You won’t believe the news I have to tell you! That itinerant Rabbi, Jesus, Saved my daughter!
Some of you don’t know me. I’m Jairus, one of the synagogue leaders in Capernaum, that’s kind of like being the senior and junior warden of one of your vestries. I make sure the place is kept in shape and our finances are in order. I tell you what, though. Ever since Jesus moved to town about a year ago, this place has been crazy.
Not so easy having Jesus in your home congregation.
As soon as he moved here from Nazareth, he started casting out demons and healing people, and crowds have been following him everywhere ever since. His first time in the synagogue, He cast a demon out of a man and caused quite an uproar. And that evening, he healed Peter’s mother in law, a woman I’ve known for years, from a fever. Whenever he’s in town, people flock to him, and he seems to heal them.
To be honest, until last week, I really didn’t know what to think. Was this from God? or was this man somehow in league with demons? Or did he just have some mesmerizing charisma that fooled people into feeling better somehow? It all seemed so strange. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. Most of the other visiting rabbis and Jewish leaders I’ve overheard have been very suspicious. So I’d been keeping my distance. You know, people judge you by the company you keep.
That was until our own little girl got sick. She is our only child, and oh, she looks just like her beautiful mother! What a delight she has been raising up. Smart, obedient, and at 12, almost a woman. But she’ll always be my darling little girl.
But last week, she got very, very sick. We don’t know what it was. She’d not been herself for over a month, but last week, she had a fever and stopped eating. She just started wasting away in front of us. I was so afraid. I felt so powerless. No doctor had been able to help. This child was all we had. She was the love of our life. And she was slipping from us. I prayed and prayed.
Then, of course, I thought of Jesus. He’d done it for others. Would he heal my little girl for me? Even if he didn’t really know me. Even though I had kept so distant? I had to try. But Jesus wasn’t in town. He’d left in a boat and was across the other side of the Lake. Who knew when he’d be back? I sent out my servant, telling him to find out whatever they could. But no one was sure, at first, when he’d return.
Meanwhile, my little girl kept getting worse and worse. We thought we’d lose her Wednesday night. Her breath was shallow. She had no color. Other family and friends were beginning to gather at the house to keep vigil. I didn’t think she’d make it another day.
Then early the next morning, my servant said they’d seen Jesus and his companions in a boat, returning to shore. I ran. I ran as fast as I could. When I got near the shore, oh my, so many people! I couldn’t even see the man!
I tore my way through the crowd and found Jesus, and just fell at his feet. Dignity be damned. I didn’t care who saw me. I didn’t care what anyone thought except him. I’d do anything to save my little girl.
“Please, please, please!” I begged. My darling daughter is dying! Please come lay your hands on her so that she will be healed and live!”
He lifted me from the ground. “Of course” he said, his dark eyes piercing my soul, reading my fear and anguish. I felt a glimmer of hope.
But there were so many people, it was torturously slow to move anywhere.
Suddenly Jesus stopped. He looked around and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” I was baffled. Why would he ask such a question? We were all so close, jostling together as we entered the narrow streets of the town. His disciples even laughed. “What do you mean, who touched you? Look around!” But Jesus wouldn’t move. He scanned the crowd, and a saw a woman coming forward falling at his feet. She began to cry out her story.
I knew her. She was pretty much an outcast in the town, Poor thing. Couldn’t touch anyone or engage in normal life. She had been ritually unclean since the year my daughter was born because her bleeding never stopped. She’d spent everything on doctors.
But Why was Jesus taking so long to talk to her. My baby was dying! Come on!
But Jesus stood there, listening as this woman was telling Jesus her story. He acted as if he had all the time in the world. She said how afraid she had been. She said that just by touching Jesus’ robe, she’d been healed. Jesus said he knew the power had come out of him.
“Come on!” I breathed.
Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Your faith has saved you.”
And it hit me. Jesus could see this woman, an outcast, as his daughter. And his eyes showed me that he loved her as much as I loved my own little girl. Something inside me melted.
Just then, someone from my house broke through the crowd and found me. “Your daughter is dead. It’s too late. Don’t bother the teacher any more.” I felt my knees begin to sink as a mix of horrid emotions began to rise within me.
Jesus took my arm, and whispered his strength. “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
My jaw set, my teeth clenched, we made our way to the house. He made most of the crowd stay behind. Only Peter, James and John came with us.
Already the mourners were crooning and sad instruments were playing as my wife and our neighbors were wailing.
“Why all this commotion?” Jesus asked. “She is not dead, she is only sleeping.” And they laughed at him, at us. What fools we were to think that Jesus could overcome death itself. But Jesus made everyone leave, and he only took my wife and me, and the three disciples in with him.
He simply held her hand, and said, “Talitha Cum”, which is what my wife had said to our daughter every morning of her life as she had wakened her for the day. “Little girl, get up!”
And she did!
She just got up out of bed. No fever. No pain. Color back in her cheeks. Stong enough to start walking around the room.
“Just give her something to eat,” Jesus said. “And don’t tell anyone.”
Well, we were able to obey the first command. I brought my little girl fruit and cheese and later we had fish and leeks and bread for dinner.
But I couldn’t keep this news to myself. Jesus saved my little girl! She is completely healed! I’m telling everyone. Only God can work such miracles, and I think this man, Jesus, is sent directly from God. He has the power of God himself.
Yesterday, on the Sabbath, I talked to the woman who had been bleeding all those years. She was worshipping with us for the first time in 12 years. She told me how afraid she had been. Both from the desperation of her illness, and then the risk of breaking the taboo of her affliction and touching Jesus.
I told her about my fear too. Fear that I would lose my little girl. Fear that it was almost too late. But Jesus took away those fears, and he brought healing.
If he can bring healing to a woman who has bled for 12 years, and heal a 12 year old girl, he can heal everything that we, the 12 tribes of Israel, God’s people, are suffering with.
Just don’t be afraid. Don’t try to do it on your own. Don’t be too proud to fall at Jesus’ feet. Whatever you need to have healed in your life, just reach out to Jesus. Reach out and touch him. Jesus will save. It may happen immediately, like it did for the woman. You may have to wait, while Jesus seems to tarry. It may even seem like there is no hope. But don’t be afraid. Just believe, and Jesus will bring you the healing you need. He did it for the woman. He did it for my little daughter. He does it everywhere he goes. He’ll do it for you, too.