First Reading: Lamentations 3:22-33
22The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” 25The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. 26It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. 27It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 28Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; 29let him put his mouth in the dust — there may yet be hope; 30let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. 31For the Lord will not cast off forever, 32but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; 33for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.
Psalm 30
1I will exalt you, O Lord, because you have lifted me up and have not let my enemies triumph over me. 2O Lord my God, I cried out to you, and you restored me to health. 3You brought me up, O Lord, from the dead; you restored my life as I was going down to the grave. 4Sing to the Lord, you servants of his; give thanks for the remembrance of his holiness. 5For his wrath endures but the twinkling of an eye, his favor for a lifetime. 6Weeping may spend the night, but joy comes in the morning. 7While I felt secure, I said, “I shall never be disturbed. You, Lord, with your favor, made me as strong as the mountains.” 8Then you hid your face, and I was filled with fear. 9I cried to you, O Lord; I pleaded with the Lord, saying, 10“What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the pit?* will the dust praise you or declare your faithfulness? 11Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me; O Lord, be my helper.” 12You have turned my wailing into dancing; you have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy. 13Therefore my heart sings to you without ceasing; O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever.
Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 8:1-9, 13-15
1We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, 4begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints — 5and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. 6Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. 7But as you excel in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you — see that you excel in this act of grace also. 8I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. 9For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
13For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness 14your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. 15As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”
Gospel: Mark 5:21-43
21When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. 22Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet 23and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” 24And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. 25And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” 29And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” 31And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 32And he looked around to see who had done it. 33But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. 34And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” 35While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” 36But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” 37And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. 38They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” 40And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. 41Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” 42And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. 43And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
A New Lease on Life
It’s a walk of shame far worse than being voted off any television reality show. An upper middle-aged woman had been working in her mid-level management office job for twelve years. To those looking on, it appeared that she’d done everything right. Along the way she earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in her field. She regularly volunteered at the company’s charitable events. Her colleagues enjoyed working with her, as did the people she supervised in her department. She also kept a cordial relationship with upper management. When appropriate, she wore company clothing with the corporate logo on her polo shirt. To the average observer, it appeared that her life was on track and two of her children were currently in college. One could say that she was the poster child for upward mobility. What could possibly go wrong?
Then one sunny Friday afternoon at 4:30 p.m., two armed, uniformed, security guards from the company headquarters entered her office. They presented her with a termination notice indicating that the order was effective immediately. She was also informed that additional information surrounding her termination would be sent by registered mail. The guards also had an empty brown box in which she was ordered to place all her personal belongings from her desk. One guard made sure no company owned property was taken. As she emptied her desk, the other security guard asked for her company ID badge. He logged onto her computer and deleted all her files and then put in new passwords and username codes. The woman was in shock! She felt like she was being “ambushed!” What did she do to deserve this? Could things get any worse? As she would soon find out, yes, they could!
The two security guards then ushered her down the aisles of workers whom she supervised, and the colleagues whom she had known for twelve years, both on the job and socially at company events. Escorted by the guards, she carried the brown box out toward the parking lot, past the employee cafeteria. As she fought back tears, she realized she was taking a final walk of shame to make a corporate point to the other employees who had not yet been terminated. The office was so quiet one could hear a pin drop on the carpet floor. As she started her car, she was directed to the parking lot exit. Upon leaving the premises, the parking lot gates were immediately closed and electronically locked. Was this the end of this humiliation? No!
That evening, at the local restaurant, the people who witnessed her embarrassing exit from the company premises were polite, but cool toward her. Nobody wanted to be seen on camera socializing with her. Being terminated from the job carries a twofold stigma of unwritten assumptions. First, it implied that she’d done something wrong, and the company had good reason to terminate her. Second, if anyone was seen associating with her, they too could see their job on the “chopping block.” This woman, terminated after twelve years of faithful service, could well empathize with the woman who had the blood hemorrhages and thus became a social outcast. In St. Mark’s gospel, it’s the marginalized and unnamed outsiders who seem to grasp that Jesus is more than an itinerant religious teacher, He has indeed been sent by God.
