January 24, 2016: Jairus’ Daughter Healed

Mark 5:21-43

²¹ Jesus crossed the lake again, and on the other side a large crowd gathered around him on the shore. ²² Jairus, one of the synagogue leaders, came forward. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet ²³ and pleaded with him, “My daughter is about to die. Please, come and place your hands on her so that she can be healed and live.” ²⁴ So Jesus went with him.
A swarm of people were following Jesus, crowding in on him. ²⁵ A woman was there who had been bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶ She had suffered a lot under the care of many doctors, and had spent everything she had without getting any better. In fact, she had gotten worse. ²⁷ Because she had heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothes. ²⁸ She was thinking, If I can just touch his clothes, I’ll be healed. ²⁹ Her bleeding stopped immediately, and she sensed in her body that her illness had been healed.
³⁰ At that very moment, Jesus recognized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?”
³¹ His disciples said to him, “Don’t you see the crowd pressing against you? Yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” ³² But Jesus looked around carefully to see who had done it.
³³ The woman, full of fear and trembling, came forward. Knowing what had happened to her, she fell down in front of Jesus and told him the whole truth. ³⁴ He responded, “Daughter, your faith has healed you; go in peace, healed from your disease.”
³⁵ While Jesus was still speaking with her, messengers came from the synagogue leader’s house, saying to Jairus, “Your daughter has died. Why bother the teacher any longer?”
³⁶ But Jesus overheard their report and said to the synagogue leader, “Don’t be afraid; just keep trusting.” ³⁷ He didn’t allow anyone to follow him except Peter, James, and John, James’ brother. ³⁸ They came to the synagogue leader’s house, and he saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. ³⁹ He went in and said to them, “What’s all this commotion and crying about? The child isn’t dead. She’s only sleeping.” ⁴⁰ They laughed at him, but he threw them all out. Then, taking the child’s parents and his disciples with him, he went to the room where the child was. ⁴¹ Taking her hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Young woman, get up.” ⁴² Suddenly the young woman got up and began to walk around. She was 12 years old. They were shocked! ⁴³ He gave them strict orders that no one should know what had happened. Then he told them to give her something to eat.

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Introduction:

One of my favorite parts of this in this entire story might appear to be an afterthought. After raising up the young girl with the words “talitha cum,” Jesus tells the gobsmacked people around her to give her something to eat. It warms my heart to think of Jesus, who has just done something truly astonishing, making sure she received something to put on her stomach.  It was not easy to be a woman in the ancient world (which is something of an understatement) and being a very young woman would have been even harder. And yet Jesus cares for her and helps her.

Jesus also shows some of this everyday tenderness when he calls the recently healed woman, “daughter.” Working backwards from there, it is remarkable that the synagogue leader named Jairus runs to Jesus and falls at his feet. Did Jairus support Jesus’ ministry before or did he disapprove of Jesus’ methods of healing on the Sabbath? The story doesn’t tell us, but it is significant that this leader and important man falls at the feet of Jesus: just the sort of thing a dignified man WOULDN’T do. Except his child is ill. 

There is a great deal of humanity and vulnerability in this story: Jairus, the bleeding woman, and the young woman are all vulnerable and in need of help. And Jesus is there for that very purpose.

It comforts and inspires me that the “Word of God” that was with God in the beginning and through whom everything came into being also makes sure that twelve year old girls get something to eat. If you ask me, this is one way in which “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light” (see John 1:1-5 for all of these references).

The Technical Stuff:

These two stories are rich and exciting with plenty of interesting details.  Mark gives us the backstory of the woman who is suffering from hemorrhages: telling us that she had suffered much under many doctors. When Matthew tells this same story, he leaves these details out (see Matthew 9:18-26). Matthew also omits Jesus’ question concerning who had touched him (in faith). In Matthew’s version, Jesus immediately looks at her, rather than asking his disciples. Luke’s account of this incident is much closer to Mark’s.  It is important to remember that, while the Gospels have many similarities, you can also spot many differences, no matter how slight.

Mark has a habit of “sandwiching” two stories together and these two are perfect examples.  While either story could stand on its own, both are enhanced by the connection.  There are many parallels and connections between the daughter of the synagogue leader and the woman with hemorrhages: neither are given a name, the woman has been suffering twelve years and the daughter is twelve years old, both would make Jesus ritually impure by physical contact (see Leviticus 15:25-30 for the woman and Numbers 19:11 for the girl) and both (obviously) are female.

Both of these figures will receive new life.  Ultimately, these two incidents are about the ways that Jesus breaks down boundaries in order to bring new life, life that abides in this light of the kingdom of God.

What Does This Say to Us?

Does Jesus heal people today? This can be a tricky subject. The immediate and obvious answer is “Yes!” but the follow up is more complicated. If Jesus does heal people today, why are SOME people healed and OTHERS not? I imagine the same question faced the early church as well. If the woman’s faith had made her well, does that mean that people who don’t get better don’t have enough faith? I don’t believe that this is the case.  In fact, this entire line of questioning is only useful for showing us that some things are a mystery.  Not everyone in Jesus’ day was healed either and if healing were his ultimate goal, Jesus would not have traveled to Jerusalem and the cross. If healing were his ultimate goal, it would have been much more productive for him to set up shop in Galilee and heal people for decades to come.

Instead, healing is only a part of his goal (albeit and important part).  Jesus came to proclaim “Now is the time! Here comes God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!” (Mark 1:15) His healings and exorcisms are signs of the coming kingdom, signs that are meant to create faith in those who hear of them. I like to think of them as a foretaste, or “appetizer” of the kingdom when it is hear completely.  Why doesn’t Jesus heal everyone (then or now), I don’t know. But ultimately that’s not a helpful question.  Instead, may we all turn our eyes to where Jesus is at work here and now.

The church is the body of Christ today. My denomination, the ELCA, states over and over again: “God’s work. Our Hands.” There are people who are looking for healing and community today who reach out to Jesus by reaching out to the church.  They will appear at the most random moments, when the church least expects it. It could be someone reaching out for healing (like the woman), or someone who has come on behalf of another (like the synagogue leader), or it could be someone who can’t even reach out the church because of circumstances (like the girl), but whatever the case, God IS there for them. How do we know? God’s Son Jesus sent the church do help them. The church, in all of its glorious messiness, is here to help.