Dear Preachers:
Mark’s narratives are usually short, crisp and have a feeling of rush about them. Jesus is in a hurry to accomplish his task of announcing the good news; while his disciples lag behind. But today’s story is unusually long. The story is characteristic of Mark in its “sandwiching” two stories into one. One story begins and is interrupted by another; which is then completed, before Mark returns to the original.
Today’s “sandwich” technique links two diverse characters in one narrative and it naturally raises comparisons between the two. We begin by comparing the two characters in the story, their similarities and differences. Both were not able to be helped by those with power. The woman hadn’t been helped by doctors; Jairus’
religious colleagues couldn’t help him. So what do they do? They take the initiative and go to Jesus, but in different ways.
Jairus is a desperate parent and, though he was a synagogue official, he threw off all decorum, rushed to Jesus, fell at his feet and “pleaded earnestly with him.” Well, there went Jairus’ reputation with his friends and the other important synagogue leaders! Imagine a religious dignitary humbling himself before an itinerant preacher.
But then he has to wait. Don’t you just hate to wait? Long cashier lines at the supermarket or movie theater; an extra long red light; water to boil when you’re hungry; a prescription to fill at the pharmacy. But those are only minor inconveniences, aren’t they?
There is another kind of waiting fraught with tension, anxiety, fear and helplessness. Waiting while a loved one undergoes surgery; for the results of a CAT scan; for a long overdue child to return late at night; for a soldier to return home from battle. These, and others like them, are forms of waiting that are pitched high. We like to attack difficult situations and problems to solve or bring them to resolution. But the above forms of waiting are completely different, we can’t do anything about them, they are out of our control, so we have no choice but to wait and pray for a happy resolution.
Mark is a wonderful storyteller as he inserts one story into another.
He builds anticipation and drama and we wait to discover the outcome.
But Jairus wasn’t there to appreciate a good story and he was being put on hold as Jesus addressed the woman. Jairus had to wait. Think what he must have been going through. He had rushed to Jesus in desperate need. He describes it succinctly, “My daughter is at the point of death.” There’s nothing he or any other of his powerful friends can do. Jesus is his last hope. He makes a direct request, “Please come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.”
When we are in need our prayers we don’t have to be fancy. Jesus responds immediately, “He went off with him and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon him.”
Jairus was in a hurry. But it must’ve seemed to him that Jesus was not, because he stops to talk to the woman with hemorrhages (note the
plural) who had touched him and was healed. Her flow of blood had made her ritually unclean for twelve (!) years (Lev 15:25-30). To her suffering was added the ostracization from her family, friends and the support of a praying community.
Jesus’ stop to address the woman shows he considered her and her need as important and as pressing as that of the prominent religious leader Jairus. Once again Jesus shows that the marginated have an important place in his ministry and his invitation to the reign of God.
The geography of the story suggests the same message. Jesus has just returned from the “other side” of the lake, Gentile country, where he expelled the evil spirits from the Gerasene demoniac. Now he is back on the western, Jewish shore. This geographic detail tells us that Jesus is healing on both “coasts.” His blessing shows no partiality between Jew and Gentile, between those far off and his own people.
Both those acceptable to the religious establishment and those considered “outsiders” fall under Jesus’ healing and grace-filled touch.
We left Jairus waiting and, in crisis situations, waiting for God to act can be a severe test of our faith. While we wait, as in the case of Jairus’ daughter, things can go from bad to worse. When that happens the cracks in our faith can show. We wonder if God loves us at all; we question our own worthiness; whether we are using the “proper prayers”; if we are worthy of God’s attention, etc. Jairus must have had some of those feelings, in addition to frustration, fear, desperation and maybe even a little anger as well.
Jesus invited Jairus to have faith in his power. The voices of death are powerful in our world — poverty, addictions, war, racism and death itself. Neither we, nor even the church, can face them on our own. When we are confronted by one or more of death’s guises we need to hear what Jesus says to us today, “Do not be afraid, just have faith.” Then we do, what Jairus and the other disciples did, follow Jesus, even to the place of death itself and, “have faith.” The crowd who heard Jesus say, “The child is not dead but asleep,” ridiculed him. Were some of his disciples part of that ridiculing crowd? Even in the face of the impossible, Jesus urges us not to listen to the voices of cynics and naysayers. Instead, he encourages us not to be afraid.
Let’s not forget the woman. She must have had some wealth at one time and a higher status (5:26). But she has “spent all she had.” She is in public by herself, something rare in the culture of the day. She was an unprotected and vulnerable female in a crowd. There is no male relative present to protect her. And, to make matters worse, she is ritually unclean. Because of her condition if anyone had touched her they would have become infected and made as ritually unclean as she was But she is desperate, maybe that’s why she risks so much. Or, perhaps, her faith makes her take such bold steps.
There were two deaths in this story and they are linked by the number twelve. For twelve years the woman was socially dead, an outcast of the community and any family she had. The child was twelve years old and was actually dead. Jesus was able to bring them both back to life and reincorporate them into their community of family and faith.
The woman’s healing takes place as a result of her own initiative. In addition, Jesus plays no active part in it, which underlines what he tells her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you.” Lots of people must have been bumping into Jesus and brushing up against him. But this woman’s presence and touch were different; she had faith and she acted on it.
Jesus’ words to the woman after her healing must have been reassuring, for he calls her, “Daughter.” Not only has her healing made her acceptable to reputable society, but she’s also a member of Jesus’ family. He was gathering a new family to himself, not based on blood, but on having faith and doing God’s will (3:31-35). We don’t know if the woman had any male relatives, but now she is under the protection of a new “father,” Jesus — who calls her “Daughter.” We too are his sons and daughters when we trust him enough “not to be
afraid.”