Hi everyone. Welcome back to the podcast and
we're going to have a look at today's Gospel reading for mess.
It's a fairly long one today. So we're going to jump straight
into its Mark chapter 5 verses 21 to 43.
When Jesus had crossed in the boat to the other side, a large
crowd, followed round him, and he stayed by the Lakeside.
Then one of the synagogue officials came up, gyrus by name
and seeing him fell at his feet and pleaded with him.
Earnestly saying, my little daughter is desperately, sick,
do come and lay your hands on her to make her feel better and
save her life. Jesus went with him and a large
crowd, followed him, they were pressing all around him.
Now, there was a woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage for
twelve years. After long and painful treatment
under various doctors, she spent all she had without being any,
the better for it. In fact, she was getting worse.
She had heard about Jesus and she came up behind him through
the crowd and touched his cloak. If I can touch, even his
clothes. She had told herself, I shall be
well again. And the source of the bleeding
dried up instantly and she felt in herself that she was cured of
her complaint. Immediately aware that power had
gone out from him. Jesus turned around in the crowd
and said, who touched my clothes.
His disciples said to him, you see how the crowd is pressing
around you and yet you say who touched me but he continued to
look all round to see who had done it.
Then the woman came forward, frightened and trembling because
she knew what had happened to her and she fell at his feet and
told him the whole truth. My daughter.
He said your faith has restored you to health, go in peace and
be free from your complaint. While he was still speaking.
Some people arrived from the house of the synagogue, official
to say your daughter is dead? Why put the master to any
further trouble? But Jesus had overheard this
remark of theirs and he said, to the official do not be afraid.
Only have faith. And he led no one to go with him
except Peter and James and John the brother of James.
So they came to the officials house and Jesus noticed all the
commotion with people weeping and wailing.
Unrestrainedly. He went in and said to them.
Why all this commotion and crying?
The child is not dead, but asleep.
But they laughed at him. So he turned them all out and
taking with him the child's father and mother and his own
companions. He went into the place where the
child lay. And taking the child by the
hand. He said to her talitha koum.
Which means little girl, I tell you to get up.
The little girl got up at once and began to walk about.
For she was 12 years old at this.
They were overcome with astonishment and he ordered them
strictly not to tell anyone about it.
And told them to give her something to eat.
So there's a lot going on in this passage here that we're
looking at today. You've probably noticed that
this is another example of a mark and the sandwich as
Scholars call it where he starts a story then he interrupts it
with a second story and then he resumes telling the first story
again and Mark does that because he's roughly chronological, he's
telling us the order in which these things actually happened.
Where is perhaps the other gospel writers like Matthew?
And John might not interrupt your story.
They would probably keep telling the entire story, even if there
was interruptions in how it actually happened because they
want to present it in a thematic way.
Mark, just tells it like it is this happened and then Jesus was
interrupted and then Jesus went back to what he was doing.
So verse 21 is the start here at said, Jesus crossed in the boat
to the other side. So remember yesterday he was in
this territory. A of the gaderenes in the
Gentile area but they told him to go away.
So he's got back into his boat and he's gone back over to the
western shore of the Sea of Galilee.
So he's back in the Capernaum area where he started the crowds
gather around him here at the lakeside and he's probably
teaching them. And then in verse 22, One of the
synagogue officials appears or another translation, says, ruler
of the synagogue. Now, this is not a priest.
So a synagogue official was a prominent lay man.
Whose job it was to oversee, the synagogue's activities and
finances. So perhaps an equivalent today
he might be the president or the treasurer of the parish.
Pastoral Council. That's a bit of a rough analogy.
But he sort of the administrative leader of one of
the local synagogues. Now he was probably present
earlier on in the gospel of Mark when Jesus had been preaching in
the synagogue's, he's probably seen Jesus do that in his own
synagogue so he knows who Jesus is seeing him, he fell at Jesus
feet so gyrus starts to plead with Jesus here he says my
little daughter is desperately sick.
