MARK 5: 21-43 (Common English Bible)

²¹ Jesus crossed the lake again, and on the other side a large crowd gathered around him on the shore. ²² Jairus, one of the synagogue leaders, came forward. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet ²³ and pleaded with him, “My daughter is about to die. Please, come and place your hands on her so that she can be healed and live.”²⁴ So Jesus went with him.

A swarm of people were following Jesus, crowding in on him. ²⁵ A woman was there who had been bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶ She had suffered a lot under the care of many doctors, and had spent everything she had without getting any better. In fact, she had gotten worse.²⁷ Because she had heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothes. ²⁸ She was thinking, If I can just touch his clothes, I’ll be healed.²⁹ Her bleeding stopped immediately, and she sensed in her body that her illness had been healed.

³⁰ At that very moment, Jesus recognized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?”

³¹ His disciples said to him, “Don’t you see the crowd pressing against you? Yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’”³² But Jesus looked around carefully to see who had done it.

³³ The woman, full of fear and trembling, came forward. Knowing what had happened to her, she fell down in front of Jesus and told him the whole truth. ³⁴ He responded, “Daughter, your faith has healed you; go in peace, healed from your disease.”

³⁵ While Jesus was still speaking with her, messengers came from the synagogue leader’s house, saying to Jairus, “Your daughter has died. Why bother the teacher any longer?”

³⁶ But Jesus overheard their report and said to the synagogue leader, “Don’t be afraid; just keep trusting.”³⁷ He didn’t allow anyone to follow him except Peter, James, and John, James’ brother. ³⁸ They came to the synagogue leader’s house, and he saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. ³⁹ He went in and said to them, “What’s all this commotion and crying about? The child isn’t dead. She’s only sleeping.” ⁴⁰ They laughed at him, but he threw them all out. Then, taking the child’s parents and his disciples with him, he went to the room where the child was. ⁴¹ Taking her hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Young woman, get up.” ⁴² Suddenly the young woman got up and began to walk around. She was 12 years old. They were shocked! ⁴³ He gave them strict orders that no one should know what had happened. Then he told them to give her something to eat

LEVITICUS 15: 19-25 & 28-30 (Common English Bible)

¹⁹ Whenever a woman has a discharge of blood that is her normal bodily discharge, she will be unclean due to her menstruation for seven days. Anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening. ²⁰ Anything on which she lies or sits during her menstruation will be unclean.²¹ Anyone who touches her bed must wash their clothes, bathe in water, and will be unclean until evening.²² Anyone who touches anything on which she has sat must wash their clothes, bathe in water, and will be unclean until evening. ²³ Whenever anyone touches something—whether it was on the bed or where she has been sitting—they will be unclean until evening. ²⁴ If a man has sexual intercourse with her and her menstruation gets on him, he will be unclean for seven days. Any bed he lies on will be unclean.

²⁵ Whenever a woman has a bloody discharge for a long time, which is not during her menstrual period, or whenever she has a discharge beyond her menstrual period, the duration of her unclean discharge will be like the period of her menstruation; she will be unclean.

[…]

²⁸ When the woman is cleansed of her discharge, she will count off seven days; after that, she will be clean again. ²⁹ On the eighth day she will take two turtledoves or two pigeons and bring them to the priest at the meeting tent’s entrance. ³⁰ The priest will perform a purification offering with one and an entirely burned offering with the other. In this way, the priest will make reconciliation for her before the Lord because of her unclean discharge.

NUMBERS 19:11-14 (Common English Bible)

Common English Bible

¹¹ The person who touches the dead body of any human will be unclean for seven days. ¹² That person must be cleansed with water on the third and seventh days to be clean. If he fails to be cleansed with water on the third and seventh days, he will not be clean. ¹³ Anyone who touches the body of a human who has died and doesn’t cleanse himself defiles the Lord’s dwelling. Such persons must be cut off from Israel because the water of purification wasn’t sprinkled on them. They remain unclean.

I volunteered to speak at a church this summer. Here’s what it was like.

We will focus on the woman, but I wanted us to get sort of the whole context surrounding this story.

