NOTES for Mar 5:24-34
The story of the healing of the woman who suffered from bleeding shows us the Kingdom, and the relationships that bind its inhabitants to one another, from a somewhat unexpected angle. In principle, of course, there is nothing surprising in the fact that a person who comes into contact with the Kingdom is healed: in the Kingdom there can be no place for sickness or death. Something else is interesting: exactly how it happens. Of course, no sharing in the Kingdom is possible without real, living relationship with the One who brought the Kingdom into the world, without trust in Him. But in the story of the woman healed of her bleeding, that relationship was still somewhat one-sided.
That the woman who was healed trusted Jesus completely is obvious: otherwise she would never have dared to touch Him, since people suffering from such illnesses were considered unclean from the Torah's point of view, and their touch defiled those whom they touched. It took very great faith in healing to dare to do what the woman mentioned in the story did. And, of course, it took boundless trust in the One to whom she was turning for healing.
Jesus heals the woman who touched Him without even noticing her. He only senses that someone has touched Him, not the way people accidentally brush against one another in a dense crowd, but seeking healing, touching Him in order to share in that power of God whose fullness He bears in Himself. At the moment of healing, Jesus not only does not pay attention to the woman healed by touching Him, He does not even see her.
As we can see, it also happens that a person takes the first step toward the Kingdom on his own, by his own will, taking the initiative into his own hands, so to speak. It happens, then, that the Kingdom is "taken by force" in this way too. But, of course, in this case the first step is always accompanied by a responsive step toward the person by the One who brought the Kingdom into the world. It cannot be otherwise: relationships are always mutual; they are never one-sided. And Jesus, as we can see, accepts the woman who dared to do what far from everyone would dare to do. And He tells her that her faith has saved her, her resolve and trust in Him. The very things without which one cannot enter the Kingdom.