Articles
Twelve Year-Old Defilement and Twelve Year-Old Resurrection
Mark 5:21-43 contains a miracle story within a miracle story. The “frame” of this passage deals with the death and resurrection of Jairus’ twelve year-old daughter (5:21-23, 35-43). The center of this sandwich is the story of an unnamed woman who has been hemorrhaging for twelve years (5:24-34). The events are sandwiched this way in all three gospels they appear in.
The two miracle stories have several interesting points of connection. Both stories discuss the importance of faith. Jesus tells the woman that here “faith” has saved her (5:34) and tells Jairus that he needs to stop fearing and have “faith” (5:36). Both stories involve Jesus making a statement that is viewed as absurd by those around him. Concerning the menstruous woman, Jesus asks “Who touched my garments?” which the disciples find ridiculous since the who crowd is pressing on him (5:30-31). Concerning Jairus’ daughter, Jesus says, “The child had not died, but is asleep” which provokes mocking from the mourners in the house (5:39-40). Both stories involve an attempt to conceal the miracle. The menstruous woman tries to touch Jesus’ garment secretly (5:27-28), and only reveals the miracle publicly when Jesus calls her out (5:33). Jairus’ daughter is likewise raised with an extremely small number of witnesses (5:37, 40), and Jesus forbids everyone from making the miracle known to the public (5:43). The two stories are also [coincidentally?] connected by the mention of twelve years. The little girl that is raised is “twelve years old” (5:42), and the woman has been bleeding for “twelve years” (5:25).
The menstruous woman had a terrifying dilemma. According to the Levitical laws, every person in the crowd that she touched with her discharge would have become ceremonially unclean (Lev 15:25-30). In the Mosaic purity laws, the uncleanness from this kind of discharge was one of the most defiling and contaminating things that could happen to a person, and it had barred her from the presence of God for twelve years. Yet when this woman touches Jesus, she does not defile him! Rather, the Lord himself makes her clean! Defilement is normally contagious, while holiness is not (Hag 2:10-14). But in this instance, the holiness of the Lord Jesus causes her to become cleansed!
The degree of this woman’s faith is also impressive. She recognizes Jesus as the source of cleansing that he is. She knows that she doesn’t even really need to converse with him. Simply touching the fringe of his garment will cleanse her. We have no way of knowing how she came to the conclusion that this would work. It is unlikely that she learned it from the physicians that she had spent so much money on (Mark 5:26). Human doctors have only made her situation worse. But Jesus informs this woman that her trust has made her well (5:34). Literally, it has “saved” her. Unlike the disciples, whom Jesus had to rebuke for having “no trust” (4:40), this woman gets it. Jesus is the Lord Messiah who will even inscribe “Holy to the Lord” on the bells of unclean horses (Zech 14:20). Surely, he has the power to cleanse this woman!
The healing of the hemorrhaging woman is doubtlessly a source of exhortation to Jairus himself. During all the commotion, Jairus receives the unthinkable news that his daughter has already died (5:35)! In the minds of the messengers, the entire proceeding is now a waste of time. After all, who can raise the dead? Cleansing the defilement from menstrual impurity is one thing, but cleansing the defilement of death itself? That’s too tall of an order for some people! But Jesus turns from the woman whose faith has saved her (5:34) to tell Jairus to have faith (5:36). The woman had “feared” discovery (5:33), but Jesus praised her for her faith. Jairus, similarly, is told not to “fear” any longer, but to have faith (5:36). Fear and trust are intertwined opposites throughout these two stories.
One of the most remarkable features of the resurrection of Jairus’ daughter is how Jesus deliberately limits the audience. Only three of his own disciples get to see what happens (5:37)! Jesus doesn’t perform any elaborate rituals or engage in any kind of strange shamanic behavior. He simply speaks with his voice of authority: “Talitha qum!” (5:41) and she immediately complies. The one who commands the wind and the waves to be still (4:39) is also capable of commanding the still corpse to reanimate. The voice that stopped the wind restarts her breath.
Most puzzling is the notion that they should not tell anyone about the dead girl arising (5:43). This is directly contrasted with the Gerasene man in 5:19-20, whom Jesus told to proclaim the miracle to everyone! Why is this situation different? One possibility might be that the Gerasene man lived in a Gentile area, where people farmed pigs, while Jairus was a synagogue official at the heart of a Jewish community. The Gentiles get the message of Jesus freely, but the Jews must have it concealed from them. The secrecy of the event would allow those who did not believe Jesus to rationalize it away. Maybe he was right the first time! Maybe she really just was asleep (5:39)! Why believe that Jesus is raising dead girls to life in secret?
Of course, the raising to life in secret foreshadows another resurrection, where the tomb of Jesus is found empty (16:6), and where the witnesses are told to inform others (16:7)—but they say nothing to anyone out of fear (16:8)! How much more now do we need faith in God! The Christ who cleanses and raises the dead has himself risen from the dead. The world can rationalize it away all they want, or they can accept the evidence of his resurrection. What will it be for us?