That's our translation, a more literal translation is at the
point of death. So this girl is about to die
which sadly was quite common in that culture.
A lot of diseases couldn't be cured, that we now have cures
for so people did die young sometimes.
He said he keeps going. He says to Jesus come and lay
your hands on her to make her better and save her life.
So gyrus knows that Jesus has laid hands on other people and
he wants Jesus to. Now do it for his daughter.
That makes sense. So, Jesus agrees to do this and
they set off for the house, we don't know what town it is, but
probably Capernaum. So, they set off to find his
actual house. A large crowd, followed Jesus,
they were pressing all around him, so often in pictures, you
might see it as like a meek and Mild crowd listening.
Quietly and humbly to Jesus. But here we have a crowd that's
jostling. And I'm busy and pushing against
Jesus as he goes to the house, they're desperate to touch
Jesus. Now that seen ships.
So, Mark gives us the second part of his sandwich here.
He interrupts the story of gyrus as daughter, verse 25.
Now, there was a woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage for
twelve years. So what the Greek there says she
suffered from a flow of blood? Some Scholars, it's not entirely
clear but some Scholars think it's likely that because the
disease is not described, explicitly that Mark is just
trying to be modest. And really what this is, is some
sort of a menstrual cycle issue. We know that chronic bleeding
results in weakness, and fatigue.
So she's probably exhausted, and think about all the ritual
components here. So, someone who's bleeding
constantly, according to the Jewish law of Moses, She's
unclean constantly so anything. She touches becomes unclean
anything, she sits on becomes unclean.
Everyone else has to avoid contact with her or else they
would become unclean as well. And that's all in The Vedic has
15. So this woman is in Outcast and
Society, she's forbidden from worshiping in the temple, which
would be incredibly frustrating and sad for a Jewish person.
And it's possible that she also couldn't be physically with her
husband as well depending on her condition.
She we learn here that she's tried numerous doctors, none of
them have been able to help. In fact, she's just getting
worse, so she's getting desperate.
This woman has had the condition for 12 years.
She's been ritually unclean and exhausted and tired.
And she's getting worse and worse.
She spent all her money on doctors.
So not only is she an outcast? She's probably poor as well.
Verse 27, she had heard about Jesus.
So the word has traveled and she's heard about his power to
heal, simply by touching him. She's probably heard things like
Jesus. Lays hands on people and they're
healed. That's probably what she's
heard. So she has a plan, she comes up
behind him in the crowd. She's making a plan here of how
she's going to touch Jesus, and she says to herself in verse 27,
if I can touch even his clothes, I should be well again.
Now she's probably just guessing if that's, you know, she's
probably thinking if I touch his clothes and I'll get better,
that's probably just a guess on her part.
Because as far as we know this hasn't happened to anyone else,
yet, turns out that she's right though, that that will actually
heal her. So she touches him and there's a
really beautiful picture of this this scene where the woman just
touches the Hem of His Garment and the Each other artistic
picture is just of the finger reaching out and touching Jesus
legs. You can't see anyone's face in
the picture and it's there's a really big picture of this
Saint, Mary of magdala, has Church in magdala.
So they've found Magdalene and there's this whole church
dedicated to women and this is in Israel.
So if you go there, there's a chamber down the bottom of the
church. I've been there and there's this
amazing huge wall length. Picture of this woman touching
Jesus and it's considered to be a room of healing.
So anyway, if you can Google that picture, it's quite a
beautiful. One of the woman touching Jesus
cloak So immediately sorry verse 29, the source of her bleeding
dried up instantly and she felt that she was cured of her
complaint. Now, this is one of the key
verses that helps us understand the Catholic teaching on relics.
So, the Catholic teaching is basically that objects which
belong to Holy people or healers can themselves and up imparting
healing power. This is one of the key verses.
So, here we have a woman touching Jesus, cloak, not Jesus
himself, but she still gets healed.
And then later in the book of Acts, there's places where
Peters handkerchief is able to heal people.
