Why Jesus delayed healing Jairus' daughter and healed the bleeding woman instead
The delay must have been excruciating for Jairus – just as the delay in the woman's healing had been to her.
The delay must have been excruciating for Jairus – just as the delay in the woman’s healing had been to her.
Editor’s Notes
The following mini-series is about the Gospel read on the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost – that of the raising of Jairus’ daughter, and the healing of the bleeding woman.
We sometimes hear the Gospels at Mass without any sense of where they fall in Christ’s life. Works like Coleridge’s can help us appreciate the growing tension behind episodes like this—as well as make us wonder why the Church places this reading where she does.
Chronologically, it takes place relatively early in Christ’s ministry – shortly after his healing of the demoniac in the country of the Gerasenes. He had barely responded to the questions of St John’s disciples about fasting when Jairus interrupts him with an urgent plea to save his dying daughter.
This miracle actually prompts, Coleridge says, a withdrawal from the area of Capharnaum – and the mention which he makes of the Final Judgment is perhaps an indication as to why it falls at the end of the Sundays after Pentecost.
The key theme is faith in Christ’s divine power and the manner in which that faith draws forth His mercy—especially when tested or delayed. Jairus’ plea is interrupted by the healing of the bleeding woman – “the haemorrhoissa” – who had suffered with her condition for years.
And yet both miracles unfold together in a divinely ordered sequence. Each affirms Christ as Lord over disease and death, and the structure underscores the spiritual value of perseverance, humility, and hidden faith.
A symbolic interpretation
We would like to add the following to Fr Coleridge’s reflections.
Coming as it does at the end of the liturgical year, this Gospel suggests a symbolic and eschatological role for the the two females who are healed. Fr James Mawdsley offers the following reflection in his book If You Believes Moses, Vol. 2:
“The Jews having faith under the OT are symbolised by the girl who lived healthy and grew, while the Gentiles, that is the old woman, were sick and could find no cure. When Jesus came, the ruler of the synagogue (Jairus) declares his daughter was dead. That is, the faith of the Jews ended.
“Going therefore to heal them, along the way Jesus cures the bleeding woman — or the Gentiles whose life is pouring out, who are made well by their faith in Jesus.
“At the end of the pericope, Jesus raises Jairus daughter from the dead. He always knew He was going to do this! It is the final conversion of the Jews, from being dead in faith to regaining their spirit and tasting the banquet: ‘her spirit returned, and she arose immediately. And [Jesus] bid them give her to eat’ (Lk 8:55).
“The Church consciously chose the XXIII Sunday after Pentecost for this exposition, because the approaching end of the liturgical year signifies the end of time. In the traditional calendar, the Feast of Christ the King comes on the last Sunday of October, or more pertinently, the Sunday prior to All Saints. It means that once the world recognises Christ as King, then a saintly order will be enjoyed in this world.
“Shortly after this comes the Sunday whose texts resonate with the conversion of the Jews, and all that remains is the Last Sunday after Pentecost, which is a warning of the Last Judgement, because then comes Advent — Jesus coming not finally as a babe in a crib, but as Pantocrator radiating glory.” (p 289)
Fr Mawdsley also cites Dom Prosper Guéranger in support of this interpretation, who also claims that “this was the view taken by the chief liturgists of the Middle Ages.”
A side note - St Veronica, the Haemorrhoissa
Some traditions associate the bleeding woman with St Veronica. Interestingly, the multi-season television series The Chosen has incorporated this tradition into its narrative.
In light of her healing, we could note that this Sunday is, as with the Feast of the Precious Blood, a quasi-patronal feast for those living with bleeding disorders, such as Haemophilia and Von Willenbrands.
Please remember such persons in your prayers – as well as those thousands of haemophiliacs who have died as a result of the infected blood scandal.
Haemophilia is a genetic condition which impedes the ability of blood to clot, due to a genetic lack of one of the coagulations factors. This predominantly affects males.
