Made Clean
The way in which Mark laid out his Gospel seems to emphasize the major events of the life of Christ so that the details of his works could be remembered. Matthew and Luke switched their emphasis towards the addition of more of Christ’s words and teachings, and John focused more on the theological analysis of some of these events later on. With the simplicity and straightforward approach that Mark takes, though, we get stories that are filled with fascinating details. We must remember that writing anything down at this time required enough money to pay for the materials to use and that there was no room for error; any details added to these gospels were deliberately chosen by the writers to make the most of their material and to communicate an authentic account of these events.
The Gospel reading for today from Mark reveals a very detailed story. Not only do you have the commotions of the crowd among Jesus, but you have a monumental healing narrative (the woman with the hemorrhage) right in the middle of one of the most important healing narratives in the raising of Jairus’ daughter. Every single detail that Mark chose to add to this specific story, though, relates deeply to the meaning of these healings. Among the Jews at the time of Christ, remaining clean for the rituals of the religion was of the utmost importance. Anything that caused someone to be unclean required ritual washing before returning to community participation. There were two things that always made someone unclean through contact - blood and death. The fact that both of these elements are separately present in the same Gospel story reveals that this must have been the focus that God wanted us to have when approaching this text. In the case of the woman who bled, she merely touched Jesus’ clothes, and yet he still felt power leave him. The fascinating detail of Christ’s power in this scene is related to the Law; he would have been made unclean, but the woman’s flow of blood dried up. In the case of Jairus’ daughter, Christ did not just order her to arise; he took her hand, which would have made him unclean. However, she was given new life. In both cases, Christ is upholding the Law: the dried up flow of blood and the return to life undid that which the Jews deemed unclean. The fact that Christ felt power leave him at a mere touch should indicate to us that she herself was unclean, but was immediately made clean by Christ. He did not disregard the laws of cleanliness, but transformed the meaning of cleanliness in these two moments.
To be unclean at certain times was simply a part of life, but it required ritual washing. Christ would have also been unclean many times throughout his earthly life, but as Christians, we no longer uphold the rules that the Jews maintained from their own Law. Blood was seen as a remnant of that which is sacrificed, and death was seen as the penal consequence of the introduction of sin into the world. In this Gospel, Christ took away the permanent flow of blood from this woman and the permanent death of Jairus’ daughter. The woman would at some point come into contact with blood again and Jairus’ daughter would taste death once more; however, Christ alleviated the permanence of these things, and instead took them upon himself later on. His blood became the remnant of the final and ultimate sacrifice. The final and ultimate sacrifice was his own death, which brought all of us to new life. We have been cleansed permanently in his blood, and we have been given eternal life through his death. Like the woman and Jairus’ daughter, we have been made clean by the mercy of God.
Today's Readings: