Mark 5:21-43 Panzer Liturgical Service, Stuttgart
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Healing Stories are God Stories
Today’s gospel lesson gives us two healing stories.
They come to us as Jesus continues his ministry around the sea. Last week, we
saw him calm the stormy sea when the disciples work him from a sound sleep,
leaving the disciples to ask, “Who is he that even the sea and skies obey him?”
Who is he? That’s the ultimate question, isn’t it?
These healing stories are just two of many times
that Jesus heals people in desperate need. But they are not simply two stories
held up end to end. These two stories show us contrasts – differences in the
ways that people come to Jesus for help – differences in the ways that Jesus
responds. But they also show us how consistent Jesus is in the way he responds
to their requests. Amid two dire and extremely different circumstances, Jesus
gives healing. Jesus gives hope.
If we look at the structure of the two stories, we see
that these are actually nested tales. Jarius’ father meets Jesus on the shore,
begging for Jesus’ help. With true faith in Jesus’ ability to turn the
situation around, he tells Jesus of his daughter’s near-death illness and
begins to lead him to his house.
But on the way, as the crowds are pressing in, Jesus
feels a specific touch. “Who did it?” he asks. “Who touched my clothing?” The
disciples must have thought him a little crazy because there were so many
people surrounding him – many of them surely brushed against him as they
followed him to the rich man’s house. But that wasn’t the touch that Jesus
felt. He felt this touch of intentionality – a touch that believed this
momentary brush against Jesus’ robe or arm or foot would be enough to heal her
from a decades-long illness.
And he stopped. The journey to meet the needs of
Jarius’ family was intercepted by someone else. And here we meet the woman with
the 12-year hemorrhage… 12 years of poor health… 12 years of seeing doctors or
healers… 12 years of ritual impurity… 12 years of separation from family and
friends and all the normal things in life… 12 years of anything difficult can
make a person desperate… but she was not without hope.
Think about how your children respond when you ask
them something you already know the answer to… if you’re lucky, they will tell
you the truth, often couched in apology, fear, and the willingness to accept
the consequences for whatever they did wrong. That’s what this woman is
feeling, and more. With no one to advocate for her, no power, no status, and
having violated societal norms of behavior of women and men, she has every
right to expect rejection and even punishment for the simple act of touching
Jesus’ robe. But that’s not what she gets. Her faith, her desperate need, and
her honesty give her everything she wanted and needed… wholeness and healing…
and a way to reenter life again.
Only after this encounter does Jesus go on his way. The
news comes from Jarius’ home that it too late – no need for the Master to come
– the daughter is already dead. But Jesus presses on with these words, “Do not
fear, only believe.” And when they arrive at the house, Jesus enters, proclaims
the girl asleep, silencing the mocking bystanders. And with a few disciples and
her parents present, he reaches out his hand bidding the girl get out of the
bed, and she does. Once again, faith has made all things new.
The contrasts between these families are obvious –
status, power, wealth, accessibility… one family had them, one did not. But the
similarity is singular… faith. Faith in Jesus’ ability to bring newness of life
made all the difference to Jarius’ family and this unnamed woman. Jairus
professes his faith outwardly and the woman silently- yet both receive healing.
What does this say about God? Having these two stories
so woven together reminds us that God is not interested in any of the things we
are likely to worship outside of God. God doesn’t care about wealth, power,
cultural taboos, or a narrowly defined social order. What these stories tell us
– again and again – is that God cares about binding up the broken. Whether we
are broken in body, soul, mind, or social standing, God is present with us in
our pain, and transforms us in our healing, even if our healing is not what we
expect.
I’ve spent a lot of time in people’s private
sanctuaries – in hospitals and living rooms – listening to people ask for
healing. It’s the number one thing that people pray for. In previous years, we
have spoken out loud our petitions during the prayers of the people, and when I
went back to look at some of those Sundays, over 75% would be for healing…
cancer, strokes, accidents. Maybe that number is skewed because those feel like
safe prayers to speak out loud. But even so, healing so often encompasses more than
just the healing of our physical bodies. We have also prayed for the healing of
relationships, for broken communities, for the brokenness left in the shadow of
war, for friend and foe alike. And most days it feels like those prayers go
unanswered. But are they?
I’ve always struggled with praying for healing, for
myself, and others. Something about an unreasonable expectation for an outcome
I couldn’t guarantee. Some people thought that meant I didn’t have faith. I
know people who couch their prayers for healing with the caveat, “if it’s your
will.” But I think it’s always God’s will that we are healed… but often that
happens in ways we don’t recognize or understand.
