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Day 9 – A dead girl and a sick woman (part 1)

Bible reading: Mark 5:21–34

Jesus makes a dead girl live

21 Jesus returned to the other side of the lake in the boat. While he was by the lake, a large crowd came to him. 22 A man called Jairus came to Jesus. He was a leader at the Jewish meeting place. When he saw Jesus, he went down on his knees in front of him. 23 He said, ‘My little daughter is very ill and she will die very soon. Please come to my house and put your hands on her. Then she will be well and she will live.’ 24 So Jesus went with Jairus.

A large crowd followed Jesus. The people were pushing against him. 25 There was a sick woman who had lost blood for 12 years. 26 She had paid many doctors to help her to become well. But they could not do anything. Now she had spent all her money. She had not become well. Instead, she was now worse. 27 People had told her about Jesus. So she came in the crowd behind him and she touched his coat. 28 She said, ‘Even if I can only touch his clothes, I will become well again.’ 29 As soon as she touched Jesus' coat, the blood stopped. She felt in her body that her illness was better. She knew that she was well again.

30 Jesus knew immediately that something powerful had gone out from him. So he turned around in the crowd and he asked, ‘Who touched my clothes?’

31 His disciples replied, ‘You can see that the crowd is pushing against you. So you cannot ask who touched you!’

32 But Jesus looked around him. He wanted to see who had touched him. 33 The woman knew what had happened to her. She felt very afraid. But she came to Jesus, and she went down on her knees in front of him. Then she told him everything that had happened to her. 34 Jesus said to her, ‘Young woman, you are now well again because you believed in me. Have peace in your mind. Go now and have no more pain.’

Mark 5:21-34 EasyEnglish Bible (EASY)

Reflection

Not all the religious authorities felt threatened by Jesus. Here was Jairus, a leader in the synagogue (place of worship), hoping intensely that Jesus could heal his dying daughter. He fell at Jesus’ feet with his request. Very undignified! What would they say about him on the next Sabbath? But he’d do anything for his daughter. Jesus agrees and, accompanied by the usual crowd, goes towards Jairus’ house.

But now we have a story inside a story. A woman suffering from constant internal bleeding sees her chance and interrupts. She has spent so much money on the useless doctors of those days (there was no government health care). Could Jesus help her? Embarrassed to mention her condition in public, she got near enough to touch Jesus’ clothes. She had extraordinary faith, even if it was a bit like belief in magic. And she was rewarded. She was healed. Jesus immediately knew that healing power had gone from him (his healing work had an effect on him, too) and asked who had done it. His friends thought that was a crazy question, as if you were to ask, ‘Who touched me?’ in the middle of a rugby scrum! But Jesus knew, and the woman knew.

She came to Jesus

She came to Jesus and told him her whole story – the pain she had suffered for 12 years, and how people avoided her because of her condition.

It is not so hard to confess to one who understands us like Jesus. Jesus was not at all annoyed. Instead, he welcomed her and told her that her faith had ‘saved’ her – or made her well. Of course, it was the combination of his power and her trust that fixed the problem.

That word ‘save’ in the original Greek means both to ‘make well’ and to ‘rescue’ people for God. Readers of the story would realize that Jesus’ power was available for them too. His power could repair their lives and put them back in a relationship with God. If only they, like this woman, would trust him.