Reaching Out

Here’s a story from Mark’s gospel about Jesus healing people.

Jairus, a local leader of the synagogue, comes to Jesus and begs for his help. His daughter is very sick and he's desperate. Jesus agrees to go with him to his home, but, by now, he's constantly surrounded by crowds who've heard the stories about him, and he's not moving too quickly. A woman, "who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years" that no doctor could heal, comes up to Jesus in the crowd, desperately believing that if she could only touch him, she would be healed. She does, and is healed, but Jesus notices that something's happened and asks who touched him. Afraid, the woman admits to it and Jesus tells her that her faith has healed her and sends her on her way. But that's held Jesus up and people come from Jairus' house to tell him that his daughter is dead. Jesus says to him, "do not fear, only believe," and heads to his house anyway. He tells them that she is not dead, but only sleeping. He takes her hand and tells her to get up. She does and is alive and, as if to prove it, hungry.

Mark tells it way better (Matthew and Luke do, as well). It's a long story, but that’s the gist of it. You might even be tempted to say it’s two stories, not one, and one interrupts the other. Sure, they’re two separate interactions, but they’re stronger together and share a common theme.

Is this a miracle story? You bet! And if you’re happy with “Jesus has the power to heal physical ailments, even death,” sure, yes, that could be the story here. But we can draw closer to Jesus and learn the most by recognizing another life giving miracle that we’re all capable of. 

Jairus is a leader of the community, he has status and probably some wealth. He even gets a name in the story. But that can't help his daughter who's dying, so he reaches out to Jesus in desperation. The woman who literally reaches out in desperation may well have once been wealthy - she could afford doctors - but her illness has made her poor and an outcast. Her illness would have made her ritually unclean. She shouldn’t have been anywhere near the crowd, let alone in it and close enough to Jesus to touch him. As far as society was concerned, she was already dead. Just like Jairus’s daughter seems to be when he gets there. And yet, he touches her - something which would have made Jesus ritually unclean - and tells her to get up.

Other than the potential for them both to render Jesus ritually unclean in front of many witnesses, it seems like they couldn’t be more different.

Except they’re not, at least not to Jesus. He makes time for them both, as they need, and returns them both to life - in front of many witnesses.

There’s another miracle here. It’s not just the two that are healed of illness, it’s the many people who were healed of their fear of helping others by seeing Jesus boldly embrace those in need. It’s the many who were healed of their fear of challenging society’s structures and engaging someone in need simply because they were in need. Who they are, how they are, whatever society may have said about them, none of that matters to Jesus. All God’s children are worthy of love, grace and healing as they need and when they need. There’s always time for compassion.