My first weekend as a pastor, I got called to the
hospital to pray with a family who thought they were coming in to deliver a
bouncing baby girl, only to find out that the baby had died before delivery. If
I had ever asked myself, “What were you thinking, this was the day. This mom
and dad were waiting for me to tell them that it would be alright… that God was
with them and their little daughter… that it was OK to not only grieve her
death but also the of the dreams they had for her life. Sitting with families
waiting for word on accident victims, or with people as they die from cancer,
or visiting families devastated by a family member taking their own life…
Friends, there are no simple words adequate on many of these days.
But healing happens. One of my friends went in for a colonoscopy
after having distressing symptoms and they took out a couple of polyps and
biopsied a section of his colon that “looked funny.” Turns out that he not only
had colon cancer but also a fast-spreading form of lung cancer that had already
metastasized to his colon. If not for the extra care the surgeons took in
examining every millimeter of his colon in every direction, he would have been
dead from lung cancer in less than a year. “Thank God for colon cancer – it
saved my life.”
For the last five years, he has battled his cancers,
his treatments, and the medical healthcare system in the US with everything he
has. And he admits that when he first asked God for healing, he wanted the
cancer to be taken away. But instead, this experience healed broken relationships
in his family, strengthened his bonds with his wife and children, and taught
him what faith was all about. His mantra since that first day has been, “It’s a
great day to be alive.”
This friend from seminary grew up in a non-liturgical
tradition and one day we were talking about testimonies. Many of us may not
have a testimony, per se, but we all should think about the way we came to know
Jesus, and figure out how to tell someone else the story. Anyway, she felt a
lot of shame because whenever she would get brave enough to share her story in
church, it felt unimportant when others were able to weave such intricate tales
of doom and gloom before Jesus came into their lives. Maybe you can relate to
this model or maybe not – I was a mess and then Jesus fixed me –but many, many
people have a different experience of knowing Jesus, including most of the
people who followed Jesus in the gospels.
Instead of seeing these stories, and healings in
general, as successfully exiting Jesus’ fix-it shop, we should look at a much
bigger picture. If, as Jesus’ hands and feet in the world, we are called to
bring healing, that has a lot more to it than just praying when people are sick
or dying. Healing takes on limitless forms. Solutions are held up only by our
lack of imagination.
Emerson Powery (Working Preacher) wrote: “Jesus
chooses not to leave people in the conditions in which he finds them.” How many
of us can say the same? Jesus has the power to alter adverse conditions, but
many times it is through us that this happens. Do we take that seriously
enough, this call to bring change to other people's lives? Are we willing to
stand in the breach and bring healing and model peace during s? Are we willing to cross boundaries -- whether
they are related to ethnicity, gender, race, sexual orientation, politics, or
any other boundaries that divide our society -- and advocate life-giving
meaning and change?[i]
When I pray for the healing of someone who is sick, I
pray for their bodies and their spirits in the fight for health, but I also
pray for their families in their worry, and the medical professionals who take
care, and the neighbors who bring casseroles, and the employers who are
flexible with hours and vacation.
When we expand the vision of this text, we encounter real
challenges which will extend our understanding of healing in ways that will
challenge and strengthen our faith. Here are some questions for each of us to
consider:
*Does our professed faith match our lived faith? Does
what we say match what we do? And if there’s a mismatch, how do we fix it? For
some, this means developing a testimony – a short statement of how you came to
faith in Jesus and how you are living that out. Mine goes something like this –
I was raised in a Christian household and don’t remember a time when Jesus and
God weren’t a part of our family conversation. And several points in life, I
have felt more faith in God and Jesus and deepened my relationship with him
through study, missions, and worship. Every day is a new part of the journey.
Sometimes are easier than others, but I trust Jesus to be there even when I am
not sure.
*How do we respond when we are approached and touched
by the “unclean”? Do we see it as an invitation into a relationship or as a
theft of our personal space? We expected, as did the woman and the crowd, that
Jesus would reject the woman for touching him inappropriately. But that is not
what happened. This woman was commended for her faith and for her bravery in
coming forth, even in secret. Welcoming people into our space is hard. We like
feeling safe. We like knowing what to expect. One of our biggest challenges is
to accept that Jesus calls us into the unknown… and everyone we meet is a child
of God.
*How do we find the message of God’s hope in this
passage when faced with the reality that people suffering from years of disease
are not cured and children die and are not raised. Think about the times in
your life when it felt like God did not meet your expectations or places where
you had stopped looking for God. I imagine if we all look hard enough, we will
see God popping up in all kinds of unexpected ways, and these blessings are
often things we didn’t know we needed, but would not ever want to like without
again.[ii]
Your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
[i]
Emerson Powery, Two Healings, One Story, Working Preacher.org July 1, 2012, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-13-2/commentary-on-mark-521-43-3
[ii] Today’s
sermon is heavily resourced from Robb McCoy and Eric Fistler, Pulpit Fiction
Podcast, June 27, 2021 https://www.pulpitfiction.com/notes/proper8b/#Mark5%3A21-43=
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