Fear is useless; what is needed is trust…

Said Jesus in response to the people who announced that the daughter of the chief of the synagogue was dead. The raising from the dead of Jairus’ daughter, is one of two miracles for women that are coupled in the synoptic Gospels. They are woven into a single account most likely because that is the way that they happened. One the other hand, the number 12 – the age of the girl and the number of years of the woman’s sickness) may have been the literary link for the two miracles being joined together. The number twelve represents, in Jewish Kabbalah, totality, wholeness, and completion of God’s purpose. Further, the name Jairus is a Greek form of the Hebrew name which means he gives light. As a ruler of the synagogue, he was under no obligation to kneel before Jesus, but desperation pulled him to his knees. According to Luke, Jesus had worked a miracle in the synagogue where Jairus was chief. Jesus cured a demoniac there. So Jarius believed that Jesus had the power to cure his daughter and approached Him. There is no indication to which religious party Jarius belonged.

Luke’s account does not include the child’s name and he has Jesus tell the girl’s parents, after raising her from the dead, not to tell anyone what had happened. This seems strange since people had already told Jesus that the girl was dead. This was the first time that Luke includes reference to the Messianic Secret – to the fact that Jesus frequently told those He cured to tell no one except, perhaps, the priests. Since these two miracles were among the first that He performed, there was no awareness that He was the Messiah and the accounts were written after His death and resurrection.

What message can we derive from these miracle stories that can help us live our lives more completely today? What can we glean from them that will help us on our spiritual journey?

Two things immediately come to mind. First, the meaning of the number 12: earthly life is a completion of God’s purpose to help us develop a relationship with Him. And second, the     meaning of Jarius’ name in connection with the number twelve: God is the one who gives us light – insight – into the meaning and purpose of life.

If we are not afraid and trust in the Good News that God has given us through Jesus, we will have life in its fullness. Fear about the future is absolutely useless! We cannot change the     future by our worrying or being anxious. What will be will be! Trust, however, in the love of God for us will help us deal with anything that life presents.

So the message I have derived from this week’s Gospel is:

Fear is useless; what is needed is trust!