Courage to Hang on to Eternal Life – Sunday 30th June
Courage to hang on to Eternal Life, Mark 5:21-43, pastor adrian kitson, Sunday 30th June, Your Faith has made you Well
21 When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered round him while he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. 23 He pleaded earnestly with him, ‘My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.’ 24 So Jesus went with him.
A large crowd followed and pressed round him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, ‘If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.’ 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30 At once Jesus realised that power had gone out from him. He turned round in the crowd and asked, ‘Who touched my clothes?’
31 ‘You see the people crowding against you,’ his disciples answered, ‘and yet you can ask, “Who touched me?”’
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.’
35 While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. ‘Your daughter is dead,’ they said. ‘Why bother the teacher anymore?’
36 Overhearin] what they said, Jesus told him, ‘Don’t be afraid; just believe.’
37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, ‘Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.’ 40 But they laughed at him.
After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, ‘Talitha koum!’ (which means ‘Little girl, I say to you, get up!’). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. 43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.
Twelve years is a long time.
- It’s the time between beginning school and being ready to break into the world as an adult at year 12.
- It is the time we have been together as pastor and people at St Petri.
- It’s the time between starting a new job and being an ‘elder statesperson’ around the place.
- It’s a long time to suffer some disease or injury.
- It is a long time to carry grief.
- It is a long time to bear pain.
It is certainly a long time to bleed: constantly bleed. We hear that nothing could stop it. No Medicare or private health cover. Money all spent. Pain endured by receiving all kinds of quack treatments. Like covid for a decade – isolation from family, society and church. Always alone. Never touched by another human for fear of their contamination. Always on the outside of everything and everybody …
Can you imagine that unnamed woman? Just surviving …
And then there is a local church leader in a bit of a pickle. For as long as this unknown woman has been bleeding his little girl has been living, but the grade 7 girl is sickly even to death.
But they have heard about him; this Jewish rabbi. He is in town. He heals people. He’s the magic man, the miracle man. For both of them, anything is worth a try. So, they try.
Jairus is first. I find it amazing that he, a local Jewish synagogue leader, does not seem to mind showing his emotion; his desperation, to the whole town. He does the unthinkable – he prostrates himself before Jesus, right in front of everyone, and pleads his case.
Jesus responds, as he has often has lately. He moves to head off to Jairus’ house … But, something stops the show.
In the crowd crush the unnamed woman has her go. It is so different to Jairus. She does not want to be known by anyone. She does not want conversation or contact outside of touching the little tassels on the bottom of Jesus’ robe …
“Touch his tassel! Touch his tassel. Push through, reach out, get in close behind and touch his tassel, just lightly, just enough; no one will see. Here I go …
She reaches out and God reaches in. She feels it. Bleeding ceases. Wellness arrives …
But, then the worst thing for both of them happens. In her isolated shame she gets noticed by all, and in his nervous desperation, Jairus has to wait.
‘Who touched me?!’ the Rabbi cried.
She must have squirmed. She’s like a kid who has stolen a Mars Bar from Foodland being caught in the mall for all to see.
And Jairus is like a paramedic tending a patient while on the ramp waiting to get inside the hospital – “hurry up!”…
In the meantime, the disciples cannot believe the question Jesus asks. “Who touched me?” Are you kidding?! “They all touched you!
I wonder why Jesus persists?
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.
Is it because her healing is not complete yet? I think so. So far it is just physical – just ‘magic’.
His searching brings her out …
Now she is like Jairus. Now, she is the kneeling at his feet.
33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.
She is defenceless and she knows it. She tells ‘the whole truth and nothing but the truth’.
This Rabbi could cut her back down to size. He could increase the shame and return her to this cursed life she has been living …
But no. His next word turns the magic into a relationship; the healing into a new life with a person; the isolation into a family community;
34 He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.
“Daughter”. One word: new world. One name: new person. One voice: new human being. In his word she goes from unnamed, ashamed and unclean to fully known, highly esteemed and pure.
From no place to rest: now given the keys to a family home.
No love: now all loves excelling.
No community: to divine Father-daughter relationship with all the other sons and daughters of God.
From curse to forgiveness, from twelve years a slave to all years a daughter of God.
Jairus is happy. Finally, we are on the way to the house. But they all know it is too late. The twelve year old daughter is dead. They think the Rabbi is crazy. The close three see that he is not. ‘Talitha koum! Arise! She does. Death treated like the bleeding disease – a mere disease and not fatal. The death disease put in its rightful place. Life back to normal.
The girl is raised and restored as daughter to her father, just as the woman was. Here we have two daughters given back to their father.
So, what did all this? Why the illness and the death and why the healing and the resurrection?
Jesus says what makes the difference.
‘Daughter, your faith has healed you.
What ‘faith’? The woman and Jairus don’t name Jesus “Messiah,” “Son of David,” “Lord,” or anything like that.
They speak no words of faith like the Apostles’ Creed, or explain their understanding of the Trinity, or pledge money to Jesus’ movement.
All we know is that they have heard about him and so, they simply come to him. They approach Jesus differently. One silently and without words and one with words and in full view of others, but both desperate.
Their ‘faith’ seems to be simply believing that Jesus can help. Or they hope that he might.
The thing they do is that they ‘do’. They do something about that faith. They put themselves in a vulnerable position and trust.
One does it openly, one does it by stealth, until she has to do it openly. Jesus had to find her so she could hear the words that go with the healing. The words make the healing complete because they restore her to family, to relationship, to belonging and future support. His word is what moves what he does from magic and superstition to relationship and new identity – Daughter of God among many daughters and sons of God.
It seems to me that we put to rest the idea that faith is some kind of a prerequisite to God’s healing, if by “faith” we mean an adequate measure of a person’s earnestness or submissiveness or learning. Faith here is an action that reveals a trust – that Jesus can help.
Jesus often heals and feeds people with no explicit mention of faith.
He was amazed at his hometown people’s lack of faith. They refused to trust that he could help. (Mark 6:5).
The disciples are sent out and Mark tells us they simply;
“… drove out many demons and anointed with oil many people who were ill and healed them. (Mark 6:13)
Who knows how much they knew of him or how good they all were?
He fed those five thousand and they all ate and were satisfied. They simply trusted that he would feed them.
Illness and dying and death and loss are not the punishment for insufficient faith. People who suffer do not need to be scolded for not believing enough in Jesus.
Friends, his healing is love not magic. His healing is not done by hokus pokus or achieved by our right prayer or knowing the secret formula or being squeaky clean. His healing is HIS healing FOR us as we simply trust that he can help.
And his healing of any kind is not for itself but for relationship, for belonging, for restoration to community, to marriage, to family, to church community. It is complete and whole. It is forgiveness and peace and hope in disease, death and loss.
What can Jesus help you with, and when are you going to ask?
When are you going to do something with the trust you have in him?
Take these restored daughters as models of faith. Jesus calls it faith even if it is a bit misdirected or not fully understood. He calls you to take courage to reach out to him. He calls that faith.
If you are feeling a bit dead to faith – ‘Talitha koum!
If you are feeling a bit dirty or diseased – ‘Talitha koum!
If you are actually diseased – ‘Talitha koum!
If you are feeling the loss or replaying the regret – ‘Talitha koum!
If you know guilt today – ‘Talitha koum!
If you know shame today – ‘Talitha koum!
If you are angry today – ‘Talitha koum!
Do something towards Jesus today. That will show you trust that Jesus can help. That is faith enough, it seems.
‘Daughter, Son, whoever you are and whoever you think you are or what they say you are, ‘Talitha koum’! Arise today. Your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.’
Amen
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