And then, even in the Old Testament, Falling on the bones
of the Prophet, Elijah causes someone to be healed as well.
So this is one of those key verses about relics.
Verse 30, so she's healed but then immediately aware that
power had gone out of him. So Jesus notices that power has
gone out of him. Kind of strange isn't it?
So it is Jesus sort of feels some power leave him even though
he didn't consent to it. So this implies that power can
leave Jesus without his consent at least sometimes.
So what's the formula for healing here?
I think we have to say something like this, a person's genuine
Faith plus contact with Jesus. Jesus brings about healing even
if Jesus doesn't initiate the contact at least during Jesus
ministry. Anyway, He says he looks around
to the crowd, and Jesus says, who touched my clothes?
So, at this point, Jesus is not exercising, his mind-reading
powers. If you wanted to, he probably
could switch them on as we've seen him to earlier in Mark and
work out who it was, but he wants the person to come forward
voluntarily. He wants the person to not slip
away with just physical healing. He wants this person who's just
been healed to encounter Jesus personally.
He's Disciples of surprised by Jesus question and they
basically say, everyone's touching you Jesus.
What do you mean? Who touched me?
So the apostles are pretty perplexed and as they are
throughout a lot of the Gospel of Mark, they still have a lot
to learn. Verse 32, the woman came forth,
frightened and trembling. So she's probably worried that
Jesus is going to be angry with her because she's just taken
some of his power. And also she's broken the rules
of ritual impurity in Purity. She touched him, and she's not
supposed to. And so, she's probably quite
frightened about what Jesus is going to say.
But verse 34. Jesus lovingly says my daughter,
that's a term of affection. And intimacy my your faith has
made you. Well, So this tells us, what was
the key ingredient in the woman's healing.
It was her faith. The woman's Faith made her.
Well, so presumably this tells us that insufficient faith.
If someone with not enough Faith, try to touch Jesus.
They wouldn't be healed. For example, a lot of the crowd
at the moment of jostling against Jesus, presumably people
they're wanting healing, but probably none of them were
healed because they didn't have the genuine faith.
That this woman had, And the word here for made you.
Well, can also mean saved. So you could translate this
verse, your faith has saved you. And Jesus often says things like
this to people who are seeking healing, he wants to make sure
the physical and the spiritual healing happen at the same time.
He says to the woman go in peace and be free of your complaint.
So Jesus here basically says he's okay with what's happened?
He's not angry at the woman and he gives her the traditional
Jewish piece wishing. It's quite common for Jews to
say, go in peace. And that's what we say, the end
of mass as well. And she's now think about it.
She's had this condition for 12 years.
She is now healed physically and now she can go back to
participating in the life of the temple and she's able to go and
contact with people again. So she's been restored to the
community. It's in quote, incredible
transformation for this woman. Verse 35, we go back to the
incident with gyrus his daughter.
So it's the last part of the mark and the sandwich.
He's just here with the woman and now some people arrived from
the rulers house from gyrus is house.
So they're going to deliver the bad news to gyrus your daughter
is dead. Why put your master to any
further trouble? So they believe she's dead.
There's no need for Jesus to come anymore.
Verse 36 Jesus over. Here's what his servants have
said to gyrus and he says to gyrus do not be afraid only have
faith. So Jesus here implies that it's
not over and that he's going to fix the problem.
Whether gyrus understood that or believed it is not clear.
So, Jesus now makes a plan of attack.
He allows no one to follow him, so he sends the crowd away at
this point, why? Well, could be two reasons
firstly, because not everyone can fit into this house that
he's going to could also be that he wants some peace and quiet in
order to be able to do the miracle.
But most importantly, in the context of Mark's gospel, In
order for a miracle like this, particularly significant
Miracle, like a raising from the dead.
Jesus tells us that he can't do that.
If the people in the area, do not have faith.
So it's possible that Jesus perceives.
The crowd does not have enough faith and that if he tries to do
the miracle with the crowd around, it's not going to work.
