Mark 5:22-23 NIVUK
[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.’
Towards the end of my second year as a missionary in Romania, I fell ill. I had contracted an infection that caused my state of health to plummet very quickly in a matter of days. The decision was taken to rush me to the local hospital for emergency surgery. It was more than twenty years ago, but I still have memories of travelling down the Ghimbav to Brașov road at speed in the back of a Dacia ambulance, clinging to the walls to make sure I didn’t fall off the gurney.
I underwent emergency surgery and came round the next day. A colleague came to visit me. He was amazed that I’d managed to interact with the doctors entirely in Romanian, but his face was full of concern. ‘You know, Paul, you could have died.’ he told me in a hushed tone.
When he left, I just lay there and sobbed.
After all the blood and thunder and horror movie vibe of the exorcism on the coast of the Sea of Galilee, we might be mistaken into thinking that this healing is somewhat un-dramatic, something of an anti-climax. That’s often how it’s portrayed. I even remember children’s books being written about it.
However, it is nothing of the sort.
This healing – in fact there are two – is something of a thriller: a race against time to save the life of a dying girl, and to rehabilitate a woman who had been on the edges of her society for years.
As we go through it, don’t miss the urgency, or the fear, or even the embarrassment.
Because these women were absolutely at the end of their tether.
Let’s look firstly at what caused all this urgency – Desperate Situations.
Desperate Situations
The first of these is Jairus’. Or rather, his unnamed daughter’s. Look what Mark says about it:
Mark 5:21-23 NIVUK
[21] When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered round 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.’
Think about this for a second.
Jairus was the ruler of a synagogue. He had power. He had position. He had standing in the local community. He was a pretty important guy.
But his daughter was ill.
More than that, she was dying.
That is a pretty horrible situation to be in.
But it also pits him against the clock. He has to get Jesus to heal her while she is still alive.
You can see the sense of urgency in his actions and his voice.
He knows this is a life or death matter.
He knows this is a race against time.
And the person he goes to in order to save his daughter?
An itinerant Galilean preacher.
He must have heard about the healings Jesus had carried out before (for example, Mark 1:21-34, 2:1-12, 3:1-6).
But at the same time, Jesus was already a controversial figure for the Jewish leadership. The Pharisees had already expressed their distaste towards His ministry (Mark 2:16). They were even plotting to kill Him (Mark 3:6).
But this man did not care a jot about that. He had a huge problem – his little daughter was dying. Jesus could fix that problem – He could heal her.
That’s all he saw.
And so he left his house and headed for the crowd where Jesus was.
Christianity is very controversial in some quarters. Some people deliberately try to make controversy out of nothing because they quite simply hate anything to do with the church. Others have genuine issues, largely borne out of the poor behaviour of those who call themselves Christians. Some will tell you that you will not find any answers there.
Let me tell you: ignore that. Ignore it all. If you have a serious problem right now, you need to be single-minded like this man was. You need to take it to Jesus.
You won’t find a better solution elsewhere.
But what about the other woman? Her situation seemed to be manageable. She seemed to have something akin to haemophilia, and to have had it for some time:
Mark 5:25-26 NIVUK
[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.
Why would she be so desperate?
Perhaps this will tell you:
Leviticus 15:7 NIVUK
[7] ‘ “Whoever touches the man who has a discharge must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening.
Leviticus 15:19-23, 25-27 NIVUK
[19] ‘ “When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening. [20] ‘ “Anything she lies on during her period will be unclean, and anything she sits on will be unclean. [21] Anyone who touches her bed will be unclean; they must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening. [22] Anyone who touches anything she sits on will be unclean; they must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening. [23] Whether it is the bed or anything she was sitting on, when anyone touches it, they will be unclean till evening.
[25] ‘ “When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge, just as in the days of her period. [26] Any bed she lies on while her discharge continues will be unclean, as is her bed during her monthly period, and anything she sits on will be unclean, as during her period. [27] Anyone who touches them will be unclean; they must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening.
So here we have a woman who cannot share a couch or a bed, and cannot even touch another human being or she disqualifies them from worship in the temple until they have bathed. Even then, they could not go until the next day.
She herself was completely barred from worshipping with God’s people. In fact, if she had been among those who had journeyed through the desert with Moses, she would not even have been allowed in the camp (Numbers 5:1-4).
You can imagine, then, the incredible stigma her condition would have caused her.
You can imagine, then, why she had spent so much money trying to cure her condition.
You can absolutely imagine, then, why she was so desperate.