Our gospel lesson for today begins with a gravely ill twelve-year-old girl, the daughter of a synagogue leader named Jairus. This is one of the few times in Mark’s gospel where a powerful person of the religious establishment had faith in Jesus’ power to heal. However, Jairus, despite his position within the community, was still an “outsider” by Mark’s standards. He wasn’t one of Jesus’ disciples, nor one who followed Jesus from location to location. Jairus certainly wasn’t one of the inner circle of disciples such as Peter, James, and John. Yet, he still had faith in Jesus’ power. And other than Matthew and Luke’s telling of this story, we’ll never hear of him again.
As Jesus was on His way to Jairus’ house, an unnamed woman in the crowd touched Jesus’ garment. Scholars have written about this encounter for ages. There are those who identify other great Greek teachers and healers of the time who could heal people. There was also the thought that a person’s clothes were an extension of who they are as people. Thus, touching a person’s garments was viewed as a way to receive healing or blessing. But we have a problem here, not only is Jesus touched by a woman not of His family, a no-no in Jesus’ time, but this woman was unclean by Jewish law, a double no-no in that culture.
To better understand the outcast status of this woman, we need to go back to the Levitical laws concerning the conditions a person was either considered clean or unclean. In Leviticus 15 we read, “If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, not at the time of her menstrual impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her impurity, all the days of the discharge she shall continue in uncleanness. As in the days of her impurity, she shall be unclean. Every bed on which she lies, all the days of her discharge, shall be to her as the bed of her impurity. And everything on which she sits shall be unclean, as in the uncleanness of her menstrual impurity. And whoever touches these things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening (vs. 25-27).
It’s important to note in verse 27, that anyone who has contact with someone with an issue of blood, or their belongings, is unclean as well. For the Jew to be unclean was to be an outcast. In most cases those considered unclean had to live outside the community. They couldn’t go to the market, to public gatherings, nor could they attend the synagogue. For this woman to approach Jesus meant she not only risked breaking the law, but she also risked further ostracization by the community and endangering the wellbeing of others around her. This speaks to two things that are common to both the stories in our reading from St. Mark, faith and a willingness to act.
St. Mark, as well as the other gospel writers, report that the healing professionals of this woman’s day were unsuccessful in healing her from the bleeding ailment. One commentator I read indicated that the physicians of her day had exhausted all her financial resources, without results. She probably had medical bills for the unpaid co-payments she owed to the medical establishment. Nobody wanted to be seen around a person like this. They were viewed as exiles and as a burden on society. She could identify with the woman in the opening illustration who was ambushed on late Friday afternoon by her employer. Having exhausted all her options and resources, she looks to the “One sent by God” (Matthew 10:40).
St. Mark tells us that she makes her way through the crowd and touches Jesus’ robe. The text says she was healed “immediately,” a favorite word for our evangelist. St. Mark uses this Greek word euthos 42 times. He does this to show the immediacy of God’s actions. Identifying the woman, Jesus acknowledged, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease” (Mark 5:34). One thing we need to ask in these two stories and even in the story of the demonic in the tombs that precedes these stories is, do the people recognize Jesus for who He really is, the Son of God? Of course, the demons Jesus sent into the pigs do, but Jesus silences them. The point I’m making is that both the woman with the issue of blood and Jarus the religious leader placed their faith in God and God in Jesus acted.
Both main characters in our gospel lesson for today, I’m certain, engaged the medical professionals of their day. In the case of the woman, St. Mark make this clear. In the case of Jarus, what father wouldn’t consult with their physician when their child is sick? In both these cases, the earthly physicians had come up short. So, both the woman and Jarius, turn to God and place their faith in the One who can heal, and they acted. When you look back to the beginning of this chapter, and you include the story of the healing of the demonic, you begin to see something very vital going on here that’s important for us to acknowledge; when we place our faith in God and act on that faith, God comes to us, in our context, and satisfies the need.
