As we enter into this story, let’s recap what’s been going on so far . . .
Jesus is this “rockstar” Rabbi . . . very popular, lots of friends on facebook, packs out the house every time he speaks . . . and everywhere He went, thousands of people followed him. They want to ask him questions. They want him to pray for them. They want him to plant a church, teach a bible study, or meet their “urgent” needs in some way.
And among those in the crowd were also critics who opposed him, and wanted to challenge his every move. And this has been going on for a lengthy season . . . so as you can imagine . . . Jesus is exhausted and he just needs a break.
He tells the disciples to pull up the boat and to take him to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, so that he might actually get a day off because the Sea of Galilee is 12 miles across and they’re in a row boat so it’s gonna take a while.
So Jesus is sleeping in this boat and the disciples are exhausted, taking turns rowing into the complete darkness of the Sea. When without warning, a storm smashes into the little boat with an angry fury.
The disciples are totally freaked out and in fear of their lives, and although they know that Jesus needs some rest, they also know that he’s got to do something so they wake him up and tell him, “Jesus, you need to do something.”
And so Jesus just commands creation to “Be still” and to “shut its mouth” and it obeys him.
They continue to row to the other side of the lake. And when they arrive, instead of being greeted by someone ready to give Jesus a drink with an umbrella in it, he is immediately met by a demon possessed man. That’s Jesus’ big day off! A crazy storm and now a demon possessed man.
He casts the demons out of the man, ministers to those people, gets back in the boat, goes back across the lake, gets out of the boat, and here’s this entirely new crowd of needy people.
It’s like everybody took the day off of work, and got out of school, and they’re all just waiting on the shore. Everybody’s got a number and they’re lined up, waiting for their appointment with Jesus with their list of needs in hand.
And among this crowd was a man named Jairus who is a known and respected spiritual leader in the synagogue. His official role was to supervise the observance of the law, especially things that were clean and unclean.
But not only was he a spiritual leader, he was also a daddy who loved his daughter very much. Perhaps he coached her soccer team, or attended her ballet recitals or listened to her practice her piano with pride in only a way that a daddy coul. I am sure that he tended to her religious education so that she would be a proper young Jewish maiden, soon to be of marriageable age.
But now, Jairus’ 12 year old daughter was dying.
And so this respected religious leader uses his social status and power in order to approach Jesus. He throws himself at the feet of Jesus, desperately begging him to come to his home and heal his daughter. This is a man who will do anything and everything to see his little girl get better. What daddy wouldn’t do that for his little girl?
But also among this crowd was a woman who has been bleeding for 12 years. As long as Jairus’ little girl has been alive, this woman has been bleeding.
And she is desperate. She has tried every form of treatment. She’s gone to the doctor. She’s tried alternative therapy. She has prayed. She has fasted. She has gone to healing centers. She has done everything that medicine would make available to her.
And in doing so she has spent all of her money and she is now absolutely impoverished.
This woman has been bleeding for 12 years. The doctors haven’t been able to cure her, she has no money to support herself and the church keeps sending her away because of her impure status. You see, it was very clear under the old covenant that this woman was unclean because of her bleeding.
Leviticus chapter 15 spells it out very clearly . . . if you want to check it out
Here’s what this means. No one has touched her for 12 years. No one has hugged her. No one has laid a hand on her to pray for her. No one has held her hand to comfort her. She can’t be in crowds. She’s not married. She doesn’t have children. She’s not allowed to go to church to join God’s people in worship. She has no community group. She has no hope. She is isolated and lonely in her suffering.
- The only thing worse than suffering . . . is suffering in isolation!
- This bleeding . . . this un-cleanliness . . . defines who this woman is.
And she hears that Jesus comes into town. She knows that she’s not supposed to be near the crowd. She’s not supposed to touch anyone because she will make them ritually unclean.
But unlike Jairus’ daughter, she doesn’t have an advocate to go on her behalf and so she summons up a truck load of courage and somehow she presses through the crowd and when she gets to Jesus, she reaches out and touches the corner of his garment.
