Mark 5:21-34

A Dead Girl and a Sick Woman

21When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet 23and pleaded earnestly with him, "My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live." 24So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." 29Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

30At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

31"You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?' "

32But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."





BACKGROUND READING:


Numbers 15:37-41


Malachi 4


Luke 8:40-56



Dig Deeper

The reading for today and tomorrow is really one passage. Within this longer passage, we have a good example of something that Mark does several times in his gospel, he puts a story within a story, often called a Markan sandwich. The inner story and the outer story always add flavor, depth, and understanding to each other. The outer story here is about a father who comes to plead with Jesus to heal his twelve-year old daughter who has a serious illness. In the inner story we find a woman who has been plagued with severe internal bleeding for those same twelve years.


Both of these stories are about fear and faith, and how Jesus can take a small amount of faith and overcome the fear, leading people to an even greater faith. Both of these stories are particularly helpful to enter into them through the world of imagination. As we examine these two accounts from different angles and perspectives they will come to life all the more.


As Jesus is walking amidst the usual large crowd, Jairus, the synagogue president comes up to him (this would be equivalent to something like a city alderman in a small city). Normally, someone in Jairus’ position wouldn’t want to have a whole lot to do with Jesus. Local teachers of the law weren’t very happy with what Jesus was doing. His words were dangerous, especially if word of what he was saying got back to Herod Antipas or the Roman Emperor. It is likely that having Jesus in town was a pretty big headache for someone in Jairus’ position.


That is, until tragedy strikes home. Suddenly none of that seems to matter very much. When your daughter’s life is at stake, you go to the one person who can possibly cure her. Jairus no longer cares about religious controversy, political dangers, or what the people at the synagogue might say. He falls at the feet of this mysterious teacher and begs him to come heal his daughter.


At this point, Mark breaks off the description of Jairus, to include some details about a woman in the crowd. As they are on the way to Jairus’ house, a woman reaches out and touches the cloak of Jesus. Immediately, Jesus feels healing power leaving him, and turns to ask who touched him. The response of his disciples is almost laughable. How can he seriously be worried about who touched him in the midst of a pressing crowd? Immediately touching him, though, the woman is healed of twelve years of sickness.


The woman was quite afraid that Jesus might know that she touched him. The main reason for that was probably due to her state of uncleanness. Bleeding and bodily discharges were among the main causes for someone becoming ceremonially unclean.


One question that pops to mind is, why would this woman think that merely touching the clothes of Jesus would bring healing to her? The answer is rather interesting. In Numbers 15, God tells Moses that all Jews should make tassels on the corners of their garments as a reminder to obey the commands of YHWH. The word for tassels is tzitzit. The Hebrew word for corners is kanaf. Malachi 4, a passage predicting the coming Messiah, says, "the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings." The word Malachi uses for wings there is kanaf, the same word in Numbers that refers to the edges of the garment. As a result, a belief grew up among many Jews, and possibly this woman, that when the Messiah came, he would have special healing powers in his kanaf, the tassels of his prayer shawl. This woman clearly believed that Jesus is the promised Messiah. This is what Mark wants us to see here.


The woman, being full of faith, touched his garment and was healed just like Malachi had said. Jairus wanted Jesus to come to his house to heal his daughter, while the woman sneaks up to Jesus in the crowd thinking she will be healed if she can only touch his kanaf. "Your faith has healed you," Jesus tells this woman. "Don’t be afraid, just believe," he will tell Jairus (v. 36). Clearly these two incidents compliment one another, as Mark continues to stress that the helpless and unclean were recognizing who Jesus was long before anyone else.


The final thing to consider here is a question about faith. It is obvious that it is the power from Jesus that has healed this woman, yet why does he say that her faith has healed her? It seems that faith by itself is powerless, but it is the conduit through which the power of God flows. This is why at times, when people had no faith, they could not be healed. When the fountain is turned off, there will be no water.



Devotional Thought

Despite a great deal of fear, both Jairus and the woman went to Jesus for healing. The small amount of faith they had overrode any amount of fear they had. What do you do when you’re afraid of circumstances? Do you turn to God with even a small amount of faith, or do you let your fear overtake you?