Our Gospel passage for this Sunday is Mark 5:21-43, a sequence of miraculous events set in a bookended format (starts with one story, gets interrupted by another, then concludes with the ending of the first story). The stories, in the same format, appear in all three synoptic Gospels. Matthew (9:18–26) and Luke (8:40–56), however, have a couple of noteworthy differences that we’ll address shortly.
The scene starts by saying that Jairus, one of the leaders of a local synagogue, came to Jesus for help and “fell at his feet and begged him.” Jairus was, according to that position, a leader in the community and one of the lay leaders in the synagogue, with a high level of responsibility and status. The humble act of falling onto someone’s feet was done to people of extremely high status, like a king. For Jairus to do this to Jesus was an extreme act of humility, and perhaps desperation. Most of us would put our pride aside in the hope of saving our dying child. It’s hard to deny someone who is really begging for your help.
Jesus agrees to go see Jairus’ daughter and heal her, and the crowd starts on down the road to his house. Along the way they are interrupted by the actions of a woman who has been menstruating continuously for 12 years. She believes Jesus can heal her and reaches out toward him and touches his garment, saying that if she can just touch his clothes she’ll be made well. The text in Mark says she touched his cloak (v. 27); however, in Matthew’s description she touches the “fringe of his cloak” (9:20) and in Luke’s (8:44), the “fringe of his clothes” despite all three phrases being the same Greek words (autou tou imatiou).
The fringe is a specific indicator that we usually miss.
In Matthew 23:5, Jesus refers to the conceited behavior of the Pharisees, saying:
They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long …
Those fringes are the four tassels that the Hebrews were told in Numbers 15:38 and Deuteronomy 22:12,
You shall make tassels for yourselves on the four corners of your clothing with which you cover yourself. — Deut 22:12
She was touching the part of Jesus’ clothing that specifically identified him as an obedient servant of Yahweh, from whom his healing power emanates.
What she had just done had to seem catastrophic to Jairus. Not only did this woman delay Jesus on the way to heal Jairus’ dying daughter, she also touched a rabbi while she was unclean! During the week of menstruation, women were forbidden to touch furniture, clothing, and especially other people.
And when a woman ⌊is menstruating⌋, her body fluid discharge occurs in her body; for seven days she shall be in her
menstruation, and any person who touches her shall become unclean until the evening. — Lev 15:19
Technically, the woman wasn’t really in her menstrual cycle, but the Levitical text describes that situation as well.
And when a woman discharges a body fluid consisting of her blood for many days, but not at the time of her
menstruation, or when she discharges in addition to her menstruation, all the days of her unclean body fluid discharge she shall become unclean as in the days of her menstruation. — Lev 15:25
Not only did this woman violate the Levitical code by touching Jesus’ clothes, in Jairus’ mind she just ruined any chance of his daughter being saved, because now Jesus was ceremonially unclean until that evening, and could not lead any religious rite or even enter Jairus’ house!
But the risk she took in faith was worth the effort, because Jesus healed her and used her as an example of great faith for the whole crowd to see. He did not criticize her for failing to follow ceremony or violating the instructions in Leviticus; instead he praised her publicly for her great faith, and even called her “daughter.”
By publicly acknowledging her adopted status as a child of God, Jesus showed his amazing love to her, and to Jairus, who now must have realized that Jesus was not about to discard one daughter to save another; he could save both.
One aspect of this woman’s condition that Mark mentions does not show up in Luke’s version. Mark tells us that she had spent all her money on doctors but didn’t get any better and, in fact, had gotten worse. Luke, the physician,
mentions she had spent her money on doctors, but seems unable to publicly declare that his profession had not only bankrupted her without curing her, but had actually made her worse off than she was before their help.
Before they could get going again, some of Jarius’ people came to them to tell him his daughter was dead, and not to bother Jesus with coming to the house anymore. Jesus sees how heartbroken Jairus is, and tells him not to
fear, but to believe. And he does. So, Jesus brings him and Peter, James, and John with him to the house where he raises Jairus’ daughter from the dead to the surprise of all the mourners gathered around.
When we are in hopeless situations we are called to remain faithful and not lose hope. The world around Jairus thought his daughter was beyond hope; Jairus’ faith brought a miracle.
For 12 long years the woman in the story suffered both the physical difficulty and social indignity of continuous menstruation. Yet she didn’t give up hope. She reached out in faith and was healed. If she had given up hope in
year 11, she wouldn’t have been there to be healed by Jesus.
In the most hopeless times of our lives, we are told to keep the faith, because that’s when the healing comes. God tells us that he will lead us through the rough times in our lives, not just to them. And not around them either. We will face tough times, but not alone.
As David reminds us in Psalm 23:4 —
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
In our toughest times, God is always here for us. Don’t fear but believe.
Your Brother in Christ,
Fr. Austin