To use a modern term, Jesus is multitasking. He has just spoken with a synagogue official named Jairus, whose daughter needs healing (Mark 5:21-23, 36-39). Then Jesus allows his journey to be interrupted by a person as different from Jairus as possible – a destitute woman with a flow of blood who touches Jesus’ cloak (Mark 5:24-35). The woman’s touch – and the story itself – intrude on a potentially pivotal event between Jesus and a socially important person. Jesus’ detour begins with a question: “Who touched me?”
The mystery is this: when Jesus feels a flow of power from himself to another, why does he insist on finding the woman? Why does he stop walking after the Jewish official and ask for the woman to be found? And if he (perhaps) knows the nature of the healing he has just affected, why does he risk defiling the home of a synagogue official – a man whose reputation and livelihood depended on keeping himself and his home ceremonially clean?
The woman wants her body to be healed, but Jesus wants more – and (as always) Jesus is willing to detour to achieve it.
