Jesus brings shalom

Mark 5:21-43 Teaches Me That Jesus Brings Shalom into a Broken World

Wholeness or shalom is at the heart of Jesus’ healing in this passage.  Jesus heals the physical infirmities of two women and welcomes them back into society.  In Mark’s narrative Jesus’ ministry is centralized around bringing shalom into a world that has been possessed and corrupted by satan.  The brokenness of the world is continually being brought to wholeness through Jesus‘ teaching, healing, and associating with the marginalized.  This passage proves that no matter a person’s wealth or status in society, Jesus is indiscriminately bringing shalom into the entire world.      

The evangelist introduces a woman who has been suffering physically, socially, and financially for twelve years (Mark 5:25).  Her physical infirmity is what the author describes as a continual bleeding (interpreted as a hemorrhage).  This bleeding was also likely to have kept her from having children.  The very essence of being a woman in the first century was cut off from this woman during these twelve years.  The intercalation with the story of the young girl puts an emphasis on this point.  This woman’s brokenness extends further than her physical infirmity.  It also states that the woman is poor, using all of her money seeing physicians who only made her condition worse (5:26).  Despite her poverty, Jesus does not hesitate to speak to her endearingly after she had been healed.  Jesus associates and heals people of all levels of society and wealth.    

The woman’s condition was not only physically injurious, but it likely cut the woman off from society.  The text introduces the woman alone.  Although scholars vary on how much the Jewish purification laws would have influenced the woman’s life, it would have at least kept her from the majority of society and visiting the temple in order to cleanse herself of her impurity.  Throughout Mark’s gospel, Jesus associates with the socially marginalized.  Whether this woman has been completely or partially cut off from society is irrelevant.  She is solitary and desperate enough that she must have the faith to intercede on her own behalf.  The climax of the first healing is a prime example of Jesus’ mercy and power.  Instead of rebuking the woman for touching his garment, Jesus turns in the midst of his journey and tell the woman her faith has healed her.  In one sentence, Jesus praises the woman and welcomes her back into society.  By calling the woman “daughter,” he has brought her into his family and thus back into Jewish society (5:34).  Thus in one episode, the woman is healed and brought back into communion with her peers.  

The healing passage of the hemorrhaging woman falls within the story of Jairus and his dying daughter.  In the first half of Jairus‘ story, the reader learns that Jairus‘ young daughter is ill and close to death (5:23).  Jairus is a wealthy leader of the synagogue who humbles himself before Jesus.  On Jesus‘ way to Jairus‘ house, the characters learn that the young girl has died.  Jesus tells Jairus to have faith and continues to the house anyway in order to raise the young girl from death.  It is at this point in the story that the reader is told that the child is twelve years old, which is old enough to be married and bear children.  By healing the child, Jesus is also giving the girl a chance to bring new life into the world.  When the child is healed, Jesus welcomes her back into communion by instructing her family to give her something to eat (5:43).  As well as proving that the girl is not a phantom, eating together is a common thread that brings people into communion in the miracle stories of the gospels.

The stories of both woman help the church understand that the Kingdom of God, as brought into this world by Jesus Christ, operates by bringing shalom.  The work of the kingdom is not dependent on social status, purity laws, or gender.  God and God’s work is responsive to every need in every situation.  Jesus, through God, has power over earthly powers and cannot be conquered, even by death.   

(Mark thesis from Gospels class, 2014)