Two Daughters

As we continue to read from the Gospel of Mark, today’s reading includes two stories of Jesus healing, both somewhat unusual and different from each other. The gospel writer integrates them, setting one inside the other. A synagogue leader comes to Jesus, desperate, because his daughter is at the point of death. In the midst of that, a woman who has been hemorrhaging for years reaches out in the crowd and touches the garment of Jesus. The synagogue leader is well established, but the hemorrhaging woman is poor and desolate. The synagogue leader sets aside his status to approach Jesus. In contrast, the hemorrhaging woman, unclean in her condition, does not approach Jesus face-on, but reaches out to touch his garment. Jesus, not repelled by her condition, now addresses the rejected and unclean woman, as “daughter.” We can imagine a dinner in the house of the synagogue leader some years later after Jesus has been crucified and news is circulating that he has been raised from the dead, and these two “daughters” are together as a testimony to the story of Jesus.