Category: Mark   5

but Jesus repeatedly cautioned them not to let anyone know of it, and told them to give her something to eat.

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it is enough that it happened
to know a magician’s simple how
is best kept under wraps
so mums the word

she walks it happened
this much is undeniable
more would be TMI

the practicalities of life happen
ground us in a next best choice

feed this potential mother-in-law

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We have previously heard injunctions to not tell about a dramatic change in life. Between the last such charge in 3:12 addressed to “demons” identifying Jesus as “G*D’s Partner” and before that, in 1:44, to a person whose flesh was cleansed, there have been two recent times when a command to silence did not happen—the Geresene in 5:19 is instructed to tell his own people and the Hemorrhaging Woman in 5:34 is simply sent off with a blessing.

LaVerdiere_140-141 suggests that context (spiritual maturity?) of the person healed is the deciding factor in keeping their story quiet.

The skin-diseased man dared Jesus for a healing and a healing qua healing came. There is not a good way to tell this story without saying more than can be claimed.

The demons were upset about their being silenced and were revealing relationships before their time was ripe. This leads to questions for which there is no good response and subsequent confusion.

Here a faithful synagogue leader will be put in an untenable position should he speak favorably about his daughter’s healing. He won’t have the required two witnesses (only a spouse).

On the other hand, the Geresene desired to follow Jesus (to learn more) and is instructed to set up next visits to the Decapolis by telling his story. He had a call to meet and silence would not facilitate it.

The Hemorrhaging Woman started with faith that a healing could be accomplished and quietly claimed it without publicly daring Jesus. To “Go in peace” is different than leaving in silence.

Today there are still those who claim more than is helpful to say about Jesus and Church and those who don’t say what they do know. This is a question of discernment for any claiming to be Christian for it affects ecclesiology, discipleship, and missional extension.

The little girl stood up at once, and began to walk about; for she was twelve years old. And, as soon as they saw it, they were overwhelmed with amazement;

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she walks around dazed
as uncertain as new sight
confused about people and trees

a sleepwalker pleases us nonetheless
even as any between-state scares us
better than a zombie but still disturbing

amazement at a moment of quickening
hopes and fears jostle with one another
until one mostly settles into our life

one such occurrence can last a lifetime
what are we to do with so many surprises
coming our way overwhelming our day

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This verse is doubly Markan with two, count them, two “euthys” (immediatelies). To return to Swanson’s translation: “BANG the little girl rose and walked around (she was, after all, twelve years old). BANG: ecstasy beyond ecstasy.”

The girl (or, depening on perspective, young woman) had been invited to rise. In less than a heartbeat, she rose.

With a healing claimed or grabbed by an older woman and requested on behalf of a young woman we are reminded that there are no formulas for healing. Is healing connected with the faith of the person in need of a healing, the need of a community for a tangible sign in their midst, the loosing of power on its own terms, or just because. Whatever the circumstance it seems clear that magical words in another language is not at the heart of healing. Sometimes just a declaration (“Take up your mat.”) or the gentle taking of a hand while softly crooning a lullaby will do—

O little one, precious young one, we bid you rise.
Come back to us from dreams afar, we bid you rise.
Join in this song sung just for you, we bid you rise.
Help us extend this song to all, we bid you rise.

When this daughter rose (to dance?), those present are described as amazed, astonished, overjoyed, shocked, or surprised. Merriam-Webster gives a derivation of the Greek ἔκστασις (ekstasis): “from existanai to derange, from ex- out + histanai to cause to stand”. With an invitation to rise accepted, “ecstasy” is a preferred descriptor here. Barnstone₁₆₁ holds both, “They were amazed and in great ecstasy.”

Taking her hand, Jesus said to her, “Talitha, koum!” – which means ‘little girl, I am speaking to you – Rise!’

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Tentative and provisional
A single life or all society
Learns to be on guard
In defense against unknown danger
That slouches in shadow almost here
Hand outstretched toward our heart
Asserting breath’s frailty word’s silence

Kindness is not protective or victorious
Of or over existential threats
Under a shroud of ever-increasing sleep
Merciful kindness invites us to dance

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An unnamed woman reached out to touch Jesus. Jesus now reaches out to touch an unnamed girl. We find responses to calls and calls expecting a response. We are to hold our call and response lightly lest we get trapped in a bygone call or a compulsive response.

These two are related to one another in a larger rhythm of ministry. Myers puts it well:

The healing journey must, however, take a necessary detour that stops to listen to the pain of the crowd. Only when the outcast woman is restored to true “daughterhood” can the daughter of the synagogue be restored to true life. That is the faith the privileged must learn from the poor.