And to put this story in his whole context, let’s just say, that by Mark’s account (and Luke agrees), Jesus and his disciples had had a big day already.

First, he’s been teaching from a boat by the lake.

Then, they crossed the lake and hit a brutal storm—which basically means nap time for Jesus, but somewhat of a « near death experience » for the rest of the crew. Plus, they’re completely blown away by how this rabbi they’re following can just talk to the wind and the waves and get them to calm down. So far, it is probably already a bit emotionally draining.

Next, Jesus delivers a man of thousands of demons (Matthew 8:28-34 says two men, but Luke agrees with Mark again that there was only one guy—either way, the guy was certainly a handful, and Matthew was probably just twice as impressed).

Then, this, of course, creates a bit of a commotion in town when those demons go into a herd of pigs, and the pigs decide to cliff-dive and drown.

Next, the freaked-out locals « kindly » ask them to leave.

Where our story starts, they’ve just crossed-back over the lake. A massive crowd is already waiting and Jairus shows up, totally desperate: his daughter is on the verge of death. Jesus accepts to help, so they are walking toward Jairus’s house, packed into a crowd as if they were trying to see Angine de Poitrine at the Jazz Fest. Everyone is pressed from all sides when, suddenly, Jesus stops. He turns around ( I guess he does), and goes: « Somebody touched me. »

I love these parts in Mark where the writer includes the disciples’ reactions. I can just picture their faces. They’re basically like, « Jesus, we are packed in here like in the metro after the fireworks, and you’re asking ‘who touched me?’ Anyone could have touched you! » But Jesus keeps looking.

The disciples must have had so many moments like that when they just had to go « It’s Jesus, He must know what he’s doing… » So Jesus is now looking for someone who touched him in the crowd. A power went out of him, he says.

Now, I want you to picture the stress factor at play here. Parents, have you ever been late to go somewhere, you’re finally about to walk out the door, and then kiddo comes up with… let’s say, « I forgot Hippo. » And that means taking off their boots to go find Hippo, finding Hippo, coming back with Hippo, putting a jacket on Hippo (because God forbid Hippo catches a cold), and then kiddo putting their boots back on—completely at their own pace, of course, because you are not allowed to try to help them, they’re big now! You get the picture. Keeping cool on the outside, but pressure building up inside. You know that exact kind of stress.

I can imagine that sort of anxiety building in the disciples, and especially in Jairus’s, when Jesus suddenly stops, obsessed with spotting who touched him in the crowd. In that moment, absolutely nothing could have been moving fast enough for Jairus. Had he not just told Jesus, « My daughter is about to die. »

But the thing is, there is another daughter there who desperately needs her life back. She is so completely at the end of her rope after bleeding for twelve years that she has done something absolutely insane: she just managed to touch Jesus. We know that from the get-go; Mark tells us right at the beginning. But as Jesus searches the crowd, the disciples don’t know her story yet. They only find out after Jesus spots her, and she tells him the whole truth, trembling.

So, what is that story?

This woman has been bleeding for 12 years. I must say, the first time I read that story, that seemed quite miraculous (not to say preposterous) right there. Bleeding for 12 years?! She should have been dead for at least 11 of those years already. I was taking it a bit too literally, of course, and I lacked background knowledge.

But then maturity (and perimenopause) made me consider the situation differently. This time around, I wondered if maybe she had spotting. You know, just a bit of blood between periods. It’s not a lot, really—just enough for you to know there’s some blood. It’s not debilitating in itself at all. It can be a concern, a sign that something isn’t quite right, but often there’s nothing to worry about. Just, let’s say, slightly inconvenient.

Basically, nothing you would spend all your money desperately seeking treatment for.

I’ll admit, I’m probably wrong with my spotting theory. It was probably far worse. At least, if it wasn’t at the beginning, it became worse. That’s what the text says, anyway. But again, if the writer doesn’t go into the details of the diagnosis, maybe that’s because, in his culture, there’s no point. He said it all. She was bleeding. And that was enough to make life very complicated.

