13th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B – 27th June 2021 — Gospel: Mark 5,21-43
Amazing God’s Daughters
Today’s Gospel presents Jesus giving new life to two Jewish “daughters” of God: Jairus’ daughter and the woman called by Jesus as daughter. The story of the healing of the bleeding woman is sandwiched between the beginning and the end of the story of the raising of the daughter of the synagogue official. Both stories declare the desire of Jesus to bring new experience of life to those who seem to be at death’s doors. The two stories are there to interpret each other and reveal a Jesus in his differentiated healing and salvific power. It seems this Jesus can heal even when he doesn’t initiate it (5,29-30) and can raise someone else he failed to heal in time (5,40-42). Both stories show the power of God’s love and the need for faith and trust in God. These twin healing stories are amazing. One stopped bleeding, which restored her life. The other had her life restored, so that she could continue to “bleed” and eventually produce life.
The unnamed woman was a bold woman, who approached Jesus secretly without a male sponsor. But in the light of her impure condition, she would have been cut off from the religious community. Therefore she may not have had a choice but to act daringly. The narrator then describes the woman in a long periodic sentence with the string of participles that build up her sufferings and finally culminating in her action: having been bleeding, having suffered, having spent money, having not benefitted, and having gotten worse, having heard about Jesus, and having come from behind… then comes the long delayed action: she touched his cloak. In fact, she touched the one she just knows can heal her. The healing confirmation does not come first from outside, but from within – the woman knows immediately in her body that the healing has happened. When she came forward to tell the whole truth (5,33), Jesus called her “daughter”, by which He confirmed her of healing, blessing of peace and release from her scourge (5,34). Earlier “power” from Jesus healed the woman. Now, “truth” from her brings forth not only healing, but greater blessings as well.
Jairus’ faith comes through his bold invitation to Jesus. He firmly believed that Jesus’ laying on of hands can make his daughter well now and live. Jesus then carries out Jairus’ wish but finds his healing plot quickly interrupted. However, on having reached Jairus’ home, Jesus finds the situation most disappointing with grief and mourning. Jesus offers words of encouragement to Jairus. He forcefully moves out the crowds except the girl’s parents and his chosen disciples. In a beautiful moment Jesus fulfills Jairus’ wish by taking her hand and addresses her with simple words that restores her to life. All through Jairus’ return Journey, Jesus challenged him to hold on to his faith, a faith that led him to the healer in the first place. This faith was strengthened in his home, after the crowds ridicule, as he witnessed her daughter rising to new life.
