Encountering Women

Two stories which appear in all three of the Synoptic Gospels are the healing of the twelve-year-old daughter of Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, and alongside it the healing of a women with an issue of blood for twelve years. Two stories that embrace the full span of women’s biological life.

Jesus went into a Gentile region for time out, hoping not to be noticed but a local woman discovers He is there and begs for healing for her daughter. Her daughter has ‘an unclean spirit’. This is where we encounter one of the vast differences of understanding between then and now.

The Jesus of religion and the Jesus of spirituality might be two distinct ways of looking at the Jesus of history. One could say that the church is primarily focused on the divinity of Jesus: the Son of God. Perhaps for many people today who have no church teaching in their background, the term Son of God is meaningless. My desire in these pieces is to focus on the Man, to see in Him what it is to be a truly whole human being, the fullness of humanity made actual.
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