Dr. Jay Walters was my professor of political thought in college. I’m so grateful to him for many things, not the least of which was the confidence he gave me that I was (or could be) academically capable. Another was a tip on reading ancient Greek documents. “Pay attention to what comes in the middle,” he said.
This week’s Gospel reading may be a good case in point. This story is typically referred to as the Raising of Jairus’ daughter. We are never told the little girl’s name. That story is interrupted in the middle by another story, that of the healing of the woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage for 12 years. Like the little girl, she is not given a name, but we do learn some very important things about her.
She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well” (Mk. 5:26-28)
If Dr. Walters was right, it may be that the point has more to do with the woman with the hemorrhage than with the daughter of Jairus.
You may remember from last week (stilling the storm on the Sea of Galilee) that at least I think Jesus has been using this part of his travels to teach about what faith means. I think the passage we have this week is more of the same.
Here are some key points about the main characters.
Jairus asked Jesus to do something (alter his travels to come and heal his daughter). The woman took it on herself to sneak up on Jesus, if you will, and touch his clothes. She did not ask permission nor did she speak to Jesus at all before being healed. She’s more of a DIY sort of person. I think of her faith that way.
Though brief, something of a relationship developed between Jesus and the woman. Jesus felt the power go out of him and began to look for who had touched him, which his disciples thought a little peculiar since the crowd was pressing in on him. “But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth” (v. 33). The woman overcame her fear to approach Jesus. Now that’s beginning to sound like faith.
Jairus also came into a relationship with Jesus when he sought Jesus out and asked for help about something obviously on his heart.
Jesus, however, responded to the woman in public, right out there in front of everyone. Not so with Jairus. In that case, Jesus worked in secret with only the girl’s parents and his closest followers present. Indeed, he orders those who witnessed his raising of the girl to tell no one about it.
Jesus responded to Jairus and the woman a little differently as to the matter of faith. He commended the woman for her faith. “Daughter, your faith has made you well” (v. 34). He encouraged rather than commended Jairus, though. “Do not fear, only believe” (v. 36). (Believe is a most unfortunate translation, in my opinion, because the Greek work in both cases is the same. It is translated as faith in one case and as believe in the other, but it is the same word in Greek. Jesus is saying in both cases that faith is what allows us to overcome fear.) The woman displayed faith. Jairus was encouraged to have what she already did.
The point, it seems to me, is not what you think is going to happen or even the assurance of what is going to happen. Jesus has not said anything to Jairus, after all, about what he has in mind. He told Jairus to be like the woman, to meet his fear about his daughter’s death with courage just as the woman met her fear with the courage to approach Jesus. Faith is about courage. It is not about what you think. It is about how you overcome fear.
Agape,
+Stacy
Bishop Stacy Sauls