Jesus is approached by a dad with a serious problem: his twelve-year-old daughter is dying. So he asks Jesus to come and touch her, hoping this will make her well (Mk 5).
Jesus agrees and sets off towards the man's house, but he's not alone. A large crowd is following him and in that crowd is a woman who also has a serious problem: she has been bleeding for twelve years.
This condition leaves her ceremonially unclean (Lev 15) and cuts her off from full participation in her community. In the ancient world things like sex, birth, and death were mysterious and powerful, and thus taboo, so any association with them made a person unclean.
Because of this she wasn't supposed to touch anyone, but she touches Jesus. This act miraculously heals her.
Unfortunately her healing took time and during this delay the twelve-year-old dies. Jesus continues toward her home anyway, and when he arrives he finds her family mourning.
He asks the family why they are making so much commotion and tells them "the girl is only sleeping." They laugh at him, but then he touches her, telling her to wake up, and she is restored to life.
The woman bleeding for twelve years and the twelve-year-old who is brought back to life, symbolize Jesus' restoration of Israel. Israel was made of twelve tribes and in healing these women, he is restoring life to the "life producers" of Israel.
4 comments:
so - was the woman really bleeding for 12 years? how silly is it that this is the question I come up with. Anyway when I first saw the post and photo I thought this was an announcement about Marissa. Maybe this is a hint? :)
Not a hint...but tons of people have asked that!
embarrassing to be commenting on ancient blog posts... but I'm gonna anyway(s), cuz I'm catching up after months of not much reading. This is a gorgeous reflection on Matt 5 and Lev 15. And... How bout that Jesus who redeems birth, death and 'you know what', as well as Israel and us? Isn't it most like Jesus to make sure the redemption of individuals and entire nations is made manifest in the ordinary movements of our lives? This makes me happy.
That's so true. I love what you said on the redemption of individuals and nations taking place in the ordinary (albeit extraordinary) events of life.
Profound. Thanks KT.
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