In most cases, this is factor VIII (Haemophilia A) although in some cases it is factor IX (Haemophilia B – that which affected the royal families of Europe). In the late twentieth century, pharmaceutical companies produced revolutionary treatments which replaced the missing coagulation factor, allowing those living with haemophilia to recover more quickly from debilitating joint bleeds, and even to prevent them.
However, over a period of decades, these companies (and the governments who contracted them) produced these treatments with blood from paid donors in the USA, including drug addicts and prisoners. As there were not adequate screening procedures in place, the supply became contaminated with HIV and, as later emerged, Hepatitis B and C. Young boys were systematically given these contaminated treatments over a period of years, and unsurprisingly, many contracted these diseases.
HIV was later said to affect the “four Hs” – homosexuals, heroin addicts, Haitians, and haemophiliacs. Before the cause was understood, some living with both HIV and haemophilia were stigmatised by association with the first two “Hs.”
But stigma was the least aspect of the scandal: other consequences of this medical disaster included lost opportunities and financial hardship, chronic health and psychological issues, and gaslighting by governments and medical establishments who ignored and then sought to cover up the scandal.
This is to say nothing of the deaths – which are still ongoing even now, decades after the situation has been rectified. These deaths affect not only those infected, but the families whom they have left behind.
Some figures:
An estimated 30,000 persons in the UK received infected blood, and over 3,000 (and counting) have died.
80,000 persons were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C in Canada from infected blood.
4,000 persons were given infected blood in France, where untreated products continued to be used – with the former Health Minister being convicted in a criminal court for negligence.
6,000 haemophiliacs infected with contaminated blood received a settlement in 1997.
These numbers are estimates, and as previously mentioned, the death toll simply keeps rising. Governments have been very slow to investigate and offer just compensate for this scandal. We have included a documentary about this scandal beneath the following article.
Especially as it is November, please pray for the repose of the souls of the faithful departed amongst the deceased – as well for those living with conditions contracted from this infected blood, and for those living with haemophilia and other bleeding disorders.
Did you expect to read all that at Father Coleridge Reader?
Saint Veronica the Haemorrhoissa – Pray for us!
Jairus’ Daughter and the Bleeding Woman
The Training of the Apostles, Part III
Chapter XXIII
St. Matt. ix. 18–26; St. Mark v. 22–43; St. Luke viii. 41–56; Story of the Gospels § 66.
Burns and Oates, 1884
(Read at Holy Mass on the Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost)
Jairus and his daughter
Our Lord had hardly ended His answer to the questions of the disciples of St. John [‘Why do we and the Pharisees, fast often, but thy disciples do not fast?’], when He was interrupted by a more urgent appeal on His charity from another quarter.
Indeed, it seems as if He had delayed this applicant, in order to answer the disciples of the Precursor.
‘While He was speaking these things unto them, behold a certain ruler, a man whose name was Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue, came and adored Him, and he fell down at the feet of Jesus, beseeching Him that He would come into his house, for he had an only daughter, almost twelve years old, and she was dying, and he besought Him much, saying, My daughter is even now dead, at the point of death, but come lay Thy hands upon her and she shall live, that she may be safe and may live.
‘And Jesus rising up followed him, with His disciples, and a great multitude followed Him and they thronged Him.’
Thus it was that our Lord could not withdraw Himself from the occasions of mercy, and although He was at this time so much bent on secrecy and retirement, He could not, as it were, escape from the discharge of His great office of the Redeemer of mankind and the healer of all evils, whether of body or of soul.
Jairus was probably one of His friends, a friend also of the centurion whose servant our Lord had healed at His last visit to the city, and of the nobleman whose son had been cured the year before, while our Lord was at a distance. They were a little knot of pious souls, to whom His powers were well known, and who had a sort of claim on Him, for the frequent use which He had made of the synagogue, which one of them had built and over which the other presided.
It must have been a piece of sudden good news to Jairus, that the Master had returned so soon from the other side of the lake, and before that return, they must have been looking for Him anxiously. Then the sail was seen in the distance, and the news reached them that our Lord would soon be on the shore. We gather from St. Luke, that they were waiting for Him, and it may have been a momentary disappointment to them that He gave His first attention to the disciples of His dear friend and Precursor.
