Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time, January 30, 2024

Mark 5, 21-43

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea. One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, “My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.” He went off with him and a large crowd followed him.  There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who has touched my clothes?” But his disciples said to him, “You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, Who touched me?” And he looked around to see who had done it. The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”  While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?” Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. So he went in and said to them, “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.” And they ridiculed him. Then he put them all out. He took along the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and entered the room where the child was. He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around. At that they were utterly astounded. He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she should be given something to eat.

“One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward.”  Very seldom are we told by the Evangelists the names of the people Jesus helped.  Mark does give us names such as that of Bartimaeus, the blind man whom Jesus cures at Jericho; and Zacchaeus, the repentant tax collector who climbs a tree to see Jesus, and we can surmise that these men became important figures in the early Church in Israel.  We can do the same with Jairus, for there is no other reason for Mark to mention his name, or even for him to know it.  

In today’s Gospel Reading we are presented with a story of a great miracle, and also with a story within that story.  In both stories the Lord Jesus touches or is touched by someone or something considered ritually unclean.  He behaves indifferently to this prohibition of the Law and in doing so fulfills or completes the purity laws: they recognized certain exterior things as impure and ordered that Jews keep clear from them, and this functioned as a sign of how those who hope to please God should keep away from any kind of inner impurity, any sin.  By doing this he also shows that the (unclean) Gentiles were to be saved as well as the (clean) Jewish believers: “In Christ Jesus, you [Gentiles], who for some time were afar off, are made nigh by the Blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has made both [Jews and Gentiles] one, and breaking down the middle wall of partition, the enmities in his Flesh, making void the law of commandments contained in decrees that he might make the two in himself into one new man, making peace” (Ephesians 2:13–15).  The question as to whether the Gentiles could be saved and if they could, whether they needed to follow the Jewish Law, was hotly debated by the Jewish Christians at the time.  Mark’s relating these miracles to the Gentile Christians would have reassured them of their election in Christ.

“One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him.”  Jairus acts as a slave before his master, or as a human before his God.  He knows that Jesus can heal his daughter, and pleads with him that he might lower himself to come and save her.  It is a touching scene.  The synagogue official, who would have been a wealthy man, now pathetically on his face lying in the muck on the ground before the Lord, with tears begging him to save the daughter whom he loved.  “My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.”  If Jesus does not intervene, there is no hope for her.   Now, the way St. Matthew tells the story, the official knows that his daughter has died: “Lord, my daughter is even now dead” (Matthew 9, 18).  This seems confirmed since, in a few minutes, people will come up from the official’s house and say very coldly, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?”  This would seem to make sense only if the man knew she was dead, and that she had been dead for some time, which itself is confirmed by the fact that organized mourning was going on outside the house where the girl’s body lay.  Mark’s quoting the official as seeming to say she is only at the point of death may reflect an idiom for the Roman Christians for whom he is writing that she has died but that her body has not yet been prepared for burial.

“She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak.”  The unnamed woman, suffering terribly in this way for twelve years, the age of the daughter of Jairus, seeks the anonymity of the crowd to be healed, thinking that the Lord Jesus, a righteous man, would not lay his hand upon her due to her ritual impurity.  But what we see is her faith: she truly believes Jesus can heal her, even if she can only touch the tassel of his cloak.  Power will flow into her even through his clothes, even despite his (as she thinks) being unconscious of her.  “Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him.”  That is, he knew that the woman had touched him but now asks who has done so in order to get her to voluntarily present herself so that others might learn of this manifestation of his power.  “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”  Fearful that she would be exposed as vile and ridiculed, she shakes with terror before the Lord.  But he calls her “daughter”, as in “his own daughter”, commends her faith, and sends her away healed and in peace.  

“Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?” These words smack of irritation, as though the man’s daughter had been dead for some hours, that it was getting time to bury her (before sunset), and that he was in denial about what had happened.  We can imagine him trying to convince himself and others as he knelt before his daughter’s body that she was only sleeping.  This seems confirmed by the Lord’s words, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”  That is, his fear that she truly was dead.  “When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.”  St. Matthew adds a little more detail: “And when Jesus was come into the house of the ruler, and saw the flute-players and the multitude making a rout” (Matthew 9, 23).  The verb Matthew uses literally means “to make a great disturbance”, and “to terrify”.  This is the noise of chaos, not of faith.  “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.”  Supposing the girl’s father had been telling people that she only slept, Jesus confirms this, consoling him and also contradicting the chaos which signifies death without hope.  “Little girl, I say to you, arise!”  Mark gives us the Aramaic words that Jesus actually said to her, a clear memory in St. Peter’s mind.  We can think of her  being raised as signifying how the Lord will raise each of the dead: he enters through the chaos of death itself into the tomb (the house where her body lay), takes her by the hand, and calls her to rise up.  “The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around.”  She does not take time to recover; she gets up immediately and walks around, more conscious than if she had indeed been asleep and woken up.  “At that they were utterly astounded. He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she should be given something to eat.”  Only Jesus, the girl, three Apostles,  the and the father were present.  Mark does not mention the presence of the mother, though Luke 8, 56 mentions “parents”.  The Lord solicitude for the child does not end with bringing her back to life: he orders that she be given something to eat, much as he will lead those whom he raises into heaven from their graves to the eternal feast in heaven.  He also instructs that no news of this miracle should be made known.  As far as anyone else was concerned, she was asleep, just as the father might have been insisting all along.  The Lord tells demons not to make him known because he will not accept their testimony; he does not let other humans speak of their healings because they would distort what had happened.  He does not let the parents make this known because the news could be set off a riot.  He does this to protect the family and also the people in the crowd.

We see the importance of faith for those who are cured, in the two cases in this Reading and with the paralyzed man let down on a mat.  This is a sign of the faith we must have in order for our souls to be saved.