I’m reminded of a story that will embarrass the young lady involved if I was to name her. One summer’s days 15+ years ago, we went with a group of friends to Drayton Manor Park & Zoo (a local theme park with, as the name suggests, it’s own zoo). We’d visited many times and always spent some time in the zoo, as it was the only thing to do for the early birds, before the rides officially opened. On this particular occasion, we’d gone with a group of friends, who all had children of similar ages.
As we walked around the zoo, we came to the tigers enclosure. As the tigers were relaxing in the sunshine, one of the teenage girls asked the question “How do you know if it’s a male tiger?”. I think that she was querying if there are specific markings or as in the case of lions, a major physical feature that differentiates between the sexes. But as the question left her mouth, the tiger that was nearest us, stood up and began to walk away displaying for all to see, that he was definitely a male tiger. The comic timing of him walking away was absolutely perfect. Everyone fell about laughing, as the teenager rapidly turned red with embarrassment.
So why did that story come to mind? I was reading the story of Jesus healing the women with the issue of blood (Mark 5:25-34), which occurs while Jesus is on his way with Jairus to see his sick daughter. Jairus was a synagogue leader, in a time when religious leaders had much more public standing than today, they were also civic leaders and were highly respected by all of society. Jesus was a known public figure, and attracted crowds wherever he went, people eager to see if the stories of miraculous healings were true or if it was all hype.
You’re probably sitting there, scratching your head, wondering if the “waiting” has finally tipped me over the edge? In the wider story of the healing (Mark 5:21-43), we see that Jesus has compassion on Jairus and sets off in a hurry to go with him. The crowds and Jairus are expectant, their minds are already running ahead to the outcome that they’re expecting. How often do we jump to conclusions? Either based on what we know (or what we think that we know), what we can see or purely based on our preconceived ideas? We need to see things from a different perspective i.e. the tiger standing up rather than lying down!
Not only did Jesus appear to get distracted from the task in hand by someone touching the edge of his cloak, but he then went on to have a conversation with the woman, once she’d identified herself. Have you ever known a person who has been ostracised by friends, family or society in general (remember she’d been “unclean” for 12 years, no one would have wanted to be seen anywhere near her, let alone engage her in conversation) who is given an opportunity to speak? Jesus gave her his full attention, maybe encouraging her to tell her story. Which it appears she did, going into great detail about the problem and how she’d seen so many doctors until her money had run out.
I just love how Jesus doesn’t see what other people see, he has a different perspective, he doesn’t jump to conclusions, he gives people time. And even though Jairus’ daughter dies in the waiting, that’s not the end of the story!
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