JESUS' RESPONSE TO FAITH

Homily for February 5^th, 2019: Mark 5:21-43.

          Today’s gospel recounts two miracles: both of them healings. All the healings reported in the gospels are Jesus’ response to faith. Earlier in this chapter Mark has told us that when Jesus visited Nazareth, where he had grown up, “he could work no miracle,” because the people who had known him for years lacked faith. (Mk 5:6).   

          In today’s gospel the first person to manifest faith is a synagogue elder named Jairus whose daughter “is at the point of death.” He believes Jesus can heal her. The second person who approaches Jesus with faith is a woman who has suffered hemorrhages for twelve years. Jews had a special aversion to blood. Still today the Jewish dietary laws say that to be kosher, and hence fit for human consumption, meat must have all the blood drained from it before it before it comes to the table. This helps us understand that the situation of the woman with hemorrhages is desperate. She makes her request for healing not in words, but by coming up behind him and grabbing hold of his cloak. She is so confident in the power of Jesus that even this contact with his garment can bring her healing.

          Jesus turns around and asks, “Who has touched my clothes?”  His disciples say the question is unanswerable. Given the crowd pressing in on Jesus, it is impossible to say who touched him. The woman, however, confesses that she has touched Jesus. “Daughter, your faith has saved you,” Jesus tells the woman. “Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”

          Messengers now arrive saying that Jairus’ daughter has died. “Do not be afraid,” Jesus tells the father. Just have faith.” When Jesus arrives at the house of the synagogue elder, he finds a crowd already mourning the death of the man’s daughter. Hired flute players are playing a funeral dirge. “Go away,” Jesus tells them. “The girl is not dead but sleeping.” Not for the first time in the gospels, the people ridicule him, confident that he has lost touch with reality. When the crowd has dispersed, Jesus enters the house, takes the girl by the hand, and raises her to life.

          What better response could we make to the story of these two miracles than to repeat the anguished words of another father in Mark’s gospel seeking healing for his deaf mute son who seems to have what we would call epilepsy. Asked by Jesus whether he believes healing is possible, the man replies – and we repeat: “Lord, I do believe! Help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).