Mark 5:28

“If I can only touch his clothes,” she said, “I will get well!”


rules are forever rising
they are part of our strange captivity
here’s the way life should work
for fairness is always tilted forward
toward my satisfaction

if I just scrape together enough
the purchase of a lottery ticket
is bound to pay off this time
I’ll be able to step outside time
jump from not enough to too much

even though neither I nor my family
can afford an heroic intervention
a drive to survive drives my life
to the ground quicker than gravity
a painful hour years of anemia crave release

As long as I have breath
I’ll tell stories to myself
and any who are nearby
life is meant to be fair
make break rules as needed


In English a slight adjustment to the Greek is necessary to indicate that the woman was speaking to herself and not to someone else.

A part of Mark’s work are little surprises like this that come along to explain an action. This is a buffer to highlight the next conversation between the woman and Jesus. This thinking that drove her action is effectively a place where “palin” could have been used to have us remember all the previous ways in which Jesus has healed. Touch is indeed an important modality for Jesus’ healing and, if it can be true for those previously healed, there is no reason this woman can’t get a piece of the action.

Reflect on Myers’ reflection:

By healing first the poor woman, he beckons the entire people toward healing the deadly disease of social inequity….

If we are to put the last first today, we must deepen our understanding of the social diseases that marginalize the “least” today. The fact that the center of this story is a woman pushed into insignificance and suffering in part by the patriarchy of her context calls us to acknowledge male privilege as one of the social diseases from which healing is needed.