Nowadays we are very aware of medical conditions that carry stigma. In the 1980s, the AIDS epidemic struck. I can still remember the adverts on TV. But we knew – everyone knew – that it mostly struck those who had done things the Bible says they should not do. And those who caught the disease due to their behaviour knew it too. They knew what people would think of them. And that made them very reluctant to get help. Which then caused an enormous public health emergency.
In all the widespread panic (some of it moral), people died because of that stigma. Lives were lost. Families were bereaved.
It was tragic.
And so in both cases, we can absolutely understand their desperation. In fact, if we were in their situation, I don’t doubt for even a second that we would be desperate too.
But they both sought help from Jesus, who at the time was surrounded by a crowd of curious onlookers and His disciples. So these poor people had to exhibit another quality. As well as desperate situations, we also see Determined Seeking.
Determined Seeking
We can see exactly how desperate Jairus is. Not only does he ignore the serious misgivings of the Jewish leaders, not only does he somehow find his way through the large crowd, but look again at what he does when he gets to Jesus:
Mark 5:22-23 NIVUK
[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.’
A man like him had standing. He was respected. He had dignity.
But none of that mattered. Not one bit. His daughter was dying. She needed help urgently.
And so he dropped to his knees and begged Jesus.
He had not one single thought about what other people thought of him. He didn’t even consider it.
He just needed Jesus.
And that really is something.
Often what other people think of us gets in the way of us coming to Jesus. I remember one young lad I spoke to, along with some of the men from our church. He seemed quite close to becoming a believer. But I sensed the huge pull that his friends had over him, and the likelihood that they could pull him back to a world of alcohol and drug abuse. So I told him straight that he might need to not hang out with them for a while.
He stood up sharply, yelled, ‘No! I’m not leaving my pals!’ and stormed out the church.
It’s so frustrating when someone could be that close to the answer to all of their life’s deepest questions, and yet turns back because they are afraid of what other people would think.
Don’t be like him. Be like Jairus.
The sick woman also showed great determination. Hey, in her condition, it took great determination just to get out of the house.
People who are agoraphobic can’t leave the house because they are afraid – once they cross the threshold of their house, they are no longer in control of their environment and that terrifies them.
It would not have surprised me in the least if this woman would have been afraid to go out like them. Could you imagine? She’d need to dress and conceal her wounds and hide her face in case she was seen by an unsympathetic person who knew of her condition. She would not be able to sit down and rest anywhere. She could not touch another human being – even accidentally.
Yet hope for her – ironically – lay in the middle of a heaving mass of people.
Could you imagine for a second the depth of the sigh when she would realise what she would have to do to get to Jesus? Can you imagine her holding her breath and weaving in and out, past the multitudes, holding her hands like a football (soccer) defender in the penalty box, doing her utmost not to touch anyone?
But then... Jesus. There was Jesus.
So what now?
She needed healing. She needed his power. But she couldn’t touch Him. Nor could He touch her. If they touched in any way, Jesus would become ceremonially unclean. And for a Rabbi of his standing, that could never do.
Which is why she comes up with the absolutely genius idea of touching his garment.
There were no rules forbidding her from doing that.
She could touch his garment, receive healing and then make her escape before anyone noticed.
She had a plan.
But she didn’t count on it being exposed.
Mark 5:27-33 NIVUK
[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 realised that power had gone out from him. He turned round 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.
She was healed, but she was also outed. Jesus had felt His healing power fall on her. The woman who had tried her best to be incognito was now exposed in front of the crowd.
But that was less important, in a sense. Her persistence and determination had brought her to Jesus. That was what mattered.
Physical ailments like this that rob us of our confidence and make us feel ashamed can often act as a barrier between us and other people, or, even worse, between us and God. In fact, these first century Jews often made a correlation – which Jesus Himself did not – between physical ailments and sin. They believed that sin was always the root cause behind physical ailments, as if God was punishing those who suffered. Elsewhere we see this interesting conversation:
John 9:1-3 NIVUK
[1] As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. [2] His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ [3] ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
That belief would make things miles worse for those who were suffering. It would increase the stigma and make it less likely that they would seek and find help.
Yet this woman knows that Jesus is different; that He will heal her.
And so it doesn’t matter what is wrong with you or who caused it or why. It doesn’t matter if it was inflicted by you or someone else or if it just seems to be ‘chance’. If you come to Jesus, you will find help.
That is all that matters.
Because after desperate situations and determined seeking, we see Decisive Solutions.
Decisive Solutions
Solutions that, if we are honest, seemed pretty unlikely.