READING 2: Leviticus 15: 19-25 & 28-30

Common English Bible

¹⁹ Whenever a woman has a discharge of blood that is her normal bodily discharge, she will be unclean due to her menstruation for seven days. Anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening. ²⁰ Anything on which she lies or sits during her menstruation will be unclean.²¹ Anyone who touches her bed must wash their clothes, bathe in water, and will be unclean until evening.²² Anyone who touches anything on which she has sat must wash their clothes, bathe in water, and will be unclean until evening. ²³ Whenever anyone touches something—whether it was on the bed or where she has been sitting—they will be unclean until evening. ²⁴ If a man has sexual intercourse with her and her menstruation gets on him, he will be unclean for seven days. Any bed he lies on will be unclean.

²⁵ Whenever a woman has a bloody discharge for a long time, which is not during her menstrual period, or whenever she has a discharge beyond her menstrual period, the duration of her unclean discharge will be like the period of her menstruation; she will be unclean.

[…]

²⁸ When the woman is cleansed of her discharge, she will count off seven days; after that, she will be clean again. ²⁹ On the eighth day she will take two turtledoves or two pigeons and bring them to the priest at the meeting tent’s entrance. ³⁰ The priest will perform a purification offering with one and an entirely burned offering with the other. In this way, the priest will make reconciliation for her before the Lord because of her unclean discharge.

This law probably feels foreign to us. It might even make us feel a bit uneasy, and there would certainly be room to discuss it. But for now, I just want us to take it as background information that sheds light on this woman’s reality.

So just imagine. What Jim just read feels to me like those first few panic days of COVID, when we would wash all our groceries. Some people, I remember, would even undress the moment they got home, shower immediately, and wash their clothes. (This may also feel familiar to people who have dealt with bedbugs.)

Now imagine 12 years of that.

And let me remind you that in Jesus’ time there were no electric washers or dryers. This sounds exhausting and isolating. And it was.

For a few days, it’s all good. Women with their periods would help each other, spend time together, and wait it out. But for 12 years? Your social life and your resources would really take a hit.

Just imagine: 12 years of very limited physical contact with others. Very few hugs. No possibility of contributing to your community, because everything you touch becomes impure and can make others impure. Not to mention that if this woman had even managed to get married, she was probably divorced by now. For obvious reasons, including the fact that, in those days, not having children was considered a tragedy.

So no doubt she tried everything she could to get better. At this point in the story, though, she doesn’t even have a coin left to try anything else.

She is done.

Jesus is her last hope. Her only hope.

And what she does is CRAZY.

Think about it! This is what fascinates me the most about this story. She is « impure. » She knows that. She is supposed to keep herself separated from others, and whatever—or whoever—she touches will also be considered impure.

And where do we find this woman?

She is in a crowd!!!

Put your COVID mind back on.

A crowd!!!

What?!

And the reason she finds herself in a crowd—the whole purpose of her being there—is that she has decided to try to touch Jesus. Not just ask Him to heal her, but to touch Him. The man who, by now, even if he isn’t recognized by everyone as the Messiah (Jesus is very careful about that), is at least seen as a holy man. A prophet.

Let’s just pause here for a second and think about this.

She wants to touch Him.

This blows my mind

This woman really did see something powerful and unique in Jesus: that His purity could spread—that it was more powerful than impurity. That’s not intuitive. That’s very special. That was faith on another level, I think. And that’s something I love about this story:

This woman could see beyond the do’s and don’ts of her society and grasp the very essence of who God is. We could even argue that she believed God—not merely in what the Law required, but in who God is fundamentally, beyond the Law itself. Not that she disregarded the law. I really don’t think so. But she saw the loving God behind it. And it looks like Jesus liked that.

But before we go there (Jesus response to the woman), I have a question for you. Something caught my attention this time around.

Don’t you think Jesus probably knew all along that she was there?

He knows His disciples’ questions before they ask them. So I’m like, « Give me a break, Jesus. You knew her. You knew her story. You knew she was there. I wouldn’t even be surprised if You slowed down on purpose so she could catch up to You more easily and touch You. »

Maybe I’m wrong here. But either way…

Why didn’t He just let her go back home, healed?

Jesus isn’t particularly interested in showing off.

So why do you think He cared to look for her in the crowd?

The poor thing is trembling.

