Daughter, your
faith has made you well; go in peace, made whole from your illness.
Mark
5: 34.
We see a pattern in Jesus’
ministry. He touches the lives of all
sorts of people, and draws the sad, the anxious, the troubled – and the
alienated back into the centre of God’s purpose for them and their lives. In his company we find wholeness and life.
****
The passsage from Mark’s
Gospel which we have heard read this morning contains two well-known stories –
one tucked inside the other – they embody and illustrate this pattern.
The First story: begins with
Jairus, the ‘ruler’ of the local synagogue, a leading figure in the community,
pleading with Jesus for his young daughter: ‘she is at the point of death’.
(v.23). This a very Palestinian
story. Jairus knew the stories in
Scripture of the acts of God’s prophets – like the intervention of Elisha on
behalf of the Shunammite woman’s son (2 Kings 4: 8-37). He may have seen Jesus as a new prophet – one
whose deeds were signs of God’s power to heal and renew. ‘Come and lay your hands on her,
so that she may be made well and live (not die v.23.)
A crowd formed and pressed in on Jesus as they went…
And then the Second story
occurs: a woman who had suffered haemorrage for many years, who had spent her
resources and suffered many procedures without finding relief – and in fact was
worse now - came up behind Jesus in the crowd, and reached out discretely to
touch the hem of his garment – knowing that she was risking an angry reaction.
In many traditional societies
blood and bleeding offended against concepts of social and ritual purity. There were rituals for purification and strict
rules of separation while this condition continued. But this tragic woman would
have suffered continual alienation – something like being a leper. Anything she touched – even her bed was
defiled – and anyone she touched. (Leviticus 15: 25-27).
– to touch a religious figure would disable
his ministry – and risk his anger! So she
approached discretely from behind and touched the hem of Jesus’ garment: ‘If I but
touch his clothes I will be made well’ (v. 28).
Jesus reaction startles his
disciples – not because he is angry but because he wants to know who touched
him in the press of the crowd! Jesus and
the woman both know something has happened – something mysterious, hidden, unknown
to the others. So, fearfully, she tells him
her story and Jesus confirms what
has already happened:
Daughter, your faith has made you safe and well (salvam fecit) go in peace and be whole (sanus) from your affliction. The Greek words in which Jesus’ response
is recorded are not familiar – the Latin may be more so for us: salvus safe, well (saved); peace (shalom) has a sense of everything being
as it should be – not disordered, or afflicted, or in chaos; and sanus: healthy, whole in body and mind.
The woman found well-ness,
healing, wholeness and peace, not by some magic, as if Jesus was a kind of
spiritual dynamo, but much more simply by responding to her conviction that in
some way Jesus could restore her by bringing her back into the harmony (wholeness,
safety, well-being) of God’s purpose for her life.
Of Course she wouldn’t have thought of it in those abstract
words – for her faith was action – putting aside her fear of an angry rebuke,
and reaching out meekly to make the most humble contact . That was her salvation – her healing – her
renewal – her peace. It was her faith/trust that saved her – not some magic act
of Jesus.
Then back to Jairus’s
daughter. While this was going on people
from Jairus’ house came and said to him: Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the
teacher further?
Jesus overheard and said to
Jairus ‘Do not fear, only have faith/trust.’
When they got to the house the
traditional wailing had begun. People
laughed when Jesus said, The child is not dead, but sleeping. And we know what happened.
The young girl was revived
from whatever state she was in – we should take Jesus’ comment literally; she
was not dead but in some kind of death-like state – more familiar to us now
than to people in Jesus’day’.
Little girl, get
up! Called out of her trance or coma she is called to act
– and then given food! Back to normal…
These two very different
stories, woven together, remind us that God’s gift is life and wholeness – for
all people. We see a universalism in
Jesus’ ministry – a willingness to respond to all kinds of people – a synagogue
official the very model of orthodox respectability, and a distressed woman
alienated on account of an affliction she had not chosen; we see earlier in the same chapter his
response to a demented man living among tombs, who believed he was infested by
a myriad of evil spirits.
We recall Jesus’ response to
Roman officials (the occupying power) alien people (the Syrophoenecian woman
who wanted to claim crumbs from the table of the chosen), the woman at the well
who was so disreputable she had to come to the well when no one was
around. And so many more.
Today’s two stories have a
common theme – God’s purpose for us is life – now; wholeness now. For us, Jesus is the way to centre ourselves
again in the light and life of God.
Faith is not about what happens in our head (what we believe) – but
about reaching for help – for ourselves or for someone we love.
These stories do not promise
any kind of magic – Jairus, his daughter and the woman in the crowd would all
face challenges, problems in their lives, and ultimately, like us all, the
experience of death – but they would each live with a hope based on their solid
experience of God’s goodness; and of Jesus in whom it is embodied.
I have had this little funeral
prayer for long time, a prayer at the
close for those of us who having
farewelled someone we love or respect are returning to our daily lives – it
echoes the affirmation of life in these two stories from the ministry of Jesus:
Lord God, you were happy to give us the light of our eyes and let us be
born; You did not make us for darkness and death but so that with all our
hearts we might live and come closer to you.
Be merciful to us then, and lead us in the journey of life until, when
we have served in our own time and generation, we may be gathered with those we
have loved in your eternal peace.
Rev Simon Rae
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