| First Reading |
Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
| Wisdom of Solomon 1:13–15; 2:23–24 |
Psalm 130 |
2 Corinthians 8:7–15 |
Mark 5:21–43 |
In last week’s Gospel, Jesus calmed the storm as he and the disciples were going across the lake to gentile territory. Once there Jesus cured a man beset by devils. Today, Jesus has crossed the lake again and is on the Jewish shore. As the Gospel writer connects both gentile and Jewish sides of the lake with Jesus’ healings, similarly today we are offered a story within a story that are purposely intertwined.
Just off the boat, Jesus is met by one of the leaders of the town’s synagogue. Being a leader of the synagogue, probably its president, was one of the most prestigious positions one could hold. He comes accompanied by a large retinue, respectfully requesting Jesus’ help in healing his daughter who is near death. Jesus and the disciples realize that the eyes of the whole town are upon them. As Jesus starts off to see the girl, he is unexpectedly interrupted. Unnoticed by the crowd, a poor woman, considered ritually unclean because of her particular affliction, maneuvers herself behind Jesus, and touches his cloak. Instantly, Jesus feels something. Readers of the Gospel know that something unusual is happening, for the usual assumption is that when an unclean person touches someone considered clean, the clean becomes contaminated. However Jesus demonstrated that contact with the sick did not cause harm to the healer. Instead, the unclean person is healed! Dramatically, Jesus stops and looks around. Everyone continues to be oblivious to the woman and her prolonged suffering. The disciples and others pass the incident off as just an insignificant shove from the crowd, and urge Jesus to focus on attending to the highly visible request of Jairus, but Jesus insists, that someone, a real person, with a face and name had reached out to him. Jesus notices the woman and compels the crowd to focus upon her. For the first time, Jairus, leader of the synagogue, responsible for the welfare of all the people in his community, looks into the eyes of this woman and recognizes her also as a child of God. Jesus makes the woman visible.
Jesus publicly proclaims, “Daughter, you are now well, you are clean, go in peace.” Almost immediately servants from Jairus’ house announce, “Your daughter is dead, and her body is now unclean.” Again, Jesus perceives the situation differently. Undeterred, Jesus points to the woman and says to Jairus, “Have faith.” Insisting on going up to the house and into the room where Jarius’ daughter is laid out, Jesus touches the body, and the little daughter comes to life.
Lastly, to make sure we connect the story of the woman with Jairus’ daughter, Mark notes that the daughter was twelve years old, about to start puberty, the same age as the number of years the woman had suffered her life slipping away. Both have been healed to start a new life.
This story within the story suggests that a community inevitably exhibits very limited insight insofar as it does not recognize the nameless, the faceless, those without voice, bleeding among them. The woman who suffered humiliation and rejection was as much a daughter of the community as the little daughter of Jairus. Both were in desperate straights. A community that takes its mission seriously must always be open to those heretofore unnoticed or passed over. In such encounters, one meets the face of the Gospel at work, over and over again.
I suggest that the Gospel is telling people of faith that while we have the technically most advanced medical system in the world, that system needs to be connected to the situation of those who are uninsured and do not have any means of accessing that marvelous medical system. While even in Ithaca we are able to build luxury condominiums that are environmentally correct, we also need to connect that to the substandard and unsafe housing in this community. While we have one of the most educated populations of any American city, we need also to be concerned about those who drop out of school or have an inadequate education to sustain themselves and have no hope or motivation to become productive citizens.
Like last week’s, the Gospel today seems especially pertinent to this time, as this week we celebrate the Fourth of July, the birth of a new nation, founded on new hope, not just for the few and privileged, but for the many. We in our day are those called to make those important connections, just as Jesus did in those days along the shores of Galilee.
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