I want to talk about this garment for just a minute . . .
In Numbers chapter 15, God tells his people to attach tassels to the corners of their garments so they will have this constant visual reminder to live as he created them to live and to obey his commands.
And to this day, observant Jews will wear a prayer shawl to obey this text. And on this shawl are four tassels on each corner.
The Hebrew word for “corners” is Kanaf and the tassels are (seet-see)
The prayer shawl is mentioned in a lot of different places in the bible but one of the most significant is in the prophet Malachi’s prediction about the coming Messiah.
He says, “the son of righteousness will rise with healing in its Kanaf.”
Essentially, what he says is that when the Messiah came, there would be special healing powers in the tassels of his prayer shawl.
Now, Jesus is a Torah observant Jewish Rabbi and what that means is that he would have been wearing a prayer shawl. So, when this woman reaches out and touches the corner of his garment, she is demonstrating that she believes Jesus is the Messiah and so she reaches out in faith, trusting, knowing, and believing that if she could just touch the tassel on the end of his robe, she could be healed.
And in that instant when her finger tips touched the edge of His garment . . . the (seet-see), the power of God is unleashed and her soul is healed and her body is healed. Twelve years of bleeding, of un-cleanliness . . . it’s over in an instant.
Jesus asks, “Who touched me?” I think this is more of a rhetorical question. It’s not that he doesn’t know but rather he is inviting her to come forward and publically confess what she’s done.
Now, what happens next is that Peter speaks. Peter has this fantastic ability to fill in silence with stupidity. When it’s a good moment to not speak, that’s when Peter leaps into action.
When all denied it and there’s like this awkward quiet moment, Peter jumps in, “master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you”
Really, Peter? Thanks, I had no idea that these were all people around me, and that the pushing was from people. What would I do without you and your tremendous insights, Peter? “
Sometimes in scripture, you kind of get the idea that ministry happens in spite of his disciples, not because of them. And I have to be honest, that gives me a great sense of hope. God’s still gonna do stuff despite me!
Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.”
Well, at this point the woman realizes that she’s been found out. So she emerges out of this crowd, trembling, and falling down before him. She’s scared and she’s wondering, “Will Jesus reject me? Will he publically shame me? Have I made him unclean? Will this crowd cast me out? I’m not supposed to be here. Will I be brought up on charges for defiling a whole group of people?”
But Jesus doesn’t do anything to embarrass her, shame her, further condemn he simply acknowledges her. He says, “Daughter, your faith has made you well: go in peace”. This is the only person that Jesus ever calls “daughter”.
You see this woman doesn’t have a Jairus. She doesn’t have a daddy to do what Jairus has done for his little girl. She doesn’t have a daddy who says, “sweetheart, wait here, I’m gonna go get Jesus, and I’m gonna beg him to come and heal my daughter that I love, and adore, and cherish.”
Instead, she needs to take care of herself. She needs to pay her own medical bills. She needs to go on her own journey towards Jesus. She has to have faith that Jesus is the Messiah and its worth all the risk to get to meet him.
And when she does . . . Jesus calls her, “Daughter” and he does this in the midst of a crowd who has cast her out to the fringes of society and written her off as someone who is unclean and unworthy to be in the presence of God and his people.
And he does this to honor this woman with dignity and affection, to restore her to the congregation of God’s people. No longer is she defined by her bleeding and her un-cleanliness. She is now defined as a daughter, who is loved and cherished, and adored . . . and now restored.
And then Jesus says to her, “Go in Peace”. The word Jesus would have used is “Shalom” and its not completely accurate to translate it simply as peace.
- For most of us, we understand peace to be the absence of conflict. We talk about peace in the home or in the world or giving peace a chance. But the Hebraic understand of shalom is far more than just the absence of conflict.
- Shalom is the presence of the goodness of God. It’s the presence of wholeness and completeness.
So when Jesus tells the woman to go in peace, he is placing the blessing of God on all of her. Not just on her physical body but her entire being.
