Episode 6: The Whisper of the Unnamed Woman: Discovering More of Jesus

Judy Dunagan: The Gospels are full of stories about Jesus healing people. Erin Davis says when we read those stories, we can put ourselves in the place of the person being healed.

Erin Davis: We are diseased by sin. We are too impure to stand before a holy, holy, holy God. And then in faith we turn to Jesus, and it’s His blood that heals us. Then we get to know Him more and more through His Word.

Staci Rudolph: This is The Deep Well with Erin Davis. We’ve been in a teaching series called “Whispers.” It’s the final episode, and Erin is going to take us to the feet of Jesus.

Erin: I thought I knew Jason Davis on a hot July day as he and I stood on a beach and vowed to love and cherish until death do we part. I thought I knew him then, but now, twenty-one years later, I look back at that moment and think, I didn’t know a thing! Almost every day I discover something new about him. Marriage, I’ve discovered, is like one long treasure hunt. You know what? So is following Jesus.

I’m sad to say it, but we’ve come to the last episode of this season of The Deep Well, but I promise, I’ve saved the very best for last. We’ve been opening our Bibles looking for whispers, words softly spoken that had a big impact. In the case of Sarah and Leah and Miriam and Zaresh, what they whispered wasn’t exactly positive. In Claudia’s case, I find her words mostly mysterious. But the whisperer we will meet in the pages of our Bibles today isn’t named, but her whispered words were packed with so much hope. 

I hope you have your Bible handy. Let’s jump into Mark 5. I want to start at verse 21. It says this: 

And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea.

Because I love every story in the Gospels, I’d love to back it up and tell you everything that Jesus had done before these verses, but I’ll let you do that for yourself. What you need to know is that Jesus was on a roll. He had calmed a storm with a word. He had healed a demon-possessed man. Then He hopped back in the boat, and He sailed headlong into a crowd.

Why was there a crowd? Well, because they had heard about the miracles. Hearing about other people’s healing is nice, but we all want a tailor-made miracle. We want to be healed, we want the storms in our lives to be calmed. Exhibit A is Jairus.

Verse 22 says, 

Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored Him earnestly, saying, ‘My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.’ And He went with him. (vv. 22–24)

Are you tracking with the story so far? Jesus is moving quickly from one needy person to the next, and so far Jesus hasn’t said a word in this passage. But He’s about to.

The rest of verse 24 says, “A great crowd followed him and thronged about him.” Now that word “thronged” jumped out at me as I studied this story, because in verse 21, it just says that they gathered. They had moved from a crowd to a mob. Before they were standing, and now they were swarming.

Scan that rowdy crowd. Picture sick children, maybe in their mamas’ arms, and grandmas who are having children walking. Imagine the blind, imagine the deaf, the heartbroken, the hopeless. They’re all swirling around Jesus hoping to get their miracle as He is trying to walk toward Jairus’s house. It had to have been slow going.

If you look closely into that crowd, you’ll see her, the woman who is trying not to be seen. Verse 25 tells us, 

And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 

There’s a comma there, and commas mean “pause.” It’s worth pausing to consider, though it might make us squirm a little bit. Let’s not race past the single detail that Scripture reveals about this woman.

Now, as women, we are uniquely able to understand that we are most likely talking about a woman who had endured a twelve-year nonstop period. It could have been another kind of blood issue—most Bible scholars don’t think so. But regardless, a twelve-year bleeding issue is causing this woman a great deal of pain. We don’t know her name, we don’t know her marital status, we don’t know her age. 

I think I’ve always imagined her as old, but she could have been young or old. She just had to be old enough to have bled for twelve years. She could have been married or single. But she was most certainly suffering. In fact, that’s what the Bible says. In fact, listen to how verse 26 describes her. 

. . . and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.

Though there’s still so much we don’t know about this woman, we do know that her suffering was great, that she had done everything in her own power to try to get well. We know that she was broke, because the Bible says that she had spent everything she had. We also know that her condition was not only chronic, it was progressive. She was getting worse. And we can know, because we read our whole Bibles, that she wasn’t supposed to be there.

There were some illnesses in this culture that came with a label, and that label was “unclean.” Think of the lepers that we read about elsewhere in the Gospels. If you had one of these illnesses, you didn’t only suffer physically, you also suffered socially, emotionally, relationally. She had been suffering so long that you know the word got out, and yet, as rumors of Jesus’ power to heal moved through the grapevine, she must have decided she was going to risk it.

Verse 27 says, 

She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 

Now, why did she do that? Why didn’t she just ask Him for a miracle? Jairus just did that, and nothing bad happened to him, so she didn’t need to be scared to talk to Jesus.

