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Exegeting Jesus' praxis

Two Daughters of Israel: A Power Reversal

Biblical exegesis and liberation theology can be combined to recover images of Jesus that are instructive in enabling gay and lesbian folk to claim their place in the rule of God. Such readings of Scripture uncover aspects of biblical interpretations that inform Christ centred attitudes to sexuality and human relationships that are beyond the dominant, sexual norms. At the same time, they act as critiques of dominant norms, especially where adherence to what is normative is also oppressive or unjust. 

In Mark 5:21-34 we find such an example.  The central story, of the woman with a haemorrhage, is imbedded in the story of Jairus' daughter.  This accoun,t of two Jewish women, one mature and the other a young maiden, shows how Jesus' ministry gives priority to the poor and the outcasts.   Each story is meant to interpret the other.  The focus on women and menstruation is significant, as the law relating to blood flow (Leviticus 15:19-30) effectively kept women out of cultic religious life and isolated them within their families.

Jesus' action in these stories, speaks for the radical inclusivity of women and subverts Levitical practice.  It places compassion and faith above concerns for Law and ritual purity. In the context of the early church, of the Evangelist's time, it provides instruction for Jewish concerns of Law and purity in the face of participation of the women in the life of the church. In our time, it points to the role of faith and not law in determining who is counted "in" and who is "outside" the realm of God. In fact, it shows that the very ones who assume to be "insiders" are the last to be included. It is a story of subversion and of inclusivity, that upsets the norms of religious acceptance. 

The Synoptic traditions show women as key figures in the ministry of Jesus and in the early life of the church. Women are always in service, in the background in many cases. They are significant witnesses to the faith, at the crucifixion and on Easter Day, for example. Paul also shows several women as key players in the life of the church. The participation of women was a major issue for early, Jewish Christians, as was the question of the particpation of Gentiles. Levitical law effectively ostracised women from family and religious life for eight days after any bleeding episode. There was no similar concern among Gentile communities.

As the early, Jewish Christians had to face questions of Law, with respect to Gentiles, relating to diet, circumcision, inclusivity and cultic practice, the Evangelist is pointing up the priority of faith. It is this concern that makes these stories relevant to a gay liberation understanding of Jesus Christ. In these two stories, the faith of Jairus and the woman represent two ends of the social scale. Jairus, as head of his household and as leader in his synagogue, speaks on his daughter's behalf and on behalf of his social group or community. He acts and speaks from a position of power and privilege. The woman is nameless and she is alone. Jairus stands out in the crowd, as a leader, the woman is hidden and unknown in the crowd. She is truly an unprivileged outcast, who acts and speaks from a position of powerlessness.

Looking a little more closely to the story, we find Jairus the arkhon, leader in the synagogue, approaching Jesus and exhorting him to heal his dying daughter. Jairus' manner is two dimensional. He honours Jesus, or flatters him, by falling at his feet. Yet he also lays a clear expectation upon Jesus to carry through an expected process. He says, "Come, lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live." Jairus is clearly acting out of an assumed position of power, as a man accustomed to control. Jesus says nothing and goes with Jairus and we are left expecting that the process will be carried out as requested.

Jesus' simple resolve, to go with Jairus, quickly gets crowded out, literally.  In an unexpected turn of events a woman enters the scene.  She is anonymous in the crowd.  We are told a great deal about her condition. She has had a haemorrhage for twelve years, has spent all her money on physicians and her health is worsening.  She reaches out to touch Jesus, believing that touching his clothes will make her well. She is acting out of faith.

