Border-Crossing Spirituality

Transformation in the Borderland

Park

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781498226011
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Border crossing is a significant experience in the global era when many people cross borders, whether in cultural, geopolitical, relational, or existential terms. Border crossing can provide a great opportunity for spiritual growth, yet it is often a violent and dangerous process. Thus there is a need to explore border-crossing spirituality: to examine how various aspects of border crossing impact human life, analyze why border crossing happens, and explain how the act of border crossing provides transformation.Border crossing is an action undertaken to expand one's own boundaries, and from it emerges the borderland--a third space where one's transformation can occur. This book primarily focuses on various teachings of border crossing and the notion of "being in between." Almost every religious tradition has within it a spiritual teaching of border crossing and the importance of the borderland.This book is, by nature, cross cultural, interreligious, and interspiritual. Through the action of border crossing, transformation occurs in the borderland, and border-crossing spirituality can be crystallized as living a radical hospitality, valuing friendship, remaining in the present, and reclaiming subjectivity.

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A Border-Crossing Gospel

The Healing of the Hemorrhaging Woman (Mark 5:21–34)

A nameless woman suffering from a significant hemorrhaging illness experiences an immediate cure and, as a result, gains healing. In this story, healing signifies a liberation and transformation of her life, far beyond just her physical wellbeing. In her bold action of reaching out and touching Jesus’ garment, she breaks through the demarcation line between men and women, and between health and sickness, and this border-crossing action brings her healing. This woman’s story occurs in a space where the feeling of disconnect and disorder—as well as the experience of liberation and transformation—all co-exist; we call this space the borderland. In this chapter, I will explore how the healing story of the hemorrhaging woman reflects the spiritual meaning of the borderland and examine the spirituality of the border-crossing suggested by this story.

Story as Borderland

The borderland is a space where boundary crossings occur, with different socio-political and cultural elements encountering one another and resulting in creative new situations. Often, there arise dissonance, ambiguity, and conflict. But from this chaotic situation, unexpected creativity bursts forth and, in that sense, the borderland can be a space of empowerment and transformation. This section explores the Gospel of Mark chapter 5 (New Revised Standard Version), as a whole, and the story of the hemorrhaging woman, in particular.

The Setting

The geopolitical setting of Mark chapter 5 manifests the notion of the border through the scope of Jesus’ movement, which emphasizes border-crossing. According to the narrative, Jesus and his disciples cross back and forth across the lake twice, moving between the territory of the Jews and that of non-Jews. This may indicate that the story is set in a border town. Chapter 5 begins, “they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.”8 Scholars have debated the real location of the Gerasenes and have concluded that it could be in any area of the Gentiles.9 Additionally, the narrator uses a variety of vocabulary to emphasize the notion of border or border-crossings in this passage. Although the NRSV and various other versions of the English Bible use the phrase “the other side” as the translation of the Greek word peran (πέραν), this word’s original meaning is “crossing the border.”10

According to the narrative of Mark 5:21–34, the second border-crossing occurs when the people of the Gerasenes ask Jesus to “leave their neighborhood” after he heals the demoniac by sending the pigs into the lake. Here the Greek word for the neighborhood is horion (ὅριον), literally meaning the boundary. Thus, this sentence can be comprehended as the residents of Gentile territory asking Jesus to cross the boundary/border.11 As such, this request can be interpreted as an action of unbelief, which is one of the themes of Mark’s Gospel. However, it could also be understood as the residents’ hostility (or at least lack hospitality) toward strangers, especially as they had caused serious economic disadvantages for the residents. Very often, biblical narratives ignore the responses of Gentiles who encountered Jesus, focusing instead on the Jewish rule or the response of the Jewish people. However, like any border-crossing, the one taken by Jesus causes a great amount of suspicion, discomfort, and tension, both to the Jews as well as to the Gentiles.12

Here, Jesus’ action of border-crossing parallels his healing. Thus, the feeling of un-ease toward the border-crossing is amplified by dramatic healing. The frequent border-crossing actions, including miraculous healings, match well with the vivid and dynamic tone of Mark’s Gospel, which conveys the theme of the Kingdom and power of God.

