Jairus' Daughter

Section 58
JAIRUS' DAUGHTER AND THE INVALID WOMAN
(Capernaum, same day as last)
MATT 9:18-26
MARK 5:22-43
LUKE 8:41-56

This section relates two healing miracles, one embedded within the other.  First, Jairus is desperate for Christ to heal his twelve year old daughter, his only child.  Within his encounter, a woman who has been suffering from bleeding for twelve years. These miracles give you a sense of the pressing nature of the humanity that sought Jesus, the urgency and deep need of these people, and of Christ's own pace and peace within their chaos.

"And Jesus arose and followed him, and so did his disciples"

"From Matthew's table. Jesus did not fast for form's sake, but he was ever ready to leave a feast that he might confer a favor."  -Fourfold Gospel

In the midst of his response to Jairus, he is interrupted by the actions of this unnamed woman:

"The nature of her disease made her unclean (Lev. 15:26). Her consciousness of this made her, therefore, timidly approach Jesus from behind."-Fourfold

"The hem or fringe of a garment, a tassel or tuft hanging from the edge of the outer garment according to Num_15:38. It was made of twisted wool. Jesus wore the dress of other people with these fringes at the four corners of the outer garment. The Jews actually counted the words Jehovah One from the numbers of the twisted white threads, a refinement that Jesus had no concern for. This poor woman had an element of superstition in her faith as many people have, but Jesus honours her faith and cures her." -Vincent's Word Studies

"To attach importance to external means of grace, rites, ordinances, sacraments, outward connection with Christian organisations, is the very same misconception in a slightly different form. Such error is always near us; it is especially rife in countries where there has long been a visible Church. It has received strange new vigour to-day, partly by reaction from extreme rationalism, partly by the growing cultivation of the aesthetic faculties. It is threatening to corrupt the simplicity and spirituality of Christian worship, and needs to be strenuously resisted. But the more we have to fight against it, the more do we need to remember that, along with this clinging to the hem of the garment instead of to the heart of its Wearer, there may be a very real trust, which might shame some of those who profess to hold a less sensuous form of faith."  -Andrew MacLaren

And the woman was made whole from that hour. [Faith healed her by causing her to so act as to obtain healing. Faith thus saves; not of itself, but by that which it causes us to do. It causes us to so run that we obtain.]  -Fourfold Gospel

I've always found this passage of the story odd:

And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” 
But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” 
-Luke 8:45-46

What does Christ mean by this questioning and his statement "for I perceive that power has gone out from me"?  I can't believe that as the Son of God he didn't a)know exactly who touched him  b)have complete control over who he healed and when, that power did not just go out from him.  It's all the more curious that these details are rendered from Luke, the physician.

The more obvious explanation would be that Jesus asked the question for others, not for himself, as a way of explaining and giving context to the miracle:

"To have permitted the woman to depart without this exposure would have confirmed her in the mistaken notion that Jesus healed rather by his nature than by his will. Hence he questions her, not that he may obtain information, but rather as a means of imparting it. By his questions he reveals to her that no work of his is wrought without his consciousness, and that it was himself and not his garment which had blessed her." -Fourfold Gospel

"We never go on an errand of mercy but we pass a hundred other sorrowing hearts, so close packed lie the griefs of men." -Andrew MacLaren

Back to the outward story of Jairus and his daughter:

by Jeremy Winborg

"The delay caused by healing this woman must have sorely tried the ruler's patience, and the sad news which followed it must have severely tested his faith; but we hear no word of murmuring or bitterness from him." -Fourfold

"When Jesus went into the home of the official and saw the musicians and the crowd of mourners,
he said, "Get out of here! The little girl isn't dead. She is just asleep." Everyone started laughing at Jesus. Matthew 9:23-24

"His words formed a criticism as to their judgment and experience as to death, and threatened to interrupt them in earning their funeral dues."
-Fourfold

"Jesus took with him five witnesses, because in the small space of the room few could see distinctly what happened, and those not seeing distinctly might circulate inaccurate reports and confused statements as to what occurred. Besides, Jesus worked his miracles as privately as possible in order to suppress undue excitement. -Fourfold

"...and took {b taking} the child {c her} by the hand, called, saying, {b saith} unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, {cMaiden,} b I say unto thee, Arise." Mark 9: 54-55

"Mark gives the Aramaic words which Jesus used. They were the simple words with which anyone would awaken a child in the morning." -Fourfold

"And her spirit returned." Luke 8:55

Christ needed the companionship of the Apostles because their faith counted. Do not mind small numbers; they are often the condition of Christ’s mightiest achievements. He will do what man cannot do, and leave man to do his little part. “Give her to eat.”

There was a certain sacredness about these tassels, as being part of the memorial dress enjoined by the Levitical Law, which, no doubt, induced the woman to touch this particular portion of the Saviour’s dress. And immediately her issue of blood stanched. This is not the only instance of this kind of strange faith mingled with superstition being signally rewarded. The case of the miraculous efficacy of the handkerchiefs and aprons which had had contact with Paul’s body (Act_19:12) is an interesting example. A still more startling one exists in the healing influence of the shadow of Peter falling on the sick as he passed along the street (Act_5:15). The lesson evidently intended to be left on the Church of Christ by this and similar incidents is a very instructive one. Faith in Christ is a broad inclusive term: it is accepted and blest by the Master, as we see from the gospel story, in all its many degrees of development, from the elementary shape which it assumed in the case of this poor loving superstitious soul, to the splendid proportions which it reached in the lives of a Stephen and a Paul. Faith in him, from its rudest form to its grandest development, the Master knew would ever purify and elevate the character.