"Fear and Faith"
Sermon Presented July 2, 2006
Mark 5:21-43
Most of us can vouch for the truth of the following statement: We tend to look upward when the ground beneath us shifts out of control. God often becomes most real when we face crises - our own illness or that of a loved one, financial difficulties, loss of a job, the death of a loved one, destruction of personal property or problems in a relationship. When we have a relationship with God through Jesus, we believe that we can turn to God when all else fails, but we often wait until all else fails before we seek God's help.
Our text this morning tells of two healings - one story sandwiched into the other. This is a typical style of writing in Mark's Gospel. As you listen to the text, notice the similarities between the stories. I am reading from Mark 5:21-43.
Did you notice the similarities in these stories? Both people who need healing are unnamed females. One is 12 years old and the other has been afflicted for 12 years. Both are ritually unclean - one because of her hemorrhaging and the other when she died. Both are healed when they touch or are touched by Jesus. Jesus says it is faith that brings their healing - the faith of the woman who touched Jesus and faith exhibited by the child's father. In each story, the woman/girl is called a "daughter", and someone falls at Jesus' feet. Both situations are hopeless - numerous doctors for the woman and the message of the child's death. These are the similarities; now let's look at the stories separately.
The first story begins when a leader of the synagogue named Jairus seeks help from Jesus to heal his dying daughter. He has no other place to turn, so he risks the scorn of his friends by coming to Jesus in a public place, and falling at his feet, begs him to touch his daughter so that she might live.
I doubt if Jairus is accustomed to pleading for anything. But here he is, down on his face in the dust, begging for his daughter's life. Jesus responds and agrees to accompany him to the child's bedside. However, as they walk toward Jairus' home, they are interrupted when a woman touches Jesus' cloak.
Most people ignore this woman. She's drained, desperate, unclean and weak. She spent everything she had on doctors, to no avail. For 12 years, as long as Jairus' daughter has been alive, this woman has been denied the practices of her faith and physical contact with people because she is ritually unclean and contact with others makes them unclean too. She's an outcast, one to be avoided, one who has no supportive community. In an act of desperation, she forces herself through the crowd and touches Jesus' clothing.
In that instant, she feels strength surge into her body, and Jesus feels power leaving his body. She is healed! Jesus' disciples think he's crazy when he asks who touched him because they are being jostled by a crowd of people.
The woman is overwhelmed by the realization that she is whole, and is both excited and frightened when Jesus calls her out of the crowd. Nevertheless, she approaches him and tells him her story. His response? "Daughter, go in peace. Your faith has healed you." Not only has she been healed by Jesus, she has a conversation with him. Her life is changed in that moment.
But what about Jairus? He's on pins and needles, knowing that his daughter is dying, and now there's this delay as Jesus searches for and talks with a woman who's already healed. As he waits, the dreaded message arrives. Jairus' daughter is dead. Overhearing those words, Jesus tells him not to be afraid but to believe, and they continue their journey toward the child. Upon reaching Jairus' home, Jesus speaks hope to the mourners who laugh at his absurd statement. He enters the child's room, accompanied by her parents and three disciples, takes the girl by the hand, and raises her to new life.
Both stories illustrate faith, fear and experience, and all three are present in our relations with God. We don't simply encounter Jesus on some esoteric plane separate from our daily lives, but we encounter God in Jesus in our physical being, our life and our death. Those encounters involve both touch and conversation. Without the dialogues between Jesus and the woman, and Jesus and the child and her parents, the miracles leave questions in the minds of the recipients and the onlookers. Without the dialogue, what happens simply happens and fear remains.
When the woman is healed, she is frightened by the prospect of facing Jesus. When the message of death comes, the father is frightened. We experience fear in conjunction with our faith, and that's to be expected. We experience fear in the face of the mysterious as both our physical and spiritual lives are affected. However, Jesus calms the fear through his words and his presence to the person.
A side issue in this text is Jesus' willingness to complete the restoration of the nameless woman, in spite of the pressing need of a dying child. He is willing to interrupt what he is doing so that the woman and the crowd understand the miracle. As I read the text, I wonder how many times I ignore the needs at hand because of some planned activity that just can't wait - how many times I skip the dialogue and go on my way. Maybe we need to examine this "theology of interruption" to see that God isn't bound to or limited by our values and priorities. God ministers to all and is committed to the salvation of the whole person, and this is the healing ministry to which we are called. In this story, we see grace in action - through Jesus' healing touch and through the dialogue. In this story, we see our model for grace in action.
Both stories zero in on the essence of faith and the character of the salvation that Jesus provides. For the hemorrhaging woman and Jairus, expressing faith didn't mean voicing a correct confession about who Jesus was. Rather it was a firm conviction that Jesus could help them, despite the overwhelming obstacles. Jesus was the last resort - the final hope, and their expression of faith was a fragile confidence that Jesus could help them.
Had the woman accepted the final word from the doctors and Jairus accepted the word of those who came with the message of his daughter's death, there would have been no miracles. But miracles happened because these two came to Jesus in faith. They believed Jesus could help them and they acted on that belief, allowing their faith to become active. They didn't just give an intellectual assent to Jesus' power to heal, but they acted on their belief that Jesus could restore people to wholeness.
Faith takes chances. It risks rejection and shows no pride. It recognizes that there are some things we can't do by ourselves.
When we come to Jesus in faith, we have to give him control of the situation. We need to turn loose of it. That's difficult - especially when we see the circumstances grow worse - when we receive word that the child is dead; that we didn't get the job; that the relationship will never resume; that the medical resources have been exhausted; that nothing is going to happen as we desire. It takes great faith to continue our dialogue with God in the face of negative circumstances. However, God does work in our lives in these negative circumstances.
My former neighbors began running marathons at the age of 50 to raise money for leukemia research. They do it because the 3-year-old daughter of friends died of a rare type of leukemia and running yearly marathons is their act of faith to help bring a cure for the disease. The time will come when others will live because of the research that is being conducted today with the help of those marathon runners. Sometimes we become another's miracle. Sometimes God uses us or our resources to bring life and wholeness to another.
But sometimes we see no miracles. There have been times in my life and I'm sure in yours when we have prayed in faith believing that God would intercede for us or for others and what we wanted to happen didn't happen. Marriages dissolved, people died, and pain and loneliness persisted. However, I firmly believe that when we pray in faith, God answers - even though the answer isn't necessarily what we wanted. There was healing, but it may have been spiritual or relational healing, and not physical.
So do I stop praying for physical healing? Of course not, because I know God heals. When I pray, I look for evidence of God's healing touch in the lives of others and in my own life on multiple planes. I access my own faith and sometimes piggyback onto the faith of another, knowing that God's presence will bring healing. And all the while, I continue to dialogue with God.
When life gets desperate - when we are sick from 12 years of hemorrhaging and no one will touch us - or when our child is dying and we have only God to cling to - or when the ground crumbles beneath us, then our faith can rise and move us toward Jesus and toward healing. Find someone of faith to accompany you on that journey. You may find physical, emotional or spiritual healing; you may receive the surprising restoration of a relationship; or you may settle comfortably into a new relationship or a closer walk with God.
As Christians, we can't base our faith on miracles. Our faith is in God through Jesus. And even though we don't often see the big miracles of complete healing of physical and mental illnesses, we continue to look for the hidden miracles that only faith can see. We continue to reach out and touch Jesus for ourselves and for others, and in the end, isn't that what faith is all about?
