Kevin J. Youngblood

The story of Jesus’ raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead is remarkable for many reasons, not the least of which is the interruption of this urgent, extremely time-sensitive request for healing to deal with a much older woman’s long-term (and therefore far less urgent) condition. It is in fact during this interruption that Jairus’ servants inform him that Jesus is too late. His daughter is already dead and there is no point in troubling the master further.

Something, I had never noticed before, however, is the significance of Jesus’ calling the woman with the issue of blood “daughter.” First of all, it is exceedingly rare for Jesus to refer to women by the designation “daughter.” The only other occasion when Jesus does this is when he addresses the “Daughters of Jerusalem” on his way to Golgotha in Luke 23:28. Mark 5:34 (and its parallels in Matthew and Luke), therefore, is the only occasion when Jesus thus addresses an individual. What struck me this evening as I read this story again is how Jesus’ identification with this woman as daughter parallels Jairus’ request for Jesus to come and heal his daughter.

Of course, Mark is famous for these “sandwich structure” stories where he begins a story, interrupts it with another, seemingly unrelated story, and then finally finishes the initial story. The story in the middle, however, is never actually unrelated to the surrounding story but is actually the key to understanding it. Such is the case here. Jairus’ situation with his daughter parallels God’s situation with his daughter, Judah. Just as Jairus’ daughter is on the verge of death, so is Judah, God’s daughter (e.g. Isa 32:9; Jer 8:21 – 22) on the verge of death. Jesus’ healing of the woman with the issue of blood is like a prophetic symbolic act portending both his raising of Jairus’ daughter and his healing of Judah. This is why Jesus calls the woman with the issue of blood “daughter.” Her perpetual impurity symbolizes Judah’s long-standing impurity which similarly fiercely resisted healing. It was a living death. Furthermore, Jesus demonstrates the degree of his identification with Jairus. Both men desperately and urgently want to see their daughters healed.

I have long cherished this text having myself been in Jairus’ (and Jesus’) position of enduring the heartbreak of a seriously ill daughter who died before experiencing the longed for healing. Sometimes, healing can only come after death (whether physical or spiritual). Such was the case with my beloved Carmen and such is also the case with the people of God. Our healing comes only after we die and rise with Christ in baptism (Rom 6:3-11).

Father,

Thank you for enduring not only the death of your Son but also the death of your daughter (the people of God, Israel-Judah, and the church). Thank you for identifying with us fathers who have watched our daughters die, having prayed for healing but having to wait until after their deaths for their healing. Only now, 24 years later, do I begin to understand the parable of my own daughter’s untimely passing, how she is a picture of my own participation in the “daughter of your people’s” death to sin and resurrection to eternal life. It is still a great mystery to me why some children are healed before death and others only after death but I am learning to accept what happened in my case whether it was your mercy to prevent Carmen’s further suffering or whether it was one of those random events that subsequently in your providence you redeem for your good purposes. Jesus thank you for speaking the words that give me hope – Talitha cumi (Little girl, arise). Holy Spirit thank you for your assurance that those very words will be spoken over my daughter along with the “daughter of your people” when we all by your power rise from our graves healed, whole, and glorified.

AMEN