Woman with the issue of blood / detail of the Brescia Casket, ca. 360-370. Ivory relief

Faith can move a mountain. Scripture might not record any instances of moving a literal, geographic mountain, but it certainly shows astounding results of faith in action. Mountain-moving faith has four imperatives: believe, speak, act, and stand. The hardest part is the last part, to stand.

Consider Jairus, a synagogue official whose daughter was dying. Jesus healed her, but only after an awkward interruption. Mark 5:21-43 and Luke 8:40-56 tell the story.

Synagogue officials, by definition Pharisees, often disapproved of Jesus. But not all of them. Jairus obviously believed Jesus would heal his daughter. What’s more, he must have believed that Jesus would agree to do so if asked. But as a synagogue official, he needed more than belief to approach Jesus. He needed humility and courage to face criticism from his peers.

So he acted. He not only approached Jesus but fell at his feet and pleaded—he spoke. As Jairus expected, Jesus headed toward his house without hesitation. Jesus had already been surrounded by a large crowd, and everyone went along.

Then came the interruption.

An unnamed woman chose that moment to exercise her own faith. Jesus gave her his undivided attention for what must have seemed eternity to Jairus. Then some people came to tell him that his daughter had already died. 

The sick woman’s faith

Christ and the woman with the issue of blood / Paolo Veronese, 1570

The woman had suffered with an issue of blood for 12 years. She had spent all her money on physicians who didn’t help her.

Her condition made her ceremonially unclean, and therefore a social outcast. As such, she didn’t have the nerve to speak to Jesus. She told herself that she only needed to touch his clothes to be healed.

According to Luke’s account, she intended to touch the hem of his garment. No one wore miniskirts in those days. The hem of anyone’s garments would have been near the ground.

She would have to bow down to touch it—the same posture Jairus had assumed. It is literally a posture of worship. Whenever a Biblical narrative says someone worshiped, the actual word means people either kneeling or prostrate with their face to the ground. So the woman took an attitude of worship and made a demand on God’s power. Healing power flowed out of Jesus before he knew anything about it, but he felt it.

He asked who touched him. His disciples told him it was impossible to know because the crowd was pressing so closely. But Jesus looked around and saw someone bent over. So she fell even closer to the ground and explained everything.

Imagine. Here’s a woman who has been shunned for 12 years, and a man actually wants to talk to her. He’s a well-known public figure, and she has interrupted him. He had caught her in an act she had intended to do in secret. Maybe she feared she had offended him. She would not have had a short, concise speech prepared so Jesus could go on his way. She must have hemmed and hawed and apologized, and taken several minutes to tell her story. And Jesus patiently and lovingly stood and listened to every word.

Jairus’ faith

Resurrection of Jairus’ daughter / Codex Egberti, Fol 25, between 980 and 993

Jairus had no choice but to listen to every word as well, but not patiently and lovingly. He must have listened with rising distress about his daughter. Precious time was passing while this woman told all about a long illness and no help from a succession of doctors who took her money and didn’t help her.

As she began to wind down her story, some men of Jairus’ household came and told him there was no further need to wait for Jesus. It was too late. The girl had already died. Jesus heard them and told Jairus not to fear, but to believe.

What were his options?

At any time, he could have expressed his irritation when Jesus got distracted by the woman. After all, he asked first, and his problem was more urgent. The woman’s story could wait. In other words, he could have become offended. But whoever rebuked Jesus and got what he wanted? Yielding to offense blocks the answer to prayer.

Or, when he heard the news of his daughter’s death, he could have given up and gone home, as his servants suggested.

But Jesus told him to believe. Or, since he had to have believed in order to approach Jesus in the first place, Jesus told him to stand and keep believing. And that’s what he chose to do. He received his miracle.

Standing in faith

Christ resurrects the daughter of Jairus / Johann Friedrich Overbeck, 1815

We’d rather ask and receive immediately. Why do we have to stand and wait?

It certainly gives us the choice between patiently waiting for our answer and giving up and ceasing to believe. We all know that impatience can lead to rash decisions that actually make us lose what we were waiting for. We need patience and endurance, and we can’t gain either without waiting.

When Jesus promised faith can move mountains (Mark 11:23-25), he immediately followed the promise of receiving what we ask for with a reminder to forgive. In fact, if we think of an offense while we’re praying, he says to forgive immediately.

Standing in faith gives us an occasion to examine ourselves and, where necessary, repent––while we continue to believe. We can’t hold on to grudges and faith at the same time.

When Jesus commands to believe that we receive and that we will have what we asked for, he doesn’t mean we get it immediately. Jairus waited only a few minutes, after all. Some prayers take years to manifest. In the meantime, we must believe, act, speak, and stand as long as it takes.