Henri Persoz

Translation Canon Tony Dickinson

Two women in distress call simultaneously on Jesus to help them. A woman excluded from society, and the daughter of a rich notable. Will Jesus have to choose?

Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:40-56

We are well acquainted with this story about Jesus who, on his return from the other side of Lake Tiberias, passes through the crowd to go and cure the daughter of Jairus, while a woman afflicted with haemorrhages tugs on his cloak from behind to cure her as well.

These two women in distress are a contrast in every respect, drawn together only here in one and the same story. Probably they had never met. The one with the loss of blood is ill. And, according to the Jewish tradition of this period, she is unclean and the blood lost in this abnormal way has something to do with death. Undoubtedly she must have sinned greatly. She was excluded from society, she could no longer see anyone, still less touch anyone. And, in addition, she had been impoverished by all that she had had to give to the doctors who had not even cured her. She could not take any more suffering.

On the other side, Jairus is head of the Synagogue, president of the council of elders, a respectable man if ever there was one, and very much in the public eye in the region. He is very devout and belongs to the elite. He has servants who look after the whole of his family. He is not worried about approaching Jesus and asking him urgently to come to his house, even if Jesus has to pass through the crowd and risk being suffocated. He thinks that he is in a position to take over the master for a few hours, to have him to himself and his dying daughter.

The other woman, who no longer has anything but her tears, cannot invite Jesus anywhere to have him with her. She cannot even ask him to look at her. In addition, she risks scandal by mingling with the crowd, polluting it with her impurity, and approaching Jesus from behind, without daring to ask him anything. In her own way she too takes hold of Jesus. But she delays him.

For twelve years the daughter of Jairus had lived in the carelessness of youth and for twelve years, meanwhile, the older woman had suffered the loss of her blood and the loss of her money. But both of them were drawing near to death. Time was pressing. A struggle against the clock had begun. If the woman in the crowd who was losing blood detained Jesus too long, the other would die. It is the one or the other. A choice had to be made. The one who is an outcast from society or the one whose father is at the top of the social ladder.

But Jesus does not choose, because both have faith in God; they put their trust in Jesus who is already busy with so many sick people, so many unhappy people. He cures them both, he saves them. By doing no more than touching his cloak, the woman feels herself to be much better, so great is her faith. And the young girl who had time to die while waiting for Jesus, is no longer dead when he draws nears to her.

So the trust which saves does not depend on the contingencies of time, or on the order of their meeting. It does not race against the clock. It crosses social classes. It laughs at impurity. It gets lost in the crowd; it goes home with everybody. It grabs the poor people and also the prominent citizens. All of those who understand that this Jesus is speaking truly when he preaches compassion.

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