talk to Him—she simply reached out in faith and touched Him.

Jesus didn’t tell the woman to hold on and wait her turn since Jairus asked Him for a miracle first. No, He felt the power leave Him instantly because of her faith. She was the second one to seek help, and she was the most “unfit” to touch Him, but Jesus turns no one away who comes to Him.

He heals in unlikely ways. It doesn’t matter how unfit or unclean you think you are—He always rewards those who walk in faith.