Matthew 9:18-26 was the NT reading for Common Prayer this morning. It is a parallel passage of one of my favorite parts of Mark, (Mark 5:21-43). Matthew’s version is shorter and has some differences from Mark’s account.
In Matthew’s account, Jarius (Mark 5:22), a synagogue ruler’s daughter is already dead (v.18) while she is alive, but sick in Mark’s account, (“My little daughter is dying… put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” – v.23). She will die before Jesus gets there, but Jesus is with Jarius before she dies, after she dies, and then after Jesus raises her from the dead in the end.
As Jesus is going to Jarius’ house, a woman with internal bleeding meets him, in both Matthew and Mark’s account. In Mark’s account, however, we get to hear the woman’s thoughts, the discussion between Jesus and his disciples about “who touched him,” the woman’s admission, and the woman’s re-intergration into the community. Matthew’s version is shorter; it doesn’t have the discussion between Jesus and the disciples, nor the woman’s admission. Jesus simply sees the woman and and sends her away whole.
Matthew’s content shows Jesus jumping in and fixing issues that were full-grown. Mark seems to portray these occasions as developing and Jesus walking alongside in the midst of them, not just a solution in the story.
Both of these ideas that Matthew and Mark portray are important; God is able to help us in times of hardship and God is with us in the midst of them.
May each of us discover God’s nearness in whatever situation with inhabit today.
Joe Skillen 