Encounters with Jesus-Two Daughters- Three with Unflinching Faith Part Two

                        Listen, O daughter,
Consider and incline your ear;
Forget your own people also, and your father’s house;
So the King will greatly desire your beauty;
Because He is your Lord, worship Him.

 Ps.45:10-11

Last week we began our study of the three who had unflinching faith found in Mark 5. This week we continue to look at the story of the other two who believed. It is the story of two daughters, who had an encounter with the eternal Father through Jesus. The first of these was a woman who had suffered for years, the other had been alive as long as the first had suffered and was sick for such a short time, but fell ill so quickly it cause her daddy great distress.

Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to Him; and He was by the sea. And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name. And when he saw Him, he fell at His feet and begged Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live.” So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed Him and thronged Him. Mark 5:21-25

This first encounter occurs between Jesus and Jairus, who’s daddy’s heart is being torn to pieces because his child has fallen ill and there isn’t anything he could do to make her better. How desperate he must have been to have left her bedside to go and seek out Jesus, a healer he’d heard about from Nazareth, to come and heal his daughter. Word had probably reached him of the miracle work. Maybe he’d heard of the demons being cast out and of the blind being made to see. Any hope of a cure was enough for a father with a child that ill. He says that she is at the point of death, which means she was probably in the final throws of dying. How incredibly difficult it had to be for him to watch his little girl suffer. Yet that was his child, and what else could he do? If there was any hope left to him he would do it. So he did it. He went, emptying himself of his position, of the community’s expectations, and whatever humiliation he would suffer, and fell at the feet of a carpenter from a little no place town, and begged for his daughter’s life. He believed that even still his daughter could live, if only Jesus would come to her and lay his healing hands upon her.

            Jesus saw Jairus’ pain, his intense love for his daughter, and went with him without hesitation. Why? Because Jesus saw the Father’s child, in intense pain, and in need. Who wouldn’t go when asked to help? The crowd around them began to swell with excitement. Word began to spread that miracle was going to happen in their town too because Jesus was on the move. Jairus had asked, and Jesus was on his way to heal. The crowd was anxious to watch. People wanted to see for themselves how this healing happened. Did fire come from heaven? Was there some kind of incantation he said? What was it that this healer did? They were pressing in to try to get close enough to see as they got closer and closer to Jairus’ house. It must have been very frustrating to Jairus that the people were getting in the way. He may have even been trying to keep people out of the way, and that might have even caused the disciples to do the same.

 Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse.  When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.” Mark 5:25-28

            In the midst of this frantic action there she is, another who has a need, who is desperate, and needs a healing. We don’t know her name, but we know her story. This is a woman who has given everything he has for a healing. She had reached the end as well. She was also dying, slowly but dying all the same. Under the customs of the time she was to be in isolation for the time she was bleeding, and so she’d lived away from the community for so long with the exception of female family members, and her father who could speak to her as we see when Laban spoke to Rachel. She was alone, but her father was probably not visiting her. She was unclean, like a leper, only her leprosy was not on the outside where others could see it. She was a ghost of the woman she could have been.

 There she was and in the midst of that crowd she thought if she could just get in Jesus’ space and touch Him. She wasn’t interested in how He healed, but that Jesus healed. He represented life, in complete body. She has been living as invisible for so long that maybe she felt she still was, so who would notice if she just reached out and touched him. He’s a healer. Could the healer not heal himself of her uncleanliness? She believed he could, and that he could heal her as well, and no one would have to know. She could keep it a secret. She had lived so unnoticed so why would anyone notice if she were healed?  

 Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.  And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?” Mark 5 29-30

She steps out in faith and reaches out, with a leader of the synagogue, Jairus, right beside Jesus, who could order her stoned for violating the law. Yet, she acted on her faith, and was healed. What must that have felt like for her to feel the strength she’d lacked for so long returning to her, to see the color returning to her arms and hands. She must have felt a rush of energy flow through her. She’d been healed! But she remained silent because she was still so used to being unseen, not speaking, and not heard. Her body was healed, but her spirit remained oppressed.

 But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’” And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. Mark 5:31-33

Those with him, who miraculously failed at keeping the crowd at bay so Jesus could get where He was going (not exactly qualified for the presidential detail), question how Jesus wasn’t touched. It would be the equivalent of asking a rock star if he made it through a crowd of fans without a single hand touching him. He asks who touched him and they respond, “Who didn’t touch you? Everyone is touching everyone!” But Jesus eyes settle on the woman who had been so invisible, and he sees her. Their eyes meet. She steps out of the crowd, and like Jairus, in humility, she falls down in front of him and for the first time in a very long time she finds her voice. She tells him everything. She’s being heard. He’s listening!