It is important to understand this woman's position, here.  Having a haemorrhage for twelve years would have isolated her from her family and the religious life (see Lev. 15:19-30).  Any person she touched would be deemed to share her unclean state.  She was an outsider among the insiders!  She was ritually unclean as well as unwell. In a Jewish audience, this story would have raised questions about Jesus' own purity, through contact with the woman (Lam. 4:14-15).  That is why many key words in the story carry the nuance of touch and loss of virtue.  When a devout, Jewish audience heard this story, they would have been scandalised.  Immediate concern would have been raised over purity issues, honour and social status.  However, at the very moment the woman makes contact with Jesus, these dynamics are reversed.  Her body is healed.  Her body is the centre of our focus.  This is the opposite of what would be expected, as Jesus should have contracted her impurity, in his body, through contact with her.  In fact, in Mk 5:30, we are told that the power (or virtue) has been transferred to her.  This is in direct opposition to expectations under Jewish Law (Lev. 15:19-30), that held a man thus touched by a menstruating or haemorrhaging woman, to be defiled. Here Mark signals a social reversal of great magnitude.  The woman is the one who has virtue or power, and this is given to her by her faith.  In this way, key elements of Levitical Law are scandalised, subverted by a new definition of virtue by faith.

The word translated as "power" in the NRSV, from the Greek, "duvnami", can also be translated as "virtue", as in the King James Version.  We are not dealing with some mystical energy or power leaving Jesus, like discharging an electrical charge via a human lightning rod.  The concern is for Jesus' loss of ritual purity or virtue.  Jesus knows that he has been touched.  The focus is on the poor woman and the scandal that she has caused in touching Jesus.

In response, the woman falls on her face in front of Jesus.  In this action she is showing him honour, the same honour that Jairus showed at the beginning of the story.  Here we see a second reversal of status.  She stands before Jesus as the equal to Jairus the synagogue leader.  Jesus calls her "daughter", thus recognising her status in the family of Israel.  In fact, her faith is shown as being greater than even that of Jesus' own disciples (Mk 4:40).  Her faith, her stubborn initiative and her courage to reach out, have all brought her a reversal of social status and of virtue.  She alone is spoken of as having told the truth. She is the one with virtue, and that has been won through faith.

News that Jairus' daughter was dead comes at the very moment Jesus speaks to the woman. We read in Mark 5:34-35, that the two utterances, about the two 'daughters', coincide.

Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease. While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader's house to say, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?

When Jesus describes Jairus' daughter as being asleep, Mark introduces a motif that he later uses as a symbol of lack of faith (see Mk 13:36 and 14:32ff.). Jesus throws out the scoffers and the  disbelievers.  He takes ritual defilement upon himself, by taking the dead child's hand. He raises the girl back to life, in view of her parents and his inner circle of disciples.  He demonstratively seeks to awaken faith, for both his disciples and the family of Jairus.  Yet, incredibly, they are overcome with amazement.  The faith of the woman still stands as a lone, truthful witness to faith. Jesus tells them to feed the girl and instructs them to say nothing to anyone.  When Mark ends his Gospel, as the women leave the empty tomb after hearing the news of resurrection (Mk 16:8a), we meet this same pattern of themes, of awakening, of resurrection, of being overcome with amazement, and of saying nothing to anyone.

If there is still a doubt about how we are to interpret this story, Mark's aside, that the girl is twelve years old (Mark 5:42b), of the age of puberty, points up the interpretive contrasts.  The girl has lived well for twelve years in the affluence of Jairus' household.  She was raised with privilege and status.  The woman had haemorrhaged for twelve years and had lost all her wealth.  Her status was as an outcast, cut-off by the very religious precepts that Jairus represents.  Twelve is the symbol of the twelve tribes of Israel, the privileged Ones of God, God's Chosen People.  These daughters, within the family of Israel, represent both ends of the social scale, the rich and the poor.  They also represent the insiders and the outsiders.  Where there was life, there comes death, and where there is death, comes awakened life.  The outsiders become the bearers of faith, overturning the expectations of the privileged ones who saw themselves as insiders.

What began as a healing sought for the daughter of the synagogue, from a position of privilege and social correctness, was subverted by the cause of the lone woman.  Jesus turned aside from the privileged ones to restore the outcast to true "daughterhood".  Then, and only then, could the daughter of the synagogue be restored.  The privileged had to learn from the poor, what it means to have faith.