These moments of truth, when the person meeting Jesus suddenly has to fess up and be honest about who they are, are not uncommon. They fascinate me.

Each time, the person has to say, in one way or another, « Well, according to the Law, I’m not quite good enough for You… and perhaps not for anyone here either. »

Take the Roman centurion, for example.

« I am not worthy for You to come under my roof. »

In other words: « I am a Gentile. And, by the way, one of the occupiers. If You come into my house, You will become impure. »

Yet Jesus is perfectly willing to go anyway.

And this all happens publicly. Jesus’ acceptance of him is public. His faith is publicly praised. He is even told that many will come from east and west to sit with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven—a place that, at least in the minds of many listening, would have seemed reserved for Israelites.

Or think of the woman at the well.

She had had many husbands—not exactly the best reputation by the standards of her days. Yet she becomes the first person to announce the Messiah to the people of Samaria.

So yes, I think Jesus made this woman’s healing public in order to redeem her publicly as well.

And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Jairus, one of the leaders of the synagogue, happens to be there. As a respected authority, he becomes an important witness. Someone who can vouch for her restoration.

But I think it goes even further than that.

Imagine going home after being healed secretly.

People would ask questions.

« So… what happened? »

« Well… I got myself into a crowd… »

« You did what? »

« Uh… yeah… I kind of got into a crowd… and I touched a holy man. This Jesus guy… »

I don’t know. That sounds like the kind of story that could become embarrassing very quickly. It might even cast doubt on whether what happened was really from God.

Instead, Jesus lets her tell her story.

Then He publicly approves of her.

In doing so, He removes every trace of guilt and shame—past, present, and future.

I like to imagine, and try to imagine it yourself too, the relief this woman must have felt when, instead of rebuking her, Jesus looked at her with those sparkly, loving eyes and said:

34 “Daughter, your faith has healed you; go in peace, healed from your disease.”

My Bible send me to a foot note that says that what Jesus said could be translated, if we went at it more literally, into « Your faith has saved you ». Just extra food for though here. What is Jesus’ Hebrew name? What does it mean? Maybe he chose the word « saved » on purpose. But that’s for extra tough.

When I very candidly offered to teach, I chose this story because it was the last thing I had read that had caught my attention and gotten me thinking. It didn’t feel very original, but I had had a few « aha! » moments that I thought would be fun to share. Of course, more « aha! » moments came as I prepared.

But beyond the intellectual satisfaction we can all enjoy as we better understand what was happening in the story, I wondered what, at a deeper level, I—or we—needed to learn, or perhaps simply remember.

Here’s what I came up with. I’m sure there is more.

1. Do you sometimes feel not good enough? Too « impure »? Undeserving? Like you’re not performing well enough? Broken? Defective?

Maybe He feels more distant, and you’re thinking, « It must be my fault. » And before you know it, you’re caught in a downward spiral.

I get that sometimes.

So I thought maybe we could learn from this woman. Maybe we could have the courage to believe that if we simply reach out our hand—even if we barely touch the edge of His garment—His purity will spread to us.

This woman inspires me to have the courage to do what we say in French: foncer dans le tas.

To push through all the self-depreciation, doubt, and accusations we have become so used to telling ourselves… and simply reach out and touch Jesus. Instead of staying stuck.

2. Have you ever found yourself in a sticky situation that you kind of got yourself into—like this woman entering the crowd—and hesitated to ask for help because, deep down, you felt you didn’t deserve it? Or because it was simply too embarrassing?

Why not trust instead that Jesus truly is a Redeemer?

That even our bad ideas can become something good if only we reach out to touch Him… or allow ourselves to be touched by Him.

3. Then I was thinking about life and all its messiness.

Have you ever found yourself genuinely trying to do the right thing, only to feel like all you could do was choose between the lesser of two—or even several—evils?

Can we trust that by reaching out to God, He can make right—or make pure—the choice we made as we honestly tried to do our best in an ambiguous situation?

4. And turning this around…

Can we find in Jesus an encouragement to let ourselves be touched—and to touch those who might be a little rough around the edges because life has been rough on them?