Our Lord goes with him—the ‘haemorrhoissa’
However, though our Lord assented at once to the invitation of this good man, Jairus had to experience another trial of his patience before he could rejoice at the presence of our Lord in his house.
There was another humble and retiring soul, watching for the arrival of our Lord, and determining within herself to make her venture in applying, in her own way, to the well-known compassion of the Master.
‘And there was a certain woman, having an issue of blood twelve years, who had bestowed all her substance on physicians, and had suffered many things from many physicians, and could not be healed by any, and was nothing the better, but rather worse, who as she heard of Jesus, came in the crowd behind Him, and touched His garment, for she said within herself, if I shall touch only His garment, I shall be healed. And immediately the issue of her blood stopped, and forthwith the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was cured of the evil.’
The Evangelists have so arranged their description of this poor sufferer that we have here a perfect picture of the misery of her bodily state, the inveterate character of the evil, the costliness of the remedies which she had used, and the utter inefficiency of all human physicians in the case.
Her action is one of great modesty, reverence, humility, and also of great confidence in our Lord, though perhaps she may have had but an imperfect notion as to His Divine Person, thinking that she might be healed by Him without His knowing it.
The hems of the garments, or rather perhaps the fringes, were in some degree kept sacred by the Jews, but the expression of touching the hem of the garment is one by which simple humility may be conveyed, as when St. John the Baptist said that he was not worthy to loose the latchet of the shoe of our Lord.
Perhaps it might have been dangerous to leave her imperfect ideas uncorrected, as it might have led to the using of such opportunities as that of which she availed herself, as if the garments of our Lord were amulets or charms, and had in them some intrinsic power of their own for healing diseases.
Our Lord conscious of her cure
But our Lord was probably influenced by other considerations in His forcing the poor woman before us to declare what had taken place.
He knew what was passing, or what had passed in the house of His friend Jairus, since he had left it for the purpose of calling our Lord to his aid. The messengers were already on the way, bearing to Jairus the tidings that since he had left his daughter, she had passed away, and that there was no longer any hope.
The people of Capharnaum had seen many wonderful miracles of our Lord, but they had had no experience of His power to raise the dead to life. As far as we know, the one instance in which that power had been exercised was that of the widow's son of Naim.
Jairus, therefore, would be in danger of failing in the faith necessary, according to the ordinance of God, for the performance of the great miracle which our Lord had in His mind to work in favour of his child, and he might be strengthened and confirmed in faith, at this time of his special trial, by the revelation both of what had just taken place in the case of the woman with an issue of blood, and also of the perfect knowledge of our Lord as to what had passed, as she had hoped, in secret.
For such reasons as these, then, our Lord determined to make this case public, though on other occasions He had often been strict in commanding that His works of mercy of this kind should be concealed.
Jairus’ Daughter and the Bleeding Woman
See also:
Here’s why you should subscribe to The Father Coleridge Reader and share with others:
Fr Coleridge provides solid explanations of the entirety of the Gospel
His work is full of doctrine and piety, and is highly credible
He gives a clear trajectory of the life of Christ, its drama and all its stages—increasing our appreciation and admiration for the God-Man.
If more Catholics knew about works like Coleridge’s, then other works based on sentimentality and dubious private revelations would be much less attractive.
But sourcing and curating the texts, cleaning up scans, and editing them for online reading is a labour of love, and takes a lot of time.
Will you lend us a hand and hit subscribe?
Follow our projects on Twitter, YouTube and Telegram:
Twitter (The WM Review)
The parallel between Jairus's experience and the bleeding woman's suffering really deepens this passage. Both endured excruciating delays, but each delay served a purpose in revealing different dimensions of faith. It's fascinating how Jesus uses one person's wait to teach everyone present about compasion and divine timing. The chronological placement you mentioned also puts this early in Christ's ministry, showing these foundational lesons about faith under pressure were establshed from the start.
I didn’t know any of the contaminated blood history. A quick Google responds with upwards of 10,000 in the US, also.