Mark 5:24-34 - Who Touched My Clothes?
Amen. Amen. That is one of those songs that I hope we sing for generations. I love that song.
For those of you who just got here or maybe came in from the food trucks, we are glad that you are here. My name is Mike; I am one of the campus pastors here. Today, we are continuing our series called The Questions Jesus Asked. We are going to dive into the question that Jesus asked in Mark 5: “Who touched my clothes?”
It seems like an innocuous question, but as I have opened it up and unpacked it, I have really grown to love what it reveals about our Savior. It is a story of pain and suffering—not unlike what many of us are walking through right now. But it is also about the response of a compassionate and merciful God.
We find ourselves in a section of Mark where the author is deeply concerned with showing both the power of Jesus and the compassion He puts on display. In Mark 4:35–41, we see Jesus’ power over the natural world. In Mark 5:1–20, we see His power over the demonic realm. In our passage today, we are going to see Jesus’ power over sickness. And right after this passage, we will see His power over death. In each of these circumstances, Jesus’ incredible power is accompanied by an equally incredible display of compassion.
What Is Your Burden?
As we dive into this story, I want you to ask yourself this question: What is my burden?
In a room this size, with this many people, we can safely bet that everyone here has some kind of burden tonight. For some of us, it is obvious. It is physical or relational, and you feel like the whole world can see it. For others, you might have to search a little deeper. You might have to ask God to search your heart and reveal what that burden is. But make no mistake: everyone here carries some level of brokenness.
The woman we are going to read about is no different. She is broken. This is not just a story about a woman who is physically sick; this is a story about a woman whose entire life is broken. And we are going to see that when Jesus confronts her brokenness, He steps in to do what He does best: restoration and redemption.
Do you guys know who Nick Vujicic is? He is an incredible man born without arms and without legs who runs a ministry called Life Without Limbs. I had the privilege of hanging out with him at my last church when he did an outreach event with us. When he speaks, he radiates hope. While we were hanging out, he asked me, “Hey, if I told you that I have a pair of shoes in my closet, would you believe me?”
I paused for a second and thought, Is this a trick question?
He said, “No, really. Because I do.”
I asked him, “Tell me more about that.”
He told me, “I believe that we serve a God who is powerful enough that if He wanted to, He could give me legs tomorrow. He just hasn’t done it yet.”
My first thought was, Which shoe size did you pick? But my second thought was, What incredible faith.
You can look him up online today, and God still has not given him physical legs. Nick has not stopped praying, but that has not been God’s will for his life. And honestly, he has done more for the Kingdom without legs than he might have ever done with them. God is definitely glorified when He heals someone, but He is also deeply glorified when people walk with faithfulness through pain and suffering.
With that in mind, our story today is about much more than physical healing. It is about holistic healing.
Twelve Years of Suffering
Let’s look at the story beginning in Mark chapter 5.
Mark 5:24 (NASB)
And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him.
“And he went off with him”—Jesus went off with a man named Jairus. If you look just before verse 24, it spells it out for us. Jairus was a synagogue official. He was rich, respected, and powerful, but he had a massive problem: his twelve-year-old daughter was on her deathbed. He had tried everything, but he heard about Jesus. He came and pleaded, “Jesus, please come. My daughter is dying, and I need You to heal her.”
So Jesus and the disciples head toward Jairus’s house, and along the way, they are engulfed by a massive crowd. This crowd had heard about what Jesus was doing, and they just wanted to be near Him. It was like groupies outside a Beatles hotel in the 1970s. They did not fully understand who He was, but they wanted to be near that kind of power. They were pressing in on Him from all sides.
Yet in the middle of that surging crowd, there was one woman who was entirely different from everyone else.
Mark 5:25-26 (NASB)
A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse–
This woman had tried everything the world had to offer. She had exhausted all her resources and spent every dime she had.
Put yourself in her shoes for a moment. Twelve years of chronic bleeding. Twelve years of waking up every single morning wondering if today might finally be the day the bleeding stops, only to go to bed disappointed because the suffering just continues. Day after day, year after year.
I don’t know about you, but by day two of a bad cold, I’m completely done. I’m laying in bed convinced I’m on death’s door, begging my wife to do something to help me. That is day two. This woman had endured this for twelve long years.
I want you to feel her pain, because unless you feel her pain, you cannot truly understand her desperation. And her illness caused problems that went far beyond the physical.
The Crushing Weight of Isolation
Under the Old Testament law in Leviticus 15, there were specific regulations regarding blood and uncleanness.
