Complete restoration

Texts: Genesis 44.18-34, 1 Corinthians 7.25-31, Mark 5.21-43

Commemoration: Edward King

O God, our heavenly Father, who raised up your faithful servant Edward to be a bishop and pastor in your Church and to feed your flock: Give abundantly to all pastors the gifts of your Holy Spirit, that they may minister in your household as true servants of Christ and stewards of your divine mysteries; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Maybe I've been suffering under the effects of this nasty virus for a while myself, but I noticed something in today's Gospel reading that I had never noticed before. Much has been said about the insertion of the account of the woman with the discharge of blood in the middle of the story of Jesus and Jairus's daughter. But something in particular stood out to me as I read the passage today:

And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. (vv. 25, 26)

And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. (v. 42)

The years of the woman's distress are identical with the years of the young girl's life. But the number of years, twelve, is itself covenentally significant. Earlier, Jesus had appointed twelve apostles (Mark 3.14ff). Later, after the feeding of the five thousand, the disciples gather twelve baskets full of leftovers (Mark 6.43ff). It is not particularly difficult, for anyone familiar with the history of Israel, to understand the parallel between the twelve apostles and the twelve tribes of Israel. It would also take only a little research to see the parallel between twelve baskets full of loaves and fishes and the twelve stones with which Elijah built an altar during his contest with the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18.30ff). The number twelve, as employed in Mark's narrative, is intended to drive home the point that, in Jesus, the true Israel is being restored.

With the account of the woman and Jairus's daughter, a central characteristic of the restoration is brought to the forefront. It will be a restoration in the complete sense of the word. The broken and bleeding will be made whole; the dead will be raised to life; and all will be "overcome with amazement" at the wonder of God's glorious new creation.

I Stand Amazed in the Presence

I stand amazed in the presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene,
And wonder how He could love me,
A sinner, condemned, unclean.

Refrain

O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be:
O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me!

For me it was in the garden
He prayed: “Not My will, but Thine.”
He had no tears for His own griefs,
But sweat drops of blood for mine.

Refrain

In pity angels beheld Him,
And came from the world of light
To comfort Him in the sorrows
He bore for my soul that night.

Refrain

He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own;
He bore the burden to Calvary,
And suffered and died alone.

Refrain

When with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see,
’Twill be my joy through the ages
To sing of His love for me.

Refrain

• Charles H. Gabriel