The Book of Common Prayer appoints Matthew 9:18–26 as the Gospel reading for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Trinity. The same events—the healing of the woman with the issue of blood and the raising of Jairus’s daughter—are also recounted in Luke 8:40–56, which forms the basis of this sermon.
This original sermon by Bishop Jasmin Milić was first published in Serbian on Ipostas. As English is not the author’s native language, AI was used solely for the English translation.
The Healing of the Woman with the Issue of Blood and the Raising of Jairus’s Daughter
Today’s Gospel tells us of two miracles. Jesus heals a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years, and he raises Jairus’s daughter from the dead. Matthew and Mark also recount these miracles, so they appear in all three Synoptic Gospels.
After healing the Gadarene demoniac, the Lord returns to the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, where the people are eagerly waiting for him. How beautifully the Evangelist describes the scene. “The crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him.” Are we waiting for Christ? Do we look forward to meeting him in the liturgy, in our daily prayers and in the course of our everyday lives? Do we joyfully await our meeting with the Lord in eternity?
Among the crowd is Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue. A synagogue ruler was responsible for worship as well as for community affairs. The synagogue was a centre of Jewish religious, social and public life, so Jairus held a respected position in the community. Yet this respected man was in deep distress. His twelve-year-old daughter was dying. Christ was his only hope. When Jairus saw him, he fell at his feet and begged him “to come to his house.” For a devout Jew, bowing before anyone other than God was unthinkable. Jairus bowed before Christ because he saw in him more than a man. On several occasions the Evangelists draw attention to people falling at Christ’s feet or bowing before him. In this way they bear witness to their own faith and to the faith of the early Church in the divinity of Christ.
Notice another detail. The other Evangelists record Jairus’s plea for Christ to heal his daughter. Luke tells us that Jairus asked Christ simply to come to his home. He believed that Christ’s presence under his roof would bring about the miracle of healing. Christ could have spoken a word then and there, and the miracle would have happened. Remember the centurion who asked Christ to heal his servant. “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Only say the word, and my servant will be healed” (Matthew 8:8). The Gentile centurion asked Christ to speak a word. Jairus wanted Christ to come under his roof. When Christ is among us and we live in fellowship with him, we too will witness many miracles. If we shut Christ out of our lives and have no place for him in our homes, we turn away from the one who has authority over every illness and is greater than every trouble we face. We turn away from Life itself. He desires fellowship with us. He wants to enter our home and stay with us. He is Emmanuel, God with us. Christ says to us, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). If we open the door to him, we will find purpose, meaning and joy in life. This is true of us as individuals and of our society as a whole. If we drive Christ out of our society and our schools, we should hardly be surprised when God’s blessings fail to follow. Where God is absent and godlessness prevails, the kingdom of darkness reigns.
Christ sets out for Jairus’s home, with the crowd pressing in around him. Among them is a woman who has suffered from bleeding for twelve years. She has been ill for as long as Jairus’s daughter has been alive. Her illness has caused her physical suffering and anguish of soul. It has also cut her off from society. Under the religious regulations of the time, she was continually ritually unclean (Leviticus 15:25). In the Old Testament, blood represents life, and shed blood represents death. For this reason, a priest who came into contact with shed blood had to undergo elaborate rites of purification. Others who came into contact with that blood would also become unclean. And so the woman found herself unwelcome, rejected and alone. She was afraid to ask Christ for healing, fearing that he would turn her away. She could scarcely imagine that Christ, a teacher, would touch someone considered unclean. Yet she believed that if she touched the fringe of his garment, she would be healed. So she came up behind him and did what her faith had prompted her to do. So strong was her faith that “immediately her bleeding stopped.” This is the only healing in the Gospels that takes place in this way.
The woman hoped to go unnoticed, but Christ knew what had happened. He knew who had touched him, and he knew everything about her. Christ is the God-man, and nothing can be hidden from him. Yet he wants to hear the woman speak. So he asks, “Who touched me?” The Apostle Peter thinks the question makes little sense. A great crowd has surrounded Christ, and many people have brushed against him in the crush. But Christ knows that one touch is different. It is the touch of faith, and it has received an answer. Healing power has gone out from Christ. At first glance, it may seem that the power went out without his willing it, as though the sick woman had somehow stolen it. Christ knows, however, that her touch is the prayer of a desperate woman who trusts him, and he responds to her plea. The drama of the scene gives her the opportunity to testify publicly to what has happened. In this way God is glorified and the faith of those present, including Jairus, is strengthened.
Trembling, the woman falls before the Lord Jesus Christ. She admits that she touched him and explains why she did so. This is what Christ wanted. He wanted the crowd following him to hear her words. She had been healed in body and was now ritually clean. The people around her needed to know this so they could welcome her and recognise her as clean. Christ healed her body and her soul. He restored her dignity and brought her back into the social and religious life of her community. She was made whole again. Saint Ephrem the Syrian explains why Christ wanted the woman to speak publicly. “Had the woman quietly gone away after being healed, the Lord would have deprived her of the crown of heroic courage. The faith that had fought so bravely in this hidden warrior had to be crowned in public. So he adorned her head with a spiritual crown, telling her to ‘go in peace,’ for peace was the crown of her victory.”
