Mark 5

21 Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered to Him; and He was by the sea.

A hemorrhage and a dead girl

22 And then, one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, comes, and upon finding Him he falls at His feet 23 and pleads earnestly with Him, saying, "My little daughter is at the point of death; do come and lay your hands on her*This sort of thing happened more than once; the Jews evidently believed that His physical presence was necessary. so that she may be saved, and she will live." 24 So He went with him. A large crowd was also following Him, and they were pressing around Him.

The hemorrhage

25 Now a certain woman—who had been bleeding for twelve years, 26 and had suffered many things under many doctors, and had spent all that she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse— 27 when she heard about Jesus, she came from behind in the crowd and touched His garment. 28 (She had kept saying, "If I can just touch His clothes, I will be healed.")*The street was packed with people; the crowed was on both sides of Jesus, as well as behind. So she had to push her way forward, and no doubt got plenty of dirty looks, and maybe a few elbows—it would have been easy to give up, but she kept repeating her expectation to herself to keep up her courage (and she was desperate). 29 Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up, and she knew in her body that she was healed from the affliction. 30 And instantly Jesus perceived within Himself that some power had gone out of Him, and turning around in the crowd He said, "Who touched my clothes?" 31 So His disciples said to Him, "You see the crowd pressing around you, yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’?" 32 But He kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 So the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth.*That was not easy, in front of the crowd. 34 And He said to her: "Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go into peace*That is what the Text says, ‘into’ not ‘in’. To go in peace is to leave on good terms, no hard feelings. But what might going into peace be? I would say that you take the peace with you; you live within an atmosphere of peace. Now that is a proper ‘blessing’! and be healed from your affliction."

The dead girl

35 While He was still speaking, they came from the synagogue ruler’s house saying: "Your daughter died. Why trouble the teacher further?"*Healing is one thing, raising the dead is another! 36 But immediately upon hearing the spoken message Jesus said to the synagogue ruler, "Don’t be afraid; just believe!" 37 He allowed no one to follow Him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.*At this point He told the crowd to stop, so He could proceed at a brisk pace, accompanied only by the three disciples and the father (the messengers doubtless followed). 38 Then He came to the synagogue ruler’s house and found a commotion—weeping and loud wailing. 39 So upon entering He said to them: "Why are you making such a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead, but is asleep." 40 But they started ridiculing Him.*They knew that she was dead, as indeed she was. After He put them all out, He took the child’s father and mother, and those with Him,*Peter was there, and he helped Mark write this Gospel. and went in where the child was lying. 41 And taking the child by the hand He said to her, "Talitha koumi," which is translated, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!" 42 Immediately the girl got up and started walking around (she was twelve years old). And they were overcome with great amazement. 43 He gave them strict orders that no one should know about it, and said to give her something to eat.*Nothing like being practical! It had doubtless been a while since the last decent meal. Given the crowd that was there, it would be impossible to hide what had happened.