This Gospel Reading from Mark is two stories entwined together. Separately, they are powerful stories but when they are combined their force is greatly increased. Here, in one episode, we have Jesus, the healer, raising a little girl from the dead and curing a woman who has suffered for twelve years from her affliction. While these two healings are wondrous in their power it is the status of the ones who are healed that gives the story its power.

It is difficult for us today to understand the social structures of Jesus' time. Women and children on the whole did not fair very well anywhere. The understanding of the broader culture was that men, slave owners, and adults were the powerful while women, slaves, and children were to be used. Combine that with the current Jewish obsession with r…