A Sermon for the 4th Sunday after Pentecost, Year B
by Pastor Laura Gentry
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. (New Revised Standard Version)
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Today, we are given not 1 healing story in the gospel passage but 2: 2 women, 2 healings, 2 miracles. What’s it all about? And, most importantly, what is the gift in these stories and how can it bless us and move us on toward greater healing?
Well, we really don’t know much about either woman. We are not even given their names. We do know they are both in crisis. And they are both subject to the taboos around the mysterious power of life. Neither a bleeding woman nor a dead girl were to be touched. They were considered ritually unclean and needed to be avoided by practicing religious people.
The author of this gospel also carefully weaves in the number 12. The hemorrhaging women has been sick for 12 years and the little girl who died had lived for 12 years. This number has important symbolic value in Judaism. In their history, the nation began from Jacob’s 12 sons who founded the 12 tribes of Israel. Jesus would later go on to choose 12 apostles. This number even affected the western calendar, which is why the year is divided into 12 months. It was thought that this number represented God’s mysterious union with humanity. And in this story, we certainly see these women transformed by God’s union with them.
The scene opens with a synagogue leader named Jarius approaching Jesus with the request that he come to heal his daughter. The death of a child was quite commonplace in those days. Historian John Pilch estimates that in Jesus' time 60 percent of live births usually died by their mid-teens. So parents would have been always bracing themselves for the strong possibility that they would lose some of their children to death. Not only that, this was a time when daughters were not valued as much as sons. Yet Jarius obviously loves his daughter wholeheartedly. He cannot bear the thought of losing her. He has faith in Jesus, who is known as an itinerant preacher-healer who was already in trouble with the religious authorities. He himself is one of these authorities having problems with Jesus. Nevertheless, he wants his daughter healed but he has to go out on a limb to do so. By asking Jesus to come heal his child, he risks being ridiculed by his peers. Yet his faith drives him and he makes his request to Jesus and thankfully, Jesus agrees and goes with him straight-away to the house.
As he is going, however, Jesus encounters the hemorrhaging woman. She has been bleeding for 12 years. It has continued to flow. This word could also be translated as "river." For all these awful years, the woman was being taken down a river of physical and social pain. She must have felt depressed and exhausted from all that she had endured. No treatment had worked for her. Her physicians had failed her. And yet for some reason, she has not given up up. No, she continues to hold on to her faith. She believes God has the power to heal her. And so when she hears that Jesus—this mighty healer from God—is in town, she is desperate to see him.
For her to be out in the public was forbidden. She was supposed to stay isolated because of her ritual uncleanness. Yet she ignores this law because more than anything she wants to be healed. Not only does she have faith, but she allows that faith to move her into action. She actively pursues Jesus, thinking: If I can just touch the hem of his garment, I will be healed. And so she goes out in faith and finds Jesus. The crowd is thick and she must press her way through to get to him. Finally, she makes it to Jesus and touches his robe and immediately, Jesus can feel the power rush out of him. God’s mysterious connection with humanity (that the number 12 represents) is given to this woman who had been suffering 12 years.
Jesus whirls about and asks, "Who touched my clothes?"
This seems to stupefy the disciples. They are aware of how huge the crowd is. It’s a hot day it the desert. All those sweaty bodies bumping up against one another. Who touched Jesus? Pretty much everybody. They’re all smashed up around him. How could he possibly notice one particular touch?
But Jesus knows this is not an unintentional bumping-into-someone in a crowd touch. It is a faith-filled touch of someone who has come to him in grateful expectation of healing. Thus, he continues to look for this person. The woman cannot hide. She knows that she’s been transformed by this encounter. So she comes forward in fear and trembling. She falls down before him, and tells him the whole truth. Then Jesus says to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease."
Even though Jesus was on a mission to get to the 12 year old girl, he allows himself to be sidetracked by the need of this person who has reached out to him in faith. His the son of God, after all, he can multitask. He compassionately heals her before moving on to the task at hand: to help a woman who is barely a woman—just a little girl of 12.
