A crowd gathers around Jesus - a crowd who desperately wanted healing from Him. Out of the crwod emerged two very different individuals but their lives intersected in specific ways.
Jairus
A leader of the synagogue. We know that he is a man of faith but until now may not have been a believer of Jesus. Having heard of Jesus, he believed He could save his twelver year old daughter who was gravely ill. Jairus desperately asked, even begged, Jesus to come see about his daughter. At his daughter's illness, he placed his complete trust in Jesus.
With a crowed in desperate need of His help, Jesus could have refused. Instead...he immediately went with Jairus. But before He could reach her, a messenger came and told them that she had died. In the face of impossible bad news, Jesus spoke to Jairus, " Don't be afraid; just believe and she will be healed." Jesus was asking Jairua to believe even though a miracle like raising someone from the dead had not been done. In the face of impossibility, the people's jeers and the astonishment of her parents, Jesus raised the little girl.
The woman with the issue of blood
On the way to Jairus' house, a woman in desperate need of a healing interrupted their journy. As Jesus walked with His disples and Jairus hrough the crowd, He felt healing power being extrated from Him. Turning around, He aske, "Who touched me?" Finally a woman stepped forward, timid and afraid.
This woman had been bleeding for twelve years....as long as the little girl had been alive. Because the symptoms of her disease included a continual discharge of blood, she was deemed ceremonially unclean and made anyone she touched unclean. This meant that she ould no go into the temple or be around people at social events. For twelve years! She had to endure seclusion in a society where community was teh cornerstone of the culture.
She was as desperate as Jairus for healing but where Jairus came and kneeled before Jesus (he was a man of stature and probably financial means), this woman was a social outcast and reasoned that if she could just touch the hem of His garment, she would be healed. She planned to obtain her healing in secrete and tehn fade back into obscurity. But Jesus had different plans. "Who touched me?" The woman - healed - came forward and confessed. Why would Jesus do this? By bringing her to the public eye, He validated her healing, putting an end to her public embarrasement and shame. He also served as the ultimate witness that she was no longer cremonially unclean. And He did this in front of Jairus - a religious leader. Coincidence? I think not!