The first two gospels tell the story of an unnamed woman who suffered from a discharge of blood for
twelve years.
Believing even the
briefest, most ephemeral contact with Jesus would heal her of her condition,
she crept up behind the Lord to touch the fringe of his robe. And we all
know the rest of the story, including the “your faith has made you well” part.
Mark records that the woman had “suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse”. Having spent some time in the care of doctors, I
can relate. I can more or less imagine what that might have meant for her medically.
The part of the story
I never really thought about before is what it meant for a Jewish woman socially and
religiously to be declared ritually “unclean”.