Mark 5:21-43
Lead in: In Mark 5, two seemingly unrelated stories are woven together with a common thread of trust and faith. Out of love for his daughter, Jarius puts aside his position in the community and approaches Jesus to ask that he lay his hands on his daughter. A woman with the hemorrhage seeks out Jesus with the same kind of persistent faith. She fights her way through the crowd just to touch the cloak of Jesus. Both risk ridicule and rejection as they seek out Jesus.
Prompt: What can be learned from the father who intercedes for his daughter and from the woman with a hemorrhage?
Prompt: Reflect on a time when you stepped out in trust and faith to ask a request that was hard for you to make.
Lead in: In her desperation to get healed, the woman with the hemorrhage did the forbidden thing. Since she was viewed by the rules of the day as “unclean” (supposedly because of her hemorrhage), she touched Jesus who now too, would be “unclean” for one week. Perhaps that is why she tried to get away as quickly as possible. So when Jesus called her back, she came guilt ridden and trembling with fear. Her apology speech was ready. “Forgive me for touching you. Forgive me for bothering you. Forgive me for having made you unclean.” But Jesus’ only response was, “Your faith has restored you to health. Go in peace.”
Prompt: Reflect on a time when you expected interrogation and reprimand, but were received with mercy, love, and understanding.
Lead in: What Jesus did for the woman with the hemorrhage went way beyond a physical healing. As Fr. Joseph Donders suggests, in a culture that regarded women as inferior, it was a miracle that challenged the moral and legal order of the day. Jesus treated this supposedly “unclean” woman with respect. In doing so, Jesus implicitly elevated the status of women to be equal to that of men.
Prompt: Reflect on times when you have seen a double standard where one group is favored over another.
Prompt: Reflect on a time when you failed to practice radical inclusivity or witnessed someone subjected to an insult or humiliation or injustice that you did nothing about.
Lead in: In 2 Corinthians 8, we hear how the persecution of the early Christian community in Jerusalem had brought upon them financial hardship. Paul then appealed to the Gentile converts in Greece to help them out. In doing so, he reminded them that the bonds we have as brothers and sisters in Christ cuts across ethnic and cultural lines.
Prompt: Where is it that we as Christians need to grow beyond attitudes toward our fellow Christians that still divide us?