I want us to read verse 28 together, and here is where we hear her whisper. 

For she said, "If I touch even his garments, I will be made well."

How do I know she whispered? Let’s flip back in our Bibles, way back to the book of Leviticus chapter 15. Now, the heading in my Bible for Leviticus 15 says, “Laws about Bodily Discharges.” Ugh! I’ve never heard a Sunday morning sermon on this chapter; maybe you never have either. There’s a reason for that. That reason is found in verses 19–22. But I want you to know and love your whole Bible, even the parts that make us feel a little bit uncomfortable. Let me read us Leviticus 15:19–22. 

When a woman has a discharge, and the discharge in her body is blood, she shall be in her menstrual impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening. And everything on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean. Everything also on which she sits shall be unclean. And whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. And whoever touches anything on which she sits shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.

Now, there are some words in this passage that give us a hermeneutical grid to understand the bleeding woman in Mark 5, two of them: unclean, unclean, unclean. That word is said five times in five verses. And impurity is mentioned twice in those same five verses.

The idea is that a woman who has an issue of blood is unclean, she’s impure, and you’re not supposed to touch her. And you’re not supposed to touch anything she’s sat on.

You have to remember that during the time when Jesus walked the earth, He was preaching and teaching into a Jewish context. His message hadn’t gone to the Gentiles yet. That was about to happen, but it hadn’t happened yet. It was a synagogue leader, Jairus, who had asked Jesus to heal his daughter. So the woman with the issue of blood also had a status in society, and that was “unclean,” and it came with a lot of limitations.

I am confident that she would not have wanted to announce herself as she reached toward Jesus. I don’t think her statement about touching His garment was really meant for Jesus to hear, or for the crowd to hear. Still, she made a statement of bold faith! She believed that Jesus was so powerful that He could heal her, this issue that she’d been trying to get healed for twelve years. She thought He could heal her just through His robe. She believed that despite the fact that no one else could. And, she was right. Verse 29: 

And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Then Jesus, perceiving in Himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my garments?’ And his disciples said to him, ‘You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, “Who touched me?”’ And He looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. (vv. 29–33)

Now, did Jesus really not know who had touched Him? Of course not! He’s an all-knowing God! And did Jesus really lose power like a drained battery? Again, this is where knowing and loving your whole Bible is so helpful.

In Luke 1:37 an angel announced that nothing is impossible for God, and Jesus did go on to raise Jairus’s daughter from the dead. (I’m sorry if I spoiled the ending.) But when we reach toward Him in faith, He knows it. From this story we can learn that it affects Him deeply.

Our whisperer here just wanted a little bit of Jesus, just enough to heal her body, and Jesus offered her more than she dared hope for.

Verse 33 says, 

And he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease."

I love His tenderness, don’t you? I mean, I think we could read this story and assume He was annoyed or aggravated when He said that: “Who touched me!?” Or mad, or that He felt interrupted. That’s not who He is. That’s not what He did. He addressed her as “daughter.”

That’s the way of Jesus. That’s the hope of the gospel! We are diseased by sin. We’re unclean. We are too impure to stand before a holy, holy, holy God, and we try everything we can. We spend everything we earn to try and fix it. But it just gets worse and worse and worse. Then in faith we turn to Jesus, and it’s His blood that heals us. Then we get to know Him more and more through His Word. 

That is why we gather together on this podcast. It’s why we keep opening our Bibles day after day after day. It’s why we commit ourselves to the treasure hunt. There’s gold in them thar hills! It’s why we seek every day, until the Lord takes us home or comes back for us. It’s why our mission is to know Him more and more through His Word.

But here’s the wonder of it all. Even after we’ve known Jesus for decades, even when we dedicate our whole lives to meditating on His Word and becoming more and more like Him, we’ve only just begun. We’ve only heard a whisper.

Listen to Job 26:14. 

Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of Him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?

There are some translations of this verse that say, “We’ve only touched the fringes of His robe.” We’ve only heard a whisper. Just like that woman; she just wanted to touch the fringe of Him, and she got all of His attention. She got His peace. 

There’s always more to learn about Jesus. The longer I walk with Jesus, the more I find that to be true. It’s not like some subjects where there’s mastery; it’s just like a deep well! There’s more and more, and we can go deeper and deeper. There’s always fresh awe to discover about Jesus.

A day is coming—it won’t be long now—when all that has made us sick, everything that has separated us from Him and from others, everything that makes us unclean, it’s all going to come to an end, and we will be with Him forever.

Until then, friend, let me give you this encouragement. Keep opening your Bible. Keep learning, keep digging for treasure, keep listening to the whispers of His ways.

