TGBC Tuesday, Jan12, 2021. Talitha and the Bleeding Woman
Mark 5:21-43
Disciples’ Literal New Testament
A Synagogue Official Comes To Jesus About His Dying Daughter. Jesus Goes With Him
21 And Jesus having crossed-over again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd was gathered to Him. And He was beside the sea. 22 And one of the synagogue-officials comes, Jairus by name. And having seen Him, he falls at His feet 23 and begs Him greatly, saying that “My little-daughter is at the point of death. I beg that having come, You lay Your hands on her in order that she may be restored and live”. 24 And He departed with him. And a large crowd was following Him, and they were pressing-upon Him.
On The Way, a Woman Touches His Garment And Is Healed Because of Her Faith
25 And a woman— being in a flow of blood for twelve years, 26 and having suffered many things by many physicians, and having spent everything of hers and not having been benefitted at all, but rather having come to the worse, 27 having heard about Jesus, having come in the crowd from behind— touched His garment. 28 For she was saying that “If I touch even His garments, I will be restored”. 29 And immediately the fountain of her blood was dried-up, and she knew in her body that she had been healed from the scourge. 30 And immediately Jesus— having known in Himself the power having gone forth from Him, having turned around in the crowd— was saying “Who touched My garments?” 31 And His disciples were saying to Him, “You see the crowd pressing-upon You and You say ‘Who touched Me?’” 32 And He was looking around to see the one having done this. 33 And the woman— having become afraid, and while trembling, knowing what had happened to her— came and fell-before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 And the One said to her, “Daughter, your faith has restored you. Go in peace and be healthy from your scourge”.
The Daughter Dies Before Jesus Arrives. He Raises Her From The Dead
35 While He is still speaking, they come from [the house of] the synagogue-official, saying that “Your daughter died. Why are you troubling the Teacher further?” 36 But Jesus, having ignored the statement being spoken, says to the synagogue-official, “Do not be fearing, only be believing”. 37 And He did not permit anyone to follow with Him except Peter and James and John (the brother of James). 38 And they come to the house of the synagogue official, and He sees a commotion and ones weeping and wailing loudly.
39 And having gone in, He says to them, “Why are you being thrown-into-a-commotion, and weeping? The child did not die, but is sleeping”. 40 And they were laughing-scornfully at Him. But He, having put everyone out, takes along the father of the child and the mother and the ones with Him, and proceeds in where the child was. 41 And having taken hold of the hand of the child, He says to her, “Talitha koum” (which being translated is “Little-girl, I say to you, arise”). 42 And immediately the little girl stood-up and was walking around (for she was twelve years old). And immediately they were astonished with great astonishment. 43 And He gave-orders to them strictly that no one should know this. And He said that something should be given to her to eat.
+++++++++
In these two stories, Mark tells us some things about Jesus:
+ Jesus takes time for everyone, the invisible as well as the prominent.
+ Jesus may astonish people who see that he values women in a culture that did not. His respect for the bleeding woman's dignity is such that he calls her "daughter", restoring an unclean untouchable to full membership in society.
+ The number 12. The woman has been bleeding twelve years and the little girl is twelve years old, that's not coincidental, what's the significance? Is part of it that the woman was bleeding throughout the girl's whole life? Is it, like the number 40, that she's been bleeding a long time. How about the child? At 13 a boy becomes bar mitzvah; in some parts of Judaism a girl becomes bat mitzvah at 12 years old, is that significant here?
I'm wondering, because my experience with the Bible is that nothing is wasted, for the writer, here Mark, every detail is significant. Part of Bible study is the fun of rooting all this out.
+ There is no limit to Jesus' healing powers: he doesn't have to touch you, the power is there in his very presence. Your faith may be a factor in whether his power can help you.
+ Jesus power is the very power of Creation: he can restore a dead person to life, which is like the power of the Lord God making a mud-doll and breathing life into it, creating an earthling.
+ Not just street people but even a synagogue official (some translations say "ruler") comes to Jesus. Is the human contrast in Mark's story significant?
+ Notice that the "hopeless" Messianic Secret is back: Jesus says don't tell anyone, but there's a crowd at Jairus' house and the good news will spread like wildfire. I still say the Messianic Secret may be Mark's literary device for having Jesus himself tell Mark's audience who he is.
Don't overlook the excitement Mark creates, the anxiety Mark stirs: the little girl is dying. It isn't just that Jesus kindly pauses to visit with the bleeding woman, it's that we the readers are meant to be appalled, become impatient - - "hurry up, hurry up, Man, there's no time to waste, a child's life is at stake and You stop to parry with an old woman? let's get moving". But it's never too late for Jesus, Time is no barrier.
When my Kristen was a little girl I read Bible stories to her at bedtime, and I remember the night after a story like this, her asking me, "Why doesn't Jesus help people any more?" She was four or five years old, and it was a child's profundity. How does a parent answer?
It's not too far from the theodicy issue: if God loves us and God is all good and all powerful, why is there pain and suffering? The answer requires much searching, including considering whether we have God as God is (ehYeh-asher-ehYeh, I Am that I Am, I will be what I will be), or whether we have God as we would have God be (to meet our expectations). Of course, it offends our certitudes to be told that we have God all wrong.
This mayn't help with today's TGBC contemplation of Jesus, Jairus, Talitha & the Bleeder, but it's where life's experience takes my thought this morning. Why did Jesus come anyway? The answer is in our rector's blessing: "My friends, life is short, and we haven't much time to gladden the hearts of those who travel with us, so be quick to love and make haste to be kind". That's the gospel in a few words, and it renders the theodicy question irrelevant.
T+