Mark 5: 21-43
Today’s float over the sea
was specific. Jesus leaves
the country of the Gerasenes which was Gentile territory and crosses over to
the Jewish side of the country.
He’s now back among ‘his people’, fellow Jews, which makes a difference
in this story in whom, by Jewish purity laws, Jesus could touch and not touch,
who was clean and unclean.
Hear now the fifth chapter
of Mark beginning at the twenty-first verse:
When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other
side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea. Then one of the
leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his
feet and begged him repeatedly, “My little daughter is at the point of death.
Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.”
So he went with him. And a large crowd followed him and
pressed in on him. Now there was a woman who had been suffering from
hemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and
had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She
had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his
cloak, for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.”
Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her
body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone
forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my
clothes?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you;
how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’” He looked all around to see who had done
it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and
trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her,
“Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your
disease.”
While he was still speaking, some people came from the
leader’s house to say, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any
further?” But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the
synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” He allowed no one to follow him except
Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they came to the house of
the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing
loudly. When he had entered, he said to them, “Why do you make a commotion and
weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.”
And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside,
and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in
where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha cum,”
which means, “Little girl, get up!” And immediately the girl got up and began
to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with
amazement. He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them
to give her something to eat.
Amen.
Jesus embarks from the boat
and immediately is surrounded, even crowded in by people. Jairus falls at Jesus’ feet and out of
sheer desperation begs Jesus to come to his house and heal his daughter. His poor twelve year old daughter was
at death’s door, she hardly had a start in life and now she was so sick, in
fact, she was dying. I
think we have all been in that same place as Jairus, that is at the point of
desperation when one of our loved ones or perhaps ourselves have been gravely
ill. How fervent and impassioned,
perhaps even pleading our prayers become for a miracle of healing. We hope. We trust. We
pray. Maybe we even fall to our
knees like Jairus. Jesus takes note and follows Jairus to his home.
But the crowds. How hot and humid it was, the rays of
the Galilean sun were relentless.
And the people pushed and pressed in on Jesus as he slowly tried to make
his way to Jairus’ home. They
weren’t making much progress when Jesus felt the power serge from him. He turned around and said, “Who touched
the hem of my robe?” The crowd
halted, a hush gripped the air.
Unbelievable! Unbelievable the disciples thought,
here we are in the middle of all these people and Jesus could isolate and feel
one little touch? Unbelievable. What about Jairus’ daughter? We thought we were on the way to his
house. You see by now Jesus was
used to interruptions. We can
appreciate that right? You think
you’ve got your entire day planned and boom, something happens and your agenda
goes right out of the window. In
ministry we call it, the Ministry of Interruptions because interruptions happen
at the most inopportune times and it’s usually in those distracted moments that
God’s incredible grace pops up and asks us to pay attention and give of
ourselves.
The woman, already feeling
life flow back in her just from touching Jesus robe, cowered because she knows
she did the unthinkable. She, a
hemorrhaging, ritually unclean woman touched Jesus and in that touch told him
the whole story and truth of her life.
It was a remarkable witness to her faith. “What faith!” Jesus says. “Go be about your business in
peace, you’ve been healed.” If
only healing were that simple, right?
The crowd was stunned, and
confused and Jesus was still speaking and…. I wonder if he had forgotten about
Jairus’ daughter? Word filters
through the crowd that the daughter had died, no need for Jesus to come. Jesus overhears. And, as theologian and
preacher, Barbara Brown Taylor says, “Jesus preaches his shortest sermon ever:
Do not fear, only believe”. He
hadn’t forgotten after all.
“This daughter of Jairus is
only sleeping, she’s not dead like you say” Jesus says. Jesus risks ostracism once again from
his own people as he crosses the threshold of her room and goes to her death
bed.
He reaches out and takes
her young, limp hand and says quietly, “Talitha cum!”. “Little girl, get up”. And she does. And, as typical 12 year olds would do she probably rubbed
her eyes, giggled and chowed down what she was given to eat and asked if she
could go to tell her girlfriends.
These two miracle stories
hold so much for us to reflect upon.
A story within a story wherein both stories have several parallels which
would have deepened the interest for first century readers. Back in the day, miracle workers were a
dime a dozen. Jesus, of course,
was not some two bit magician but gave all of the credit to God for his
work. His powers and ability to
work miracles came from above. The
synagogue authorities were very concerned with the religious laws that Jesus
seemed always to be defying. Jesus
was not so concerned that he was ‘breaking’ the law. Rather he believed that he was expanding, recasting,
amending, and revisioning the law for a more just world for everyone. So in addition to the miraculous healing there were all sorts of nuanced meanings embedded in the stories.
Jairus’ daughter and the
hemorraghing woman’s stories have fairytale endings. They are lucky enough to receive full and total healing
direct from the source. But
we know that full and total even dramatic physical healings such as these
rarely occur like that. So
what happens when our expectation for healing doesn’t happen or our healing
turns out to be much different then what we were hoping for? That question begs a more profound
question and that is, what does it mean to be healed?
All of us are in need of
healing from time to time in our lives.
From a physical healing of a devastating illness to an emotional healing
from the stinging effect of a lost relationship. From a scarred healing of a traumatic incident to the mental
healing and health from prolonged years of abuse perhaps even we are in need of
healing from division’s and disarray due to a lack of clarity. None of us will escape life without
some sort of hurt or sickness in it but with God’s attentive touch we will
heal.
It just may not be in the
way that we have been hoping and praying for. It’s those doggone expectations once again that will trip us
up every time. Sometimes we may
have to look for the way in which God heals us in the less obvious corners of
our lives with a touch of faith bolstering us so that we can open ourselves up
to other possibilities for living.
Franklin, a man with
diabetes, I met him when I did some chaplaincy work at an area hospital. He was on and off, mostly off about
controlling his diabetes. He said
he prayed hard and even promised God with ALL of his heart that he would change
and do what he needed to do to get the diabetes under control. He was hurt, angry and bitter and felt
let down by God when he found out his foot need to be amputated. He thought God had no listened to him
or just didn’t care about him.
Well, the weeks and months
of rehabilitation proved to be a physical and spiritual healing however. He realized that even without a foot or
‘complete’ body that his life was whole and filled with blessing. Now he participates in walks for
diabetes and even does some education for others. Healing came to Franklin, just not in the way that he
wanted…but he got so much more. He
witnessed to others of the healing power of Jesus Christ. He was, in fact, inspirational.
John Pilch a Scripture
professor at Georgetown University has done a lot of writing on healing and
particular, healing in the New Testament.
He says, “Healing is the restoration of meaning to people’s lives no
matter what their physical condition might be.”
After something devastating
happens to us, after recovering from serious disease, after we have been lifted
out of the depths of depression something changes. After the woman stopped hemorrhaging and the blood flow was
restored, after the girl was raised from the dead, their lives were
changed. Healing does occur
and life is not the same. We are
changed. We see differently. We hear differently. Things that never mattered before now
do and things that mattered before we find out are really not that
important. Life takes on a
different meaning and it’s something that only God can provide. Be open to the many ways in which God
heals and makes better our lives. Therein lies the miracle of healing for our lives.
Amen.
Photos of the Sea of Galilee taken by Suzanne Wagner
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