June 26, 2009
Sunday Scripture
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
BY FATHER DONALD DILGER
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus seems to be on the move at all times, constantly crossing the Sea of Galilee, west to east, east to west. It is Mark’s “Move-On” theology. It has to be that way because he (followed by Luke and Matthew) allows only one year for Jesus’ public ministry. Last Sunday Jesus landed on the eastern shore. The east side was more pagan in population than was the west, that is, Galilee, Jesus’ native land. Today Jesus returns to the west side of the Sea of Galilee, probably at Capernaum. Here was located the home of Simon Peter and Andrew. This home was headquarters for Jesus. The house, as we know from archaeology, was next to the local synagogue.
An official of the synagogue, Jairus by name, approached Jesus about his dying daughter. He begs Jesus for an imposition of his healing hands upon his daughter. Jesus agrees. Now Mark offers us one of his “Marcan sandwiches,” a story within a story. While Jesus is enroute to the home of Jairus, a woman approaches Jesus. She was suffering hemorrhages for twelve years. It just so happens that the daughter of Jairus was twelve years old. Twelve is the key word that brought the two miracles together for Mark. Mark unkindly notes that this woman had spent all her money on doctors and had suffered much from their treatments. The treatments only worsened her condition. With faith impelled by desperation she comes up behind Jesus and touches his cloak. She was healed instantly, Mark includes an amusing dialogue between Jesus and his disciples. He asks, “Who touched me? I felt power go out of me!” The disciples scoff, “The crowd presses you from all sides, and you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” He ignores their comment. He sees the woman. He praises her faith, a faith that never gave up, a faith that cured.
Now back to the original story. Jairus’ people arrive to report that the little girl has died. Jesus reassures him, “Just have faith.” Jesus enters the house with Peter, James and John. Those who will later testify to Jesus’ own resurrection must now see him raise a dead child. As Paul will write some years later, “Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep,” 1 Corinthians 15:20. Meaning: Jesus is the cause of our resurrection. Mark’s story of the little girl’s restoration to life is a demonstration of Paul’s teaching.
Another amusing dialogue and event now take place. Jesus was put off by the commotion of people wailing and the horns and howls of hired mourners. He said to the crowd, “What’s your problem? The child is not dead but just sleeping.” The crowd ridicules him. He chases them out of the house. In the faith of the early Christians (and in our faith) death is no more than a form of temporary sleep. Even their Greek name for “cemetery,” koimeterion, means no more than a sleeping room, a bedroom. Accompanied by the parents of the child and the three designated disciples, Jesus enters the room of the child. He takes her by the hand, and says in Aramaic, his own language, “Talitha koum,” “Little girl, Arise!” She rises and walks around. Mark carefully chose vocabulary which expresses Christian faith in the resurrection of the dead.
The human kindness of Jesus, who might have been seen as not so kind when he expelled the mourners from the house, now is on display. He commands that the little girl be given something to eat. This too is proof of the resurrection of the dead, a proof that Luke will use to express the reality of Jesus’ resurrection. When his disciples doubted that he rose from the dead, he ate grilled fish in their presence, Luke 24:42-43. Simon Peter will later say in Acts 10:41, “. . . we who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” We who have the privilege of eating and drinking with Jesus in the Eucharist respond to Mark’s stories of healing and resurrection of the dead with our creed, “We believe in the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting.”
In keeping with the gospel theme of resurrection from the dead, the authors of Wisdom (100-50 B.C.) assure readers that death was not God’s original plan, that God wants life, wholesome creatures, no destruction. God formed us to be immortal, as God is immortal. The authors blame the devil for death entering God’s creation. At least in this instance, Mother Eve doesn’t get the blame. That’s a plus for the authors of Wisdom, elevating them above Sirach, who wrote, “From a woman, sin had its beginning.”
This reading is part of Paul’s appeal for a collection from all his parishes. It is a humble, prayerful, reasoned appeal. Jesus Christ is the model, “who, though he was rich, for your sake became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” There are two chapters to Paul’s appeal. The fact that one never hears Paul’s thoughts in 2 Corinthians used in an appeal for funds, is an indictment of those who should both know and preach their Scriptures but do neither.