When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly — the professional mourners and neighbors have already arrived — the Jewish mourning tradition began immediately at death. The commotion communicates the genuine community grief that accompanies the death of a child. The crying and wailing loudly (alalazontas) is the public expression of mourning that was both culturally expected and genuinely felt. The scene of communal mourning that Jesus encounters is the opposite of the intimate healing space he is about to create.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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