Pentecost 3

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Pentecost 3
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: July 2, 2000

Note: The Gospel Scripture reading is expanded to include the full story of both Jarius’ daughter and the woman with the issue of blood. The Episcopal Lectionary calls only for the Jarius’ daughter portion of the story.

TEXT: Mark 5:22-43 - Jarius’ Daughter & The Woman
Who Touched Jesus’ Cloak
‘If I touch even his clothes, I shall be cured.’ And there and then the source of her haemorrhages dried up, and she knew in herself that she was cured of her trouble. . . . . He said to her, “ ‘My daughter, your faith has cured you. God in peace, free for ever from this trouble.’

‘Your daughter is dead; why trouble the Rabbi further?’ But Jesus, overhearing the message as it was delivered, said to the president of the synagogue, ‘Do not be afraid; only have faith.’ . . . Then taking hold of her hand, he said to her, ‘Talitha cum’, which means, ‘Get up, my child.’ Immediately the girl got up and walked about - she was twelve years old.

ISSUE: - Here’s a couple of entwined miracle stories in which there is a parade which leads to restoration, hope, and resurrection of the childless woman with the hemorrhage, and the dying little girl come of age. Grace just happens in the parade with Christ and undeserving folk who have faith find healing and peace, as it is said of the woman: ‘she knew in herself that she was cured of her trouble.” We live in a culture of death concern. Trust and loyalty in following Christ was seen as a way of resurrection, life, and hope.
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Mark continues his stories of Jesus as a miracle worker. Last week, it was the calming of the storm and the healing of the crazy man, the demoniac. Mark continues highlight the miraculous power of Jesus Christ as a folk healer. Today we are told of two intertwined healings, that of a twelve year old child, and that of a woman with a twelve year illness. These intertwined stories also appear in Luke and Matthew.
Today Jesus has sailed back to familiar territory. Once arrived, a Rabbi, or president of a synagogue comes to Jesus in desperation. He has heard of Jesus as a folk healer. The man who is named as Jarius falls down before Jesus humiliating himself as a sign of his acknowledging the honorable status of Jesus. He pleads in desperation for his sick child’s healing. Remember that the death rate of children in Jesus time was extremely high. Some sixty percent of children born died by the time they were teenagers. This child is twelve years old, just pre-teen. She is just coming of age, and would probably be soon able to be married. But, in this grave sickness, her future to be productive and a mother is a great risk. Jarius begs Jesus to come to his home to effect a cure of the child, which he agrees to do.
As Jesus begins the journey to Jarius’ home, a significantly large number of people follow them. It is a crowd large enough that people are bumping into one another and rubbing shoulders so to speak. You have something of an image of rather significant parade of people moving toward Jarius’ home. Along the way, the story is interrupted by another incident. A woman who is hemorrhaging, and has had a menstrual flow for some twelve years sort of sneaks up on Jesus assured that if only to touch him, she will be healed.
Some background here is helpful to an understanding of the story. First women in this time did not touch strange men in public. It wasn’t done. Women rarely appeared with strange in public. Perhaps she feels she has some anonymity in the parading crowd. What’s more the woman with the flow of blood is considered unclean and impure. During a woman’s cycle they could not approach the altar in the Temple and were considered unclean. They were not to be touched nor to touch anyone else. This woman has had the hemorrhage for twelve years. The woman is essentially socially dead. She is an outcast from the society, impure and unclean. This may sound somewhat strange to men, but my guess is that many woman can be sympathetic with what is going on in this story. The woman has spent her fortune on physicians of the time, who have done nothing for her. Physicians of the time were more like philosophers and never laid hands on anyone. Thus, she resorts to a folk healer, Jesus who has some renown.
In any event, the woman sneaks up on Jesus. She believes, trusts, that all she has to do is to touch his garments, and she’ll be made well. Immediately she is healed. How, who knows. She simply knows within herself she is healed. That’s a curios phrase isn’t it. She knows from within she’s healed.
Though the woman has tried to be sneaky about what she’s done, Jesus feels that healing power has been released. He senses something, and demands to know who touched him in this hopeful way. His colleagues note that in this crowd everyone has been touching him, or bumping into him. But Jesus knows someone has evoked healing power from him. He senses the great faith of the person. The woman is frightened. She feels she is in for a great scolding. After all, in touching Jesus, she has made him impure and unclean. Much to her great surprise, she is not scolded, but is in fact commended for her great faith, and is assured that she will never suffer from this illness again. Now she is healed, now she is restored to the community, and she may even be fertile and productive after twelve years.
