28 June 2009
Lamentations 3:22-33

Psalm 30

2 Corinthians 8:7-15

Mark 5:21-43

Jairus, of whom we have just heard in today’s Gospel, is a right and proper gentleman, and he makes his request of Jesus in a right, proper, and gentlemanly fashion. Accordingly, Jairus prostrates himself at Jesus’ feet, as one is supposed to do when asking an equal for a special favor. And Jairus “begs Jesus repeatedly” – which would be better translated to say that Jairus was extremely humble in his request to Jesus. And Jesus shows himself absolutely worthy of Jairus’s respect and he goes with Jairus to heal this leader’s daughter.

Unfortunately, for Jairus and his daughter, a crowd seems to have attached itself to Jesus – and the word for crowd in Greek is anything but neutral in its connotation – it would be better to say in English that Jesus was being followed by the riff-raff -- the impolite, the improper, and the down-right uncouth. And sure enough, amidst this rabble is a woman – need one say more? On top of that, she’s an unclean woman – women with even a monthly hemorrhage don’t belong out in public – let alone a woman with a twelve-year condition. And this woman, likely once prosperous, has been reduced to the level of a pauper. Twelve years of health care bills have wiped out her savings and likely left her, not only with an unmentionable illness, but also homeless and bankrupt; and in polite and proper society, bankruptcy was more often than not the one truly unpardonable sin. This woman, however, does have some shred of decency left – she knows better than to stop Jesus, address him, make a request of him. For all that, she is, however, a bit delusional: she thinks that if she even just barely touches the hem of Jesus’ garment she’ll be made well and will no longer be shunned, no longer be an outcast. And, in a scene right out of The Twilight Zone – sure enough, immediately the woman feels healed. Then, in a wonderful and wonderfully funny exchange with a couple smart-ass disciples, Jesus demands to know who has touched him. And so the woman approaches Jesus with terror  (the same emotion that Mark tells us the woman had when they found Jesus’ tomb empty). This woman falls at Jesus’ feet, not to ask anything of him as Jairus had done – but falls at Jesus’ feet as a woman would who expects to be beaten for not being mindful of her gender’s place in the world, for not being submissive to men.