Healing Two Women
TRANSLATION
(14) Then the disciples of John came to him saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees often fast, but your disciples do not fast?” (15) And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. (16) No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old garment, for the patch will tear away from the garment and a worse tear will be made. (17) Neither is new wine stored in old wineskins lest the skins burst, the wine be spilled, and the skins be destroyed. But new wine is stored in fresh wineskins so that both are preserved.”
(18) While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and kneeled before him saying, “My daughter just died. But come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” (19) And Jesus got up and followed him along with his disciples. (20) And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, (21) for she told herself, “If I merely touch his garment, I will be healed.” (22) Jesus turned and, seeing her, said, “Take heart, daughter. Your faith has healed you.” And immediately the woman was healed. (23) Now when Jesus reached the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, (24) he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. (25) But when the crowd had been ushered outside, he entered and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. (26) And the report of this spread through all that area.
OBSERVATIONS
Several repetitions are found in each of these two paragraphs. In the first, “fast” occurred three times (vss. 14 & 15), “bridegroom” twice (vs. 15), “tear” twice (vs. 16), “new wine” twice along with one use of “wine,” and two occurrences of “wineskins,” “skins,” and “stored” (all in vs. 17). In the second paragraph “ruler” (vss. 18 & 23), “daughter” (vss. 19 & 22), “woman” (vss. 20 & 22), “girl” (vss. 24 & 25), and “touch(ed) his garment” (vss. 20 & 21), all occurred twice.
OUTLINE
I. Jesus responded to John’s disciples who asked why he and his disciples did not regularly fast. (14-17)
II. Jesus healed two women, a woman with a long-term illness and a girl at the point of death. (18-26)
IDEA STATEMENT
The miracles Jesus performed convincingly backed up his claim to be Israel’s long-awaited Messiah.
APPLICATION
We observe in this segment two contrasting groups in their approach to Jesus. First, we encounter those who questioned his way of doing ministry. We then meet those with overwhelming needs who were desperate for him to help them deal with their suffering. In the first case, it was the disciples of John who came to him wondering why Jesus and his disciples were failing to observe the Jewish ritual of fasting twice each week. Jesus used three illustrations, the bridegroom rejoicing with the wedding guests, patching old garments with new fabric, and filling old wineskins with new wine, to demonstrate that his ministry represented a complete departure from the old Jewish traditions and rituals still practiced by John’s disciples.
In the middle of his discourse, he received a desperate request to help a ruler’s daughter who was at the point of death. The two miracles of healing that followed, the first of the older woman cured of a twelve-year discharge of blood and the second of the girl’s being raised to life from her deathbed, both backed up Jesus’ claim that he was inaugurating an entirely new kind of ministry, the ministry of God’s Messiah, never before seen in Israel’s history.