Touch is basic ministry, even more basic than conversation. Touch connects and raises partners who had not previously seen one another in this fashion. Touch is basic from G*D working clay to what it means to fish for people.

In Mark the result of touch is an arising, a great getting up moment (ἐγείρω, egeirō, arise!). This same word is used with Simon’s mother-in-law (1:31), a paralytic (2:11,12), and Jesus after death for teaching the good news of change in hearts and lives through partnered mercy (14:28; 16:6).

If arising does not happen, it may well be that our touch was more about ourself than another. This is a time to revisit a wilderness retreat with a question about our own privilege and blindness to the depth of need of the poor and dispossessed.

Try using Mark’s Aramaic and Hebrew words to make a poem: Boanerges (Thunder, 3:17); talitha koum (arise, 4:41); corban (gift, 7:11), Ephaphatha (open, 7:34); Hosanna (save now, 11:9); Abba (daddy, 14:36); Golgotha (Skull Place, 15:22); Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani (My G*D, my G*D, why have you left me, 15:34).

They began to laugh at him; but he sent them all out, and then, with the child’s father and mother and his companions, went into the room where she was lying.

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we shake our heads in derision
at those so out of touch with reality
they are not worth a superior chuckle
we would laugh them out of town
if this were a laughing matter

when responded to in such a manner
there is no pushing an argument further
sides will only harden positions
needed is a waiting a demonstration
revelation’s own sweet time

a strategic huddle and retreat
is missed by closed eyes and ears
as a shift from impasse to direct action
builds quietly underground off stage
to surprise as retreat whirls to charge

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In the laughing, ridiculing, jeering, scorning we find a clue to the connections between the synoptic gospels. The word κατεγέλων (kategelōn) is only found three times in the whole of the official Christian scriptures. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this same word at the same place in the story of Jairus’ daughter.

I still remember being laughed at and expect that such an experience is close to the top of most people’s memories and is easily joggable.

When derision can’t be dismissed it can become accepted and used as an inside word of identity by one member to another, but woe to the one from the outside who uses it. It can also become a badge of pride as followers of John Wesley turned the word “Methodist” from a slur to an affirmation. We might even remember that it was after Stephen’s stoning that we first hear about Antioch where the use of “Christian” is first noted in the bible. Josephus nearly dismisses Jesus’ followers, “Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man…. the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.” (Antiquities of the Jews, XVIII 3:3).

Here the tables are turned. The one laughed at, banishes those who jeered at him and continues on his way.

This moment is a failure, as there was no reason to have others leave if there is a separate room to enter to complete his task. Such escalation or payback is all too easy for us to identify with and to have to later repent. Recent American leaders have acted this way.

This moment is also a triumph. No matter the resistance, when something is needed we don’t let petty laughter get in the way.

“Why this confusion and weeping?” he said on entering. “The little child is not dead; she is asleep.”

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viewing circumstances differently
from those on the scene
seems strange to those on either side
how is it such contrary analyses
take root in lives
ignorance can be blamed
stupidity accounts for some
habits and practice enter in
hopes fears assumptions ever present

raising questions about other’s responses
raises hackles and defenses
already heightened emotional states
are inflamed by appeals to alternatives
sleep as death or death as sleep
works well in Metaphorland
when their Venn diagram comes apart
all the king’s men fail again
ever present relational fractures raise fists

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Angels would fear to tread on the open wounds of the mourners. Yet, here is a bald statement of an alternative perspective: “Not dead; sleeping.”

From a reader’s position we can’t know whether Mark was asserting some special knowl­edge Jesus would have that she was not dead or theological claim that death does not have final dominion over her/our life. καθεύδει translates as “sleep”, no matter what sense Jesus meant.

Matthew (9:18) and Luke (8:53, 55) both indicate clearly that death has occurred. Mark is much more ambiguous.

Whether we are talking literal death or coma-like sleep, at issue is the good news measuring rod of being awake. This has overtone of Jewish prophets confronting rulers and societies. It also sounds a lot like further East traditions such as Buddhism where meditation and mindfulness are rigorous lest our monkey-minds blur our awareness and we sink into dozing and snoring.

To claim we are dealing with sleep masquerading as death is a minority report as “dead is dead” is familiar to us, no matter how we attempt to put it off through one technological trick or another. Even if we die while appearing healthy by all standard markers, we still are dead.

It may be that a part of becoming familiar with wilderness space is simply being able to ask, “What is all my internal commotion about? Will awakening to commotion’s presence assist in seeing through it? Does a reframing bring freedom or delusion?”

