Musings on the Daily Lectionary

I've always liked the story in today's gospel reading. Jesus is headed to the home of a religious leader to heal his daughter when a woman who has suffered from hemorrhages for twelve years touches him. She hopes to be healed without being noticed. Presumably she worries that people know she is "unclean" because of her illness. But Jesus doesn't let her remain anonymous. He realizes he has been touched, that healing power has gone out, and he seeks the woman out.

This frightens the woman but it need not. Jesus blesses what she has done, calling her "Daughter." The term has real significance. Her disease has not only impoverished her, her "unclean" status has cut her off from community. But Jesus designates her "Daughter," a member of the household. She has not only been healed, she has been restored to her place in the community, in the family.

In that sense her healing echoes what happens with Jarius, the synagogue leader. There a daughter is also restored, and a family is made whole. In one case it is an important leader in the community; in the other it is an unnamed, poor, unclean woman. But in both cases Jesus sets right and restores.

It is interesting how harsh and demanding religion, including my own notion of it, can sometimes seem. Yet surely we get terribly off track when we forget that first and foremost, Jesus came to restore, to heal, to make whole. And Jesus offered this healing and restoration freely to all. Oh that we all could have the heart of Jesus.

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