Two Healings, One Story? — Bible Reflection for Tuesday, October 15

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Luke 8:40-56

A Dead Girl and a Sick Woman

     ⁴⁰ Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him. ⁴¹ Then a man named Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house ⁴² because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying.

     As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. ⁴³ And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. ⁴⁴ She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.

     ⁴⁵ “Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

     When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”

     ⁴⁶ But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”

     ⁴⁷ Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. ⁴⁸ Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

     ⁴⁹ While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher anymore.”

     ⁵⁰ Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.”

     ⁵¹ When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother. ⁵² Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,” Jesus said. “She is not dead but asleep.”

     ⁵³ They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. ⁵⁴ But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!” ⁵⁵ Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. ⁵⁶ Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.

Personally, I think this is one of the most interesting stories in all of the gospel accounts. Or maybe it’s actually two stories, not one. Maybe what makes the passage so interesting is that the cases of the dying young girl and the chronically ill woman are twisted together in such a way that they become one story. And there are some significant details that reinforce the idea that the Holy Spirit wants us to consider them together, not separately.

For one thing, there’s the matter of the twelve years. The hemorrhaging woman has been sick for twelve years, and the young girl is twelve years old. Numbers had special significance to the ancient Hebrews, and the number twelve had extra significance. There were twelve tribes of Israel. They made a pile of twelve stones to mark their crossing point at the Jordan river. When Judas committed suicide, the rest of the apostles instinctively felt the need to replace him, so there would be twelve of them. So the twelve years must not be a coincidence, even though none of the commentaries I’ve consulted – even the best ones – gives an explanation that makes sense to me.

Another thing that seems to link the two stories is the desperation of the people who came to Jesus for help. The sick woman came crawling in the dust of the road through a bunch of strangers’ feet, which seems pretty desperate. And gross. That would be especially true in the case of a woman who had an illness that made her ritually unclean. She would be forbidden to touch another person. If she did, that person would be ritually unclean. That’s presumably why she just touched the hem of Jesus’ clothes.

In the other part of the story, a man identified as “a ruler of the synagogue” threw himself at the feet of Jesus to ask for healing for his dying little girl. This was a Jewish leader begging help from someone who had already drawn the condemnation and hostility of much of the Jewish leadership. So the father was so desperate he was risking his place in the synagogue by coming to Jesus.

The third thing that connects the parts of the story is that in each case, a crowd of bystanders winds up playing a meaningful role in what happens. And in each case, the bystanders are clueless to what’s happening.

In the case of the hemorrhaging woman, we’re told that a crowd around Jesus almost crushes him. That’s the crowd the sick woman has to fight through to get to Jesus and be healed. But then, when power goes out from him to heal the woman, no one in the crowd has any idea something has happened.

Of course, Jesus knows – and he insists on stopping and finding out what has occurred. He somehow gets the crowd to make space for the woman to ‘come trembling and fall at his feet.’ Then she tells her story “in the presence of all the people,” and gets a blessing from Jesus before she goes back to her life, blessed and healed.

So at first, the crowd is an obstacle to this woman desperate for healing, but then it becomes a collective witness to the healing that has taken place. And that’s significant, because in the ancient Hebrew world, things weren’t considered ‘official’ until they were witnessed.

In the other part of the story, Jesus arrives at the home of the synagogue ruler, and finds another crowd. This time, it’s a crowd of mourners gathered to mark the death of the young girl. Jesus tells the crowd to stop wailing, that the girl is “not dead but asleep.” The response of the mourners is to laugh at Jesus.

Before resuscitating the girl, Jesus goes inside accompanied only by her distraught parents and his three ‘core disciples’ – Peter, James and John. Only after the crowd has been shut away from them does Jesus perform his miracle, taking the girl’s hand and restoring her to life. And before leaving, he tells the girl’s parents “not to tell anyone what had happened.”

So it seems that in the second part of the story, like the first, the crowd represents an obstacle that has to be overcome. Jesus seems to see their skepticism and mockery as an obstacle to the miracle he was about to perform.

There’s a tendency to think that if something draws a crowd, it must be good. But these two intertwined stories seem to suggest that a big crowd can be an obstacle as well as a help to the work that God is doing in the world. And what’s more, a crowd of people can be so misled by its own ideas and expectations that it becomes a jeering mob.

Big worship events in stadiums and arenas can be uplifting experiences. But maybe the lesson of this passage is that the real work of Jesus is not meant to be a spectacle measured by the crowds it attracts. Maybe the real measure of an encounter with Jesus is that it happens when a person realizes they’ve come to the end of their earthly resources, and in their desperation, throw themselves at Jesus’ feet.

It seems significant that in the midst of crowds pressing in from every side, it was when two people got down on their knees and reached out to Jesus that power flowed out of him and brought healing into the lives of those who desperately needed it.

Let’s pray. Lord, we rejoice that you make yourself available to us when we come seeking you, and that you extend your healing power through your Holy Spirit. Let that power flow into us to strengthen us for a life of authentic discipleship, and let it flow through us into the lives of others. Amen.

Grace and Peace,

Henry