Presently they reached the leader’s house, where Jesus saw a scene of confusion – people weeping and wailing incessantly.

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commotional chorus deafens eyes
too many pitches timbres times
block wisdom from every other sense
every accumulated wilderness scream
echoes in an empty shell of self
internal and external cacophonies burst forth

the worst seems truest
finding a new normal is missing in action
dread touches and then clamps on
dampening down any glimmer of otherwise
choices evaporate leaving toxic minerals
cries are louder than everything else

when every wrong only gets worse
our sense of conspiracy expands
weakening everything under the sun
turning mere vanity to hard rain
we wail and flail closed-eyed
our agreed upon reality blinds ears

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In some cultures the appropriate response to death does not involve the more common response of wailing. The same is true for some people.

One reason given for a deep quiet at a time of death is to allow the passage of a spirit to move from this world to whatever is perceived as next, even if that next is a silence of its own.

In Jesus’ day, wailing would be expected. For the poorest funeral there would have been a minimum of two flutes and a wailer. This grieving would not have been among the poorest—a commotion is to be expected.

It is difficult to hold one’s trust level when the behaviors of those around are giving testimony to a contrary reality. Death must be true if there is this much expressed dismay. Do you see Jesus and Jairus continuing the “all will be well” mantra as they come to and enter a mourning space? Is Jesus still holding to this on behalf of those who can’t?

There would be no way to have a teaching at this point for the strongest parable would crumble in the face of such loss. If a story won’t have an impact, a rational discourse or even holding open the possibility of an alternative outcome would only inflame the situation.

The wilderness has invaded the city and, in particular, this house. Here there is temptation and yet unrecognized resources. Just because Jesus is here doesn’t mean that all the uncertainty generated by a wilderness isn’t powerfully present. And so we wail and wail.

And he allowed no one to accompany him, except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.

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round up your Peter James John
your Mary another Mary Salome
it’s trust practicing time
wonder and witness is at hand

there are yet stadia to travel
before we are readied for sleep
along the way we’ll practice trust
undercutting surprise in the end

stories wrapped in stories
will prepare our eyes
for seeing more than light shows
to see what a word can reveal

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Except for Peter, James, and John, the crowd is dismissed. The show is over; the girl is dead.

Well, Jairus and those from his household who brought the message about his daughter, are also in the remaining contingent.

Each reader will need to fill in this small lacuna in Mark’s fast-paced tale. What might they have talked about on the way? Or was there silence? Did they stride along or stumble their way?

As readers we are able to reflect beyond a literal jumping from scene to scene. We are not bound by author’s telling. In a sense there is no author’s tale until it is read and in every reading there is an alternative tale received. This partnership of author and reader is a part of the good news Mark is telling from the immediacy of his beginning to his abrupt ending.

As you have experienced the disappointments of life, what combination of silence and reflection assists you?

Here we might catch a glimpse of being eased into the mystery of trust. Jesus might be relating some of the woman’s story of her twelve years and asking the age of the daughter. “Twelve, you say.”

He might even go on to reflect, “Hmm, twelve years of bleeding and menopause was her healing. No more children from her. Then, as she was being healed, your twelve-year-old daughter died just as she was about to enter into her grand-child-bearing years.

“It must have taken quite a bit for you to have initially come to me to assist in her healing or it was another set-up to show me up as a charlatan. I’ve had to trust your heart was true to your daughter. I’m wondering if you still have your heart set on her more than on yourself. This is part of the mystery of your asking, the woman’s touching, a word from afar about death, and our walking in trust that all will be well again, all manner of things will be well. That’s a good line, let’s repeat it as we go. [Later] Can you feel your heart-trust changing?”

But Jesus, overhearing what they were saying, said to the synagogue leader,  “Do not be afraid; only have faith.”

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keep trusting
echoes through life
at oasis or in desert

temptation abounds
known in all circumstances
as glory or despair

good news
pulls us toward wonder
where we would ever dwell

disastrous occasions
push us 6-feet under
an avalanche of suffering

keep trusting
hauntingly beautiful
dumb beyond belief

loss tests trust
trauma tempts trust
pain tries trust

flowers bloom
regardless of victory or defeat
trust flowers

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A journey interrupted once by a woman claiming a healing has been more seriously interrupted by a message that its entire purpose no longer exists. There won’t be a need for a third interruption because the girl is dead.

In the midst of these delays and confusions we run into a translational choice. What is here translated as “overheard” (παρακούσας, parakousas), can also be translated as “hearing without paying attention”, “disregarding”, or “ignoring”. In all the cases of this word in the Septuagint and in Matthew 18:17, “ignoring” seems to be preferred choice.

