Tuesday 26 January 2016

Psalm: Psalm 21:1-7

Background

The people for whom this healing story was first written downwould have known very clearly what it meant that the woman had beenhaemorrhaging for 12 years. Jewish legal codes separated amenstruating woman from social interaction and corporate worshipfor several days every month. So they would have isolated thiswoman for over a decade.

Jairus was one of the leaders of the local synagogue. This madehim not just an important community figure. It's also possible thathe would have been involved in enforcing the woman's ritualisolation: keeping her 'outside'.

But it's the woman - determined to act surreptitiously and thenmelt away - whom Jesus makes the centre of his attention and thecentre of the story.

The woman and the girl are linked through the story - both arecalled 'daughter'; the phrase 12 years is used of both (verses 25,42); both have a moment of physical contact with Jesus - Jesus istouched by the woman (verse 27), and he takes the girl's hand(verse 41). These are both 'polluting' moments of physical contact,since both blood and corpses were understood to be unclean.

It's as if the story itself reflects Jesus' work, here andthroughout the Gospels, in reconnecting those 'inside' and'outside' the community - and at the same time, blurring theboundaries between what constitutes 'in' and 'out' in any communityof faith.

To Ponder

• Between all the claims on you, some prominent and obvious,others more hidden, how do you discern where your attention shouldbe directed?

• Should there be boundaries to a community of faith, marking'in' and 'out'? How clear or blurred should they be?