You see, that’s what Jesus does . . . he loves, and he forgives and he ultimately goes to the cross so that unclean people can be made clean and that broken people can be made whole . . . that’s just what he does . . . and restores us and he sends us out with Shalom, the presence of the goodness of God.
No longer are we identified by our un-cleanliness we are now defined by Shalom. This is a powerful, life changing experience for this woman . . . but what about the little girl?
Jairus, is waiting as Jesus heals, and loves, and serves this woman who’s been suffering as long as his daughter’s been alive. He’s been patient but he’s hoping and he’s praying, “If I can just get Jesus to my little girl, then maybe she’ll live”
I don’t know who this guy is but has no tact or pastoral affection when he brings news that Jairus’ daughter is dead. He shows up and he says, “Jairus, you can stop bothering Jesus, she’s dead”
I can’t image what that felt like, not being there when your little girls breathes her last breathe. He wasn’t there to say good-bye or to give her one last kiss on the forehead. He wasn’t able to hold her hand one last time to let her know that Daddy loves you and he will always be here for you.
This man is destroyed. His life is in shambles. And his daughter is dead.
And Jesus says, don’t be afraid . . . just believe
It’s interesting . . . the stories that have been woven together over the past few weeks have been about faith verses fear.
- When chaos, suffering, crisis, trauma, or tragedy occur . . . it’s possible to respond in fear. “Nothing will change. Don’t go to Jesus. Don’t bother him with your problems. Give up. It doesn’t matter anyway.
- Or there’s faith, “I’ve gotta get to Jesus because I believe who is and that he will make a difference. He may not make the chaos go away but he will at least give me the strength to get through it”
Jesus said to the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years, daughter your faith has made you well and here, Jesus is inviting Jairus to have faith in him over fear in the circumstance.
Jesus continues his journey to Jairus’ house but he only brings three of his disciples. This is a part of their training. You see, ministry is about being invited into the sacred moments of people’s lives where they’re repenting, or they’re growing, or they’re changing, or they dying, or they’re suffering. And Jesus is bringing these disciples so that they can observe . . . because ministry is often caught, not taught.
When Jesus arrives at the home he finds the mother holding her daughter’s lifeless body, and she’s weeping and sobbing. And outside the room you can hear family, friends, co-workers, neighbors. There are other 12 year old girls that are her friends, and they’re emotional and they’re holding each other, and everyone is weeping.
And Jesus looks all around and says, “What’s up with all of the commotion . . . Don’t cry, she’s not dead she’s just sleeping” and quickly the weeping turns to laughter . . . are you crazy, Jesus?
Our text says that he put them all out . . . but probably more accurately, he threw them out.
And then he takes the little girl by the hand and he says to her, “Child, rise up”. And she opens her eyes, and the first person she sees is Jesus. The first voice she hears is Jesus. The first touch she feels is Jesus.
And her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And Jesus directed that something be given to her to eat. He considerate; she’s hungry. She’s been ill.
Her parents were amazed and I’m sure that they wanted to tell everyone what had happened . . . our little girl was dead but now she is alive. I don’t know why but Jesus told them not to tell anyone.
These are powerful stories in and of themselves but woven together this is a beautiful picture of all who are saved by faith.
We are the bleeding woman. I don’t know the specifics of what your hemorrhage looks like . . . what it feels like . . . how you endure it . . . what others tell you about it.
But I have little doubt that something in you is yearning for healing . . . begging for relief . . . seeking after a blessing . . . and willing to believe. And really, the desire to believe is enough. All we need to do is to approach Jesus, bleeding and believing.
And we all, one day, will be in the place of this young girl. We will all die. And if our faith is in Jesus, we will die in him and we will rise like him, forever to be with him.
On the other side of death Jesus will be there to meet you. You will see his face and you will feel his touch and you will hear his voice say, “child, and rise up”.
And all of this will happen because Jesus is the one who went to the cross and bled like the woman and he died like the little girl and he rose that in him, we might rise to be together forever with him.
And so this morning, come to the hem of God’s garment and claim your rightful place as a child of God’s because sons and daughters . . . your faith has already made you well.