Again, look at the story of the demonic. The man was out of his mind possessed by a legion of demons. To meet this man’s need, Jesus goes to him and delivers him from bondage to satan. In the case of the woman, Jesus was there, and she came to him with a faith that said, all I need to do is reach out to Him. In the case of Jarius, his faith said, I need Jesus to physical come with me and touch my daughter. In all cases, Jesus met each of these people at the point of their need. One was captive to satan and needed Jesus to act on his behalf. Another needed to have the presence of Jesus in his home, and the third simply needed to reach out and touch the One who could heal her. And in all these cases, Jesus did more than simply heal, He also restored.
In the case of the woman Jesus healed, we see two things; first, Jesus addresses her as “daughter.” She, of course, wasn’t His child in the earthy way. What we see here in Jesus’ address is a glimpse of what Mark recorded in 1:1, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” The Son of God came as a healer so others may also have new life. Not only was she restored physically, her social stigma was removed in her healing. She could finally, after 12 long years, reenter society and get on with her life. She, as an outcast, placed her faith in God, acted, and God healed her. Second, Jesus wished her “peace.” The Greek word ear-ay-nee, indicated her life was now in harmony, in good order.
Surrounding this story of the woman, is the story of Jarius’ daughter. After the woman is healed, the narrative of Jairus’ daughter continues as the synagogue leader receives the news that his daughter was dead. The mourners in the community were already in the house weeping and wailing. When Jesus arrives at the house, He tells the crowd that the child was not dead, but asleep. Jesus used the Aramaic words talitha cumi for “little girl get up!” And as St. Mark is fond of saying, she immediately got up and walked. All were overcome with amazement. She too was healed and restored to her family.
In St. John’s gospel, for Jesus to have such a power over life and death was viewed as a threat to the Judean authorities. In Mark, people were amazed. The girl was given a meal to eat, and Jesus ordered strict secrecy of this miracle. We already see a glimpse of resurrection teachings here in Mark’s gospel. Scholars have often pointed to the abrupt ending in Mark 16:8, where the women are simply frightened, but nobody had yet seen the risen Christ. This text and the passion prediction in Mark 9:31, “The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he will rise”, are signs that the gospel writer intended to show the reader that Jesus’ resurrection from the grave was real. Those, whose faith is in Jesus, will also have a new life like His. And there’s more good news in the text.
Why the secrecy? This is called the “messianic secret” that is unique to Mark’s gospel. There have been volumes written on this and we will not resolve the scholarly issues today. I happen to believe that Jesus didn’t want people to identify Him as God’s Son until after He died on the cross and rose from the grave three days later. In Mark, Jesus became the Messiah when He died on the cross. He was not to be mistaken for an itinerant healer, provider, or exorcist service. To be part of the kingdom of God in Mark was to simply have faith in God, to act on that faith, and trust Him for new life. So where then is the kingdom of God in Mark’s gospel?
God’s kingdom can be found among the religious leaders of the time such as Jairus, his household, and the community who supported him. The kingdom was also found among the outsiders such as Matthew the tax collector, and the nameless woman who was healed simply for having faith in God. In the case of the woman in the opening story, she found a small community of faith who connected her with a self-employment opportunity in which she still flourishes today. All who place their faith in God and act, find healing and new life. The good news for today is that God’s kingdom isn’t simply being released from the physicians’ care then going home to live like a coach potato for a month or so. The kingdom of God is where people are healed and find new life as a witness to who this crucified and risen Messiah is in our lives.
In this season of Pentecost, we’ll hear several more stories of healing, exorcism, restoration, and the raising of the dead. What we need to see in all these stories is God’s compassion, the faith the people placed in God, the actions they took, and the fact that in each case Jesus was there to meet each person in their context and at the point of their need. Jesus said, “if you have the faith as small as a mustard seed”, God will respond and meet the need. We must remember that “faith without works”, as St. James reminds us, is useless.
Amen.