Matthew 9:18-26, Mark 5:22-43, and Luke 8:41-56 all tell the same story regarding an older woman and a young girl who were both healed by Yeshua. In each account, a pious Jewish man asks him to heal his ailing, twelve-year-old daughter. As Yeshua follows the man to his house, a crowd gathers around him, and a woman who has had an issue of blood for twelve years touches his tzitzit and is instantly healed. He then leaves behind the crowd and brings the young girl back to life. It seems like two separate events, but the older woman’s story is made a part of the young girl’s story by being inserted into the middle of it. While the story is completely true, it is also a parable told through real life events.
The older woman is Judah, a part of the nation of Israel as illustrated by the twelve years of her illness. Long before Yeshua was born in Bethlehem, the Jews had abandoned following the Torah as it was given by God to Moses. Instead they had adopted “the tradition of the elders,” which, through its myriad rules, rendered the real Torah “of no effect” (Mat 15:1-20). Still today the Jews follow their rabbis and the Oral Torah in direct opposition to the Written Torah. They claim to follow Torah, yet they don’t. When the woman touched Yeshua’s garments, she wasn’t just touching the cloth. It wasn’t his clothes that she was after, it was the tzitzit fastened on the four corners. Tzitzit represent God’s Law, the Torah, and whenever we see them, we are to be reminded to whom we owe our allegiance and our obedience. The woman healed through touching the symbol of the Torah on Yeshua’s garment represents the Jews who will be restored to spiritual health by faith in God. Their faith will be evidenced by acknowledgement of Yeshua as their Messiah and returning to Torah as he taught it.
The young girl is the Church, which is also a part of the nation of Israel, as illustrated by the girl’s twelve years of life, and by her Jewish father. The Church was born of Jewish believers and gentiles reborn as children of Abraham. The Church is spiritually sick as well. It’s members claim to be Christians–little Christs–to follow the teachings of Yeshua, yet they don’t. They follow the traditions of their elders just like the Jews. The only difference is in which anthrogenic rules they have used to replace God’s. They will return to spiritual health only by obeying the command of Yeshua, “Talitha cumi.” When the girl had been raised, Yeshua did not ask for a glass of water as might be expected. He commanded that she be fed. In Scripture, food often represents difficult spiritual teaching (John 21:16-17, 1 Cor 3:2, and Heb 5:12-14). When the Church has been brought back from the dead, it will be up to his disciples (all Jews in the story, by the way) and her parents (a rabbi and his wife) to feed her.
The Jews claim to follow Torah, yet they don’t. The Christians claim to follow Yeshua, yet they don’t. The two will finally be united in faith and reality when they both practice what they preach. In faith, they must obey Yeshua’s commandments, including those found in the Torah.
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