Twelve Years

Mark 5:21-43

21When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea. 22Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet 23and begged him repeatedly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.” 24So he went with him.

And a large crowd followed and pressed in on him. 25Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. 26She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. 27She had heard about Jesus, and come up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” 29Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” 31And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 32he looked all around to see who had done it. 33But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. 34He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

35While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?” 36But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” 37He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. 38When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39When he had entered, he said to them, “Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.” 40And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41he took her by the hand and said to there, “Talitha cum,” which means, “Little girl, get up!” 42And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. 43He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

This is the Word of the LORD

Thanks be to God.

Jairus’s daughter was running out of time.

We’ve told this story so many times that we’ve lost some of the drama of it. Jesus is always crossing the sea by some boat or another, healing people. It’s easy to lose track of the side characters, like Jairus, who haven’t heard this story for a hundred generations. Jairus’s daughter was running out of time, and this leader of the synagogue is out of options. So he turns to a traveling teacher with a reputation for healing. “When he saw him, [Jairus] fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly. ‘My little daughter is at the point of death. Come lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.” Jairus’s daughter was running out of time.

I cannot imagine what that father and leader in his faith community must have felt with each step. He doesn’t know what we know, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. He doesn’t know if Jesus can heal his little daughter or if he’s a fraud. He doesn’t know if they’ll make it to her bedside in time. Did he get more fearful with each step, or more anxious? Either way, he surely worried as “a large crowd followed and pressed in on [Jesus].” Jairus’s daughter was running out of time, and this faith healer who had agreed to help was getting slowed down as he tried to make his way to his twelve-year-old daughter’s bedside.

That large crowd, pressing in on Jesus, held more than a delay. Mark’s story of Jairus and his daughter gets interrupted as another daughter needs help as well. “Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse.” This kind of ailment made her unwelcome in the community. She couldn’t worship, and anyone she touched could not worship until they had purified themselves as well. After twelve years of suffering, and exclusion, she had learned that pleading would not get her anywhere. “Jairus may have Jesus’s attention, but she has a plan.” She plans to sneak in with the crowd and to grab a piece of her healing, trusting that the merest contact would be enough to save her from her suffering.

When I was in Seminary, we studied this passage in my preaching class. My professor was big into the theater of the text, and so we each took a part and acted this story out together. Being the first-born standard-bearing overachiever that I am, I of course volunteered to play Jesus. Dr. Anna Carter Florence, without hesitation, cast me as the woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages. My friend Simone was cast as Jesus.

We took our places, with most of the class crowding around Simone and me trying desperately to break through and catch just the hem of her shirtsleeve. When she felt my tug she immediately turned around in the crowd and said “who touched my clothes?” Simone’s piercing gaze was inescapable. The whole shuffling, shoving, group of us instantly halted. No crowd would have been able to hide me from that question.

I’m confident that Jesus did not know who touched his clothes when he asked who touched his clothes. Mark’s Jesus is very human, and is not the all-knowing poetic preacher we meet in John’s gospel. He was “Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him,” but he did not know into whom. The woman does, though. She knows that question is for her, and that her touch cannot stay anonymous. “The woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth.”

Her body has been healed, but that’s not the same thing as being made well. Turns out that being “made well” takes more than just touching Jesus’s clothes. “When the woman’s bleeding stops... the text says not that she was “saved” but that she was healed.” Contact with Christ can heal a broken body, but being “made well” affects our whole selves. After she has confessed that Jesus healed her, after she tells the whole truth in front of a large crowd what had kept her on the fringes for twelve years, then Jesus tells her “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease.” With Jesus’s blessing, she is finally made well, saved from her suffering and restored to her community of faith.

But I wonder, after twelve years of suffering, how long it took that woman to tell the whole truth. I wonder how much fear and trembling can slow down a story. I wonder if the moment the woman’s twelve year flow of blood stopped if the blood stopped flowing through the twelve year old girl’s heart as well.

“While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, 'Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?’ ” 

“But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe.’ ”

Unpack raise dead

Messianic secret

Aramaic translation

There’s a lot to fear in the world right now. Wars, rumors of wars, economic forces, unruly rulers, dwindling finances, declining health. Our fear can find its focus almost anywhere. But Jesus reminds us “Do not fear, only believe.” Just as faith made the woman well, it can sustain us through whatever we are called to do.

We may run out of money, like the woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage. We may run out of time, like Jairus. We will never run out on the powerful love of God in Jesus Christ. Christ’s powerful love has ransomed us from our captivity to sin and death. Christ’s powerful love has healed our wounded souls. Christ’s powerful love has restored us to right relationship with the LORD our God. Christ’s powerful love has forgiven all our debts, and empowered us to sing praises to our heavenly king until the end of the age.

Therefore, let us get up, like the little girl, and tell our whole truth, like the woman who was healed. Let us spread the good news of the powerful love of Jesus Christ, and praise our everlasting king!