5. A WOMAN WHO HAD LOST HER IDENTITY AS A WOMAN Mark 5:25-34
(For women’s group only)
Background: The woman of the text was suffering some kind of gynecological decease. According to the Mosaic Law a woman was considered religiously unclean while bleeding. Nobody was allowed to touch either her or a thing she had touched. Neither was she allowed to enter the temple in that state (Lev.15).
1. Probably this woman had become ill while still quite young. What consequences would this illness have to her life if she were married? What if she weren’t married?
What consequences did continual bleeding have to her physical state?
What effect does an illness like that have on one’s self-image?
Compare the life of this woman with the life of a person who has been infected with HIV?
2. What do you think this woman thought about God after having conceived an illness like this in her young age?
How had her relationship with God possibly changed during the long years of illness?
3. In verse 26 it says that at one time this woman had some property. Think of different possibilities where she had the money from and for what use it was originally meant.
4. We can imagine that the gynecologists of the day were not very professional. Why was this woman willing to take any treatment and even use all her money for such “doctors”?
How do you think the woman felt about doctors and “healers” at this point of her life (26)?
What was the difference between Jesus and “healers”?
5. How could this woman be so sure that touching Jesus’ clothing would make her well (28)?
Have you turned to Jesus with your problems? What happened?
6. Why didn’t this woman ask Jesus for help aloud as other sick people did?
Why did the woman choose touching as the means of becoming well?
7. How could Jesus know that someone had gently touched his robe?
Why didn’t Jesus let the woman go home without discussing with her?
8. How do you think the woman felt when she heard the question of Jesus in verse 30?
What did the woman see in the eyes of Jesus when he turned around and looked in her face (32)?
9. The woman didn’t intend to speak with Jesus, and yet she ended up telling him the whole truth. What do you think she said to him (33)?
10. Verse 34 can be translated in two ways: “Your faith has healed you.” Or: “Your faith has saved you.” Why did Jesus want to say these particular words to this woman?
Why did Jesus call this woman his daughter although they probably were approximately the same age?
GLAD TIDINGS: Jesus, too, became ritually unclean when his blood flowed from the flogging and crucifixion. Everyone who touched him became unclean. This was the price Jesus had to pay for saving this woman - and for saving you!
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