 And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.” Mark 5:34

            She gets more than a physical healing. She gets a total healing. She gets her life back because she gets acknowledged. He takes her up and says to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well.”  I’ve heard a lot made from the male perspective as to why Jesus called her ‘daughter’, but all of those reasons have to do with the customs of the times and how the only women who could touch a man were his wife, mother, or daughter, so He was calling her daughter to say that it was okay that she touched Him, and that could be, but I don’t think that was the only reason if it was His reason at all. I think He saw the Father’s child and was speaking on behalf of the Father. “I and My Father are one.” John 10:30  He praised her faith, and sent her away to take back her life and in the words, “be healed of your affliction,” He set her free from her isolation and healed her spirit as well as her body. This child’s needs were met and she could go on and be the woman He intended her to be before the illness stole her away. She leaves restored and renewed both in her life and in her faith.

 While He was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” Mark 5:35

Isn’t it just like the enemy to immediately throw something like this at poor Jairus? There he was, trying to get the healing he needed for his daughter, he watches this miraculous event happen, and he had to be thinking, “now I know He can save my baby girl, I just saw it happen!’ and here comes the news he’d been dreading. His daughter is dead. His heart breaks. His legs go weak. He feels his entire life crumbling as the thought of “why didn’t I just stay with her?’ goes through his mind. The avalanche of fear and grief begins to sweep him away, but then Jesus…

 As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not be afraid; only believe.” Mark 5:36

Jesus reminds Jairus that it was faith that brought him this far, and faith would bring him further if he would just hold onto it. And Jairus did. We know this because we see the rest of the story, that he did go on with Jesus, and didn’t go home and bury his daughter. Jairus followed Jesus’ lead.

 And He permitted no one to follow Him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James.  Then He came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and saw a tumult and those who wept and wailed loudly.  When He came in, He said to them, “Why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.” And they ridiculed Him. But when He had put them all outside, He took the father and the mother of the child, and those who were with Him, and entered where the child was lying. Mark 5:37-40

            The nay-sayers remained, the doubts loomed, the child was dead and the truth was right in front of him. Jairus was facing the corpse of his little girl. She was lying there, lifeless. She was not breathing, not moving, not laughing or crying, or calling for him, not suffering, but not warm and soft either. She was shell of what she’d been. She was gone, and Jairus could not bring her back. His faith had to be beyond the physical. It had to go to what he’d read in the scriptures. He knew from the scriptures that God had raised the dead to life. He’d read it. He knew it could happen. He had to hope it would happen to him and his family. He might have even thought, “Why not me?” And God thought the same thing. “Why not Jairus?”

 ^“Then He took the child by the hand, and said to her, “Talitha, cumi,” which is translated, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.”  Immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was twelve years of age. And they were overcome with great amazement.  But He commanded them strictly that no one should know it, and said that something should be given her to eat. Mark 5:41-43

Jairus’ daughter was brought back from death. He believed and he saw the result of that belief. He saw her spirit return to her body and that first breath drawing into her lungs. He saw her eyes open, her sit up, her walk around, and he felt her arms around his neck again! Jairus got his life back, and that grief and fear was gone! He was living scripture. And what does Jesus command him to do? To feed her and make sure no one knows what went on in that room. How could Jairus keep his living daughter a secret? He was a leader in the synagogue. We know his name someone talked about it, or his community did, not out of disobedience, but because how do you keep such a thing a secret. When person comes back from the dead word gets around.   

            God passionately loves his children. Sons and daughters can ask things from their parents knowing that the love of a parent will cause that parent to provide for the child. God has that kind of love for us, yet we sometimes doubt that God does for us what is needed. We tend to think that if we ask and we don’t get what we ask for it’s because God is in the wrong. What we need to understand is that God gives us the answer of a parent for a child, and that sometimes that is a no, a firm no, and sometimes that is a lavishing yes and then even more than you asked. At all times we need to trust that our faith is never in vain. We shouldn’t say we believe when things are going great, and when they aren’t we question that belief. It’s sort of like believing a family member exists then when they leave the room saying they don’t, or when you ask someone to do something for you, and they don’t, then you stop believing they were ever alive. “Hey, honey, hand me the remote.”  He says no, it’s closer to you then him and he leaves the room. Is it because he never lived? Have faith, your husband still exists. God still exists. He knows you, and He loves you more than you could ever know. You are His child.

Matt.7:7-11

 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!