So, he sends the crowd away. And he takes with him though,
Peter and James and John. So these three Apostles of Jesus
Inner Circle, and it appears that these three, although they
make mistakes, they seem to understand things a little
quicker or a little easier than the other apostles.
And they're the first three in fact, three of the first four
who are willing to step out in faith for the kingdom, they're
the first three of the first four Apostles to be called.
So they arrived at the house of gyrus and they're going side,
and people are Weeping and wailing loudly.
Now, that might seem a bit, maybe a bit over the top, but in
that culture, the way that people mourned, the loss of
loved ones was through loud groans and wailing, that was
actually the accepted expected way of reacting.
There might even be hired mourners here if someone's died.
The family would often hire professional mourners.
So that the community knows this house is morning.
So, everyone's weeping and wailing.
And Jesus says, the child is dead.
Sorry, the child is not dead but asleep.
Now, there's two possible meanings here.
The child is not dead, but asleep.
The first option would be that actually their child is not
dead. She's fallen into a coma of some
sort, although, the relatives don't realize that Jesus knows
that she's not dead and that she's just in a coma, but the
family doesn't know that. But I think it's reasonable
depends. If you think it's reasonable for
the family to know, whether she is dead or not, the more
traditional explanation and most Scholars would say is that, the
girl really is dead. So, when Jesus says, the child
is not dead, he really means she's not dead permanently.
She's just sleeping and sleeping is a common Jewish metaphor to
describe death, particularly in relation to the afterlife.
If so, in the Jewish or Christian view, you could say,
in a sense, when people's bodies die, they fall asleep in the
hope of the Resurrection. But if that's the case, if the
girl really is dead, it seems unreasonable for Jesus to say to
the to the mourners. Why are you mourning?
The child is not dead. Because there's no way that the
that relatives could have known that Jesus was going to raise
her again. There's that's not yeah.
So it depends on how you interpret.
Jesus words here as I said the traditional explanation is that
she's dead but the Jesus just wants to make a point that she's
not permanently dead. But it's often good to throw out
there some rival, scholarly theories.
Just so you know what people are thinking about this verse where
it's not entirely clear. Verse 40, they laughed at him so
that's their reaction. They don't believe the little
girls going to rise again. So that probably shows a lack of
faith and they think Jesus is a bit crazy.
So he turns them all out. Jesus doesn't want the crowd or
the relatives to be around while he's performing the miracle, and
he probably knows that their unbelief is going to Hinder the
miracle. So takes with him the child's
mother and father. So gyrus and his wife.
What is he? Taking the mother and the
father? Presumably they well, maybe they
have more faith than the rest of the relatives because member
gyrus did come to chooses, and believe that Jesus could heal
her. And it's also for practical
reasons because the girls about to wake up and Jesus wants the
mother and the father to be in the room when the girl wakes up,
Verse 41, Jesus Takes the Girl by the hand.
So once again, Mark is highlighting the power of Jesus
physical touch and he says to her talitha koum Which means
little girl, get up. So, Mark actually includes the
the Aramaic phrase, Jesus spoke Aramaic to Letha come, why does
Mark sort of in this case? Usually, he just translates the
entire thing for us into Greek. But here he gives us the
original Aramaic and then the Greek translation Probably for
dramatic, emphasis, the original words in marks, mind, we're so
important and they left had left such an impact on the original
hearers that Mark wants to include the original Aramaic
here. So that those who needs
audience, who do speak Aramaic Can Feel Jesus emphasis here and
can hear the original words that Jesus spoke verse 42.
The girl got up at once and walked so the girl is perfectly
fine straight away and the word that Used here for a rise or got
up is a gay Row in Greek and that's actually the same word
that's later used for Jesus. Resurrection.
And then Mark says she got up at once and walked for she was 12
years old. So it implies that the reason
she gets healed so quickly is because she's young Now we learn
here that she's 12 years old. Where else have we heard the
number 12 in this passage today. Hopefully you recognize that the
woman with the issue of blood has had the issue for 12 years.
