This week on Sunday we are reading the last part of chapter 5 – and what you are reading is sometimes referred to as a “Markan Sandwich”!  Three times in Mark’s Gospel there is a story within a story.  Today the we read the story of Jarius but inserted in between is the story of the woman who has been ill for years – just like a sandwich.  Mark uses this technique in two other locations: 3:13-35 & 6:13-30.  It seems as if Mark sets alongside one another two stories that share a theme, but in one instance the theme is more dramatically displayed.

1.      Jairus and the woman could hardly be more different; what are some of their differences?

2.      How does the woman’s illness effect her relationship to the society around her?

3.      What was the one thing they had in common?

4.      What risk did the woman take to reach out and touch Jesus?

5.      The woman’s faith might be called un-common – why is this?

6.      When the news arrived of the little girl’s death, what ambivalent thoughts must Jairus have had regarding the woman?  What did ‘having faith’ mean for him?

7.      What did Mark intend to convey through his record of these two miracles?

8.     How does this story apply to your life of faith?