Readings
- Ezekiel 36:22–27
- Ephesians 6:10–24
- Matthew 9:18–26
- Psalms: 107:33–43, 108:1–6 (7–13)
Matthew 9:18–26
While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader came in and knelt before him, saying, "My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live." And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples.
Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from a flow of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she was saying to herself, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well." Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, "Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well." And the woman was made well from that moment.
When Jesus came to the leader's house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, "Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. And the report of this spread through all of that district.
Notes
Two stories interwoven today. A synagogue leader comes asking for his daughter, who has just died. On the way, a woman with a twelve-year flow of blood touches Jesus' cloak and is healed. Jesus then arrives at the leader's house and raises the daughter. The whole chapter is humming with touch.
Verses 18–19. The leader. A synagogue leader (Mark 5 calls him Jairus) kneels before Jesus and asks him to lay your hand on his dead daughter. Touch is the request.
Verses 20–22. The woman with the flow of blood. A woman who has been bleeding for twelve years approaches from behind and touches the fringe of Jesus' garment. The word is kraspedon, the tassel that Numbers 15:38 commands every Jewish man to wear at the corners of his cloak. She touches the very tassel of his Torah-observance.
It is worth knowing what twelve years of bleeding meant in this culture. Under Leviticus 15, a woman with a flow of blood was ritually unclean, and anyone she touched became unclean. She has been excluded from worship, marriage, and intimate community for twelve years. Her touching of Jesus should make him unclean.
It does not. Jesus turns, sees her, addresses her as daughter (thugatēr, the same tender register as the teknon used for the paralytic at 9:2), and tells her your faith has made you well. The verb behind made you well is sōzō, which also means to save. The line could be rendered your faith has saved you.
This is the reversal of the Levitical purity system. In the old framework, uncleanness was contagious; cleanness was not. Touch an unclean thing and you became unclean. Jesus reverses the direction. His cleanness is contagious. He does not catch her uncleanness; she catches his wholeness.
Verses 23–26. The girl. Jesus arrives at the leader's house. Professional mourners, flute players and a crowd making a commotion, have already assembled. Jesus puts the crowd out, takes her by the hand, and the girl gets up. Touching a corpse should defile him under Numbers 19. Again, the direction reverses. He does not catch the death; she catches his life.
The pattern in both stories. Contagious holiness instead of contagious uncleanness. The old purity system was designed to protect the holy by separating it from the unclean. Jesus is doing the opposite. He does not protect his holiness; he transmits it. The unclean become clean by contact with him. The dead come alive by contact with him.
A connection back to yesterday. Fasting is wrong when the bridegroom is present. Mourning is wrong when the dead are about to be raised. There is a theme of appropriateness running through this chapter. The kingdom is here, and the old rituals (fasting, mourning, segregation) do not fit the moment. New wineskins.
Questions for reflection
Jesus transmits cleanness instead of catching uncleanness. Where in your life are you still operating on the assumption that the holy needs to be protected from the broken, when the gospel teaches the opposite?
The mourners had already started. Jesus said "she is only sleeping" and they laughed at him. Where in your life is the situation being mourned still actually salvageable, if you would let Jesus into the room?