As Jesus is still speaking to the crowd, some people come rushing from Jarius’ house and give him the terrible news that his daughter is dead. Even this devastating news does not ruffle Jesus’ feathers. He calmly uses it as a teaching moment. He says: "Do not fear, only believe." Some call this Jesus’ shortest sermon. It says it all: Do not fear, only believe.
They go to the house and find the typical demonstrations of grief for that time and place going on. People are weeping and wailing loudly. But Jesus heads right into the whirlpool of grief and says: "Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping." They are so surprised by this statement that they actually laugh at him. So Jesus takes these unbelieving nay-sayers and put them outside the house. Perhaps he knows their negative energy might affect his healing and so he creates a space of faith and not fear by sending them out.
Jesus takes the little girl by the hand. Again, this is against the religious laws. He is supposed to stay away from unclean, dead bodies but the compassion of God is greater than the religious customs. Jesus breaks the rules in order to break the bonds of death. He says to the little girl: Get Up! And astonishingly, she does. She comes back from the dead by the touch of God’s power in Jesus!
Do not fear, only believe. This is what Jesus had told them and this is exactly why. Even death has no sting with Jesus at hand. The little girl is immediately able to awaken from death and be so healthy that she is ready for a snack. Jesus tells them to go get her something to eat.
So what are we to take from all of this? Where is the blessing? What seems most prominent in these stories is the power of faith. Jesus has the power to heal and to raise from the dead. Yet many people around him overlook that and even criticize him. But Jarius and the hemorrhaging woman believe in him. They know he can change their situations and so they do everything in their power to reach out to him in faith. They push passed the boundaries that existed for them and grab at Jesus with all they have inside them. This is what God wants from us. Do we reach out for Jesus? Fervently? Do we want to be healed? Do we trust him with our life and our death?
In these stores we glimpse the power of God that is ours for the asking. God wants to forgive and heal us. God wants to grant us eternal life. May we take inspiration from the characters in these stories and reach out to Jesus anew, trusting he will say to us what he said to the woman: your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed. Amen.
Well, we really don’t know much about either woman. We are not even given their names. We do know they are both in crisis. And they are both subject to the taboos around the mysterious power of life. Neither a bleeding woman nor a dead girl were to be touched. They were considered ritually unclean and needed to be avoided by practicing religious people.
The author of this gospel also carefully weaves in the number 12. The hemorrhaging women has been sick for 12 years and the little girl who died had lived for 12 years. This number has important symbolic value in Judaism. In their history, the nation began from Jacob’s 12 sons who founded the 12 tribes of Israel. Jesus would later go on to choose 12 apostles. This number even affected the western calendar, which is why the year is divided into 12 months. It was thought that this number represented God’s mysterious union with humanity. And in this story, we certainly see these women transformed by God’s union with them.
The scene opens with a synagogue leader named Jarius approaching Jesus with the request that he come to heal his daughter. The death of a child was quite commonplace in those days. Historian John Pilch estimates that in Jesus' time 60 percent of live births usually died by their mid-teens. So parents would have been always bracing themselves for the strong possibility that they would lose some of their children to death. Not only that, this was a time when daughters were not valued as much as sons. Yet Jarius obviously loves his daughter wholeheartedly. He cannot bear the thought of losing her. He has faith in Jesus, who is known as an itinerant preacher-healer who was already in trouble with the religious authorities. He himself is one of these authorities having problems with Jesus. Nevertheless, he wants his daughter healed but he has to go out on a limb to do so. By asking Jesus to come heal his child, he risks being ridiculed by his peers. Yet his faith drives him and he makes his request to Jesus and thankfully, Jesus agrees and goes with him straight-away to the house.
