The revised lectionary cycle serves us well by putting the intercalated stories of the healing of the unclean woman with the flow of blood and the raising of the twelve-year-old girl together again. We still have the problem, however, that vv. 1-20 are omitted totally from the lectionary readings. It can be argued on a number of premises that these three stories belong together. They belong together, for example, as a threefold response to the question of the disciples: "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" (Mark 4:41). Who is this? This is the One who brings the kingdom near by casting out a legion of demons, healing a woman with a twelve-year flow of blood and raising a twelve-year-old girl from the dead!
Mary Ann Tolbert suggests another reason for holding these …