Can we trust that God can use us—and them—as vessels through whom His extraordinary kindness and tenderness spread farther and deeper?

I’m looking at the time here, and I feel a little bad.

We’ve spent quite a while talking about this woman.

But what about Jairus?

We’ve sort of left him hanging there.

Waiting. I feel bad for him.

Can you imagine how he is feeling as the woman tells her story?

Impressed, yes.

Deeply moved, very possibly.

But at the same time… anxious.

Crossing his fingers.

Hoping.

Praying that his daughter will just hold on a little longer.

His stomach is tied in knots.

He’s sweating—and it’s not because of the Israeli climate.

He’s fidgeting. Maybe he is not fully concentrating on what is going on and i would not blame him.

« Please hurry, Jesus, please. »

« Didn’t You hear me when I said my daughter is about to die? »

Then, just as they seem ready to move on toward his house, he notices people in the distance.

People he knows.

Walking toward him.

That can’t be good news.

His eyes probably become watery.

He tries to compose himself, but his throat tightens so much it hurts. It’s almost hard to breath.

« This time I came second, » might be what he is thinking.

As a leader of the synagogue, I was often placed first.

Not this time.

« It’s too late now. »

« It’s too late. »

But sometimes, when we think it’s too late…

it’s actually God’s perfect timing.

That’s another thing I take away from this story.

Sometimes our « too late » turns out to be God’s perfect moment.

Jesus hears Jairus’ friends bring the news:

« Your daughter has died. Why bother the Teacher anymore? »

Even if Jesus gestures are not decribes in the text, I can almost see Jesus placing His hand on Jairus’ shoulder as he is saying:

« Don’t be afraid; just keep trusting. »

And off they go, walking together toward Jairus’ house.

Jairus holding on to a thread of impossible hope as he walks toward his greatest fear.

His dead daughter.

Do you remember when I said I didn’t think it was an accident that Jairus happened to be there when Jesus publicly declared the woman restored?

I said she needed him there.

She needed an authority figure to witness that she was now clean.

But now I’m beginning to wonder if I had it backwards.

Maybe Jairus was the one who needed her to be there.

Maybe he needed to witness her healing.

Maybe he needed to see her faith.

Because what comes next follows the very same pattern…

Only wilder.

Deeper.

Can ___ please read the text #3. Again, as we read this passage, let’s focus on it simply as background information to help us understand the mindset Jairus lived in.

READING 3: Numbers 19:11-14

Common English Bible

¹¹ The person who touches the dead body of any human will be unclean for seven days. ¹² That person must be cleansed with water on the third and seventh days to be clean. If he fails to be cleansed with water on the third and seventh days, he will not be clean. ¹³ Anyone who touches the body of a human who has died and doesn’t cleanse himself defiles the Lord’s dwelling. Such persons must be cut off from Israel because the water of purification wasn’t sprinkled on them. They remain unclean.

¹⁴ This is the instruction: When anyone dies in a tent, all who go into the tent and all who are in the tent are unclean for seven days.

Do you see where I’m going?

Or rather… where Jesus is going?

And what He’s doing?

And what (or who) He’s touching?

And what happens?

I don’t think I need to explain anything.

I’m sure you can connect the dots.

In fact, I think I’d rather let you connect them yourselves and experience that little mental firework that went off in my own mind.

Speaking of firework, with their grand finally,

It’s probably about time I conclude and a good conclusion demands that i point out the key pionts we can go home with:

1) That we should have the courage to reach out to God, even in messy situations and/or when we feel undeserving. In a nutshel, that He is truly a redeemer.

2) That sometimes our « too late » is God’s perfect timing.

3) And maybe also that our lives and stories, like Jairus’ and the woman’s, are intertwined. We need to know one another’s stories because the people we meet are often gifts that help us move forward.

This way Mark has of starting one story—you remember, he introduces the crowd and Jairus pleading for Jesus’ help, then switches to another story before coming back to finish the first one—has been called by some theologians a Markan sandwich.

You get the picture.

Jairus is the bread.

The woman is the peanut butter.

And both stories work together.

I thought that expression was so cute—Markan sandwich—that I thought after the service we could actually make sandwiches together. And maybe share our stories.