21 When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. 23 He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” 24 So Jesus went with him.
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
35 While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”
36 Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” 40 But they laughed at him.
After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. 43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.
Following his foray into gentile territory, Jesus returns to his home area. Once again, the crowd seems to immediately assemble around him. A synagogue leader named Jairus comes, and like Legion, falls at the feet of Jesus. Just as the demoniac (both before and after the possession), he begs Jesus to do something for him.
Jairus' plea is quite personal. His daughter is dying. While we may not have personal experience with violent demons, all of us know the tragedy of losing a loved one. In that short sentence, "my little daughter is dying" lies the unfathomable pain and grief that is a part of our human condition.
Jairus believes that Jesus' touch is necessary to bring his daughter's healing. This is interesting because of the healings that have occurred so far, two have required Jesus' touch (the leper and Peter's Mother-in-Law) but three have required only Jesus' words (the evil spirit, the paralytic and Legion). But in this passage, Jesus' touch is an important element in the healing of Jairus' daughter as well as in the central story of the woman who will touch his garment.
As Jairus leads Jesus to his home, the crowd understandably follows along. They are anxious to see what will happen. Jairus appears to be the first person in the authority structure of the Jewish faith who encounters Jesus and accedes to his power. All the other scribes and pharisees are angered by Jesus, and have instituted their plans to get rid of him. Why is he willing to buck the system? This may be due to Jairus' despair at his daughter's condition. He will try anything to help his daughter. Jairus' maverick action was certainly a fascination for the crowd.
Mark often places a story within a story, and here is a perfect example. Suddenly the focus shifts from Jairus to the woman with the issue of blood. Like Jairus, she knows suffering. She has been to the doctors of the day (whose enlightened treatments of such ailments included ingesting animal feces) with, to what should be no surprise to our modern minds, no healing and actually worsening results.
She has suffered for 12 years from her condition which was not only a physical one, but also a spiritual one. Her bleeding would make her perpetually unclean. Not only would she be excluded from society, anyone who came into contact with her would also need to go through a week long purification. Merely her touch would profane anything with which she came into contact.
Like Jairus and Legion, she is at the end of her rope, sneaking anonymously into the crowd. Had she been noticed, the reaction would have been violent towards her. But somehow undetected, she makes it to Jesus and touches the back of his garment believing that the touch she needed was not from the hand of Jesus but from her hand touching not Jesus, but Jesus' clothes. And Mark tells us, she is immediately healed. Now this is the opposite of the way purity is supposed to work. If I touch a clean plate with a dirty hand the plate gets dirty, it doesn't make my hand clean. The Jews believed that this touch would have made Jesus impure, not the woman pure. But once again Jesus confounds their expectations
Then comes the strange response from Jesus, "Who touched my garments?" The short answer is everyone probably touched him in the jostling of the large crowd. The disciples can not figure out what the fuss is all about. But Jesus keeps looking.
The woman knows the jig is up and falls on her knees before Jesus. This is the third time in the chapter that someone bows to Jesus, but the first time it happens after the healing. The now healed woman pleads with Jesus because she is afraid of what Jesus will do. She has trusted Jesus for healing, but now is frightened that Jesus will condemn her for her impudence. She has broken a series of social taboos in touching Jesus--she is unclean, she is a woman.
But Jesus responds with compassion and with a redefinition. She believes that touching Jesus garment has healed her. Jesus feels the power go through him. He will not let her go thinking that the touch has healed her. Jesus tells her that her faith has made her whole. She is to no longer be afraid, but to be at peace and freed from her suffering. He sends her off as another disciple.
It may have been common practice, but it seems jarring to hear Jesus refer to this woman as "daughter". It seems to remind us that Jesus' mother, brothers and sisters are those that do his will. And it serves as a bridge between the two stories--between Jairus whose love for a daughter has caused him to seek help and this "daughter" of Jesus who is healed by Jesus.
As Jesus is pronouncing a blessing on this persistent woman, some messengers arrive from Jairus' home. They tell Jairus that Jesus is no longer necessary for his child has died. In that moment Jairus' world stopped and slowly fell apart at his feet.
Jesus is remarkably calm in the midst of the news telling Jairus not to fear but to have faith. This provides another link with the nested story as the woman with the issue of blood has been an example of the healing power of faith.
Here Jesus pauses to thin the crowd. It is an interesting move. Perhaps the crowd loses some interest upon hearing that death has occurred and begins to dissipate on its own. They say to each other that there is no hope of seeing a miracle now. Jesus has only his close circle (Peter, James and John) of disciples to accompany him.
But even as Jesus dismisses one commotion, another awaits him. People are crying and wailing in grief. Of course, it was the custom of the day to hire professional mourners and it may well be that these grievers that Jesus meets outside the house are actually being paid. This might explain their laughter rather than shock or anger at Jesus who tells them the child is only sleeping.
Once again, Jesus is intruding into the commerce of his day in the same way that he has left swineherds and doctors out of jobs, now these mourners will have to find a new way to make a living. Even though Jesus is not the one who has hired them, he dismisses them and we are left with Jairus and his wife, the disciples, the little girl and Jesus.
In this peaceful setting, Jesus takes the girl's hand and tells her to stand up. She does this immediately to the surprise of everyone (if she had been only asleep, it must have been quite sound to last through the wailing of the mourners!).
Did you notice how old the girl is? 12 years old, the very same length of time that the woman suffered from the issue of blood. The number may be symbolic, or it may be the memory link that brought these two stories together in Mark's mind.
Now, again on home soil, Jesus tells everyone to keep this all quiet. The chapter that has begun in a foreign cemetery with a wild man ends in a bedroom with a girl wiping the sleep from her eyes.
Do not be afraid; just believe.
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