The second sermon in the series on touch. I've been reflecting on the woman desperately seeking Christ. She has tried everything with no success, and now she fights through the crowds to touch Jesus.
I am reflecting on the faith of the desperate, who have nothing else to hope for, so they seek just the touch of Christ.
Here are a few textual notes. "Begging Believers and Scorning Skeptics," from the blog Left Behind and Loving It on 6/26/2012, by Mark Davis (http://leftbehindandlovingit.blogspot.com/2012/06/begging-believers-and-scorning-skeptics.html):
"Here is why I think vv.25-27 ought to be one, long sentence. Yes, this unfortunate woman did have a flow of blood for 12 years. But, to put that description into a self-standing sentence (as NRSV and NIV do with v.25) is to define her in a singular way, which is not how Mark tells the story. She had been living with a flow of blood for 12 years, but she also suffered at the hands of physicians, she also spent all of her money to address it, she also did not benefit but went from bad to worse. AND, she also heard about Jesus and she also went into this pressing throng of people – to grab his garment. She is as defined by her determination as by her suffering. That is the value of respecting Mark’s string of participles and being patient for the main verb. After all that she suffered and did, she grabbed his garment."
Blog progressive involvement, Posted by John Petty on June 25, 2012http://www.progressiveinvolvement.com/progressive_involvement/2012/06/lectionary-blogging-mark-5-21-43.html
"Background and situation: This section of Mark (4:1-5:41) sees Jesus operating around the Sea of Galilee. Jesus had been on the gentile side of the Sea of Galilee, and has now returned to the Jewish side. (Matthew's version of this story is 9:18-26; the Lukan one is 8:40-56.)
Mark employs his "sandwich technique" in this lection. He begins one story, breaks in with another, and then completes the first. For other examples, see Mark 3:22-30; 6:6-30; 11:12-20; 14:1-11; 14:54-72. This technique not only heightens tension, but each aspect of the story helps to interpret the other......Mark does not explicitly mention violations of the "purity code," but there are two of them in this reading. First, the woman with the hemorrhage touched Jesus, rending him unclean. Second, Jesus touched the dead young woman, which also would have rendered him unclean.
That Mark does not mention this, even though it would have been obvious to a first century audience, is a way of saying that Jesus took no notice of these purity violations. For Jesus, human need always trumps technical rules."
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