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July 16, 2006 Sixth Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 5:21-43
Saving Power

Today's gospel lesson begins with Jesus crossing back over into Galilee from the country of the Gerasenes. Remember the Gerasenes begged Jesus to leave their country after he allowed unclean spirits to go into a herd of swine and go hurdling off a cliff. So now Jesus has just arrived back on home turf, planning who knows what, when he's interrupted by the pleas of a desperate father begging Jesus not just once, but the text says the Father repeatedly begs Jesus to go with him to save his daughter who is near death. And Jesus changes his plans and goes with the father. When yet another interruption occurs. It's a good thing Jesus doesn't view the needs of the father and the unnamed women as interrupting his real work of preaching the kingdom of God has come near, but treats these interruptions as part of his ministry. Much like I suspect the 14 youth and adults from our congregation will treat the interruptions that await them next week in Mississippi . Interruptions of stopping their work to listen to the stories the residents will want to tell them about their pre and post Hurricane Katrina lives. Interruptions when setbacks occur in their project for the day. Interruptions of extreme heat and possible dehydration that will demand they stop and rest awhile. Ministry is often just one interruption after another.

But back to the gospel story, or stories, for there are two. The story of the faith of father Jairus, a leader in the synagogue, and the story of the faith of an unnamed woman. Who of us parents can't identify with the begging pleas of the father if one of our children were near death? And t he story of the nameless woman using ALL her resources in seeking a medical cure for her chronic condition resonates with what either we, or folks we know, would have experienced were it not for Medicare? The bureaucratic impersonal medical process, being shuffled from one kind of specialist to another? And like the unnamed woman, sometimes we are made worse and not better.

Both Jarius and the unnamed woman initiate help from Jesus and both do so out of desperation, both having been told by the experts that his daughter and the woman are beyond help.

But there are important contrasts in their stories. In keeping with the culture that places a much higher value on men than on women, the man and his position are named—Jairus, a leader in the synagogue. The woman is unnamed, and the daughter is named in relation to her male guardian—Jairus' daughter.

Jarius, aware of his social status and power as a synagogue leader comes face to face with Jesus and blocks his path. Being a man, it is acceptable for him to act in public space, long the exclusive domain of men. It is only within my lifetime that in some countries and cultures women have been accorded the same respect and rights as men in public space.

So the woman approaches Jesus inconspicuously from behind, seeking to hide her presence within the crowd. Biblical scholars speculate on whether her bleeding was of the kind that kept her continually impure and unclean according to the Jewish purity laws. The text is silent on this point, but most scholars believe her bleeding did keep in a perpetual unclean state according to the Jewish purity laws. If so, then for 12 years she has been treated as an outcast, isolated from the mainstream of Jewish religious and social life because of the purity regulations men and women must follow.

The father addresses Jesus directly, recognizing if Jesus would just lay his hands on his daughter, she will live. The woman, forbidden by law to speak much less touch or come in contact with any Jewish male while she is bleeding, makes her affirmation to herself, assuring herself, if she but touches Jesus' coat, she will be made well.

This unnamed women then steps out and takes action in the public arena, a place of exclusive male power. She breaks through the social and religious barriers that work in tandem to keep her powerless and in her place. This is a dangerous act that could have resulted in her being severely harmed by the crowd or authorities.

We women are used to having to act in risky ways that do not draw attention to ourselves, but Jesus knows something has happened. By indicating Jesus had this realization Mark demonstrates that his clothes are not endowed with some kind of magical power. Rather, Jesus insists on knowing who it was who reached out to him for healing and to have personal contact with them. A little girl is dying, yet Jesus stops dead in his tracks and asks a question even his disciples think is ridiculous. “Who touched my clothes?” Today we hear these words with the same ears as: Who invaded my personal space? Who took something that belongs to me? And the woman may have heard Jesus words with these same ears.

The woman, already cured from her bleeding, could have slipped away into the crowd, but she shows integrity and courage. The fear the women exhibits as she responds to Jesus question could also stem from her knowledge of what has happened to her. She recognizes the extraordinary divine power possessed by Jesus. She has come in direct contact with the power of the living God.

We hear in the story the reason for Jesus' question. He wants a personal encounter with the woman. He recognizes and acknowledges the extraordinary power of her faith and proclaims it is her faith that has made her well. Jesus does not pronounce healing words, or put a mixture of dirt and spit on her to heal her. He does not tell her to go and present an offering to the priest. Instead, Jesus simply acknowledges the power of female faith, and reincorporates her back into the family of faith by calling her Daughter, your faith has made you well. It is her faith that is the real healing agent and Jesus affirms the reign of God includes women's power and our right to fully participate in all that leads to life and well-being for women.

Jesus then instructs Jairus to have what the woman has---faith. “Do not fear, Jesus tells Jairus, only believe.” The synagogue leader disappears from the story as he leads Jesus into his house, but the woman's story concludes with her transformative encounter with Jesus. There is no story of the synagogue leader's transformation.

Now a superficial reading of these stories seem to indicate that if we have enough faith in Jesus to cure us, that is indeed what will happen. That if we have enough faith that we will be cured, we will be cured, but that is not what these stories tell us. The Greek verb sozo is an expansive verb translated in both the pulpit and pew bibles in this story as the verb heal. But Sozo is a broad term meaning all that is needed for the fullness of life. It is more than the absence of disease. Sozo is most often translated in the New Testament as the verb save. And if we do so here, then we pick up on the difference.

Jairus begs Jesus to come lay hands on his daughter so “she may be saved and live.” The woman's goal is: “if I but touch his clothes, I will be saved.”

Yet when the women's bleeding stops, the text does not say she was saved, but rather that she was “healed of the disease.” Only after she comes in fear and trembling to Jesus, confessing the whole truth about what she had done, only then does Jesus pronounce that her faith has saved her. Similarly, the saving Jarius asks for as a sparing of his daughter's life turns out instead to be a restoration of life after death.

We know from our experience that not all who pray to be cured are cured—regardless of how much faith they, or you, have. But all who pray can be assured of God's presence and power in the midst of the illness. We can experience Sozo, being saved, as a wholeness and fullness of life that transcends the illness from which we long to be cured from.

Spiritual writer Jean Blomquist writes about wrestling with her anger, fear, loss of control and her depression when she discovered she had the chronic illness of lupus. She wrote that “Life would go on, but within the limitations set by the disease.” Blomquist then shifts her focus from the illness to healing and she writes: “I became almost reckless in my openness toward God, which included seeing and seeking God in places and ways I perhaps otherwise would have ignored or avoided. I explored a range of resources on healing…I even read about lupus, but found that I didn't want to learn about illness; I wanted to learn about healing.”

Sickness, pain and the loss of control and routine illness brings, takes us to places of need. In this place we learn afresh our limitations and our need for God. “Sooner or later, Ernest Hemmingway wrote, “life breaks us all, but many become strong in the broken places.” I remembered these words this week visiting Lena Melvin in the hospital. Many of you know far better than I all the illnesses and health concerns that have plagued Lena over her life. Her son Phil remarked that numerous times over her life he believed her recovery to be beyond all hope, but he was wrong. Lena's faith shown by her indomitable loving spirit, her humor, her willingness to actively look for what she can be thankful for in the midst of her illness are signs that she is Sozo saved, being made well.

Faith is confidence in our salvation, of a kind of healing that transcends cure from illness. Faith approaches God with hope and expectation, trusting in God's mercy and love. Can you like the father and the unnamed woman, like Lena Melvin, live and act in faith?

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