Leviticus 15:19-25 (NASB)
’When a woman has a discharge, [if] her discharge in her body is blood, she shall continue in her menstrual impurity for seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening. ’Everything also on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean, and everything on which she sits shall be unclean. ’Anyone who touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. ’Whoever touches any thing on which she sits shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. ’Whether it be on the bed or on the thing on which she is sitting, when he touches it, he shall be unclean until evening. ’If a man actually lies with her so that her menstrual impurity is on him, he shall be unclean seven days, and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean. ’Now if a woman has a discharge of her blood many days, not at the period of her menstrual impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond that period, all the days of her impure discharge she shall continue as though in her menstrual impurity; she is unclean.
And Numbers 19:22 adds to this reality.
Numbers 19:22 (NASB)
‘Furthermore, anything that the unclean [person] touches shall be unclean; and the person who touches [it] shall be unclean until evening.’’
Do you see the pattern? In the eyes of the religious leaders and her entire community, this woman had been ceremonially unclean for twelve years. It is likely she had been considered unclean since the day she first began bleeding.
Think about what that meant for her life.
First, she was in constant physical pain. She was chronically anemic, lightheaded, and physically exhausted from over a decade of blood loss.
Second, she was emotionally crushed. That is twelve years of feeling less than, twelve years of feeling inadequate, twelve years of being told by society that she was dirty and worthless.
Third, she was relationally starved. Think about how hard COVID isolation was for us. We endured restrictions and social distancing for roughly a year or two, and people were struggling deeply with loneliness. This woman had been completely isolated for twelve years. Because of the purity laws, she could not hug a friend, hold a child’s hand, or receive a reassuring touch. She likely had not felt the warmth of human touch in over a decade.
Finally, she was spiritually empty. She was barred from the synagogue. She was forbidden from entering the temple courts to worship with the people of God. She was completely ostracized from the only spiritual community she had ever known.
She was desperate. She had spent every dollar trying to climb her way out of this pit, relying on doctors and treatments, but nothing helped. In fact, she grew worse.
Can you relate to that kind of desperation? Have there been times in your life where you tried everything in your own strength to fix your situation? We lean on our money, our jobs, our intellect, our connections, trying to solve our deepest problems, only to realize we are completely empty.
This woman had run out of human options. But then, she heard about Jesus.
A Risky Faith
Mark 5:27-28 (NASB)
after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind [Him] and touched His cloak. For she thought, ‘If I just touch His garments, I will get well.’
What had she heard about Jesus? Probably the exact same reports Jairus had heard. Maybe she heard about Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law in Mark 1, or the crowds of sick people He healed in Capernaum. Maybe she heard about the paralyzed man being lowered through the roof in Mark 2, or the man with the withered hand in Mark 3. Word was spreading across the region that Jesus had power unlike anyone else.
She believed those testimonies, and faith was sparked in her heart: If I can just touch His clothes, I will be healed.
What kind of faith was this? It was probably weak. It was probably imperfect, timid, and maybe even a little superstitious. But it was genuine faith in the right Person. She did not have all the theology worked out, but she knew Jesus was worth the risk.
And make no mistake: this was a massive risk. As an unclean woman, pushing through a packed crowd was strictly forbidden. If she touched a Jewish man—let alone a respected rabbi—she would make him ceremonially unclean. If she was caught, the public humiliation would have been devastating. Yet she determined that Jesus was worth the risk, because He had something no one else in the world could offer.
Let me ask you: Is Jesus worth the risk for you?
Following Jesus is costly. It requires you to lay down your pride, submit your life, and walk away from things the world tells you to chase. Salvation is a free gift of grace, but following Jesus will cost you your life. When you realize that the world has absolutely nothing of lasting value to offer you, you realize that Jesus is worth every single risk. He is worth laying down your life for. He is worth your devotion on your hardest days.
“Who Touched My Clothes?”
So this woman pushes her way through the dense crowd. She reaches out her trembling hand, touches the hem of His garment, and her faith is instantly met with divine power.
Mark 5:29 (NASB)
Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
Immediately. Not a week later. Not after a lengthy probationary period. The bleeding stopped instantly, and she felt in her body that she was made whole.
Then comes the astonishing moment.
Mark 5:30-31 (NASB)
Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power [proceeding] from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched My garments?’ And His disciples said to Him, ’You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’’
The disciples respond with clear sarcasm: “Master, look at the crowd pressing against You from every side! Why are You asking who touched You?”
You can almost understand their perspective. They were on an urgent mission to the home of Jairus—a wealthy, influential leader whose daughter was literally dying. The disciples probably thought, If Jesus pulls this off, our movement is going to explode. They were stuck in the first-century equivalent of bumper-to-bumper traffic on the 405 freeway at five o’clock on a Friday afternoon. They did not have time for interruptions.
Didn’t the Son of God understand their schedule? Didn’t He realize there was important work to do?
Jesus could have kept walking. The woman had received her physical healing, and technically His work could have been considered finished. But Jesus wanted far more than her physical healing. He wanted a relationship with her.
