The Patient of Many Physicians¹

2. Her Case Was the Worst

Alexander Moody Stuart

Mark 5:25-34. And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched His garment. For she said, If I may touch but His clothes, I shall be whole. . . .

2. Her case was the worst of all. 1. She was the weakest in all the crowd, yet she pressed through till she reached Jesus. It is not easy for the weak to stand a crowd at all, and hard indeed for them to press through to its very centre. Christ’s brethren sought to find him in the midst of a crowd, young men in the fullness of their strength; but they were baffled in the attempt and had to content themselves with sending a message, through many mouths, that they desired to speak with Him. Yet this woman, worn out with disease and perhaps also weakened by poverty, found her way to Jesus in the centre of all this throng.

Where there is a will, there is a way. Every saved sinner has indeed learned, that “it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy”. The weakness of our will to all good – our inability even

¹Another part of a chapter taken, with editing, from Capernaum by Moody Stuart (1809-98). The first section spoke of the woman as “one among many” who were pressing on Jesus, yet she was the only one who touched Christ for healing.

to will what is right – is a humbling but most needful lesson for us all. Yet we are invited, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely”; and reproved, “Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life”. It is amazing what a man will do for what his heart is set on; and how he will not stagger at what seems impossible to someone else. So it is, by grace, when the awakened sinner presses to enter in at the strait gate. The weakest with a determined will is far more than equal to the strongest who is but half-hearted.

This woman’s case had become desperate, quite desperate, except for the one bright hope that now dawned on her in Jesus Christ. She said, It will be enough if I may but touch His garment – that is, not if I am allowed to touch, but if by any means I do but touch. Therefore at any cost she must touch it, and she did. Despair of every other resource, with faith in this One, made it impossible for any crowd to keep her back. She was indeed stronger than them all; for she had in that hour the strongest will and the liveliest faith.

Inquiring soul, there is always a crowd between you and Christ: a crowd of past sins oppressing your conscience, a crowd of earthly lusts stifling better desires, a crowd of worldly friends opposing your progress, a crowd of evil spirits wrestling against you – all between you and Christ. Yet there is not only a welcome for you in Christ’s bosom, but help for you in His arm; far more to help than all that can hinder; and the moment you touch the border of His garment, you are healed. Strive on; press through; do not yield but wrestle forward; and by His grace you will reach Him, and all will be well for ever.

1. She is the vilest of all, the most unfit to touch the Holy One, for her very touch defiles. Being herself ceremonially unclean and shut out from the sanctuary, her hand polluted for that day all whom it touched. Yet she believed that her vileness would not defile the Holy One, but that His purifying holiness would cleanse her. She could not herself cure her disease, nor could any earthly means; yet she was confident that the slightest touch of Christ will heal her altogether. For 12 sad years, she had proved how deeply seated the plague was within her, and how far beyond all human remedy; yet she believed that there was power in Jesus to remove it for ever in one instant. This poor defiled one, shut out from all the holy ones, stood in most complete contrast to this Holy One, undefiled and separate from sinners. But it was their contrast that made Him fit for her – the outcast needing the Saviour, and the Saviour all-sufficient for the outcast.

Sinful soul, there is always a contrast between you and Jesus, for there is nothing unholy in Him and nothing holy in you; nothing common to both. Yet the High and Holy One, becoming flesh for men, was numbered with sinners for their salvation. The sinner needs Him and, when He receives

the sinner, His blood cleanses him from all sin. Do not fear therefore to draw nigh to Him because you are so contrary, since it is the contrast between you that makes you suitable for each other. He is health for the sick, cleansing for the vile, clothing for the naked, and life for the dead.

1. Her coming was the worst timed of all applications; no accosting of Christ could have been more unseasonable. He was in the very midst of another case; a case which He had undertaken, and in which he was engaged; a case of life and death, in which every moment was precious. The ruler’s daughter was at the very point of dying; but this woman’s disease was chronic; and an hour or a day would make no difference. She had been ill for 12 long years, ever since the maiden drew the first breath of life; yet she came to Jesus in the girl’s very crisis of life and death; and while she delayed Him, the child was dead. She might surely at least have waited half an hour, till He had finished this pressing call.

It seems, as if earnestness for her own case left her no thought for another; and she came to Jesus for immediate cure more unseasonably than anyone else ever came. But Jesus said, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out”; and even a coming so ill-timed He did not at all refuse. Indeed, He encourages and seeks such a coming; He healed her at once, and so healed her that the other sustained no injury, but only received greater good. Through her intervention, the father received a dead daughter raised again to life, instead of a sick daughter restored to health again.

Come at any time to Christ. Only come; come at the very first opportunity; make an opportunity and come; come in the absence of opportunity; come now. Do not say that it is out of season, for He will instantly receive you; embrace the time and make no tarrying, but come.

1. Her coming seemed to be in the very worst way; no one else appears to have come so badly. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night; but this woman came to Jesus by stealth. If anyone coming had ever been rejected, surely she must have been that outcast. But Christ said that He would not in any wise cast out the one who comes, however bad the time of coming and however wrong the way, He promises that He will not cast him out. The truth is that, as there can be no wrong time of coming to Christ, so there can be no wrong way of coming, for Christ has come into the world for the very purpose of putting right all that is wrong.

If there could be wrong coming, hers would certainly have been wrong. But Christ redeems out of all evil, recovers out of all error, rectifies all wrong; and if we come to Him, all is right. Many are so afraid of coming wrongly that they refrain from coming at all; whereas if we only come, all is well. Jesus does not declare that He will not cast out the man that comes

at the right time or in the right manner; but He pledges that He will in no wise cast out him that comes in any way. If the sinner will only come, Christ does not look to, and man need not fear, any ground of rejection.