Reflection for 30th June 2024

The Fifth Sunday After Trinity

Lamentations 3.22-33, 2 Corinthians 8.7-15, Mark 5.21-43

There are several themes running through the passages that show Jesus’ sovereignty, gentleness, and power to heal. These themes float along together on the river of faith in God.

Mark shows two approaches to faith. The haemorrhaging woman approaches Jesus in fear and creeps up behind Him. She doesn’t dare to address him directly but wants only to touch Jesus’ clothes. This woman had suffered for a long time, not just due to her bleeding but also because her medical condition caused her to be perpetually unclean, preventing her from ever entering the synagogue and making her a social outcast. Jairus serves as an example of the second approach to faith. Jairus, a synagogue ruler, in full view of the crowds, throws himself down in front of Jesus and openly begs for help. Jairus, a man of high social standing, risked everything by making such an undignified show and demonstrating his faith in Jesus. Knowing this, Jesus tells him, "Do not fear; only believe."

The woman fears not only openly requesting help but also being discovered after receiving it. Yet her faith compels her to reach out and touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. Here, Mark is highlighting the intimate nature of the contact between the woman and Jesus. This is something that Mark expects and hopes his readers will develop for themselves. When life crowds in with all its pressures, there is still room for us to creep up behind Jesus—if that’s all we feel we can do—and reach out to touch him, in that odd mixture of fear and faith often found so much in our discipleship. Jesus responds to the woman’s reaching out with, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well’. This does not mean that the woman healed herself, but that her faith opened the way for the power of Jesus’ healing to work. Jesus, as we know, is not a magician. He is God’s son, through whom the living God is remaking humans and the world. Faith is the first sign of this remaking, renewal, and new life in God's kingdom. Jesus once again demonstrates this by using ordinary, everyday words to wake up Jairus's daughter, Talitha Koum: 'Time to get up, little girl'. The point of Mark’s gospel is that the life-giving power of God is breaking into, and working through, the ordinary details of life.

Both of these intense and intimate human dramas serve as a guide to the profound point of Mark’s story. Jesus was indeed starting a revolution, bringing God’s healing power into the world. However, his purpose was much more profound, as these were indications of the true revolution and healing that God intended to bring about through Jesus’ death and resurrection. By this, we know Jesus to be our Saviour, meaning healer, redeemer, and liberator. The healing and liberation Jesus brings enable us to have a right relationship with God and receive the fullness of life God created us for.

Blessings and prayers,

Emma