Erin Unscripted

Judy: Erin, thank you so much for pointing us to Jesus in this episode! I loved how you said that even after knowing Jesus for decades, we’ve only just begun. We’ve only heard a whisper; there’s always fresh awe to discover about Jesus.

Can you share with us how you continue to find fresh awe about Him?

Erin: Well, He’s so easy to be awestruck about. I’m the problem when I don’t have awe, not Him. But, really practically, there’s a passage in Romans 1 that says that the invisible nature of God is visible in what He has made. When my awe is dry, going outside and seeing His creation is the quickest and surest way that I know to fill it up.

You girls know we have a little farm, and it’s almost time here, as we’re recording this, for me to till up that garden and plant seeds again. That is such an awe-inspiring experience for me, because I put these little seeds in the ground, and in months I have giant zucchinis and tomatoes, and that’s all the Lord. I’m embarrassed how rarely I go outside at night and look at the stars. I live in the country. I can probably see millions of stars from my back porch, and I just don’t go very often. Our farm also sits over this really beautiful scenic valley, and the sunsets are amazing. I will probably never leave this farm, just because of the sunsets. But so often I choose doing the dishes instead, or I don’t go out and take it in.

But when I have lost that sense of wonder, it’s pretty easy to discern, because I become joyless when I don’t have wonder for Jesus. If I will just get outside and see what He’s made, the invisible nature of Him, that He is powerful, that He is Creator, that He is big, that He is sovereign . . . all of that is evident to me in the things that He’s made, and that restores wonder for me.

Judy, I know you are a wonder seeker. How would you answer that question? What do you do when your awe is waning?

Judy: I remember a busy ministry leadership season where I was so busy serving Him I had lost that awe and wonder. I remember just crying out to the Lord one Sunday morning after church. I’m so busy letting all the women know about the Bible studies coming up, and I was driving home and I found tears in my eyes. I said, “Lord Jesus, I know there’s more of You I’m missing. I want more of You. Will You fully capture my heart, no matter what it takes?” He was faithful in that. Some of it came through pain, but I just knew that I needed to guard and protect that intimacy with Him.

I think that is true for all who are in any kind of ministry leadership. We can get so distracted being busy for Him that we’re not being with Him. 

Like you, Erin, I love to get out in nature. I live in the mountains, so my husband, Rick, and I will often drive in the mountains on Saturdays. Truly, the rocks do cry out as you’re surrounded by these towering mountains. They do cry out about His majesty and His power and how He hems me in from all sides. But just asking Him, I think, is so important, to not lose that wonder and that awe of Him.

What about you, Staci?

Staci: Yes, I was just going to say, I was feeling the same thing you just described a second ago, Judy, just as far as being kind of burnt out in ministry. I’m still grateful for what I was doing, excited about what God was doing through it, but realizing, like you said, that I was doing so much for Him that I was forgetting to be with Him.

He made it quite clear to me that nature is a prime place to reconnect. I actually heard a quote that talked about how nature is like the second Bible. Now, of course, it’s not the Bible, definitely not, but it just shows us even deeper into who God is and what He does. 

You learn so many lessons just from the animals and things as you’re looking around. God has been really faithful to break Himself out of that “here’s my desk, here’s my tea” Bible mode in my life right now. He’s getting me outside to see Him in everything He’s made. So it’s been really good. That’s how I continue to find awe in Him.

Erin: I love that! “Nature is the second Bible.” I say it this way: nature is God’s first missionary. I mean, I think it would be possible for you to never hear the gospel articulated by another human being and step outside your house, your hut, your tent, wherever you live, in whatever era, and go, “I didn’t make all this! I couldn’t make all this. There is a force greater than me.” That is God putting eternity into our hearts.

Judy, you said something once (I think you were quoting somebody else, and I’m going to butcher this). You were contrasting the difference between being awestruck or breathless and being out of breath just from the pace of running the Christian life. Do you remember that quote?

Judy: I do, actually. It probably changed my life, as I was so busy with ministry. It was at a leadership conference with other ministry leaders, and the main speaker got up. He had just gotten back from an international trip for his ministry, and he was pretty somber. He said, “You know, when I first found Christ, His Word, Jesus took my breath away, and now I’m afraid I’m just out of breath serving Him.” 

Again, I found tears in my eyes, and I realized, “Okay, I need to pay attention to this.” That’s really when I cried out to the Lord, “Don’t let me wander. Help me to keep my eyes fixed on You, and keep taking my breath away through Your Word and through who You are.”

Erin: Yes.

