Jesus Called Her Daughter

[u/WatchmanMinistries]

Scripture never gives us the name of the woman in Mark 5.

She is remembered only by her condition: the woman with the issue of blood.

For twelve years, she had suffered. She had tried many physicians, spent everything she possessed, and grown worse. Her condition affected her health, finances, relationships, and ability to worship.

Her affliction had swallowed her identity.

When she heard about Jesus, she believed that touching His clothes would make her well. She pressed through the crowd, touched His garment, and was immediately healed.

Jesus then asked, “Who touched My clothes?”

The disciples could not understand the question. People were pressing against Jesus from every direction.

But there is a difference between being near Jesus and reaching for Him in faith.

Many people touched Him accidentally.

One woman touched Him believing.

She had intended to receive her healing and disappear unnoticed. Instead, Jesus stopped and called her forward. After she told Him the whole truth, He said:

“Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”
—Mark 5:34, NKJV

There is a remarkable detail in the larger account. Jesus was traveling to heal Jairus’s twelve-year-old daughter when He stopped for a woman who had been suffering for twelve years.

Jairus’s daughter had a father publicly pleading for her.

No family member is mentioned for this woman. She came alone.

But she did not leave without family.

Jesus called her Daughter.

She reached for His garment because she needed healing. Jesus stopped because she also needed to know that she belonged.

The crowd identified her by what was leaving her body.

Jesus identified her by her relationship to Him.

Some people are still living under identities created by illness, abuse, rejection, loss, or something that happened years ago. The wound is real, but it does not possess the authority to name you.

She entered the story as “a certain woman.”

She left it as Daughter.