When Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around Him; and so He stayed by the seashore. One of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up, and on seeing Him, fell at His feet and implored Him earnestly, saying, "My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live." And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him.
A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse-- after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. For she thought, "If I just touch His garments, I will get well." Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched My garments?" And His disciples said to Him, "You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, 'Who touched Me?'" And He looked around to see the woman who had done this. But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has saved you; go in peace and be healed of your affliction."
While He was still speaking, they came from the house of the synagogue official, saying, "Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?" But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, "Do not be afraid any longer, only have faith." And He allowed no one to accompany Him, except Peter and James and John the brother of James. They came to the house of the synagogue official; and He saw a commotion, and people loudly weeping and wailing. And entering in, He said to them, "Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep." They began laughing at Him. But putting them all out, He took along the child's father and mother and His own companions, and entered the room where the child was. Taking the child by the hand, He said to her, "Talitha kum!" (which translated means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!"). Immediately the girl got up and began to walk, for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were completely astounded. And He gave them strict orders that no one should know about this, and He said that something should be given her to eat.
Jairus implored Jesus, falling at Jesus’ feet, which recognized Jesus’ authority over him. He then humbly requested that Jesus heal his daughter, who was sick at home. So Jesus agreed to follow him home.
On the way was a woman who had suffered with bleeding for many years. Beside the physical infirmity, the bleeding also made the woman a social outcast, in which she could not be married, nor could she be touched by anyone. She was as outcast as a leper. Instead of approaching Jesus and making public her shame, she decided to just touch Jesus, and that would be enough to heal her. And it was as she believed—even as those who endured in Jesus’ word would be multiplied in the story of the soils. Jesus, though, felt that the Spirit’s power/authority he used had left him. Not wanting the healing to be a secret, he stopped and asked who touched him. The disciple’s response showed their ignorance of what he was speaking. Then the woman, thinking she was really in trouble, but unable to hide admitted what she did. Although she expected rebuke, Jesus did nothing of the kind. Jesus instead recognized her faith—her recognition that Jesus had the power of God, and her desperation that caused her to access that power impolitely. Jesus often recognized improper behavior as faith (Mark 10:46-52).
Before they were on their way to Jairus’ house again, one of Jairus’ companions came to Jairus and announced to him that his daughter had died, as Jesus was coming to heal. His limited faith was indicated when he said that there was no point to bother “the teacher” anymore—Jesus could heal the sick, but he could do nothing about the dead. This would make sense in the world system of the ancient Near East—a person who was sick was being attacked by an evil spirit in is world. Once a person was dead, then they crossed over to the realm of the dead, and no one returned once they crossed over. Jesus, however, recommended faith to Jairus, not fear. Fear, in this context, would be recognition that nothing could be done to help his daughter. Faith would be recognition that Jesus could still revive his daughter.
Jesus then limited the witnesses to the event that was about to happen. Many have seen him heal the sick, but if they saw him raise the dead, they would realize that God had given him full authority over even the realm of the dead—and he was not ready to announce this authority. So Jesus sent everyone away except for his closest disciples who, he felt, were ready to see his full power. When Jesus saw the many at Jairus’ house mourning, he made a mysterious statement—that the girl was not in the realm of the dead, but simply asleep. Their mocking of him made sense, for he had not seen the girl and did not recognize that she was fully dead, but (like the soil near the path), they had no faith in seeing the truth in what he said. Perhaps Jesus was saying that she had not arrived in the realm of the dead, so she was under the authority of the powers of this realm, and so possible to revive. Nevertheless, Jesus went to the room where the girl lay and commanded her to arise. Mark has the words in Aramaic first, and then a Greek translation. The Greek word used could mean to get out of bed, to be healed, or to be raised from the dead. So there is some vagueness—did Jesus raise her from the dead, or did he just “wake her up” from her illness? Nevertheless, this is a deeper healing than a simple rebuke to an illness.
We still have difficulty imagining that Jesus is more powerful than Death. Death, in our minds, is more powerful than God-- or at least we trust that it is more predictable than God. When someone is dead, they don't come back. We all know that.
Yet, Jesus' whole teaching is based on one premise: that God can and will resurrect the dead. Death is not an ultimate end, but it is a temporary state. If this is so, then God can resurrect the dead anytime.
A magnificent movie is called Ordet (1955-- check it out!) about a family full of religious people, all of whom have one struggle or another. One member is crazy, another is doubting, another is judgmental. Yet we see that if they just were able to believe in the basic premise of Jesus' belief-- that we will be resurrected from the dead-- then our struggles and separations and doubts and hungers and desires seem very small and unimportant.
The next time we fret about anything, let's compare it to an eternity of living with God in love and a community of justice. As important as it seemed to us at the time, if we set aside our fear of death, then we honestly have nothing to be afraid of.
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