The lectionary gospel reading for Trinity 5 in this Year B is Mark 5.21–43, the intercalated stories of the raising of Jairus’ daughter and the healing of the woman with an issue of blood. This is Mark the storyteller at his narrative best, and unlike many lectionary passages, this is a long reading worth exploring carefully.
Come and join Ian and James as they explore the text and the issues it raises. (There is a minor blip with internet access speeds two-thirds of the way through; we hope it won’t detract from your enjoyment of the discussion.)
Full written commentary behind the discussion can be found in the next article.
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Mention by James of a similarity with church wardens brought to mind church wardens and Charles Simeon. Is there anything to learn from what happened?
Apologies- James did mention church wardens, after all.
The scripture may speak to belief of church leaders today! In respect of both scripture and Jesus and historicity. And the evangel.
“The woman heard about Jesus.
Early breafast time, this morning, a local hospital phoned. My wife had been named as next of kin, (she isn’t) for and older dear sister (S) in Christ. On arrival a Dr took us aside. She had gone Home, died shortly after the phone call.
S had opposed Christianity, but heard about Jesus through door knocking by members of a local CoE and she was converted as a midult.
I’ve not met anyone who so loved Jesus. She had multiple health problems but saw them as God given opportunities to talk about Jesus with health care providers and fellow patients. But it did come at a heartbreaking cost with a permanent estrangement and shunning by her adult daughter, notwithstanding S’s attempts at reconciliation.
S’s love for Jesus surpassed all. And I wish I could say more about how atrocious her life as a child had been in abuse and poverty in a notoriously rough part of town.
She had come to know Jesus, in reality, experientially truly touching her life.
I’m coming late to this, having been away and not caught up yet, but here are two thoughts on this passage to add to your interesting and insightful discussion (for which many thanks, as ever).
#1: Jesus told Jairus and his wife to keep their daughter’s recovery quiet but would not let the woman with the flow of blood hide her experience away – a complete contrast. I wonder whether this is largely a pastoral question:
>> The girl was too young to cope with the attendant publicity, so that pressure needed to be minimised; but
>> the woman needed to have her newly-kindled faith pushed further out of the comfort zone to encourage her discipleship and (maybe more importantly) to have her healing publicly recognised to enable her re-integration into society after years of being ostracised as “unclean”.
#2: In what sense was Jairus’ request answered? He came to Jesus with a very specific plea (involving Jesus’ hands) and with a specific time and place (now, at his house) in view, as you noted in the video. Yet Jesus (1) would not be rushed, allowing things to get worse before they got better, (2) raised her from the dead rather than preventing her death and (3) used words at least as much as touch to do so. All this makes me ask, what does this story say to us about prayer and what counts as “answered” prayer?