Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (B) [Mk 5:21-43]
27.06.2021
Raising
of Jairus’ Daughter and Healing of Woman with Haemorrhage
1. Theme in
brief
Jesus
is our divine Life-Giver who raises us up from death-like situations
2. Focus
Statement:
Jesus is our
Life-giver who raises us up from death-like situations if only we place our
total trust in his power to heal us, save us and restore us to fullness and
wholeness of life.
3. Explanation of the text
In today’s gospel text, in the middle of his main story about raising of a teenage girl from death to life, Mark sandwiches the story about healing of a chronic condition of haemorrhage suffered by a woman for twelve years (5:25-34). The teenage girl was the daughter of a leader (probably the President) of synagogue, named Jairus (5:22). He was an influential and respected man in the community. When his “little daughter” was at the point of death (5:23), he must have swallowed his pride, prejudices and higher position in society to humbly fall at the feet of Jesus – a layman and a heretic in the eyes of his Jewish society – and beg him repeatedly to heal her (5:22-23). He requests Jesus to go to his house and “lay his hands on her” – a common gesture of healing – so that his daughter may gain health and may live (5:23), indicating Jesus’ role as the Life-giver of hopeless cases.
In
the sandwiched story, Mark tells us that the condition of the unnamed woman was
becoming worse
and worse in spite of consulting several physicians and spending all her
earnings on them (5:26). When she heard healing stories about Jesus, she went
behind him with faith
and hope
that even a touch
of his cloak would heal her (5:27). As
she did it, she experienced in her body that the flow of blood had stopped
(5:30). She doubly suffered not only due to this physical ailment, but also
because of ritual impurity rendered by such illness as per the
prescriptions of OT (Lev 15:25–27). She decided to touch Jesus’ clothes secretly
due to embarrassment
of letting her disease known to others and also due to the fear of making Jesus ritually impure
by her touch (5:27-28). Expecting a severe rebuke from Jesus for making him ‘unclean’ by
her touch she fell at his feet with fear and trembling and told the whole truth
(5:33). Jesus said that her faith had healed her, or as per another meaning of the same Greek
word, her faith had saved her, that is, brought the gift of
salvation/liberation to her (5:34). Thus, we are told that devout and persistent
faith
not only brings about physical healing but also spiritual salvation and wholeness.
As
Mark continues his main story about the daughter of Jairus (5:35-43), he
highlights the mental
agony
of her father when the news came from his house about her untimely death (5:35),
just because of the Lord’s delay in attending to him. These news-givers said
the situation was hopeless as his daughter was already dead and it
was pointless
to trouble the Teacher any further (5:35). Just imagine what would have been
the feelings of Jairus! All his hopes of getting a gift of healing from the Divine
Healer for his dear daughter were shattered. Jesus told him not to fear but only to
believe (5:16). Lack of deep faith
is often the cause of fear when people face serious trials and tragedies
such as the death of a dear one. Fear can lead to a loss of trust in God. Jesus
must have told Jairus not to allow his fear and anxiety to rule over him but go
on trusting
in him even if the matter had become hopeless.
Mark draws the attention of his readers to the exact age of the girl who was dead, that is, twelve years (5:42), probably to tell them about the tragedy that struck her and her family when she was just crossing over from childhood to womanhood. Her life got ruptured suddenly when it was just beginning to bloom as she was on the threshold of adulthood. And the Divine Life-giver restored her life with his divine touch as he lifted her up with his hand by calling her affectionately, “little girl” and ordering her to “get up” or “rise up” (5:41). Biblical scholars tell us that the same word “to rise up” is used in Greek to refer to Jesus’ resurrection, indicating his role to raise us up from death to life. It was the day of salvation from death for both of them (Jairus and his daughter). At the end Mark notes down the human and compassionate side of Jesus when he requests them to give her something to eat since she was now a living being (5:43).
4. Application to life
Today’s gospel is about the preciousness of life and the tragedy of death. It is about the role of Jesus as the Life-giver who came to deliver us from death and give us life so that we may live it in the fullest sense. Both the miracles found in this gospel signify Jesus’ authority over sickness and victory over death attained by his resurrection. They also tell us that the healing power of Jesus becomes operative to those who put their total trust in him even in such hopeless situations as chronic and incurable illnesses/ calamities as well as death. Let us take lessons from these messages:
1) Jesus is the life-giver for those who
are spiritually
dead.
2) Jesus has power to heal and restore fullness of life to those who are either dying or are facing death-like situations. He does this by his touch, if only they put their faith and trust in him. We can observe the forces of death already working in those who do not want to live due to desperation and depression caused by suffering and personal tragedy; those who are so much bitter and spit venom due to deep hurts caused to them; those who cannot see or find love anywhere; and those who are alienated from family/ community/ society due to the feelings of injustice done or ill-treatment given to them. Jesus tells this type of people, “Do not fear, only believe.” We are invited to go on trusting him so that he can give us life in its fullness. Instead of getting overwhelmed by fear, he invites us to trust in God who brings life even in situations that are dead.
