Dramatic healings continue as a natural outgrowth of Jesus' message. He further challenges Jewish purity laws, never surrendering to ritual defilement but overcoming it. His attentions will continue to center on those who live outside, who have been cast off, the disenfranchised, powerless. They will be welcomed and healed.
5:21-43 Having crossed back into Jewish territory, Jesus was walking along, surrounded by another large crowd, when one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus ...fell at his feet, beseeching him greatly...A man with a great need, Jairus unabashedly humbles himself by falling at Jesus' feet—most undignified for a man of his stature! The urgency of his plight overshadows such concerns, including any doctrinal differences. He pleaded, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come ....that she may be healed; and she shall live. And Jesus went with him....
Witnessing this very public event, the crowd also followed and thronged him, jostling for position, trying to get a closer look. Suddenly without warning, another story breaks in.