Staci: It’s so cool, too, I think, because Jesus gives us such a good example of what it looks like to still seek the needy, to still help the needy, but also get away and refresh and refuel with the Father. You actually started the episode out by saying that, just talking about all the things Jesus had just done—calmed the storm, healed the demon-possessed man. He was moving quickly from one needy person to the next. I think it’s so important for us to mirror our lives off of His, in terms of getting away, being with the Father, filling up so that we can pour out to those around us.

Erin: Yes. I mean, to those of you listening, follow the story. That’s my hope for you in The Deep Well. I don’t ever tie it up in a tidy bow, because that’s not what Scripture does either, but follow the story. Follow where Jesus went—from the calming of the storm, to the Gerasene demoniac, to the woman we talked about in this episode, to the healing of Jairus’s daughter. 

But very quickly He’s going to pull away. Even while the need is at this fever pitch, He’s going to pull away and be with the Father. Then He’s going to come back, and He’s going to heal again. He’s moving toward the resurrection the whole time. But that rhythm is so important.

As we’re having this conversation, you are the woman who’s out of breath, because you’re in an intense child-rearing season, or you’re a caregiver for an aging parent, or your job is very demanding, or your health is failing—or all of those at once, as often happens to us. Find Jesus; get to Jesus. The woman in the story had to go to Him in a crowd because she was unclean. She wanted to kind of disappear and still reach for Him. But I would say for you, get away from the crowd if your awe is waning or gone, and just be with Him.

Staci: Erin, let me ask you this. I’ve kind of been thinking through it, but just seeing this story reminded me again of the faith that this woman had. It just bothers me sometimes that as a follower of Jesus it seems like I don’t have that same faith at times. I mean, she was just like, “If I could just grab the hem of His garment!” It’s so interesting to me that sometimes those of us who are so close to Jesus in terms of following Him and seeking Him can have those moments where our faith just doesn’t match those of an unbeliever or something like that.

Erin: So true.

Judy: One thing I loved about this woman (Erin, you mentioned it) is she thought she was just touching the edge of Jesus, or the fringe of His robe, and yet she got all of Him. You said that when He called her “daughter.” I think it’s the first time He ever refers to someone in Scripture as “daughter,” and maybe the only time. But what a beautiful, beautiful story, that this broken woman is in this crowd, just desperate. Like you said, she was unclean and shouldn’t have even been there, so she was being very brave to really whisper by that touch of His robe. Then how He called her out in such a loving way to let her know she was seen. It was almost as if it was just the two of them and the crowd wasn’t there.

Then, you shared from Job 26, which makes me tear up, because it says, “And these are but the outer fringes of His works. How faint the whisper we hear of Him! Who then can understand the thunder of His power?”

When I looked at that verse, it reminded me of a prayer my father prayed. He was nearing death. He was eighty-nine years old. He’d known Jesus since he was nineteen and served Him faithfully as a pastor and an author—just a godly man who lived out his faith. One morning we were visiting him in Phoenix, and I got up early to be with him. He loved to read Scripture. I think we read through the high priestly prayer of John 17; that was his favorite. Then we started to pray, and he began his prayer with these words—I had to write them down while he was praying, because it just struck my heart so beautifully. He said, “Sometimes we touch just the edges of the wonder of who You are, and it leaves us staggered.”

I remember thinking, He’s eighty-nine years old, and he still feels like he’s just touched the edges of the wonder of who Jesus is? Just a few months after that he entered into the presence of His Savior and finally saw Him face to face.

I want to be staggered by Jesus, and I know you both do too, and I hope our listeners do, because we need to let Him take our breath away through His Word or through time alone with Him through the privilege and gift of prayer that we take for granted. To think that we’re just touching the edges of the wonder of who He is, really. We know so much about Him if we dwell in the Word, but there’s so much more to learn when we’re in eternity with Him. What joy that brings, anticipation, because He is coming back for us, and He will rescue us from this groaning earth. So I love that verse from Job. I’m going to dwell there for a while.

Erin: Thank you for sharing that tender story, Judy. There’s another passage that says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined what God has in store for those who love Him.” Even if we were to enter into a theological or intellectual exercise of trying to describe all that God has for us in heaven, we’re just scratching the surface. We’ve never seen anything like it, we’ve never heard anything like it. The greatest minds, the biggest hearts have never imagined anything like what your dad is now seeing, what we will see in eternity. 

I think that’s why Scripture says that the death of the saints is precious in the eyes of the Lord. It has to be like, “Look, guys! Look what I built for you!” That moment when He finally lets us open the present and we see all that He has for us, it’s more than we could have ever hoped for. 