In contrast to the woman’s healing, messengers come and tell Jarius while the parade continues, that the little girl child of twelve years is dead. No need to trouble the Teacher, Jesus, any further. The parade can stop right here. But Jesus tells Jarius, ‘Do not be afraid, only have faith.’ Arriving at the home, the mourners have already assembled, and they laugh, dishonoring Jesus, when he tells them the child is not dead, but only sleeping. Casting aside all of the doubters, that is, all those who have no faith, he takes only close disciples and the parents to the child’s bedside, and says in the Aramaic, Jesus’ native language, “Talitha, cum.” Which means, “Little girl, rise up.” Simply and to the point she does, and walks around! “Give her something to eat.” The little girl who was dead, rises up. She eats. She begins a productive fruitful life.
What’s the message in all these stories? What’s Mark (also Matthew and Luke) trying to convey in these healing stories? It’s not really too mysterious actually. It tells us that in Jesus Christ there was a presence and power of God. It is a bountiful grace. A non-deserving woman, and a meaningless child receive the grace and healing of God through the mediation of Jesus Christ. They do have value in the sight of God, they are worthy of restoration, and they can be raised up. The woman is socially dead, and the little girl is apparently physically dead. Both are raised to new life. “Talitha cum” resurrected, raised, and fed. That’s what happened to Jesus when he was raised. He ate with this disciples. He carried on.
What is Mark and the gospel writers proclaiming? They call the world to faith, to trust, to confidence that God in Jesus Christ can restore the lost and broken, the despairing, and raise up that which is fallen. Join the parade of faithfulness that lead to resurrection and new life. Join the community of faith in Christ that brings love, hope, forgiveness, restoration, and healing to the world. It is a message of the great bountiful love, power, and grace that streams from Christ. The message is the call to join the parade of hope, wherein the abused, the disenfranchised get a new lease on life.
Notice too that the readings from the Hebrew Scriptures for today, and the reading from St. Paul’s 2nd Letter to the Corinthians are all about giving, about giving liberally, in the way that Christ Jesus poured himself out. He pours himself out that others may be made rich, rich in healing and hopefulness and knowledge of being loved. It is a call to join the parade that touches Christ that reaches out to him, and that allows the world to be touched by him for the purpose of new and bountiful life. The church today calls for a forgiving of debts to third world nations, and for a bountiful generosity that helps the world to know renewal, healing, and health.
This is the season for parades, 4th of July Parades. It’s important that Christians who are people of faith know what they are marching for. They can be parades of pride and accomplishment, reveling in American success and wealth. They can be parades that ostentatiously display our power of destructive weapons and displays of our power over the other nations of the world. They can be parades that ostentatiously display our pride and ability and witness to how we drain the other nations of the world of resources and let them see our ability and ingenuity at impoverishing the world. They can be displays of how proud we are of ourselves and how we trust in ourselves as opposed to the power of God. Jesus knew, and we all should know in our hearts that great political powers of the world come and go, they rise and they fall. They eventually Peter out.
The parades of the nations, whether it’s the Romans of long ago, the Great British Empire, the U.S.A, or Russia, or Iraq are often parades of death. They often rejoice in destructive weaponry, and deadly force. They often symbolize a cultures of suspicion, fear, threat. Today our newscasts are often an on going parade of a culture where people die frequently from drugs and violence. They tell of constant feuding among the nations and among peoples.
The Gospel and teaching of Christ speak of joining in another kind of parade, and a community of faith. The parade of Jesus Christ, the Christian parade, takes all that is broken, unworthy, faltering, dying, cast out and thrown down, and asks only for trust in God, faithfulness. And in response to faith, there comes the outpouring of love and healing that renews, restores, lifts up, and holds up to the light of God. There comes resurrection and hope. Join the parade, that parade, and feast with Christ. Arise, be resurrected, and have something to eat. At the end of the parade is the feast of the Kingdom of God.