Jairus & His Daughter
Open Your Bible
Mark 5:21-43, Leviticus 15:25-27, Revelation 21:4
BY Melanie Rainer
Stories like those from today’s passage of Jairus’s daughter and the bleeding woman aren’t just about miraculous healings. They also reveal to us what radical love for our neighbor looks like, what it means to deny social norms, and how legalism is disrupted—things Jesus embodied when He walked on the earth. Everything Jesus does is radical, but this particular passage alights something deep within my soul. I am just bowled over by the goodness of our Savior. This passage shows us how everything takes a backseat to the divinity and radical love of Christ.
A woman with a twelve-year-long menstrual discharge, which has made her ceremonially unclean (Leviticus 15:25–27), goes into public looking for Jesus, believing He can heal her—if only she can touch the hem of His robe (Mark 5:25,28).
A leader in the local synagogue (Jairus) comes looking for Jesus, begging Him to heal his daughter (Mark 5:22–23). Jesus goes to the man’s house and touches his dead daughter, and miraculously, she is healed (Mark 5:41).
He healed the woman and He raised the girl from the dead, even though in doing so, He has also made Himself “unclean,” according to levitical law. He does not call attention to Himself, shouting from the rooftops, “Look what I’m doing! Healing WOMEN! Touching the UNCLEAN! Breaking the LEVITICAL LAW! And in the house of a SYNAGOGUE LEADER!” Instead, He speaks with gentleness: “Don’t be afraid. Only believe” (Mark 5:36). He instructs those present not to tell anyone what He’s done (v.43).
Following the rules did not save Jairus’s daughter, nor did visiting the experts stop the woman from bleeding. But belief did—faith that Jesus was who He said He was and would do what He said He would do. Jairus and the bleeding woman did not let fear cover them, but rather an insistent, consuming faith.
Even as I type this, my heart is beating faster than it normally does, anxiety swelling up inside me for so many reasons. I’m worried about health, finances, my church family, the aftermath of tornadoes that touched down in our city in early spring, a global pandemic and resulting quarantine, the need for racial reconciliation within the Church and the country and around the world—and so much more. I fear death. I fear pain. I want to hunker down on the couch and never leave my house again.
But Jesus has two lessons for me from today’s reading in Mark. First, He calls me to live and love as radically as He did. Jesus denied custom and law to touch the sick and heal them. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus prioritizes the weak, the poor, the outcast, the suffering. As I seek to follow Him, I must do this too.
Second, I long for faith and love to chase away fear (1John 4:18), to trust the character of Jesus, to believe that He will accomplish all He has promised to do. I long to believe that the promise revealed to John in Revelation 21:4 is true: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.” His words are my only hope in life and in death: “Don’t be afraid. Only believe.”
45 thoughts on "Jairus & His Daughter"
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Both the woman with the issue of blood and Jarius were dealing with health issues.
The woman had tried everything in her power and yet for 12 years had suffered both from the illness and the stigma of being constantly unclean. This would have caused a type of isolation or quarantine from others, probably physical weakness, and scripture tells us nothing had helped, she was worse. Her faith told her Jesus could/would heal her, but the years of being unclean, unworthy, weighed so heavily on her that she tried to get close enough to touch Him for the healing, without “bothering” Jesus.
Jarius didn’t have “time,” his daughter was dying. He had one hope, his faith in Jesus Christ. This powerful man came humbly before the Lord and begged for Jesus to come.
Jesus knew the woman had touched Him taking healing with her. He brought her healing to light, not because the touch upset Him (as I believe she feared), but so that she would know His love. He stopped, in the moment, so that she would know that she, and her needs mattered.
When Jesus stopped to help the woman, I can only imagine Jarius’s panicked heart. There wasn’t time to stop. I’m sure he was glad for the woman’s healing. He recognized that he was at the mercy of Jesus, on Jesus’s schedule, and yet his daughter’s life lay in the balance. Then worst seemed to happen, she died. Except, Jesus is not bound by time. Jesus is not bound by death. He encouraged Jarius to not be afraid, but believe. And, Jarius’s daughter was healed.
Our Creator-God, El Elyon, meets each of us right where we are. Our differences do not hinder Him, He created us. He loves us, in the present. He is limitless. He is almighty. He is.
In the He Reads Truth devotional today I quote, “The faith we are called to have as Christians is powerful because our faith is in the finished work of our God, not the future work of our own hands.” Powerful Jarius, the weary-worn woman with the issue of blood, and tomorrow’s woman at the well…they all, we all, have a different story and yet, our God, our Savior and Lord, is present in the present intimately with us; “way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness.” Our God. Our Father.
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Well said!
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And imagine the pain of guilt for the bleeding woman if Jairus’ daughter had died. Jesus also spared her that weight. He is totally benevolent. Always—but not without cost. He felt “the power go out of him.” When we serve as he did, it will deplete us for a time. But the fount supplies all we need.
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❤️love it.
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I’ve always judged the Pharisees and those who spoke out against Jesus saying “you’re breaking the Law!” How can they not see this is the Christ? The one they’ve been waiting for? Who cares about the Law? But then you read passages like Leviticus today. They’d spent hundreds of years observing this Law, meticulously. And Jesus just waltz in and not only touches one unclean person but TWO (women no less) in complete opposition to the Law. Our God is RADICAL and frankly a rebel. I love it.
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Has anyone else noticed how Jesus tells the people after His miracles not to tell anyone but if you go on and read they go out and tell everyone. I’ve always wondered about that. Why does He tell them this if He knows they are going to go out and tell people. Wow, Melanie, said it in her devotional. We have to have faith and believe. That is so much easier said than done. Revelation 21:4 is something I needed right now, to be reminded that God has my back in my grief and mourning. My faith got me through the death of my son and it will get me through the death of my niece. I have told my sister, “We now have two guardian angels, one for each shoulder.” SRT sisters, I thank you for all your prayers for the few months, they have helped me make it through. It is time to start a new season in my life I believe.
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Daughter of the King, praying for you, Jesus protection and provision, may you feel His strength and love around you as you look for work. And find a position that truly blesses you. Blessed Beth thank you for your words. Lovely. May we all be about our Father’s business of loving others with His mercy and grace. Draw near Sisters for He loves us so completely.
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I am also greatly struck by remembering Jesus’ radical love, how He denied social norms, and disrupted legalism. I am unsure of what I am doing in the efforts of racial reconciliation and the long-needed justice work in systemic racism, but I will look to Jesus. I have felt God impress upon me these past few days that I really need to immerse myself into scripture. It is this reminder that as I desire to do this work well, I need to remember God’s love and the justice work of Jesus. God, forgive us as we try to do this work on our own. Lead us Jesus. Help us to love radically, it is hard and scary and sometimes we just do not want to – help us. Help us not to be afraid, but to only believe. Guide us Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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How can we radically love others in these times? The word radical struck me as I recently saw a quote “your current idea of what is radical might be the future’s vision of what is just.” What Jesus did in His day and age was radical. What we see happening now in response to racial injustices is considered radical by some. Regardless of one’s stance on this issue, we are called to love others with the radical love of Jesus. I firmly believe that God loves and celebrates diversity and we see that manifested in the gifts and talents He has given to each one of us. Like Blessed Beth mentioned, her way of radically loving is writing cards, praying, and cooking for her neighbors. For me I feel called to march in solidarity with those suffering and marginalized through protesting. How has God called you to radically love others in this time? I pray that we would have eyes to see where God is leading us, ears to hear Him speaking to us “Don’t be afraid; only believe” and hands and feet to walk in obedience to His calling. <3
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Love this, Taylor!
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❤️
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