The message behind the miracles
These two stories have lots in common.
1. Beginning with the twelve tribes of Israel in Genesis, through to the calling of the 12 apostles, the number 12 has always been important. Mark subtly inserts it here for his Jewish readers. The woman has been suffering for 12 years with her haemorrhage and Jarius’s daughter just happens to be… Ta dah!… 12 years old.
2. In both stories, the people are at absolute rock bottom. Jarius’s daughter is dying. Plain, simple and brutal. That is what is going on and for a while at least she is clinically dead. The woman with the haemorrhage “endured much under many physicians. She has spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse.” So not only is her physical health deteriorating, but her bank balance has declined to zilch. There are no more options for either of these people.
3. Both stories have a jostling, unbelieving crowd pitted against our Lord. With Jarius’s daughter it is the mourners who weep, wail and laugh at Jesus when he says that the girl is only sleeping. In the story of the woman it is the thrumming crowd that presses on every side. They point out that it is impossible to know who touched Jesus.
A couple of other interesting quirks I discovered. There is the curious line “The woman told him the whole truth” Now the whole truth might just have been a few words. “Yep, it was me.” But what if the whole truth was actually much more than that. What if she told Jesus the whole miserable story. How her husband had kicked her out and left her penniless. How she had slept rough on the rocky streets of Bethlehem, how she was abandoned by friends and growing weaker, more emotionally fragile every day. How she would have been ritually unclean according to the local religious leaders and so unable to participate in the worshipping life of the synagogue. Cut off spiritually, as well as every other facet of community and family life. There is a certain kind of healing which happens when you can safely tell all and be listened to. It is affirming and life giving.
There is also a note of caution here for all those who are ministers and that is everyone here. We all minister to each other. My note of caution is that just as Jesus felt the power go out of him when the woman touched the hem of his garment, so too, every time that we bring healing and help to others, we give away something of ourselves. The battery is invisibly depleted in some very real way and it is our solemn responsibility to make sure that it is continuously recharged in order that we might continue to minister to others. This is particularly so for clergy and it is another one of those many things that clergy can be terrible at.
There are at least two levels to these miracles. One is the outward story of the healing. The physical restoration to life of Jarius’s daughter and the healing of the woman. Jesus down plays this. “Jesus strictly ordered them that no one should know this.”
Level two is the really important, dazzling beauty of these stories. Jesus did not dwell on his amazing miraculous powers, he healed people out of love. Jesus did not want people to talk about the miracles. He really wanted them to believe deeply in his Father, not because he could perform miracles; rather he wanted them to have a deep understanding of the love of Christ. A reaction to a miracle is superficial and probably short term, but to be deeply convicted of the love of Christ in response to a miracle, is life changing. It was this transformation of spirit that Jesus wanted and he knew that this required deep spiritual contemplation, conviction and growth. This would not happen in a superficial frenzy of supernatural entertainment in a response to a miracle. The message of the miracles is not the dramatic “Abracadabra.. Hey Presto,” of physical healing. The real miracle is the absurd and preposterous faith of Jarius and the woman. This is who we are called to be. To grow into their faith is our exciting and lovely vocation.