Big Idea: In these healing miracles two transformations take place: (1) Jesus’s compassion for the sick causes him to ignore the purity laws and bring purity/healing to suffering people; (2) he reverses the status rules of society by making the nameless, unclean woman the model of faith.

Understanding the Text

This is another of the sandwiching episodes like the one in 3:20–35, as the two stories interpret each other. In the context of this miracle section (4:35–5:43) these comprise the final two of the four types of miracles: in order, power over nature, demons, sickness, and death. The two here (sickness and death) are similar to the exorcism story in that both deal with matters of the purity laws. It has often been called the “love hermeneutic”;1Jesus’s compassion for people who are h…