Tela Bordada, the Hemorrhaging Woman & Jairus’ Daughter
A few years ago I was in Ottawa at the National Gallery to see the exhibit called Sakahan, which included a large collection of contemporary artworks by Indigenous artists the world over. One of the works from that show kept coming to mind as I contemplated the gospel reading today. This work is called Tela Bordada, which simply means “embroidered fabric.” It was designed by the Mexican artist, Teresa Margolles. The design was created by Margolles, but the beautiful embroidery was done by a group of Maya-Katchikei women in Guatemala. You might notice that the fabric that was used for this design is discoloured. The discolouration is the blood of a murdered woman in Guatemala who had been wrapped in the cloth. One wonders why the artist would choose to use a material like this in order to create beauty — why not a clean cloth? What’s the meaning behind this? According to Amnesty International, Guatemala has the third highest rate of femicide in the world. And the police have no interest at all in investigating when women and girls go missing. Likewise, the courts have no interest in prosecuting crimes against females, even when presented with evidence of the crime. Females do not seem to have any value in this society.
The situation that is presented to us today in the gospel does not concern the active abuse or the murder of women but it does point to the benign negligence of a community of people. Blood is also involved. The gospel focuses on disease and death. One woman is living with suffering and at the same time, one girl is dying… Often, when we read or hear the reading of scripture, we are tempted to identify with the afflicted or the disciple, with the one who believes . For example, preachers don’t often ask us to think about ourselves as part of the crowd that shouts “crucify him,” or imagine that we might be like the people who laugh at Jesus in our gospel today. It is more comfortable to think of ourselves in the room as Jairus’ daughter is raised from the dead than the people who laugh at Jesus. After all we are Christians who believe in the power of Christ. Mark’s gospel certainly encourages that kind of thinking through the use of dramatic irony. The gospel is written in a such a way that we know what is really going on when those around Jesus seem to be clueless. We are in on the secret that Jesus is the Messiah. It automatically gives us an advantage over the crowds who follow him, and also, to a degree, over his own disciples. It gives us entitlement to own this story as our own. Since we know, then we are inclined to side with those who are the marginalised here, which only makes sense. …What I am inviting you to do today is to consider this story from a different point of view, as an observer. It is a story about a woman and a girl. It may be a similar story to some who are listening but even as they listen, they should also consider the context of the first century in Palestine.
The Church has a history of patriarchy, of silencing women and appropriating their stories. I’m not suggesting a conspiracy here; just stating a fact about its origins within the Roman Empire. The gospels demonstrate that Jesus included women in his mission on earth. That is very clear. He sometimes did things that, in his culture as a Jewish male, must have seemed downright bizarre, like speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well or even having close female friends like Mary and Martha. (John 4: 7-29 and Luke 10:38-42) We also know from Acts that when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples, the Virgin Mary was there as well as other women (Acts 1:14). Jesus included females and the Holy Spirit includes them, but that inclusion within a pre-existing patriarchal culture only meant that the experiences of women were absorbed into the larger narrative. But what happens when we consider these stories like that of Mary Magdalene selected by God to be the first to share the good news of the resurrection, as something on their own, separate from the larger narrative? (John 20:11-18) What if they are uniquely women’s stories within our Christian narrative?
The story of the bleeding woman is one that many women can relate to. We are told that the unnamed woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years touches Jesus cloak and is healed. Even to venture out into the crowd was risky for her. At the time, she was living under the laws of purity; Leviticus clearly states that even coming into contact with someone’s clothing, would result in contaminating that person and rendering them unclean in the eyes of the Jewish community. (Lev. 15:25-31) Women today often suffer from the same pre-menopausal or endometrial bleeding that isolates them in their own intimate relationships or even socially. There is no product devised that can easily alleviate or contain this type of bleeding because it is sometimes violent, unpredictable and overwhelming. It’s not hard to imagine that the haemorrhaging woman must have worn black to conceal the discolouration of her garments. She must have been weak from anaemia and drained of energy and health. Her mental health may also have been affected because of the social isolation. Today, there are medical solutions that are chemical or surgical that can bring some relief and in the past, the gospel tells us that the woman who was haemorrhaging had turned to physicians, as well, and “spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse.” (Mk. 5:26) By the time she encounters Jesus, she is desperate but still hopeful.
