Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Jairus' Daughter and the Woman With an Issue of Blood
Luke 8:41-56
From The Explanation of the Gospel of St. Luke
by Blessed Theophylact, Archbishop of Ochrid and Bulgaria
40-44.
And it came to pass, that, when Jesus was returned, the multitude
gladly received Him: for they were all waiting for Him. And, behold,
there came a man named Jairus, and he was ruler of the synagogue: and he
fell down at Jesus feet, and besought Him that He would come into his
house: for he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she
lay a dying. But as he went, the multitude thronged Him. And a woman
having an issue of blood twelve years, who had spent all her
living upon physicians, and could not be healed by any, came behind
Him, and touched the border of His garment: and immediately her issue of
blood stanched. Jesus returned from the country of the
Gadarenes, and the multitude was waiting for Him, eager for both His
teaching and His miracles. Then He was approached by a certain ruler of the synagogue, a
man who was neither poor nor insignificant, but the foremost of
society. The Evangelist even gives the man's name, so that the miracle
might become the more renowned through this confirmable evidence of its
truth. In his great need this man falls down before Jesus, although even
without the urgency of this need, he ought to have fallen down and
acknowledged Jesus as God. Nevertheless, affliction can compel a man to
turn to what is better, as David says when he speaks of the horse or
mule which has no understanding, whose jaws thou must afflict with bit and bridle when they come not nigh unto thee (Ps. 31:9). (1)
But as Jesus went along the way to the house of Jairus, a woman drew
near to Him who showed exceedingly great faith. She approached and
touched the border of His garment with the firm faith that if she could
only touch His clothing, she would be made whole. Immediately the flow
of blood stopped. Like a man who brings his eye close to a bright light,
or brings a dry stick close to fire, and they immediately react, so
also the woman brought her faith close to Him Who has power to heal—and
immediately she obtained healing. She gave no thought to anything else,
neither the many years of her illness, nor the failure of her doctors.
She only believed and was made whole. Understand that first she touched
Jesus noetically, and only then did she touch Him bodily.
45-48.
And Jesus said, Who touched Me? When all denied, Peter and they that
were with Him said, Master, the multitude throng Thee and press Thee,
and sayest Thou, Who touched Me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched
Me: for I perceive that power is gone out of Me. And when the woman saw
that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before Him,
she declared unto Him before all the people for what cause she had
touched Him, and how she was healed immediately. And He said unto her,
Daughter, take courage: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.
The Lord desires to show the womans faith to all the people so that
they might become imitators of her, and also so that Jairus might have
good hope for his daughter. Therefore He makes manifest what had
happened in secret and asks who it was that touched Him. Peter, being
bold, scolds the Lord for His question, saying, "So many people throng
Thee, and yet sayest Thou, Who touched Me?" But
he did not understand what the Lord was asking. The Lord was inquiring,
"Who touched Me with faith?" and not simply, "Whose hand touched Me?"
Just as one man has ears with which he hears, while another has ears but
does not hear, so also one man touches with faith, while another may
draw near but his heart is far away. The Lord knows that it was the
woman, but He asks the question, as I have said, in order to reveal her
faith and to give hope to the ruler of the synagogue. He asks, and thus
draws attention to the woman. For I perceive that power is gone out of Me, He
says, and rightly so. The prophets did not have power that went out
from them; instead, they worked miracles by the grace of God. But Jesus
is the source of every good thing and the source of all power, and He
indeed has power that goes out from Him. The Lord grants the woman a
double healing: He first heals her sickness and then dispels the fear
from her trembling soul by saying, Daughter, take courage.
49-56. While
He yet spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogues house,
saying to Him, Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master. But when
Jesus heard it, He answered him, saying, Fear not: only believe, and she
shall be made whole. And when He came into the house, He permitted no
man to go in, save Peter, and James, and John, and the father and the
mother of the maiden. And all wept, and bewailed her: but He said, Weep
not; she is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed Him to scorn,
knowing that she was dead. And He put them all
out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise. And her
spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and He commanded to give
her food. And her parents were astonished: but He charged them that they
tell no man what was done. When Jesus heard a man say to the ruler of the synagogue, trouble not the Master, He
did not wait for the ruler of the synagogue to speak to Him, but speaks
first Himself, so that the ruler of the synagogue could not say, "I
have no need for You; the evil deed has already happened; behold she has
died, the one whom we expected You to heal," or any such words as
these. For he did not believe, and was a Jew. Christ, therefore, speaks
first and says, "Fear not; only believe. Consider
the woman who had the issue of blood. Imitate her and you will not miss
the mark." He permits only Peter, John, and James to enter because they
were the Lords favorites and chief of the Apostles, and because they
were able to keep silent concerning the miracle. The Lord did not want
to reveal Himself to many before it was time, perhaps because of the
spite of the Jews. Thus He hid most of His deeds so that the Jews would
not become inflamed with envy and thus liable to judgment. We ought also
to do the same; when someone becomes envious of us, let us not reveal
our accomplishments to him, so as not to wound him and cause him to be
even more envious and cast him into sin. Instead, we should strive to go
unnoticed by him. The Lord said, she is not dead, but sleepeth, calling death sleep because He was about to raise her from the dead as if from sleep. Those who heard Him laughed Him to scorn, so
that the miracle would be all the more miraculous. In order that later
they would not be able to claim that she was not dead, but had been
asleep, the Lord arranged by divine economy that He should first be
mocked when He said that she was not dead but asleep. Thus He shut the
mouths of those who wanted to slander Him, for it was so clear that she
was dead that they even mocked Him when He said that she was not dead.
He put them all outside, perhaps to teach us not to crave glory and not
to do anything for show, and also to teach that when someone is about to
work a miracle, he ought not to be in the midst of many people, but
alone and undistracted. Then the Lord brought back the spirit of the
young girl. He did not put another soul into her but made the same soul
which had slipped away return to her body again. He commanded that she
be given something to eat, to provide even greater assurance and
confirmation that she had risen from the dead. These things may also be
understood in this manner: the woman with the issue of blood represents
every soul which pours forth bloody and murderous sin. For each and
every sin is the murderer and slayer of the soul. When this soul,
therefore, touches the clothing of Jesus, when it touches, that is, His
Incarnation, believing that the Son of God took on human flesh, then the
soul is healed. And this is possible even if someone should be a ruler of the synagogue, that is, if someone has a mind which rules over the many things it has collected in its greed. (2)
Then the daughter of that mind, its thought, is sick. But let that mind
only call upon Jesus and believe, and his thought will be made whole.
