Pam Nobbs, Lay Reader at St John Lee Parish Church, comments on Mark 5 v 21 - 43:

These verses build up, step by step to a crescendo that culminates in a healing from the ultimate sickness: death.

First, Jesus is asked to attend the bedside of a severely ill young girl; he agrees to come.

On his way he comes across a woman with a ‘bleeding problem’ (interesting to an ex-gynaecologist!) and heals her and finally because of the delay in arriving at the bedside of the girl he finds she has already died but he heals her too: from death.

These stories highlight different aspects of the character of Jesus and the way we can relate to him. We notice Jesus is open to requests from all sorts of people: the high and mighty, like the synagogue leader (father of the girl); the downtrodden and lowly: the ‘bleeding’ woman who will have been ostracised from society because of her problem and had spent all her money on ineffective treatments.

We notice that it was females who were healed - very much the inferior sex in those days and that Jesus cares for their families too. Jesus had compassion for (and still does) all sorts of people and he will not be rushed as he goes about his work.

The individuals seeking healing in this passage all had faith in Jesus: that he would indeed listen to them and that he was indeed able to make them better.

Jesus can heal just as dramatically today. In our culture we are more used to the NHS being involved in our physical healing (just as much by the grace of God). Whoever we are we can approach Jesus and ask for healing, whatever the ailment; be it physical, mental or spiritual and like the woman we might know that we have been healed of disease.