Jairus’ daughter, unlike the haemorrhaging woman, does not ask for her own healing. Her father asks on her behalf as she lays dying. She is the only female raised from the dead by Jesus, and she is the only one mentioned in all of the three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. She is obviously a beloved daughter and as no other siblings are mentioned in the story, she might be the only living child of Jairus and his wife. She is so dear to her father that he begs Jesus repeatedly to come to his house so that she can be healed. Jairus is a man of high position. His standing as a leader in the synagogue is mentioned three times in the gospel reading so it must be an important feature in the narrative. On his way to Jairus’ house, Jesus is technically rendered unclean because he has been touched by the haemorrhaging woman. (Lev. 15:25-31) Jairus is there to witness this, but he is undeterred. The sanctity and preservation of life, the principle of Pikuach nefesh, overrides any other law in Judaism. (Lev. 18:5) On the way, Jairus is told that his daughter has died. There is no longer the possibility of preserving life once it is gone. For a second time, Jesus seems to risk becoming ritually unclean, this time voluntarily, by taking the hand of a dead person in order to restore her to life. (Num. 19:11) But since he is the source of life, any impurity is null and void. Jesus does not flout the law but follows it more perfectly by not just preserving life but restoring it.
In both parts of the gospel, there are groups of people who do not realise who Jesus is. The crowd that follows him on the way to Jairus’ house “pressed in on him” but they did not really touch him in the way the haemorrhaging woman did. That is why it simply doesn’t make sense to the disciples when he asks “Who touched my clothes?” And later when he tells the mourners at Jairus’ house that “the child is not dead but sleeping,” their reaction is to laugh at him. Before anything can happen Jesus must “put them all outside.” In Mark’s gospel, the crowds actively create barriers to faith and healing by their unbelief. The haemorrhaging woman is isolated and cannot depend upon the community for help. She must physically get past the crowd to receive her healing. Jairus stands alone as the only man who advocates for his daughter, but he must first get past those who tell him not to “trouble the teacher any further.” (Mk. 5:35) Once he arrives at his home, he would have witnessed the mocking and derisive laughter directed toward Jesus. Regardless of these obstacles, he perseveres in faith and trust in Jesus. Both the haemorrhaging woman and Jairus act out of courage in the face of disbelief.
On the surface it seems as if the story of the haemorrhaging woman is an interruption of the story of Jairus’ daughter; however, there are indications that this story is linked to the other. In fact, sometimes they appear like two sides of the same coin. We are told that Jairus, like the haemorrhaging woman, humbles himself by falling at Jesus feet. Jairus, the synagogue leader, begs Jesus repeatedly to come and save his daughter. These two people are from very different positions in Jewish society, but both interact with Jesus in exactly the same way. Jairus does this before the raising of his daughter, and the woman after she has been restored to health. The raising of Jairus’ daughter is the result of Jesus’ deliberate action surrounded by his disciples and the parents, and the woman initiates the healing through her own faith and belief in Jesus… Notice that the number twelve is important to both stories, as well. Twelve is the number of the tribes of Israel and it also signifies the union of people with God. The woman has been bleeding for twelve years and Jairus’ daughter, we are told, is twelve years old. Jairus’ daughter at the age of twelve is bat mitzvah, traditionally considered a daughter of the law. The woman is at the conclusion of her fertility and the girl is at the beginning of hers.
In Mark’s gospel, Jesus’ miracles are a sign of God’s power to embroider a rich tapestry of beauty and healing onto a world of injustice, pain and suffering. He affirms the value of female lives. The haemorrhaging woman had been experiencing a form of death because her condition had excluded her from the community, and Jairus’ daughter experiences physical death. Both are restored to life through faith in Christ… Earlier, I proposed that we consider ourselves as the observers. When we take that point of view, we might be more inclined to look at girls and women in our own time… in our own families and communities, in our country and in the world. We have seen in the media the oppression of girls and women in developing countries. Most recently we have witnessed how the Taliban in Afghanistan have used religion to attack the rights of girls and women to study and work, to live. And here at home in Canada, it might surprise you to learn that one woman or girl is killed every other day on average and once a week a woman is killed by her partner… Are we like the crowds who press upon Jesus or laugh at him, or do we stand with Jairus, advocating even when to do so means humiliating ourselves? May we, like Christ, offer healing and hope to girls and women through awareness, understanding and through our actions.