Christ reassures the woman with these words. “Do not be afraid, daughter. Your faith has saved you.” She is the only woman in the Gospels whom Christ calls “daughter.” Christ says on several occasions, “Your faith has saved you.” This answers the question of what kind of faith saves. It is the faith by which we live in relationship with God.
The woman was healed because she had faith in Christ. More precisely, she took Christ at his word and trusted him. Today people stress belief in ourselves and tell us that by the power of our thoughts we can succeed at anything and overcome every evil. This is the old satanic lie that persuades human beings that they are gods. Time and again, the circumstances of life show us that our only sure trust is in God. This is what wise Solomon calls us to do. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).
When people fall seriously ill, they look everywhere for help. This woman put her trust in physicians and spent all she had on them, yet they could not help her. It is striking that the Evangelist who tells us this was himself a physician. Perhaps some of those doctors were charlatans who wanted to profit from her distress. How many people today consider themselves Christians and yet, when illness strikes or some other seemingly insoluble problem arises, turn to fortune-tellers, hodjas, quacks and the like? The woman had probably also sought help from people who did everything they could for her, but whose knowledge and skill were unequal to her illness. We should, of course, seek help from qualified physicians when we are ill, and there are cases in which even medicine can do no more. In the situation this woman faced, with every avenue apparently closed to her, faith in Christ was her only hope of being saved. She reached out in faith and touched Christ, and that touch brought her healing.
While Christ is still speaking with the woman, someone comes and tells Jairus, “Your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the Teacher any longer.” We can only imagine what Jairus must have felt. The healing of the woman had encouraged him. His faith had been strengthened, and now this terrible news came as a shock. His daughter’s healing had seemed within reach. Now it all seemed over. His daughter was dead. How often do we find ourselves thinking that all is lost, that even God can no longer help us? We come up against a wall and see no answer, no way out. It is then that Christ speaks to us as he spoke to the woman and to Jairus. “Do not be afraid!” Christ says these words to us when we are confused or frightened, when questions and doubts crowd in on us, and when we fear the future or the circumstances in which we find ourselves. God says, “Do not be afraid!” when others misunderstand, judge or hurt us.
Christ goes on, “Only believe, and she will be saved.” When Christ says, “Do not be afraid,” he is asking us to entrust ourselves to him and to believe him. Christ commended the woman for her faith. He called Jairus to believe, and Jairus trusted him. Jairus had seen the miracle that took place when the woman touched Christ in faith. Now he would witness the miracle of his daughter being raised through Christ’s own touch and word.
The mourners have gathered in the house. They are weeping and wailing for the girl who has died. Christ enters with Peter, John, James and the girl’s parents. The one who enters is the giver of life, the one who called himself “the Resurrection and the Life.” He is the Lord of life and death. To him, death is a brief sleep. When the Lord comes again in glory, he will raise our dead bodies from their graves by his word and restore the breath of life to them. All things were created by Christ’s word, and by that same word this girl will be restored to life. Christ’s word creates, restores and makes all things new. Some of the mourners refuse to believe him and laugh at him. Christ puts them out of the house. There are still people today who refuse to believe Christ’s word or trust in his power. They mock Christ and those who believe him. Because of their unbelief, he will cast them far from his kingdom.
Christ takes Jairus’s daughter by the hand and says to her, “Little girl, arise!” The one through whom all things were created, through whom man became a living soul, restores the girl’s spirit to her. What does it mean that her spirit “returned”? Bishop Nikolai Velimirović says, “By his touch and his words the Lord worked two miracles here. First, he healed the body, and second, he brought the spirit back from the realm of spirits into the restored body.” At the moment of death, the spirit, or soul, separates from the body. Since Christ, the soul goes either to the kingdom of heaven or to the kingdom of darkness. Before Christ, all souls went to the realm of spirits. The Lord therefore restores the girl’s own soul to her body. The soul lives on when the body dies.
Jairus’s daughter is alive again and back with her parents. Just as Christ restored the widow’s son to her, he now restores Jairus’s daughter to him and his wife. Christ’s miracles are acts of love, compassion and care for others, and so he tells them to give the girl something to eat. He wants her to regain her strength after what must have been an exhausting and traumatic experience. Giving her food also makes it clear that she has returned in the flesh, for a spirit has no need of food.
Finally, as on other occasions, Christ “commanded them to tell no one what had happened.” Christ wants people to follow him for who he is and to see beyond the miracles he performs. His miracles also angered his opponents, who wanted to accuse him and hand him over to the authorities so that he would be condemned to death. Christ knows that his hour has yet to come, so he asks the girl’s parents to keep the miracle to themselves. What matters most for them now is to care for their daughter.
Jairus was a respected and esteemed member of society. The woman who suffered from bleeding had been rejected, despised and regarded as unclean. Both came humbly before Christ. Both needed faith. Christ shows no partiality. Whatever our social standing or material circumstances, we are all equal before God. We all suffer from the deadliest disease of all, sin, of which bodily illness and death are consequences. Christ came to us in our sickness as the physician of our souls. Through repentance, faith in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, who transforms our lives, we can be healed of the effects of sin and inherit the kingdom of heaven. May God help us all to do so. Amen.
Aithor: Bishop Jasmin Milić