So there could be some sort of connection here between the 12
years that the woman had the condition and the 12 years old,
that the girl is there probably is, although it's not entirely
clear what the connection is. And some Scholars have written
about it but no one's really sure.
They were overcome with astonishment.
This is Jesus, most amazing Miracle yet.
He's literally just cause someone to rise again, from the
dead. And in the Jewish view, the only
person who can do that is God and the people there would have
known that only God can raise the dead.
So the probably means that as a result, they would have now have
faith in Jesus. However, verse 43, Jesus ordered
them strictly, not to let anyone know about it.
So Jesus wants to ensure that the only people who witnessed
the miracle know about it. No one else.
He doesn't want word to get around that.
He can raise the dead at this stage because if he does, his
ministry is going to get too chaotic, too quickly.
Everyone's going to crowd around.
Everyone's going to want him to, to raise again.
Every dead person, they might recognize that he's the Messiah
to quickly and try to take him as a national King, all of those
things could happen if word gets around too quickly.
So Jesus says, please don't share What has happened today?
And then he tells his the girl's parents gyrus and his wife to
give her something to eat, presumably that's to help
restore the girls energy. Jesus knows that she's going to
need energy in order to get back to full health possibly So
that's the end of the passage and I just want to read this
little comment from the Catholic commentary and sake of
scripture, which summarizes this section really well, we've just
seen a whole lot of Jesus miracles over the last few days.
And here's how the Catholic Commons run.
Sacred scripture summarizes, Mark chapter 5, the raising of
gyrus is daughter is the climax of the series of Miracles
encountered in this section of Mark, Mark chapter 4 and 5.
Each one increasingly reveals Jesus power to overcome death.
He has rescued his disciples from near certain death in the
storm. On the lake delivered.
A man whose existence was a living death, among the tombs
restored to health, a woman whose life was draining away and
raised a dead girl to life. In each case, the way to
experience Jesus saving power is to reject fear and yield to
Faith a deeply personal faith that comes into Living contact
with him. Mark is preparing his readers to
grasp the magnitude of Jesus. Ultimate conquest of death.
In his resurrection, the Prelude to the resurrection of all
believers to eternal life, Now, how does this passage inform
Catholic teaching? Well, let's turn to the
catechism of the Catholic Church.
There's a few short paragraphs will have a look at here, which
explicitly reference the story of gyrus.
And also the story of the woman with the issue of blood
paragraph, 548 in the section about the kingdom of God.
Says, the signs worked by Jesus, a test that the father has sent
him. They invite belief in him to
those who turn to him in faith, he grants what they ask.
So Miracles, strengthen faith in the one who does his father's
Works? They bear witness that he is the
son of God. Paragraph 2616 in the section
about how Jesus he is our prayer.
Says prayer to Jesus is answered by him already during his
ministry through signs. That anticipate the power of his
death and Resurrection Jesus, he is the prayer of faith expressed
in words, from the leper gyrus, the Canaanite woman and the good
thief or in Silence. The bearers of the paralytic,
the woman with the Hemorrhage who touches his clothes, the
tears and ointment of the sinful woman.
So you'll hear there in that paragraph, 2616 at references,
both gyrus and also the woman with the hemorrhage And then,
lastly, in paragraph 9 94, which is in the section about Jesus,
resurrection it says it is Jesus himself who on the last day will
raise up. Those who have believed in him,
who have eaten his body and drink his blood already.
Now, in this present life, he gives us a sign and pledge of
this by restoring, some of the Dead to life.
And now it's sitting there by his own Resurrection, though, it
was to be of another order. So, you'll hear the reference to
Jesus restoring, some people to life, and that would include
Jarvis's daughter. And all of that prefigures,
Jesus, own Resurrection. So a bit of a longer podcast
today but there's a lot in this Mark and Sand Wedge in Mark.
Chapter 5, thanks for listening. Hope you learned something new.