A Tale of Two Healings
In Luke 8 we get a tale of two healings (a healing story within a healing story) and a beautiful example of Jesus healing, dignifying, removing shame and restoring to community.
Luke 8:40-56
40 Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. 41 And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus' feet, he implored him to come to his house, 42 for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying.
As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. 43 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. 44 She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. 45 And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter[f] said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” 46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” 47 And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. 48 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”
49 While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler's house came and said, “Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the Teacher any more.”50 But Jesus on hearing this answered him, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well.” 51 And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him, except Peter and John and James, and the father and mother of the child. 52 And all were weeping and mourning for her, but he said, “Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.” 53 And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. 54 But taking her by the hand he called, saying, “Child, arise.” 55 And her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given to her to eat. 56 And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened.
Jairus a person of Standing
By this stage opposition from the religious leaders was emerging against Jesus. Yet in spite of the potential reproach of his people, Jairus put that to one side (for the sake of his daughter) and he humbled himself. He begged for Jesus’ to help. He knew his only hope was found in Jesus. İn desperation he humbled himself and pleaded with Jesus. Jesus went with him, walking towards his house. On the way, as crowds touched him on all sides, we enter the story within a story.
The Unnamed Women
Whereas Jairus had normally walked with his head held high, this woman had hidden from the crowds. In fact, because of her medical condition, she shouldn’t have even been in the crowd. She was seen as perpetually unclean due her sickness. David Hewitt writes this:
“Her condition would have made her an unwanted outcast. Under the regulations of Leviticus 15, she would not have been allowed to attend synagogue services or mix with others. Anyone who touched her would have been unclean also. She should not have been amongst the crowds that day.” (David Hewitt, Mark’s Gospel)
Because she had been ill for 12 years she was desperate. Like Jairus, she knew Jesus was her only hope. She humbled herself, and kicked back against how she felt, and she entered the crowd.
This sickness had been chronic – it had lasted the whole of Jairus’ daughter's life.
This sickness had cost her everything – doctors couldn’t heal her!!
She had been separated from the society and separated from even being able to approach and worship.
She was identified as dirty and polluted by others.
The Power of Shame
İmagine how this lady felt as she pushed through the crowd towards Jesus. If they only knew who she was, there would have been anger, further disgrace, further shame.
Her illness was paralysing, but probably more than the sickness, itself, was the shame that she carried. She was an unwelcome outsider. The lady was the victim of her sickness.
İn a shame honour-culture, such as the Middle East, the power of shame is crippling. The question of honour and shame shapes everything.
Honor is a person’s social worth, one’s value in the eyes of the community. Honor is when other people think well of you, resulting in harmonious social bonds in the community. Honor comes from relationships. Shame, on the other hand, is a negative public rating: the community thinks lowly of you. You are disconnected from the group. For example, one Thai word for shaming means “to rip someone’s face off,” such that they appear ugly before others.
Shame produces feelings of humiliation, disapproval, and abandonment. Shame means inadequacy of the entire person. While guilt says, “I made a mistake”; shame says, “I am a mistake.” Since the problem is the actual person, the shamed individual is banished from the group. To avoid such rejection and isolation, people mask their shame from others. (Jayson Georges, 3D Gospel).
Many of you have know shame for things you’ve done, or even things done to you that you had no part in. Nonetheless, you feel shame. You know what it is to feel dirty. You know what it is to cover your shame, for fear that if people know the truth you’ll be rejected. You know what it is to feel an outcast. To feel that you don’t belong and you will never belong. To feel that there is something wrong with you. To feel like people are whispering about what you did or who you are.
If that is how some of you have felt, you have entered into the story of this woman, who had been an outsider for 12 years. If you know what this is like, if you are living in the story, there is hope. She pushed through the crowd towards Jesus, saying to herself, ‘If I can just touch the hem of his garment I will be healed.’
Moreover,
‘The woman has taken a risk in touching Jesus, as she might have been condemned or further ostracized for daring to be in a crowd full of ritually clean, never mind touch a holy man.’ (Ben Withrington III, The Gospel of Mark)
This woman didn’t know how Jesus would respond to her; she had taken a risk. Like Jairus, who took a risk, the risk of losing face in his community, she crossed the invisible boundary lines. In her desperation, she walked into the crowd, not allowing her feelings of non-belonging and fears to prevent her from approaching Jesus.