As he is going, however, Jesus encounters the hemorrhaging woman. She has been bleeding for 12 years. It has continued to flow. This word could also be translated as "river." For all these awful years, the woman was being taken down a river of physical and social pain. She must have felt depressed and exhausted from all that she had endured. No treatment had worked for her. Her physicians had failed her. And yet for some reason, she has not given up up. No, she continues to hold on to her faith. She believes God has the power to heal her. And so when she hears that Jesus—this mighty healer from God—is in town, she is desperate to see him.
For her to be out in the public was forbidden. She was supposed to stay isolated because of her ritual uncleanness. Yet she ignores this law because more than anything she wants to be healed. Not only does she have faith, but she allows that faith to move her into action. She actively pursues Jesus, thinking: If I can just touch the hem of his garment, I will be healed. And so she goes out in faith and finds Jesus. The crowd is thick and she must press her way through to get to him. Finally, she makes it to Jesus and touches his robe and immediately, Jesus can feel the power rush out of him. God’s mysterious connection with humanity (that the number 12 represents) is given to this woman who had been suffering 12 years.
Jesus whirls about and asks, "Who touched my clothes?"
This seems to stupefy the disciples. They are aware of how huge the crowd is. It’s a hot day it the desert. All those sweaty bodies bumping up against one another. Who touched Jesus? Pretty much everybody. They’re all smashed up around him. How could he possibly notice one particular touch?
But Jesus knows this is not an unintentional bumping-into-someone in a crowd touch. It is a faith-filled touch of someone who has come to him in grateful expectation of healing. Thus, he continues to look for this person. The woman cannot hide. She knows that she’s been transformed by this encounter. So she comes forward in fear and trembling. She falls down before him, and tells him the whole truth. Then Jesus says to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease."
Even though Jesus was on a mission to get to the 12 year old girl, he allows himself to be sidetracked by the need of this person who has reached out to him in faith. His the son of God, after all, he can multitask. He compassionately heals her before moving on to the task at hand: to help a woman who is barely a woman—just a little girl of 12.
As Jesus is still speaking to the crowd, some people come rushing from Jarius’ house and give him the terrible news that his daughter is dead. Even this devastating news does not ruffle Jesus’ feathers. He calmly uses it as a teaching moment. He says: "Do not fear, only believe." Some call this Jesus’ shortest sermon. It says it all: Do not fear, only believe.
They go to the house and find the typical demonstrations of grief for that time and place going on. People are weeping and wailing loudly. But Jesus heads right into the whirlpool of grief and says: "Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping." They are so surprised by this statement that they actually laugh at him. So Jesus takes these unbelieving nay-sayers and put them outside the house. Perhaps he knows their negative energy might affect his healing and so he creates a space of faith and not fear by sending them out.
Jesus takes the little girl by the hand. Again, this is against the religious laws. He is supposed to stay away from unclean, dead bodies but the compassion of God is greater than the religious customs. Jesus breaks the rules in order to break the bonds of death. He says to the little girl: Get Up! And astonishingly, she does. She comes back from the dead by the touch of God’s power in Jesus!
Do not fear, only believe. This is what Jesus had told them and this is exactly why. Even death has no sting with Jesus at hand. The little girl is immediately able to awaken from death and be so healthy that she is ready for a snack. Jesus tells them to go get her something to eat.
So what are we to take from all of this? Where is the blessing? What seems most prominent in these stories is the power of faith. Jesus has the power to heal and to raise from the dead. Yet many people around him overlook that and even criticize him. But Jarius and the hemorrhaging woman believe in him. They know he can change their situations and so they do everything in their power to reach out to him in faith. They push passed the boundaries that existed for them and grab at Jesus with all they have inside them. This is what God wants from us. Do we reach out for Jesus? Fervently? Do we want to be healed? Do we trust him with our life and our death?
In these stores we glimpse the power of God that is ours for the asking. God wants to forgive and heal us. God wants to grant us eternal life. May we take inspiration from the characters in these stories and reach out to Jesus anew, trusting he will say to us what he said to the woman: your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed. Amen.
1 comment:
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