The challenges are very clear. Whoever heard of someone being healed by simply grasping a tiny piece of a cloak?
And yet...
Mark 5:27-29 NIVUK
[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.
But notice what Jesus says healed her:
Mark 5:33-34 NIVUK
[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.’
It was her faith that healed her.
Now, this is something we have to understand properly and in context. Simply having faith is not the issue. Faith is like a plug. It can’t power anything on its own. It needs to be in a socket to receive power.
The healing power came by faith, acting as the conduit or cable, because her faith was plugged into Jesus.
That is what healed her.
But here’s the interesting thing – and a fact we often miss. Jesus healed her without saying a word, and once He had healed her, He told her to go in peace and be healed from her suffering.
It’s almost as if her ailment had only been part of the suffering she had endured. After all, even after the ailment was gone, wasn’t she still trembling with fear?
Could it be that her suffering also came from the stigma that had been attached to her condition, which still scarred her?
Could Jesus be telling her to go in peace, because previously she’d had none, and to be freed from her suffering, because even after being released from her ailment, she was still suffering?
There is a lesson here for us all. Jesus didn’t just heal her medical condition, He also healed her spiritual condition (peace) and her psychological condition (suffering).
She was completely and utterly healed.
But what of the little girl?
While Jesus was seemingly waylaid with a sick, but ceremonially unclean woman, the little girl’s condition had worsened – more than anyone could imagine:
Mark 5:35 NIVUK
[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?’
As far as Jairus’ servants were considered, it was way too late. It was over.
She was dead.
But Jesus disagreed.
Mark 5:36 NIVUK
[36] Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, ‘Don’t be afraid; just believe.’
I don’t know if you have ever reached the point where anyone has told you to stop praying for something because it probably won’t happen, or has tried to discourage you from seeking something better for your situation because they are convinced that it won’t come.
That is what is happening here.
But Jesus simply encourages Jairus to believe.
And what happens next is amazing:
Mark 5:37-43 NIVUK
[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.
She was dead. They were mourning her. Even people with a deep foundation in the Jewish faith could see no way back for her.
And yet Jesus raised her from the dead!
Hallelujah!
Jairus’ prayers were answered. His faith was rewarded.
His daughter was healed.
Even if it seemed utterly impossible.
Conclusion
In this glorious event, where Jesus’ power defied expectations and healed two people that most others would have said were beyond help, we see three phases.
We see a recognition that they were in desperate situations. Although we might try to avoid recognising this as it means the situation exceeds our resources to cope with it, but sometimes we must surrender our pride and admit to it. Otherwise, how will we be healed?
We also see determined seeking. In both cases, the person seeking the healing had to push their way through a large crowd of people to get to Jesus. And who could tell what the motivations of the people in the crowd were, and whether they were good or bad? Some might have been following Jesus honestly and with an open heart. Others might have been following Him for the thrill of seeing Him do a miracle. Others for entertainment. Others to see if they could catch Him out.
Whatever their intention, the reality is that a desperate man with a dying child and a desperate woman with chronic haemophilia were likely not on their list of people to care about, unless their curiosity was satiated and Jesus performed a miracle.
It therefore took great courage and persistence to find their way through that crowd.
Lastly, we see decisive solutions, in that Jesus gave them the grace without measure of being healed, even when everything seemed against them.
I have seen God perform miracles in people’s lives, and seen Him turn situations around – even situations of serious illness or physical lack – that many would have said were without hope.
But I have also seen many situations where He has not. Even my namesake in the Bible – Paul the Apostle, one of the greatest teachers and preachers and theologians of the first century – experienced this:
2 Corinthians 12:8-9 NIVUK
[8] Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. [9] But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
Every Christian will know healing. Every Christian will know wholeness. Every Christian will one day be delivered from the pain and the toil of life on earth. We know that. We believe it.
Revelation 21:3-4 NIVUK
[3] And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. [4] “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death” or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’
Sometimes that healing comes on earth.
Sometimes it does not.
But even if it does not, seeking God in the midst of our pain and struggle is never a waste.
Because when we do, He gives us what we need to keep going.
And that in itself is a miracle.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, You know my pain and suffering more than any other. I bring it to You now. If it is Your will, take it from. If not, then I pray that You will give me the grace to bear up under it until the day You call me home. Amen.
Questions
What did both of these healings have in common? What can we learn from this?
Why do you think God allowed both of these illnesses to go on for as long as they did? What was His purpose in that?
Does God always heal? Why / why not? What is He looking for from us?
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