Mark 5:21-43

Hebrews 12:1-4

Psalm 22:26b-27, 28 and 30, 31-32

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.

Opening Prayer: Lord God, you lovingly sent your Son into the world to conquer sin and death. He demonstrated your merciful love by healing the sick and restoring the dead to life. Increase my faith so that may be an instrument of your love to all I encounter.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Divine Authority over Disease: In the first five chapters of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus cured many people. He began his healing ministry in Capernaum by curing Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever on the Sabbath (1:29-31), by healing many sick people after the sabbath rest concluded at sunset (1:32-39), and by cleansing a leper (1:40-45). These deeds of power and authority manifested the presence of the Kingdom of God inaugurated by Jesus. When Jesus healed a paralytic (2:1-12) and a man with a withered hand (3:1-6), the healings provoked the opposition of the religious authorities and led to them plotting to kill Jesus. Today’s healing, which took place on the way to cure a little girl of 12 years, forms part of the training of his apostles, who will soon be sent out on mission and given a share in Jesus’ divine authority. The woman who was healed had suffered hemorrhages for 12 years. This put the woman perpetually in a state of ritual impurity and prevented her from entering the temple to worship with the community of God’s people (Leviticus 15:25-33). The healing anticipates how the apostles, after the death and resurrection of Jesus, will heal people bodily and spiritually through the Sacraments of the Church and reintroduce them into the liturgical community of worship. In chapter six of Mark’s Gospel, the apostles will be given a share in Jesus’ authority and be able to drive out demons and to heal the sick by anointing them with oil (Mark 6:7-13).

2. Divine Authority over Death: While Jesus was on the way to cure Jairus’ daughter, people arrived to tell Jairus that his daughter died. Jarius didn’t get angry at the woman who caused the delay, but listened to Jesus’ invitation to put aside fear and have faith in him. Jesus invited the three apostles who formed Jesus’ inner circle to accompany him inside and witness the restoration of the girl to life. Mark emphasizes the contrast between the growing faith of Jesus’ three apostles, who followed Jesus, and the lack of faith of the hired mourners, who mocked Jesus. “The raising of Jairus’s daughter is the climax of the series of miracles recounted in this section of Mark (Mark 4:35-5:43). Each one increasingly reveals Jesus’ power to overcome death. He has rescued his disciples from near-certain death in the storm on the lake, delivered a man whose existence was a living death among the tombs, restored to health a woman whose life was draining away, and raised a dead girl to life. In each case the way to experience Jesus’ saving power is to reject fear and yield to faith, a deeply personal faith that comes into living contact with him” (Healy, The Gospel of Mark, 110).

3. Christian Life as an Endurance Race: The Letter to the Hebrews presented Jesus as our great high priest who is faithful and mercifully compassionate toward us. In Chapter 11, the author of the letter exhorted us to imitate the faith of our ancestors and trust in Jesus. In Chapter 12, the author exhorts us to endure in hope and to imitate Jesus, “the leader and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus “is the only perfect model to imitate, the only one who has persevered in total fidelity to God and attained the glorious reward. But Jesus is not merely our example; he is also the source of our faith and the one who brings it to completion (see Phil 1:6)” (Healy, Hebrews, 257). We need to fix our sight on Jesus as the goal and press on toward that goal. Our Christian life is like an endurance race in which we are striving toward the finish line, cheered on by the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us (Hebrews 12:1-4).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you are the Life and the Resurrection. I am running and striving toward you each day and am strengthened by the witness of so many saints.

Living the Word of God: How did I handle the most recent passing of a family member or loved one? Was I able to console those around me through words of faith and comfort or accompany them in silence? Was I angry with God or did I renew my trust in God? Did I offer prayers of intercession for the one who passed?