Mark 5:21-43 gives a great illustration of twelve years of joy and twelve years of pain, both culminating to one great need. We find a woman who has been suffering an illness for twelve years in which has led her into poverty and a status of dishonor. Then we find a twelve year old little girl, daughter of a wealthy honorable synagogue official, suddenly take ill and die.
A woman who has been living in pain for many years while simultaneously, a young girl is giving joy to her parents. Quite a contrast between the two. The bottom line in both of these lives is they needed Jesus. Regardless of social status, financial situation and health condition, we all need Jesus. And we need Him to be so much more to us than just a booster, healer, and financial manager. We need a Savior that completes our hopeless situation with everlasting life in the arms of our Heavenly Father. We need His healing for all eternity!
While what I have just stated is so true, there was one word that stood out to me in this entire passage: daughter. We find a man who loves his daughter and is seeking help from our Savior. A father’s love sends him on a desperate mission to find Jesus. This was risky for this father, because he was a synagogue official. He publicly came out of concealment and asked for help from the very person whom the religious leaders were opposed. That took courage and it took a deep love for his own. If we truly love our children, we as parents, will go out on a limb for them, risking all for their well being, their safety and their future. Jesus understood the risk this man was taking.
As this father walked along the road with Jesus, eagerly awaiting the miracle he was hoping for, Jesus was interrupted by a woman of lower class, a cast-away of society, and a person of insignificance. And what does Jesus do? He stops. What? He stops in the midst of His mission to help a high class official’s daughter in order to reach out to this woman.
I can feel the officials impatience, his urgency to get on with their journey to his daughter at home. I can hear his thoughts, “We don’t have time for this person. She’s a cast-away, leave her. My daughter is important. What are you doing, Jesus?” He may have not had any of those thoughts, but it would not surprise me if he had. There are many, today, who would have had those same impatient feelings.
This woman has already been healed of her illness, but Jesus wants to do more for her. One of the things I love about the character of Jesus, is he is not an impatient man; He takes the time for complete healing in the lives of people. He knows His identity: the most powerful God.
What does Jesus say? He calls this woman of low class and great illness, “Daughter…” He could have called her “Woman.” But no, He called her “daughter.” How did this emulate complete healing? Remember, this woman has lost all her money, her dignity, and her hope. She feels like a cast-away. But Jesus, being complete in His love, calls her "daughter."
Jesus first of all came to all of God’s people, poor and rich, of good standing and not so good, for the cast-away and the elite. And each one is His child. From the Hebrew meaning, this affectionate word means, “acceptable to God, rejoicing in God's peculiar care and protection.” He was saying so much more to her and to the official watching. When He called her daughter, He communicated the message that she is acceptable to God. In that moment, Jesus healed her identity. Worse than physical pain, is a damaged identity. Jesus healed her from the inside out: complete healing!
What I love about Jesus is that He teaches all in His presence, not just one. The woman was receiving but so was the official. In all of this man's impatience, he heard Jesus say, “daughter.” I believe that he learned at that moment: Jesus understood the feelings of a father. He understood his anxiousness, his fear and his desperation. We see this when Jesus turns to him and says, “Do not be afraid any longer, only believe.” (Mark 5:36). Jesus, sensing his disbelief, gave him this encouragement.
I can hear a new thought come to this man's mind, "If Jesus can care for this woman with 'God’s peculiar care and protection,' maybe He can do the same for his little girl." Certainly, he knew that healing his daughter at this point in her illness would take a special, peculiar type of healing that could only come from God! It's important to note that the official’s daughter is also Jesus’ daughter, acceptable by God and able to rejoice in the same care the older woman was able to find peace. The man choosing to believe, continued on his journey with Jesus. In his choice to believe, he and his wife were reunited with their little girl. Likewise this man's identity was healed in a different way. He realized that no matter what status he or the other woman was from, they both needed Jesus! It is not stated, but most likely in this experience, this official became a follower of Jesus.
Each woman reading this blog can take away from this message the hope that Jesus loves you just like a daughter, “acceptable to God, rejoicing in God's peculiar care and protection.” Each woman on this earth has certain needs, differing backgrounds, special worries, joys and dreams; the hopeful thing in it all, is that none of them are beyond Jesus' peculiar care and protection. In His special way He reaches out to us and helps us feel loved and cherished. Our identity, no matter how poor or how rich, we are His. Did you hear that? Say that out loud, "I am HIS!"
You and I are His special daughter! When all else seems to reject you, demean you, frustrate you, fear you, stop! And say out loud, "I am HIS, acceptable to God, under the peculiar care and protection of my Savior, Jesus!" For you are His daughter! Rejoice in His special care and His mighty protection for you. You are acceptable to the Maker of heaven and earth, the One Who can save, the One who is able to do whatever He desires. And get this my dear friend, His desire is to care and protect you in the very way you need!
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