Fourth
Sunday after Pentecost / Year B
Lamentations
3:22-33, Psalm 30, 2
Corinthians 8:7-15, Mark
5:21-43
Pastor Gayle M. Pope
‘Your
Faith has Made You Whole’
If Jesus could stop the disease of a woman who had
been bleeding for 12 years, just by her touching his cloak, why couldn’t or
wouldn’t he stop the scarring in my mom’s lungs that eventually took her breath
away and ended her life?
If Jesus answered the synagogue leader’s desperate
pleas to restore his daughter’s life, why didn’t he answer the pleas of Terry
and hundreds of friends and relatives to heal the cancer that took the life of
Terry’s wife Debbie?
Those are two questions that confront me as I think
about the gospel we just heard. And I know that every one of you could ask
similar questions this morning.
The stories of Jesus healing the bleeding woman and
bringing Jairus’ daughter back to life are amazing and inspiring and hope
filled in many ways. But what do they
really teach us about faith in Jesus in a world where people continue to suffer
and die in spite of all the prayers of all the faithful who ask for healing?
To answer that question, we need to hear and
understand these stories as part of a bigger truth that goes beyond the lives
that Jesus touched in the flesh during his time on earth – a bigger truth that
extends beyond time and place and touches US even now. What can we see in these
stories that has meaning for our lives today?
One timeless truth these stories show is that Jesus
inspired faith in people – faith that led them to act – to reach out to him to
seek healing in spite of obstacles that might have held them back.
Jairus was a leader of the synagogue – the Jewish
establishment that did not look favorably upon Jesus. But Jairus was desperate. You can bet he had
tried other means to save his daughter.
When Jairus fell at Jesus’ feet and begged him for help,
he was risking everything that gave him power and position and security for the
sake of love. He believed Jesus could help. When the people came and told him to
give up and let it go – it was too late – Jesus told him not to be afraid but
to keep on believing.
The woman, too, was desperate. She had tried numerous
doctors and spent all her money to no avail. She didn’t want to draw attention
to herself – didn’t even want Jesus to see her. But she believed he could heal her and her faith led her to touch his cloak
which effectively stopped her bleeding.
Jesus inspires faith that leads to action.
Another timeless truth these stories show is that
Jesus responded to people with divine compassion that bypassed rules and
conventions and brought people back into community.
Because of her bleeding, the woman would have been
considered “unclean” in Jewish society, according to the laws of the Old
Testament. She could not participate in the religious practices of her people
and anyone who wanted to participate in those practices could not touch her.
This is why she tried to touch Jesus without anyone knowing.
Jesus wouldn’t let it go at that, though. He sought a
personal contact with the woman and then she, too, fell at his feet and told
him the whole truth. After which he bestowed REAL healing upon her, calling her
“daughter” and telling her, “your faith has made you well; go in peace.” Not
only was she healed of her disease, she was restored to her family and to the
society.
In the case of Jairus’ daughter, it is significant
that Jesus took her by the hand. According to the rules, touching a dead person
would make you unclean. Jesus wouldn’t
have HAD to touch her to bring her back to life – his words would have been
enough – his words raised Lazarus after all – but he DID touch her and then
told her parents to give her something to eat.
In this way he not only gave her life, but restored
her to the fellowship of her family. She was not to be treated as the living
dead, but as a little girl, alive and walking around.
Jesus responds with compassion and restores
relationships.
The third timeless truth these stories show us – and
perhaps the most important of all – is that Jesus Christ is Lord of Life.
The stories in Mark’s gospel that led up to today’s
reading showed us that Jesus had power and authority over nature, as he calmed
the stormy sea, and that Jesus had power and authority over demonic powers, as
he cast a whole legion of demons out of a man and into a herd of swine.
Today’s stories show that Jesus has authority even
over life and death. The woman had been
losing blood for 12 years and, to the Jewish people, blood was equal to life –
her life had been slowly draining out of her.
The 12-year-old girl had lost her life and Jesus
brought it back. But then Jesus ordered
them not to tell anyone – yet, anyway.
Because bringing one little girl back to life was not the whole story of
his mission. It was just a sign of what
was to come.
In his OWN shedding of blood, and his his OWN death
and resurrection, Jesus accomplished the ultimate all-time healing for ALL who
turn to him in faith – to all who come to know the hopelessness and desperation
of our lives WITHOUT the healing that Jesus brings – which is salvation – wholeness
– the restoration of our relationship with God.
The healings of the official’s daughter and the woman
point us to the larger truth that God hears our cries; God gives us the Holy
Spirit, which inspires faith in us; God responds to us in divine compassion
that finds a way to make things right between us, even though sin would keep us
separated, because, finally, God has authority over sin and death.
And what of the situations we face today – the
continuing and specific circumstances of pain, illness, grief, tragedy,
brokenness and evil – the times and places that lead us to cry out to God for
healing?
Like Jesus, we, too are to live as signs of the
We are to live in that peace as signs of God’s
Kingdom among us. What we do in our lives, if we are in Christ, will be signs of
the faith that brings wholeness –
reconciliation, healing, forgiveness – signs of trust in God’s sovereign power
and righteousness that is beyond our understanding.
My mom wasn’t cured of her lung disease, but her faith
through life and death always pointed to Jesus.
By faith, love abounded in our home.
Debbie wasn’t cured of cancer, but by her witness and
her example, there was peace in that house and many came to faith so that
Terry, even now, can trust and praise God in spite of his loss.
We know that Jesus brought healing to both of them
and that they are now fully resotred, just as all who die in Christ are alive
in him.
This, finally, is our hope – a hope that is greater
than all our fears and all our trials and all our pain. A timeless hope that we are to carry in our
hearts and share with those who continue to cry out around us.