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Mark 5:21-43
A Dead Girl and a Sick Woman
21 When 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. 22 Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet, 23 and 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.” 24 So Jesus went with him.
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She 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. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30 At 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?’ ”
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
35 While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”
36 Ignoring what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue ruler, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.”40 But they laughed at him.
After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. 43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.
This strikes me as a terribly interesting passage. It’s actually two stories that are sort of twisted together, and each of the two is interesting in its own right. But the fact that the two stories are told together leads me to believe the Holy Spirit intends for us to think about them together.
It seems to me there’s a clue that the stories are meant to be thought of as connected – that’s the references to “twelve years” in each of them. The dying daughter of the synagogue leader is twelve years old, and that’s how long the woman has been bleeding. You could probably tell the story without mentioning the length of time the woman had been sick and the child had been alive, so it seems to me that the mention of the twelve years is intended to connect the two stories together.
But there other things connecting these two stories, as well. In both of them, Jesus is surrounded by big crowds, and the people in the crowds miss what’s really happening. In the story of the sick woman, Jesus is being surrounded and jostled by those around him. But none of them – including the disciples – perceive that some kind of divine power has flowed out of Jesus to heal the woman. And later, when he goes to the house of the synagogue leader, Jesus is surrounded by a big crowd of mourners. They’re wailing and crying out in their grief, and they don’t believe (or at least they don’t understand) what Jesus says about the little girl being “not dead but asleep.” Only the little girl’s parents believe Jesus, and their daughter is restored to them.
The further I’ve gone in thinking about this story, the more it seems to me that the desperation of the characters is the most important thing that links the two stories. Both the sick woman and the little girl’s father are so desperate that they are willing to sacrifice their own dignity and self-esteem.
The sick woman knows that she’s regarded as ritually unclean, so touching a famous rabbi would be considered a violation of the laws of Moses. But she’s so desperate, she shoves through the crowd and touches Jesus anyway. And she is healed.
The synagogue ruler Jairus almost certainly knows that the Jewish religious leadership wants Jesus dead. But he’s so desperate to save his child that he risks his standing in that leadership, and he gets down on his knees at the feet of Jesus and ‘pleads earnestly’ for his daughter’s life. And as a result of his desperate pleading, the little girl’s life is restored.
In this story, the two people who receive the power of Jesus stand out from the crowd. Not because they are the more righteous or virtuous, but because they are willing to lay aside their own dignity and self-reliance, and admit their desperate need for what Jesus offers.
One of my favorite contemporary Christian praise songs is entitled Breathe. Lots of Presbyterians aren’t that crazy about it, because it’s really more of a chant than a hymn – just a few lines, sung over and over. But the simple refrain is, “And I, I’m desperate for you.” And that, I think, expresses a simple truth about following Jesus that’s illustrated by these intertwined stories. That truth is that those who really experience the healing power of Jesus are those who can face the fact that our own wisdom and strength and righteousness are not enough to save us. Those who experience that power realize how desperately we need Jesus.
That doesn’t come naturally for us as American Protestants, because we’re raised to be independent and self-reliant. But following Jesus is not a self-help program. If we try to rely on our own strength and virtue, on our own righteousness, it will wind up being an impediment to genuine relationship with the one who died for us. It’s when we drop our self-delusions and face our desperate need for Jesus that his power can really flow into us, and he can heal us of whatever ails us and give us new life.
Let’s pray. Lord, you know how stubborn we can be about our own independence of heart and mind. But we pray that you will soften our hard hearts, and help us to face our desperate need for your healing and life-giving power, so that we can receive it and embrace it, and know your joy. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
(The other readings for today are Psalms 47 and 85; Isaiah 48:1-11; and Galatians 1:1-17. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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