In our Gospel passage for Sunday (Mark 5:21-43) Jairus, a synagogue official whose “little daughter” is very ill—on the verge of death—searches out Jesus and asks Him to heal her. On His way to Jairus’s home, a woman with a hemorrhage for twelve years approaches Jesus in faith. She reaches out her hand to touch Jesus and His power flows out of Him to her. It’s striking, almost as if she is instrumental in her own healing by reaching out to Him. Both Jairus and the woman approach Jesus and ask for healing, one externally, one internally. Jesus blessed the woman, and told her that her faith had healed her. He addressed her in a familial way: “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease” (v. 34). He gives His daughter her life back.
Then, a message came that the little girl had died. Jesus ignored this and when He reached the home, He declared that she was only sleeping. He went deep into the home to her room so she could encounter Him: He “took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was” (v. 40). He reached out His hand to hers, paralleling the action of the woman who He healed. He lifted her up, raising her from her sleep of death, giving her back her life, even more powerfully than in the case of the woman. Also, the girl is twelve years old. Consider this: the woman had been bleeding and ritually unclean as long as the girl had been alive, equalling a “lifetime” of pain and suffering.
Humility, Faith, & Openness
St. Mark is making a statement about healing and its connection to our internal disposition, as well as openness healing. Both Jairus and the woman approached Jesus in humility and fear of the Lord. Jairus “fell at his feet” (v. 22); the woman “came in fear and trembling and fell down before him, and told him the whole truth” (v. 33). This strikes an image of the sacrament of Reconciliation. Also, both Jairus and the woman have great faith that He can bring healing.
This approaching Christ with fear of the Lord and with confession reveal Jesus’s identity as the divine Son of God. Mark presents Jesus as divine as the only one that can heal these two people. God says in Exodus: “I am the Lord, your healer” (15:26). The synagogue official, physicians, the mother and father of the child, all the people that came to help and mourn—none of them could heal the woman or the child. Only God could heal them. In this way, by healing and restoring these people to new life, Jesus demonstrated that He is the true author and giver of life.
Jesus, The Stronger Man
Only God, with divine omnipotence, has power over life and death. Jesus is mighty–the “stronger man” that will plunder Satan’s house (Mark 3:27). He plundered what Satan tried to destroy through disease by setting the woman and the girl free from captivity to illness and death. He is singular among a throng that presses in on Him. He is impenetrable to unclean forces that plague the people, here illness, ritual uncleanliness, and death. He is more knowledgeable and His healing hands are more powerful than all the physicians who were helpless to cure either; she suffered at their hands. He is greater than the synagogue officials, who must come to Him for help. He is stronger than even a lifetime of pain and suffering. Jesus is stronger than death itself.
Sacramental Healing
Upon another read, take notice of the sacramental aspect to this story, especially Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, and Holy Communion. The ailing woman approached Jesus and gave her confession of “the whole truth” (Reconciliation) and then she is healed by Christ’s touch (Anointing of the sick) and his words (absolution at the end of Confession). The Catechism teaches, “The priest’s sacramental absolution God grants the penitent ‘pardon and peace’” (CCC 1424). Jesus tells the woman “go in peace, and be healed” (v. 34).
The little girl is also saved through His touch and his words: Taking her by the hand, He said to her, Tal′itha cu′mi; which means, ‘Little girl, I say to you, arise’” (v. 41). In the Anointing of the sick, the priest touches the sick person “on the forehead and hands with duly blessed oil–pressed from olives or from other plants–saying, only once: ‘Through this holy anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit. May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you up’” (CCC 1513). Jesus touched the little girl on her hand and raised her up (v. 41). After He brought her back to life, He said that she should be given something to eat, presumably in order for her to regain her strength. This parallels the sacramental life where we are in constant need of the healing sacraments of Reconciliation and the Anointing of the sick and when we daily need the Jesus’s divine sustenance for our strength and growth. We need to be fed the Bread of Life (John 6:35) in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
One Reason for Healing? Relationship with God.
Something interesting happens during and after these healings. Jesus gives both the woman and the little girl a nickname, a term of endearment to Him. He called the woman “daughter” (v. 34), and Jairus’s daughter “little girl” (v. 41). The woman who was healed has become a “daughter” of God, a “little girl” again. They are His children, and have new life in and through Christ. The sacraments bring us healing so we can return to our status as His beloved children and experience His love in deeper ways.
This passage calls me to come to Christ in the sacraments for reconciliation, healing, and strength. It empowers me to take initiative in coming to Him, to reach out to Him, to break down whatever barrier is coming between me and Jesus. Jesus wants us to break through whatever seems to be blocking us from Him. Whether it be your social standing (the synagogue official had to risk coming to Him), your status in society or your sinfulness (the woman was ritually “unclean”/dirty), or even a physical barrier (the crowd that could have blocked Jesus from the woman). He urges us to come with humility and the desire to be healed, and have faith that He truly has the power to heal the smallest to the deepest wounds.
Jesus, today I reach out to you in humility in recognition of my sins and wounds. I have faith that You have the power to heal me, not for my glory but for Your own. Come deep into my heart, the innermost place of my soul so I can encounter You there. Heal and strengthen me so I can love, serve, and glorify You with all my strength.