"When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” So Jesus went with him.
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
“You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”
Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him.
After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat."
Mark 5:21-43
These two miracles have always left a powerful impression on my soul ever since I first read them as a believer. The woman with an issue of blood sought Jesus on her own and touched the hem of his robe because she had faith in the prophecy of Malachi that the Messiah would have healing in the hem (lit. wings) of his robe. To believe this, she had to also believe that Jesus was the Messiah. When Jesus confronts her, she trembles because what she has done is not legal under the Law. Normally, an unclean woman touching a man would make him also unclean for a time and thus disable him from going to the Temple, a great crime (Leviticus 15:19). However, Jesus calls her "daughter" and tells her that, "your faith has made you well." Anytime Jesus says this, He also means that this person has received eternal life. The woman reached out in desperation to the Messiah hoping only to heal her issue, but received a healing far deeper and greater - one that healed her even of death. She received this because she reached for God even though she was told she could not - believing in faith that God would accept her because of the great love she believed He had for her.
The daughter of Jarius, at first, appears to be unlike the previous miracle. Jarius seeks Jesus to heal his daughter, but this is not really the point of this miracle. Little does Jarius know, Jesus intends something greater than healing an illness. When Jarius is told his daughter is dead, those present believe that time ran out and there is nothing more Jesus can do. As a father, I can imagine the feeling of helplessness when I look up and Jesus is staring me in the eyes says, "Do not be afraid, only believe." It gives me chills, as I'm sure it did Jarius. Jarius believed Jesus...perhaps not even realizing what would happen. He led Jesus to where the daughter lay, cold and unmoving. Jesus was gentle, took the child's hand, and commanded the dead corpse to become alive again. As with all things in Creation, the girl's body bent to the will of Yahweh and became alive again. Jesus then asked that food be brought for the girl, and I can only assume the transition from death to life must leave someone hungry indeed.
Something here is missed, however, that ties the miracles together. That is the notion of clean and uncleanness. The Law prohibited the touching of a dead body. A corpse was unclean and so anyone who touched one would become unclean for a period of time (Numbers 19:11). Jesus, however, touched the dead girl's body. This act should've polluted Jesus, but just like the woman with the issue of blood, the opposite happened. The girl was raised to life - in essence becoming clean once again - and Jesus remained unpolluted.
In both miracles Jesus healed a wound that could not be healed - a painful issue of blood and the wound of death itself. In both miracles someone had to first seek Jesus and believe in Him. Part of that belief, however, was believing that Jesus could make that which is unclean clean again. This, God declared in His Word, mortal men could not do. Mortals could only pollute clean things and make them unclean (Haggai 2:11-14). They could not make them clean again. Only God could cleanse sinful pollution. Therefore, to believe Jesus could cleanse that which was unclean was to believe He is God the Messiah. This is the real miracle.
I've always wondered what it will be like to meet Jarius' daughter in Heaven and ask her what it was like to be raised from the dead by Jesus. Now I'm sure her answer to me would be, "Sir, you know. He raised you as well."
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