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- Woman “suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.”
- Shows the difficulty is great but no match for the authority of Jesus. Like the storm challenged expert fishermen, the issue of blood challenged expert healers.
- “She had heard the reports about Jesus”
- Contrast to the messianic secret themed in Mark
- Mark does not mention the fringe of the garment, only the garment itself
- If writing for Gentiles, Mark’s community may not have made much of the prayer shawl connection.
- “She felt in her body that she was healed” also connected to “Jesus perceiving in himself that power had gone forth from him.”
- Mark’s attention to emotion and feeling
- Underscores that the healing took place by faith ahead of the declaration of Jesus.
- So her reaction to Jesus, fearful and trembling, is awe for the power he demonstrated and not fear of punishment. – Hooker
- “But ignoring what they said”
- Underscores that Jesus’ authority is greater, like he can sleep in the sinking boat so he can ignore the news of the death calling it sleep. It is as he declares it. Such is his authority.
- Also translated overhearing – NRSV
- Tumult vss. 38, 39.
- Reference back to the sea that was just crossed? Linking explicitly the chaos of the sea with death?
- “Talitha cumi”
- “Lamb, get up” translation offered so that they are not understood as magic words common to miracle stories. - Hooker
- Aramaic and translation for gentile audience?
- Give her something to eat.
- Reminiscent of the resurrection appearances, establishes a pattern of true bodily resurrection.
1 comment:
Seems to me that perhaps less focus on power, and more attention to what God is doing would be helpful. For example, don't you find it interesting that both healings involve women, i.e. the marginalized- though one poor and the other rich, both un-named. Both could make Jesus un-clean, the first by being a corpse, the other by issue of blood. And yet, Jesus' radical act of grace and mercy overcome both boundary issues, and he reaches out and touches them both through healing, and by fully restoring them to the community. What if God were actually calling us to do the same? What if this text is about God touching all of humanity with the gift of new life and restoration? For Christians, that touch first comes to us as infants when we are marked with the cross of Christ forever on our foreheads, claimed and touched by God before many of us are even able to form the words "Jesus" on our lips. Yes, I definitely think this text is about our God breaking all boundaries and restoring those whom society considers outcasts to full membership into God's community. But then, that's only my humble opinion...
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