The Amplified Bible, Classic Edition tries to get it all in: “Overhearing but ignoring what they said, Jesus said….”

The Darby Translation also brings in our old friend “euthys” from some early manuscripts: “But Jesus [immediately], having heard the word spoken, says….”

As Jesus often responds to what he has heard or senses is being said sotto voce, the “overhearing” motif can be acceptable.

The “ignoring” choice brings a clearer connection with the woman’s story. We heard her thinking about her situation but Jesus only enters because she did something and he immediately stopped and attended. Here we have the news arrive about the daughter’s death and Jesus immediately stops the conversation without an overhearing prelude. He essentially moves from a blessing of the woman to a blessing of Jairus—“Let us go in peace, trusting each step.”

Before he had finished speaking, some people from the house of the synagogue leader came and said, “Your daughter is dead! Why should you trouble the teacher further?”

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Charlie Brown’s football
has been yanked away
one more trusting time

he had his eye on it
all through an approach
it was there and then wasn’t

who can explain it
this brief distraction
away from someday soon

give it up pack it in
comes too easily to mind
we are caught all or nothing

binaries give up too easily
our servants dare command
tempted we listen and stop

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As abruptly as Jairus showed up on the scene to claim Jesus’ “power” to heal, Jesus’ blessing of a woman with twelve tribes worth of blood loss is preempted. Leadership has its privileges and interrupting is one of its perks.

In whatever amount of time it took for the woman to tell her truth, the unnamed daughter died (people do know what death is and are seldom fooled) and men of Jairus’ household were sent and arrived to tell him their tale of woe and a healing quest that failed.

In a shame and blame culture that lingers to this day in every part of the world, the connection to Jesus’ stopping to attend to an unclean woman when he could be saving the life of a not-yet unclean girl cannot have gone unnoticed.

As the message is relayed to Jairus, we can imagine a small word or two escaping: “If only you had been able to be a few minutes quicker in arriving…”, “What took you so long?” Just enough hints to have folks begin to turn toward Jesus. How could he make such a choice? Isn’t a child automatically worth more than anyone else?

Here we bump into the limits of our vision. We are willing to ask for healing/saving (remember they are the same word in Greek) for temporal illness—for cutting the illness short—healing as an over-the-counter drug to deal with the symptom of illness while it runs its course. We don’t quite know how to ask for saving/healing in the presence of death.

While Jarius is hearing this news, what of Jesus and the woman and their interrupted blessing? Did it continue? Is it still continuing and including everyone in an ever-widening grace?

“Daughter,” he said, “your faith has delivered you. Go, and peace be with you; be free from your affliction.”

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it is not your truth
that makes you whole
trusting what you hope
to reveal your peace

faith in projected hope
takes us past discouragement
where persistence persists
erect in failure’s face

bleed on ’til your dyin’ day
it does and doesn’t matter
stay in peace rest in ease
comfortably full of meaning anyway

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The Jewish Annotated New Testament comments, “The elect community at the end of time is liberated from impurity, not impurity codes (Zech 13:1–2; 14:20–21).”

The CEB Study Bible reflects on Zechariah 14:21, “on this day of the Lord, even the most ordinary things will be considered holy to the Lord. Everyone and everything will be transformed by and in God.”

N.T. Wright, in Mark for Everyone, raises the question, “Was it Jesus’ power that rescued the woman, or her own faith?” His response to his question seems a bit forced into an orthodoxy based on a hierarchy of sovereignty, “Clearly it was Jesus’ power; but he says, ‘Your faith has rescued you.’ The answer must be that faith, though itself powerless, is a channel through which Jesus’ power can work (compare 6.5).”

Waetjen raises this closing of one story with extensions based on Jesus being a hinge of ecclesial history:

The older woman, who has been moving toward menopause for twelve years, represents tradition-bound mother Judaism. Unclean, isolated from the world and oppressed by the law, she is saved and her life is redeemed by her risk of reaching out to make contact with the New Human Being. The young girl embodies the new Israel, offspring of the synagogue and its Pharisaic heritage, who is on the verge of bearing children and bringing new life to the world.

This also attempts to fit this story into later orthodoxies justifying division and even risks a Jewish/Christian feud to the death.

Remember Jesus’ awareness of his “power”, connection with people who have been touched by this force of life by stopping and asking, and confirming the value of a person’s action to storm the gates of “heaven”. It is probably best to join Luke’s Mary in simply cherishing this woman and her story in your heart.