In Mark 10:31, 43, we learn that the last will be first and the least will be greatest in the realm of God.  Mark's Jesus shows a priority for the poor and the outcast that represents a reversal of expectation and subverts the assumptions of the privileged ones.  In this, Jesus is shown by Mark to be in the tradition of the prophets.  Like Elisha, who raised the dead son of a woman of Shunen (2Kgs 4:8-37), and then fed the multitudes by multiplying loaves of bread during a severe famine (2Kgs 4:38-44), Jesus commands the people to feed the girl. Later in Mark's narrative, Jesus will feed the crowds in the wilderness (Mk 6:35ff.). For the moment, our lesson is that those of privilege will benefit from learning of faith, as seen in that of the outcasts.  Like Jairus' daughter, the insiders stand on the verge of death until the outcasts have been included in the new life of the realm of God.

Who are today's people of privilege?  Things have not changed much, for we still see some religious people of our day claiming privilege for themselves and making others into poor outcasts.  Gay and lesbian Christians know what it is like to be counted among today's outcasts.  They stand isolated by religious customs of law and privilege.  They are those that are made poor and dispossessed by adherence to Levitical law.  They, too, like the woman with the haemorrhage, may subvert established comfort zones.  However, they hold the hermeneutic privilege that will awaken the sleepers from the sleep of death that follows a lack of faith.   Those who hear their voice and comprehend their christic praxis, will disregard marks of distinction such as skin colour, gender, sexuality and social status, and bring new life to those outside the dominant norms.

This text in Mark 5, has become one of the significant texts for liberation among Christian women, the poor, the lonely, the sick and the dispossessed. It is read as a text of liberation in Central America.  Among gay and lesbian Christians it is a key pointer to inclusivity.  It can also speak to religious people of inclusivity and justice.  It reminds them that truth is not the preserve of custom, Levitical law and social status, but of faith, even the faith of the despised and the outcast Ones.

In Mark's story of disparity between two daughters of Israel, the call is to overturn the religious structures that create "insiders" and "outsiders".  It calls for the people of privilege, virtue and power to remove the barriers that enable them to participate while preventing others from doing the same. Unjust structures enable some people to have access to food, housing, education and privilege, while others go without.  Unjust structures keep some people in positions of power while others are denied access to the very same privileges.

The case of gay and lesbian Christian participation is one case in point.  Today, they dare to claim dignity and worth and reach out with their faith in Jesus Christ.  Levitical Law is used to bar their full participation. The church needs to go beyond the Levitical Law and re-orient towards faithful healing of the outcasts and of the people of privilege. We need to capture the vision of radical inclusivity that inspired the Evangelist, Mark. Our guide is Jesus and the courage of faith shown by a nameless and powerless woman. We may need to overturn a few social barriers to achieve inclusivity and face the differences honestly. The comfort zones of some people may be subverted, as others are permitted to share their brokenness with God, to speak of their pain, to tell their truth and to participate in the healing of all God's people of faith, from fear and separation.

Church members will need courage to allow this woman to become their sister, along with others like her among the despised and dispossessed.  The call is to move beyond the arkhonic, beyond the patriarchal power of privilege that rules over others, to remove the barriers and restore life to those whom our church has cast aside. For when we do, the awakening spirit is with the outcasts and its truth will awaken all.

© This article is adapted from an essay by W. L. Anderson and is published here by Tehomot Publications, Port Willunga, South Australia, 2004. 

   

Glossary

arkhon:         (noun) a ruler in the synogogue, the archisunagogos, a leader of the synagogue; a                           man of power and privilege.  From 'arche', the Greek for 'first place', 'beginning',
                     'principality', 'corner'.
arkhonic:       (adjective) relating to the rule of privileged men having the status of "first place";                               hence meaning. to lord it over another; a word coined by Rev. Lee Levett-Olson,
                     pertaining to androcentric, patriarchal culture and history.
Gentiles:        ethnic groups that are not of Judah, Israel or Samaria; non-Jews.
hermeneutic
  principle:      a principle used to interpret a text. 
Synoptic
  tradition:      that of the the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke that provide a summary
                    account (synopsis) of the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.