It is also remarkable that Jesus, as a border-crossing person, performs miracles both among the Jews and the non-Jews.13 For example, Jesus feeds a crowd of five thousand in the Jewish territory (Mark 6:35–44) after sending the Twelve into the world and hearing of the death of John the Baptist. Similarly, Jesus also feeds another four thousand after serving non-Jewish people through healings (Mark 8:1–10). In chapter 5, Jesus heals the possessed man in Gentile territory and, as a parallel, he heals the hemorrhaging woman and the twelve-year-old girl in Jewish territory. The geopolitical effect of crossing over between Jewish and non-Jewish territories, along with the adept use of vocabulary regarding borders and/or border-crossings—such as “the other side” and “cross the lake”—emphasize the notion of the borderland and the action of border-crossing.

Composition

Chapter 5 of Mark’s Gospel is composed of three different stories, each of which also exists in the other synoptic Gospels, emphasizing the notion of border-crossing. But in comparison, the Markan narrative—in general—and chapter 5—in particular—seems more brisk than the other two. The Gospel of Luke similarly compiles the three stories into one chapter as Mark does, but here, the importance is given to the territory of the Jews. For example, in Luke 9:40, the narrator describes that Israel waited for Jesus, and he returned. This description gives the reader the impression that Jesus is a traveler whose home is in the Jewish territory. The word, “return” is repeated three times in the chapter, thereby focusing more on coming back than on the border-crossing action itself. But the narrative of Mark is quite distinct, as it describes Jesus as a border crosser who simply moves and crosses over frequently. In this sense, Jesus resides in a borderland or a space in-between.

Matthew’s Gospel is the most distinct in the composition of these three episodes, describing Jesus’ Jewish identity. The healing story of the demoniacs is located in chapter 8, where Jesus begins his healing ministry after he descends from the mountain. Jesus is portrayed as the Rabbi, the teacher, and his teaching on the mountain is an important parallel to Moses who had received the Law on the mountain. Just after the teaching on the mountain, the narrator describes Jesus’ healing stories as a part of his teaching, or as a clue to his identity as the true Jewish teacher.

Further, although in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus’ healing is not limited to Jewish territory, chapter 8 also does not include any healing of women. The healing stories of the other two women are located in chapter 9, after Jesus calls Levi. In this way, Matthew’s Gospel does not construct these different episodes as a set of border-crossing narratives. When compared to the literary composition of Matthew and Luke, chapter 5 of Mark clearly shows its emphasis on the theme of border-crossing in terms of ethnicity and gender, as well as on Jesus himself as a border-crosser.

Literary Structure

As a set, the three healing stories of chapter 5 have a literary structure that includes characteristics of a borderland: organic, chaotic, and disordered. The first story is about the healing of demoniacs (Mark 5:1–22), the second is about the healing of a twelve-year-old girl (Mark 5:23–25 and 35–42), and the third, which is inserted into the second story, is about the healing of a hemorrhaging woman (Mark 5:25–34). These three dissonant and different healing stories seem to have been dropped into chapter 5, creating a sense of disorderliness.

Regarding the length of each story, the allotment is very unbalanced. The first story takes up half the chapter, making the literary structure seem less systematic and more organic. For the content of the first story, Mark’s Gospel is quite different from Matthew’s Gospel, which is quite simple and without details (Matt 8:28–34). Most scholars agree that the author must have collected oral traditions of this healing story.14 Through its long and detailed narrative, Mark’s version of the first heali...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: A Border-Crossing Gospel
• Chapter 2: A Border-Crossing Ritual
• Chapter 3: A Border-Crossing Journey
• Chapter 4: A Border-Crossing Dance
• Conclusion
• Bibliography