I think that is why I’m so drawn to the story of this woman, because she did get the fringes of His robe. She got more in the moment than she ever hoped for, but then in eternity she got even more of Him. I want to keep reaching for the hem, and I want to be with Him and see it all revealed to me. I can’t wait for that day.

Thank you, Judy, for being on this season of The Deep Well! I knew this conversation would be fruitful. I knew you’d bring a lot to the table, and you did. So thanks for being a part of it.

Judy: Oh Erin, thanks for having me. I loved our time together! Thank you so much!

Erin: I do want to let all the women listening around the world know about Moody Publishers. You have such an important role there at Moody, and I am such a fan of the work Moody is doing because of your allegiance to the authority of God’s unchangeable Word. Tell us a little bit about the women’s line at Moody Publishers.

Judy: Oh, I’d love to do that. We have a line of Bible studies. The line was launched back in 2016. We’re publishing our twentieth study. So for the women listening, you can go to MoodyPublishersWomen.com and find out more about our studies there.

Then the whole publishing house is MoodyPublishers.com. Moody has been around for over 125 years. We were founded by D.L. Moody. What I love about Moody publishers is our excess revenue pours back into the Bible college, equipping students to be future ministry leaders. So it’s a privilege to be able to serve there.

Erin: When you look up that line of women’s studies, you’ll see some familiar names, especially if you are a listener of Revive Our Hearts. Dannah Gresh has a Habakkuk study in that line, and I have a study on the seven feasts. So be sure to check out those Bible studies. I think I have all of them, Judy, on my bookshelves, and have worked through many of them. They’re so rock-solid. Thanks for your work on that front.

And Judy, you don’t just edit books, you don’t just work with authors like me, but you’ve written your own book. I am really excited about it. You’ve invited me into the process some, and I can’t wait to hold a copy in my hands. Can you tell us about that book?

Judy: First, Erin, I want to thank you, because you’ve been praying for me during the writing process. I’ve been able to run some things by you because you are such a gifted writer.

The title of my book is The Loudest Roar: Living in the Unshakeable Victory of Christ. It focuses on the victory that Jesus won for us through His death and resurrection and ascension. I teach some about the armor of God as we see in Ephesians 6. There’s a strong emphasis on our weapons being the sword of the Spirit, God’s Word, and also prayer.

A lot of this came out of my legacy from my father’s writings and teachings. I’ve mentioned him, and his name’s Mark Bubeck. He wrote The Adversary and also Warfare Praying. So you’ll be able to find those books through MoodyPublishers.com. My book comes out this fall of 2022.

Erin: I can’t wait! I am sure that my copy of your book is going to be all marked up with notes and maybe questions and thoughts. I’m so glad that that resource is going to be available for the church.

Staci, thank you so much for being a part of this season. It feels a little bit like the last day of camp to me. I’m sad to be saying goodbye to you girls, because I love spending time with you so much! You’ve been a gift to me.

Staci: You have been a gift to us. It’s been great. Thanks so much for inviting me to do this with you.

Erin: People are going to want to hear your voice more. They’re going to want to learn more from you, because you are such a wise woman in your twenties. The church needs wise women in their twenties sharing about Jesus. Tell us a little bit more about the ministry that you serve with, True Girl.

Staci: Sure! True Girl is a mom-daughter ministry, for girls ages seven–twelve. It’s really focused on giving them messages and content that matter, that is centered around Jesus, who He is, the plans He has for them, and how He’s created them. We do that through a variety of ways—online Bible studies, subscription box programs—all the things that little girls like and that keep them interested but that are anchored in Christ and delivering messages that matter for their future.

Erin: I know there are moms who listen to The Deep Well podcast. I know that because they text me, they email me, they DM me, which I love. I absolutely love hearing from listeners of the podcast. So there’s a mama listening now and she has a little girl . . . how does she get plugged in to True Girl?

Staci: She can go to MyTrueGirl.com, and there you’ll find out about all we have going on, those programs I was telling you about—subscription box programs, the online Bible studies, the resources. Dannah creates a lot of content—fiction books and things—for your girl. So yes, check out MyTrueGirl.com. You can also follow us on Instagram at True Girl Official. We post a lot of content to equip moms to be in the driver’s seat and to have those conversations with her daughter that matter.

Erin: Love it!

I like to keep you on toes with The Deep Well podcast. You may be wondering, What is it she’s going to have us studying next? Well, I’ll tell you! In the next season of the podcast we’re going to be looking at fasting in Scripture, and if that makes your tummy grumble, we’re also going to be looking at feasting. So, the best way to know when that season drops is to subscribe to The Deep Well podcast on your favorite podcast app.

Staci: The Deep Well with Erin Davis is a production of Revive Our Hearts, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture is taken from the ESV.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.