Today’s story of two healings in a single reading appears to present a horrific choice: should Jesus hurry to the dying daughter of a rich man, or pause to heal an outcast woman? The urgency of both requests before him presents a real dilemma, one we might be tempted to resolve in a variety of either/or ways. Either he keeps his commitment to Jairus, or he pauses to help the woman before him who is so obviously suffering. He either helps an important person who can help him further his ministry, or gives help to someone who has no other resource at all.
We see these apparent zero-sum equations in our ministry all the time. The church council meets over the budget and feels the pull between benevolence outside the congregation and the increasing costs of health care for the church’s employees. The building’s windows need repair, but we know another congregation across town that can barely pay its pastor. The needs “inside” and the needs “outside” always seem in competition.
Individuals feel these tensions as well: people are sandwiched between the needs of aging parents and the needs of small children; parents feel stretched to meet their vocational obligations and spend time with their families; students want to serve others but feel pressed to just get their own work done.
Of course, in the face of Jesus’ power, none of these really are either/or propositions, even though they seem like dead ends. In Mark’s gospel, Jesus’ power is enough to provide new life for both the rich man’s daughter and the poor woman. How often do we assume that God’s power is not enough to bring life out of the seemingly impossible choices we make? We are challenged to open up the interruptions and hard choices of our lives to Jesus’ power to bring life out of death.