Reflection

Gospel

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered round him and he stayed by the lake. Then the president of the synagogue came up, named Jairus, and seeing him, fell at his feet and begged him earnestly, saying, 'My little daughter is desperately sick. Do come and lay your hands on her so that she may be saved and may live.'  

Jesus went with him and a large crowd followed him; they were pressing all round him. Now there was a woman who had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years; after long and painful treatment under various doctors, she had spent all she had without being any the better for it; in fact, she was getting worse. She had heard about Jesus, and she came up through the crowd and touched his cloak from behind, thinking, 'If I can just touch his clothes, I shall be saved.'  And at once the source of the bleeding dried up, and she felt in herself that she was cured of her complaint.                                                                               And at once aware of the power that had gone out from him, Jesus turned round in the crowd and said, 'Who touched my clothes? His disciples said to him, 'You see how the crowd is pressing round you; how can you ask, "Who touched me?" '  But he continued to look all round to see who had done it.  Then the woman came forward, frightened and trembling because she knew what had happened to her, and she fell at his feet and told him the whole truth. 'My daughter,' he said, 'your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be free of your complaint.'  

While he was still speaking some people arrived from the house of the president of the synagogue to say, 'Your daughter is dead; why put the Master to any further trouble?' But Jesus overheard what they said and he said to the president of the synagogue, 'Do not be afraid; only have faith.' And he allowed no one to go with him except Peter and James and John the brother of James.  So they came to the house of the president of the synagogue, and Jesus noticed all the commotion, with people weeping and wailing unrestrainedly. He went in and said to them, 'Why all this commotion and crying? The child is not dead, but asleep.' But they ridiculed him. So he turned them all out and, taking with him the child's father and mother and his own companions, he went into the place where the child lay.  And taking the child by the hand he said to her, 'Talitha kum!' which means, 'Little girl, I tell you to get up.' The little girl got up at once and began to walk about, for she was twelve years old. At once they were overcome with astonishment, and he gave them strict orders not to let anyone know about it, and told them to give her something to eat.                                                                                                                          Mark 5:21-43

Reflection

Our Gospel has one healing narrative interrupted by a second. The opening story is about the little daughter of a synagogue’s official, who is sick at home. While Jesus is responding to that explicit and public request, a woman who is having a loss of blood privately reaches out physically for her healing. To more fully understand the woman’s condition and her reaching out just to touch the fringe of Jesus’ garment, considering blood was regarded in the Jewish tradition as a participation in the life of God; it was the source of life itself. Any loss of blood by a woman made her unclean no matter what the cause, even childbirth and she was not to be touched until she regained a state of purity according to ritual practices. 

The woman is desperate having tried everything and had exhausted her finances. Jesus was her last resort and death would be her final end without His saving solution. She had made a gesture of faith and by her faith in Him, she was healed. As with most healings, it was the beginning of her going elsewhere and living in peace according to the new purifying experience of believing in Jesus’ saving person and mission. She had been honest and so was Jesus.

Jesus’ journey to the house of the official was interrupted, but his mission continued. Mourners are assembled outside the house according to custom. They believe the child has died, Jesus has come for life. The faith of the father of the girl has allowed Jesus to continue the girl’s life. They switch from mourning to mockery as He enters and speaks words of gentle power. “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” He is touching her with His hands and words. She, as with the woman who was healed, gets up and gets back to her living.

Jesus is the “Person of Justice”. He is re-establishing creation. Physical illness, in the Gospels, is a foil, a situation, a symbol for the fracture between God and humanity. Jesus has come to free us from a sense of impurity, a sense of blindness, a sense of paralysis and a sense that we do not know who we really are. We are all those who are constantly saved by our faith in the God of merciful justice. Our healing, as with those of the Gospels, is both from a “something” and more importantly, for a “something”. The “going”, the “walking around” , the mission of living in community with others is the full import of Jesus as Savior. No person is healed of anything so that a person can live in isolation. The bleeding woman was not allowed into the community until she had done the ritual offerings. The little girl was supposed to be already outside the human family. The fracture of the body is healed to be an agent for healing of the human fracture in our world.

Julie Leonard Religious Education Leader/Wellbeing Leader