Much More than Physical Healing
In the midst of the crowd, she touched Jesus. Immediately she was healed. That was enough for her. She could have withdrawn from the crowd, physically restored and sbegin to enter into the life of the community. However, Jesus, in his kindness, hadn’t finished with her.
Have you ever read this passage and asked the following question: why is it that Jesus didn't allow Jairus and his family to mention that Jairus’s daughter was raised from the dead, but made this woman tell her story in front of the crowd?
Here’s what I think, this woman had for years been an outcast, a social pariah, ignored, avoided, unwelcomed. She had been publicly shamed for years. Then Jesus in front of the crowd publicly honoured her. He publicly affirmed her and accepted her in front of the community. In effect he said, “She is now reinstated into the community. She is no longer unclean. “
Jesus spoke the tender words that broke through years of isolation - “Daughter.” A term of affection. This woman who had known isolation, who had been forsaken, who had been hiding in the shadows, in front of the crowd was called “Daughter”, by Jesus.
I doubt she would have heard many tender or affectionate words in the years gone by. Yet, as she in faith reached out to Jesus, she was physically healed, cleansed and restored to her community. Her years of shame were lifted off her as Jesus said “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” Jesus gave her value. Lifted her up and gave her dignity.
Jairus’ Daughter and Jesus, the one who absorbs uncleanliness
While Jesus was speaking, news had came that Jairus’ daughter had died. Jesus responded, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well.” Just as this woman's faith in Jesus had made her well, so Jairus’s belief would result in the raising of his daughter.
The woman reached out and touched Jesus. In this instance, Jesus reached out and touched the dead girl.
Tom Wright writes:
Of course, touching was itself very important in both cases. In the world before modern hygiene (soap as we know it wasn’t invented until the Middle Ages, and of course many things we take for granted today, such as running water and proper drains, were barely thought of then), purity taboos were vital simply to maintain public health. The Jewish scriptures and subsequent traditions had codified and elaborated them into almost an art form. And two of the most obvious sources of pollution were: corpses, and women with internal bleeding.
In other words, a first-century reader coming upon this double story would know very well that Jesus was, apparently, incurring double pollution. In the first case he couldn’t help it; the woman came and touched him without his knowing either that she was doing it or what she was suffering from; but officially he had become ‘unclean’ nonetheless. (Wright, Luke for Everyone)
(In the new covenant Jesus refines uncleanliness. You don’t get unclean by the things you touch or the things you eat. Jesus says the source of uncleanliness is the heart.) By allowing himself to be touched, Jesus showed that true holiness is not about avoiding food or touching certain things.
However, Tom Wright describes another picture of what was happening. Jesus was polluted by the woman’s touch and by the touching the girl’s corpse. As Jesus touched their uncleaness, as he absorbed their dirtiness, they were healed, restored and raised up. This is a picture that points to the cross. It points to Jesus' ultimate act of restoration.
Dear friends, one aspect of the gospel is this: Jesus entered our world, in its brokeness and sinfulness, and on the cross, the pure one, absorbed our uncleanliness, our shame and our brokenness. He took it upon himself. He absorbed it. He carried it for us. If we come to him in faith believing in him we can be healed and restored. Our shame can be lifted off our shoulders. Our dirtiness is cleansed and we hear the voice of Jesus saying, “Son / Daughter”.
Hallelujah, what a Saviour!
The Summary (in bullet points)
Lessons from the Unnamed Woman and Jairus
Hopelessness and desperation can drive us to Jesus.
Faith has legs (it is active).
Faith takes risks.
The Wonder of Jesus
Jesus reaches all, especially those society deem as the least, the last and the lost.
In the crowd Jesus touches the individual.
Jesus heals the sick.
Jesus is the one who can take our shame, lift us up and restore us. That is the hope of the gospel. None who put their hope in him will be put to shame. (Rom 10:11)
