Dirty Faith

I recently read through the book of Leviticus as part of my regular Bible reading. For those of you who aren't totally familiar with what this book discusses, let's just summarise it as a list of regulations and stipulations for holy and proper Jewish living. Often times, people complain about its content, wondering what level of worth this "book of the Law" has for contemporary Christianity—seeing as Christ's death and resurrection supersedes the Mosaic Law and imposes a new manner for creating community with God. Usually I read the book with the notion in the back of my head that its purpose is to remind me of the old ways, under which I don't have to submit—to reflect, instead, upon the freedom and grace that I have, having been saved by Jesus. But not this time... something else grabbed my attention.

If you ever get a chance, read through Leviticus chapter 15. Kind of weird, eh? This section spells out laws about cleanness and societal propriety with respect to bodily discharges. "What," you may ask, "grabbed your attention so much in this section of the Law?" Well, if you'd like to know, it was the portion on women & bleeding at the end—verses 25-30. Immediately after reading that passage, my mind turned to the New Testament woman who was healed by Jesus from her persistent problem... and then I got to wondering about the context of this story and to the way Jesus reacted in this situation.

You see, according to the Mosaic Law, this woman was unclean. She was restricted from coming within a certain distance of other individuals—so much so that, in her state, anything that she touched would also be considered unclean. Those who, in turn, touched anything unclean would themselves become unclean until the end of the day—when they had to ceremonially cleanse themselves with a water bath. Now bear this in mind as we progress: whomever and whatever this unclean woman touches will become "tainted" by her uncleanness and would be required to separate themselves from society until evening, when they had to wash themselves and their clothes before returning to a "clean" state.

Read that last sentence again. Now read the story of the bleeding woman in Mark 5:21-34. Notice what was going on? A large, tightly-packed crowd was swarming around Jesus. This unclean woman pushes her way in, through the throng to the centre where Jesus was... and she touches the fringe of His cloak. Do you notice what's just happened? This unclean woman has effectively made the entire crowd surrounding Jesus ceremonially unclean. They all are compelled, by Jewish Law, to cleanse their clothes and themselves with water, and they're required to isolate themselves from other people until evening. That includes Jesus. And even after the woman herself is healed from the affliction, she's to be considered unclean for another seven days. Now, let's not forget where Jesus was going when this all happened: He was implored to visit the house of Jairus, a synagogue official, in order to heal his dying daughter.

So, let's assess the situation. Jesus, a teacher and moderately well-known public figure, is on his way to a synagogue ruler's house. If anybody knew about the implications of uncleanness in everyday Jewish society, it was a synagogue ruler (of course, Jesus notwithstanding). All of the sudden, an unclean woman comes up & touches the man who was on his way to this ruler's house. Because of this seemingly small action, Jewish Law declares both the dying daughter's healer & the dying daughter's father as unclean. That means there's no way they should be getting anywhere near the sickly child.

One must wonder what was going through Jairus' mind as this happened. He must have been altogether mortified, furious and distraught. Mortified because he had just become unclean owing to no fault of his own & would therefore need to be cut off from his family for the rest of the day. Furious because the woman who made him unclean gave him no warning—like she was supposed to—all because she wanted to sneak up to Jesus and "snag" some of His healing power for herself. Distraught because now, not only would he be technically forbidden from touching his dying daughter, but so would her potential healer until nightfall, owing to the purity laws. Jairus' daughter was now, therefore, facing a condemnation of death because this inconsiderate, impure woman decided that her needs were more important than others'—that she would inconvenience and taint whoever got in the way of her getting what she wanted.

But is that how the story goes?

Interestingly, we see a very different picture unfold. No mention of Jairus' reaction is made in any of the Gospels, and Jesus—being a teacher of the Law Himself—doesn't even bring up the fact that he, she and the whole crowd around them were all now unclean. He doesn't condemn the woman at all. He, instead, praises her for her faith.

There's got to be a handful of lessons that we can draw from this story about this woman's actions, her faith & Jesus' response to it (note well that Jesus proceeds to Jairus' house right after this and touches the dying child in His "unclean" state). What does this story tell us about the importance of faith vs. "obedience," or about means justifying the ends? What does this tell us about ourselves and our own interactions with Jesus? What are the deeper implications of Jesus' response to the woman's actions—namely, when He tells her to "Go in peace"?

Usually, I would do my best to spell out my own opinion on the aforementioned passages of Scripture and formulate a reasonably convincing position as to why I believe what I believe in light of the scriptural implications... but this time, I want to do something different.

I want to hear what you have to say about this New Testament story. I want a discussion on these things.

Will you bite?