The Parallel Healings of Jesus (Mark 5:21-43)

Desperate 

Vs. 22, 26 – Both the father and the woman were desperate to get Jesus’ help.

• Mark 5:22-23 (NLT) When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet, pleading fervently with him. “My little daughter is dying,” he said. “Please come and lay your hands on her; heal her so she can live.”
• Mark 5:26 (NLT) She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse.
• (Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Abridged Edition (2 Volumes)) “synagogue rulers”. These were laymen whose responsibilities were administrative, not priestly, and included such things as looking after the building and supervising the worship.
  • Father was desperate enough to seek Jesus
• (IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, Second Edition) Since she could not bear children in this state, and Jewish men often divorced women who were incapable of bearing (cf., e.g., Pseudo-Philo, Biblical Antiquities 42:1), this woman probably had never married or (if the sickness began after marriage) had been divorced and remained single. In a society where single, celibate women could not easily earn much income, the illness affected virtually every area of her life.
  • Physical, social, financial, spiritual implications of uncleanness. 
  • Woman was desperate enough to enter the crowd and break the rules

12 Years

Vs. 25, 42 – Both had the number 12 associated with them. The woman had the medical condition for 12 years. Jairus’s daughter was 12 years old. This can represent the restoration and spiritual resurrection God wants to do in his people as represented in the 12 tribes and 12 disciples.

• Mark 5:42 (NLT) And the girl, who was twelve years old, immediately stood up and walked around! They were overwhelmed and totally amazed.
• Mark 5:25 (NLT) A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding.

Daughters

Vs. 23, 34a – Both were labeled in the text as “daughter”. This was a counter cultural thing for Jesus to focus on women.

• Mark 5:23 (NLT) pleading fervently with him. “My little daughter is dying,” he said. “Please come and lay your hands on her; heal her so she can live.”
• Mark 5:34 (NLT) And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”

Unclean

Vs. 27-29, 35, 41 – Both the issue of blood and the death of the young girl would have meant ritual uncleanliness, yet it was physical contact with Jesus that healed them both.

• Mark 5:41 (NLT) Holding her hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means “Little girl, get up!”
• Mark 5:27-28 (NLT) She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.”
  • Leviticus 15:19 (NLT) “Whenever a woman has her menstrual period, she will be ceremonially unclean for seven days. Anyone who touches her during that time will be unclean until evening.
  • Leviticus 15:27 (NLT) If any of you touch these things, you will be ceremonially unclean. You must wash your clothes and bathe yourself in water, and you will remain unclean until evening.
  • Leviticus 15:28 (NLT) When the woman’s bleeding stops, she must count off seven days. Then she will be ceremonially clean.
  • Numbers 19:11 (NLT) All those who touch a dead human body will be ceremonially unclean for seven days.
• Nugget: this is why Jesus called her out in the crowd; not to embarrass her, but to validate her healing and restoration to society.
• (Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Abridged Edition (2 Volumes)) Mark probably brought together these two stories with the story of the healing of the demoniac because they all have to do with ritual uncleanness. According to Jewish law contact with graves, blood, or death made one ceremonially unclean.
• (IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, Second Edition) This passage includes two cases of reversing uncleanness: a woman with a continual flow of blood and a corpse (see Lev 15:19-33; Num 19:11-22). Even after the flow stopped, the first woman would be counted unclean for seven days (Lev 15:28); the dead girl was even more unclean, so that one who touched her contracted impurity for a week (Num 19:11)
• (IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, Second Edition) If this woman touched anyone or anyone’s clothes, she rendered that person ceremonially unclean for the rest of the day (cf. Lev 15:26-27).

Faith

Vs. 33-34, 39 The Faith of the woman caused her to risk everything to seek Jesus out. Jairus’s faith went against his jewish traditions and believed Jesus had the power to save. Jesus commended both the father and the woman for their faith.

• Mark 5:23 (NLT) “My little daughter is dying,” he said. “Please come and lay your hands on her; heal her so she can live.”
• Mark 5:28 (NLT) For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” Mark 5:34 (NLT) And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”
• (IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, Second Edition) Tradition expected at least two or three professional mourners (two flutists and a mourning woman) to facilitate grief at the funeral of even the poorest person; more mourners would assemble at the death of a member of a prominent family like this one. Because bodies decomposed rapidly in Palestine, mourners had to be assembled immediately upon someone’s death (presumably especially when it had been expected), and in this case they had gathered before word even reached Jairus that his daughter had died.
• (Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Abridged Edition (2 Volumes)) Jesus’ second order was that they should give the girl something to eat–beautiful evidence of his concern for ordinary human needs

Close: There are many desperations that cause us to come to Jesus. Yet, what we all have in common is a changed life through faith in Jesus Christ.

Mark 5:21-43 (NLT)

21 Jesus got into the boat again and went back to the other side of the lake, where a large crowd gathered around him on the shore. 22 Then a leader of the local synagogue, whose name was Jairus, arrived. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet, 23 pleading fervently with him. “My little daughter is dying,” he said. “Please come and lay your hands on her; heal her so she can live.”24 Jesus went with him, and all the people followed, crowding around him. 25 A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. 26 She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. 27 She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. 28 For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.30 Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?”31 His disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’”32 But he kept on looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”35 While he was still speaking to her, messengers arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. They told him, “Your daughter is dead. There’s no use troubling the Teacher now.”36 But Jesus overheard[d] them and said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.”37 Then Jesus stopped the crowd and wouldn’t let anyone go with him except Peter, James, and John (the brother of James). 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw much commotion and weeping and wailing. 39 He went inside and asked, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.”40 The crowd laughed at him. But he made them all leave, and he took the girl’s father and mother and his three disciples into the room where the girl was lying. 41 Holding her hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means “Little girl, get up!” 42 And the girl, who was twelve years old, immediately stood up and walked around! They were overwhelmed and totally amazed. 43 Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone what had happened, and then he told them to give her something to eat.