In spite of some contrasts in the two miracles of today’s text, look at the similarities or common elements in both the stories: both Jairus and the woman were utterly desperate and in great despair; both had genuine faith in Jesus’ power to heal and restore life; and in both cases the afflicted persons were transformed from death or death-like situation to life. That little girl and the woman are you and I. In a way all of us are confronted with the forces of death. Jesus restores life to us, when we touch him (like the woman) and allow ourselves to be touched by him (as he did to the deceased girl). When we approach him with unwavering trust like Jairus and the woman, Jesus touches us, lifts us up with his hand and says: “Rise up from ‘death’” (or death-like situation).
3) A deep faith has the power to heal and save us from the controlling power/ dominion of fear and desperation. It enables us to discover hope even in hopeless situations. Both Jairus and that woman were facing hopeless situations: the woman's disease had no cure and Jairus' daughter was already dead. When we consider that woman’s many disappointments with the physicians and the poverty it brought her, we wonder how she endured her misery for twelve years. Besides, there was one added burden: according to the Law, she was ceremonially unclean, which greatly restricted both her religious and social life. What a heavy burden she carried! Her faith led her to almost steal a cure from Jesus secretly by touching his clothes without his knowledge. In times of chronic and incurable illnesses what a burden of desperation so many sick persons in our world or homes (including us at times) carry! We can find a Jairus in us when we lose hope at unexpected and tragic events in our life, when even God seems to delay in answering our prayer.
In today’s’ gospel we observe how Jesus instilled hope in Jairus, in spite of the shock of hopeless news he received. Jesus tells us just as he told Jairus not to stop trusting in him even if the matter goes from bad to worse. He also tells us not to allow our fear and desperation at that time to win a victory over us. Instead, make our trust win a victory over fear, anxiety and desperation with the strength of a persistent faith in him like that of the unnamed woman. He tells us to go on believing and trusting in God in spite of contrary results. Faith in the power of Jesus not only heals us but also saves us from the controlling force of fear and desperation in moments of incurable illness/ untimely death of our dear ones and other calamities.
4) In another sense, Jesus comes to
take us by the hand and wake us up from our sleepiness
and inactivity. If we really believe
that Jesus is Life-giver, he can wake
us up from our attitudes of lethargy, coldness, unconcern, indifference,
laziness and inactive existence. This is a wonderful lesson for us, especially
for the youth, to make use of our energies
and capabilities to the fullest extent and not to keep them buried inside of us or selfishly use them only
for ourselves. We need to let Jesus catch our hands and lift us up from these shortcomings, just as he
had held the hands of the little girl and raised her up, so that we exhibit
vitality, enthusiasm and zeal in our life. He tells us to arise and wake up from our indifferent, lethargic
and sleepy mentality and be pro-active.
5) We are called to imitate the compassion and
humanness as well as humane nature
of Jesus. The disciples in their insensitive regard
towards the woman’s misery were unwilling to pay any attention to her (5:31) unmindful
of what must have been going on in her heart. As per Jewish understanding,
blood stood for life. Hence she was gradually losing
her very life for the past twelve years. Her life that was draining out
of her was restored by the compassion of Jesus. We quite often hurt those
who are very close to us by our insensitivity to their feelings and needs, and
look at the problems only from our personal point of view disregarding what
others feel about it. Quite contrary to this, we notice the attitude of compassion
on the part of Jesus who did not mind becoming ceremonially
unclean in order to save a
suffering woman, and requested the family members of Jairus to give his
daughter something to eat.
6)
Finally, this passage inspires us to become life-givers
to others after the model of Jesus, especially in those situations where we
notice a ‘culture of death.’ The
growing tendencies of violence, crime, breakdown of families, denial of human
rights and dignity, abortion, euthanasia, terrorism, environmental degradation,
etc. are life-negating or life-threatening factors in our world and society. In
the midst of these anti-life forces which downgrade the preciousness and value of life, our mission is to uphold or
promote the dignity of human life.
Let us think how we can do it even in a small way.
5. Response to
God's Word
Are we spiritually dead? Does our faith and trust in Jesus’ power over life and death lead us to rise from our sins and selfishness and live a resurrected life of holiness and grace? What are the dying and death-like situations we are facing? Do we rely on the power of faith and total trust in God to overcome our fear and desperation in these moments? With the strength of our faith, do we try to discover hope even in hopeless situations, especially when our miseries turn from bad to worse? In what ways are we sleeping and lethargic? Do we have a strong desire to rise or wake up from them? Do we hurt those who are very close to us by our insensitivity to their feelings and needs? Do we promote a culture of life in the midst of culture of death operative in our world?
6. A prayer
Jesus, the Giver of life, touch me, lift and raise me up from my spiritual death. I trust in you. Give me the power and grace to overcome my fear of death and anxieties in moments of desperation generated by adversity and calamities. Grant that I may discover hope in you even in hopeless situations. I do believe in your power to heal me as well as save me when I am engulfed by powers of darkness and death. Lift me up and raise me from my fallen condition and insensitivity to human needs and misery. Give me a ray of your compassion so that I may move from unconcern at human misery to compassion. Amen.
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