One event, four witnesses
Jairus' Daughter and the Bleeding Woman
On the way to raise a synagogue ruler's dying daughter, Jesus heals a woman who had suffered a flow of blood for twelve years. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all interweave these two miracles as one story.
“While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.”Matthew 9:18
“And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet,”Mark 5:22
“And, behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue: and he fell down at Jesus’ feet, and besought him that he would come into his house:”Luke 8:41
The event
The event. Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, falls at Jesus' feet and begs Him to come and lay hands on his daughter, who is at the point of death. As Jesus goes, the crowd presses around Him, and a woman who has suffered a flow of blood for twelve years, having spent all on physicians and grown no better, comes up behind Him and touches the hem of His garment, believing that even this will heal her. Immediately she is made whole. Jesus, aware that power has gone out of Him, asks who touched Him, and the trembling woman confesses everything; He tells her that her faith has made her whole and sends her in peace. While He is still speaking, word comes that Jairus's daughter has died and that the Teacher need not be troubled further. But Jesus tells Jairus only to believe. Coming to the house amid weeping and mourners, He puts them out, saying the child is not dead but sleeping, and they laugh Him to scorn. Taking her by the hand, He commands her to arise, and she does, and He tells them to give her something to eat. Two acts of faith, one interrupting the other, meet the power of Jesus over sickness and death.
Read side by side: what is the same, what differs
Read side by side: what is the same, what differs. All three Gospels frame the story the same way, with the woman's healing nested inside the raising of Jairus's daughter, and all agree on the twelve years of her affliction, the touch of Jesus' garment, His awareness that virtue had gone out, the news of the girl's death, and the command that raised her. The differences are of detail and fullness. In Matthew, compressed as often, Jairus says from the first that his daughter is even now dead and asks Jesus to come and lay His hand on her; in Mark and Luke the daughter is dying when Jairus comes, and the report of her death arrives while Jesus is still on the way. This is a real difference in the telling. Matthew, abbreviating, states the outcome the father feared and moves straight to it, folding the later news into the initial plea; Mark and Luke unfold the sequence in stages, with the interruption and the fresh test of Jairus's faith. Mark and Luke also preserve Jesus' Aramaic words in Mark, "Talitha cumi," and the touching command to feed the child, details Matthew omits. Luke, a physician's Gospel, notes that the woman could not be healed by any. These are complementary depths of one account, not competing claims. The core, two miracles bound together and both wrought by faith in Jesus, stands identical.
What it shows of Christ
What it shows of Christ. Jesus is Lord over both the long slow wasting of disease and the sudden finality of death, and He meets each with unhurried grace. The woman's healing shows that no press of the crowd hides an individual's faith from Him; He stops for one trembling person even on an urgent errand, drawing her hidden touch into open confession and peace. The raising of the girl shows death itself as a sleep from which His word wakes the sleeper. Mark's vivid "Talitha cumi" and the order to give her food reveal the tender realism of the servant Christ. Luke, the beloved physician, underscores the woman's incurable case and the compassion that answers it. Matthew, ever concise, holds the two miracles together as twin displays of the King's authority. Faith is honored in both: the ruler is told to fear not, only believe, and the woman is told her faith has made her whole.
Questions people ask
Was Jairus's daughter already dead when he came to Jesus, as Matthew says, or dying, as Mark and Luke say?
Mark and Luke give the fuller sequence: the girl was dying when Jairus came, and news of her death arrived while Jesus was on the way. Matthew, who often compresses, states the outcome the father dreaded and moves directly to it, folding the later news into the opening plea. The two tellings describe one unfolding event from different lengths of view.
Why does Luke stress that no physician could heal the woman?
Luke, traditionally a physician, has a special interest in the reality and limits of healing. Noting that she had spent all and could be cured by none heightens the wonder that a mere touch of Jesus' garment, met by faith, accomplished what all human medicine could not.