That is the whole reason He asked, “Who touched My clothes?” It was not a question to gain information; it was an invitation into relationship. He was pulling her out of the shadows. He was saying, You have been invisible and unloved for twelve years, but I see you. I value you. I want you to know Me.
Mark 5:32 (NASB)
And He looked around to see the woman who had done this.
The Greek word used for “looked around” means to look intently or penetratingly. Jesus was not casually glancing at the crowd; His eyes were searching specifically for her. In that moment, the crowd melted away. Jairus’s dying daughter, while important, would wait. In that moment, this broken, nameless woman was Jesus’ sole focus.
What a Savior we have. He leaves the ninety-nine to pursue the one.
Wholeness in Christ
Mark 5:33 (NASB)
But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth.
She came in fear and trembling—an attitude of deep awe, reverence, and submission. She fell at His feet and told Him the whole truth.
Imagine the tidal wave of emotion crashing over her in that moment: the release of twelve years of shame, the sudden realization of freedom, the tears of gratitude streaming down her face as she laid everything bare before the Messiah.
And look at how Jesus responds to her confession.
Mark 5:34 (NASB)
And He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.’
Look closely at what Jesus says here, because this verse speaks directly to our souls.
First, He calls her “Daughter.” This is the only time in all four Gospels where Jesus addresses a woman directly as “Daughter.” With one word, He restores her identity. He effectively tells her, You are no longer an outcast; you belong to the family of God.
Second, He says, “Your faith has made you well.” The Greek word used here is sozo. While it can mean physical rescue, it is overwhelmingly used throughout the New Testament to describe spiritual salvation. Jesus is saying, Your faith has saved you.
Third, He tells her, “Go in peace.” In Greek, the word is eirene, carrying the full weight of the Hebrew concept of shalom. Shalom is not merely the absence of conflict; it is total wholeness, completeness, and human flourishing under God’s redemption. Jesus is not just saying, “Have a nice day.” He is proclaiming, Be made whole in every area of your life—spiritually, emotionally, relationally, and physically.
Finally, He declares, “Be healed of your affliction.” The word for affliction refers to the root cause of her suffering. The torment that had stolen twelve years of her life was broken permanently.
Trusting Jesus with Your Pain Today
Jesus made her entirely whole.
Now, let me ask you: Do you have the faith to trust Jesus with your pain today?
Notice I said today. Following Jesus is not a one-time decision that removes all future struggles. Every single morning we have to wake up, take our burdens, and lay them down at the foot of the cross.
Do you trust Him with your physical pain today? That does not mean He will always remove it in this life. Nick Vujicic still has shoes in his closet without physical feet to put in them, yet God uses him mightily. Lazarus was raised from the dead, but he eventually died again. The question is not simply, Will God take away my physical pain? The deeper question is: Do I trust Him in the middle of my pain?
I am reminded of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3. Standing before the blazing furnace, they told the king, “Our God is able to deliver us. But even if He does not, we will still worship Him.” Even if the healing doesn’t look the way we planned, He is worthy of our trust.
Do you trust Him with your emotional pain today? Did you walk in here carrying heavy grief, deep anxiety, or paralyzing insecurities? Do you spend your days feeling like you are never enough? You can bring those broken pieces to Jesus and let Him speak your true identity over you.
Do you trust Him with your relational pain today? Maybe your marriage is hanging by a thread. Maybe you have a prodigal child you haven’t spoken to in months. Maybe you have been wounded by broken friendships. Can you trust that Jesus is bigger than those relational fractures?
Do you trust Him with your spiritual pain today? Maybe you are carrying the weight of deep church hurt from years ago. Maybe you walked in here tonight full of doubt, wondering if God even cares about you.
You do not need massive, perfect faith. You just need a mustard seed of faith placed in the perfect Savior.
The woman in our story searched the entire world for healing and found nothing. But one genuine encounter with Jesus made her completely whole. He gave her shalom—a peace that anchored her soul in a broken world.
That same holistic healing and that same Savior are available to you right now. You do not have to carry your burdens alone for one more day. We serve a God who is powerful enough to handle your brokenness and compassionate enough to wrap His arms around you and call you His own.
Let’s pray.
Father, I am so grateful that You are God and we are not. In a world where we are conditioned to rely on our own strength and carry our own heavy loads, thank You for reminding us that You are mighty, compassionate, and near.
Lord, You see every person in this room. You know our physical aches, our emotional wounds, our broken relationships, and our spiritual doubts. I pray that today, by faith, we would have the courage to reach out and touch the hem of Your garment. Teach us to lay our burdens at the foot of Your cross daily, and grant us Your deep, abiding peace.
We love You, Jesus. It is in Your name we pray. Amen.