4th Week in Ord. Time, Tuesday – 31st January 2023 — Gospel: Mark 5,21-43
No faith is put to shame
The healing story is sandwiched between the beginning and ending of the raising story. The healing of the woman in the middle appears to have two basic functions: it creates a time lapse which accentuates the actual death of Jairus’ daughter; and it presents the reversal of a woman’s death-ridden life in anticipation of the raising of a young girl from death to life. The woman exhibits ‘active’ belief with ‘a movement of the will’ which presses her towards Jesus. The woman’s thought functions as a request which Jesus grants. Jesus’ direct knowledge of her thoughts, His assertion of her faith, and the woman’s action establishes a ‘rule’ for the early church that no faith is put to shame and destroyed, and her confidence brings kindness and healing. As the positive qualities of Jesus unfold, so the positive qualities of the woman unfold. She exhibited not only her faith but also her fear, trembling, respect and honesty. The women orientates all her activities toward Jesus, and Jesus interprets her emotions, knowledge, and action as she crosses the boundary from the world of physicians to the sphere of Jesus’ healing power.
