Reading, Sermon and Prayers for 27 June 2021

READING: Mark 5:21-43

When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?” Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.

SERMON

This morning, we have a story within a story. Both of these are healing miracles, the healing of Jarius’ daughter, which was really raising her from the dead, and the healing miracle of the woman with the haemorrhage. Enough material to preach on for a long period of time.

The story opens with Jesus and the disciples on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. As they got out of their boat, Mark tells us that a large crowd gathered around them.

No sooner had they stepped upon the shore, than Jesus was approached by Jarius who was a leader of the local synagogue and he approaches Jesus in broad daylight in the midst of a huge crowd.

Mark tells us that Jarius fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him about his daughter who was ill, saying, Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live. Jairus came to Jesus in desperation.

He didn’t care who saw him or what they thought about him. His daughter was dying and he would risk anything to save her life. Even if it meant associating with this controversial man that the Jewish rulers wanted removed.

Jesus agreed to go with Jairus, no questions asked. And as they begin to make their way to Jairus house, the crowd pressed in on them and followed along.

Among the crowd is a woman who has suffered with bleeding for twelve years. She had been to many doctors and had spent everything she had in an attempt to be cured, but she was not getting any better, in fact she was getting worse. This woman had heard about Jesus. She had heard how he had cast out demons from people who were possessed. She had heard how he had healed a crippled man and opened the eyes of a blind person. She had heard how he cleansed a leper. Maybe, she thought he could heal her. What did she have to lose? Mark tells us that this woman came up behind Jesus in the crowd.

We can picture her sneaking into the crowd, and finding a crack here and an opening there, as she slowly makes her way towards Jesus. She thinks to herself, oh, if I could only reach out and touch just the hem of his garment I will be healed.

Finally she is within arm’s reach of Jesus. She reaches out and touches the frayed hem of his robe. And suddenly, for the first time in twelve years she found herself freed from her illness.

The condition that had dominated her very existence was miraculously gone. She was finally freed from her suffering. She had been healed.

But Jesus suddenly stops. Everything comes to a standstill, just like in the cartoons when everything freezes and the character moves to the centre of the screen and everything else moves to the background.

He turns around and asks his disciples, “Who touched my clothes?” He had felt the power go out of him, the power that healed this woman.

The disciples say to him, Are you crazy! Look at all these people around you! How can we possibly tell who touched you?

Jesus ignores them. He looks around at all the faces in the crowd and wonders who it was that had enough confidence in him to touch his dusty and worn robe to be healed.

The woman thinks she is in trouble. Trembling, she falls at Jesus’ feet and confesses that she is the one who touched him. She has no idea what is about to happen next. To approach an important rabbi and deliberately touch him could have resulted in censure and hostility.

She could be brought before the rulers of the synagogue, especially since she was an unclean woman who dared to approach and touch a Jewish man. She wonders, will the crowd chastise her? Will Jesus be angry with her?

But none of these things happen. Jesus says to her, Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.

The story then goes on to describe the healing of Jairus daughter. But as I said earlier, we could be here for a lot longer, unless you really want to hear it now. I mean we could all stay and have our Sunday dinner for tea.

What do you think? Well, for now, let’s just say that Jesus healed Jairus daughter and they all lived happily ever after. How’s that? As we look back over this story, I believe that there are a couple of points that are of significance.

First, it is significant that Jesus stopped his urgent errand. There was a little girl dying and an important man tugging at his sleeve, urging him to, “Come quickly!”

The disciples ridiculed him when he stopped to find out who it was that touched him. But the Lord knew that somebody needed him. He felt power go out from himself, and he knew that this appeal for help was more important than everything else at that moment, so he stopped what he was doing to help someone in need.

The second thing of significance, was that Jesus did not care that the social status of Jairus was higher than this woman in need. They were both equal in Jesus eyes.

This woman’s need was just as great as the need of Jairus and Jesus intended to fulfil that need even if it meant having Jairus and the disciples chastise him.

Every honest cry for help is worthy of Jesus attention. And it is faith what really lies at the heart of this story. A story of a woman’s abundant faith.

Jesus said to the woman, My daughter, your faith is what has made you well. The woman believed that if she could just touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, she would be healed. Her faith was the real source of her healing. This woman’s faith was not limited to her belief that Jesus would heal her infirmity, it went beyond that. The woman’s faith can be seen in her willingness to come forward out of the crowd and tell her whole story to Jesus.

It would have been so easy for her to just slip back into the crowd and walk away. Yet she comes forward and tells Jesus the story of her years of brokenness of heart and body. This must have been a very difficult thing for her to do, in front of Jesus and the surrounding crowd, especially because, of the nature of her illness.

Remember, she was thought of as unclean. The faith this woman possessed allowed her to say, I trust you enough, Jesus, that you’re going to love me and not rebuke me for what I’ve done.

This story therefore begs the question of us, Do we have the same faith that this woman had? Do we have the faith to believe in miracles?

Do you have the faith to believe that God will answer our prayers? Are we willing to open our lives to an encounter with God and in so doing allow God’s healing power to flow through us no matter where we journey in life?

It’s so sad that most of the time faith is our contingency plan. We first rely on ourselves, and when that doesn’t work, as a last resort, we turn to our faith.

I wish to tell you a story about a person who had a lot of contingency plans for their job.

A signalman for the local railway was asked to meet the inspector at the signal box. The inspector decided to give the signalman a test. He asked him, “What would you do if you realized that two trains were heading towards each other on the same track?” The signalman said, “I would switch one train to another track.” “What if the lever broke?” asked the inspector. “Then I’d run down to the tracks and use the manual lever down there”, he answered. “What if that had been struck by lightning?” asked the inspector. “Then,”he said, “I’d run back up here and use the phone to call the next signal box.” “What if the phone was busy?” “In that case,” said the signalman, “I’d use my mobile phone”. “What if you could not get a signal?” “Well,” replied the signalman, “in that case I would run into town and get my Uncle Len”. This puzzled the inspector, so he asked, “Why would you go and get your Uncle Len?” “Well, because Uncle Len’s never seen a train crash.”

The morale here being is that when we rely upon ourselves instead of God, we are liable to crash like the trains.

So finally to conclude this morning I ask that we put our faith in God and allow the miracle working power of Jesus to take over in our lives today.

Whatever the problem is in our life, whether it be a physical pain or an emotional suffering, an emotional upheavals in our life, a grief or a worry, let God have it and let our faith cause a miracle to happen in our life. God will meet our needs. God will heal our broken hearts, mend our broken spirit when we place our trust and faith in Him. God will do this for us, and say to us as he said to the woman, “Brother/Sister, go in peace, your faith has healed you”. Let us get up and go in peace knowing that we have been healed because of our faith in God’s healing powers. AMEN.

PRAYERS

Lord, we give you thanks today for so many things, a thousand miracles that we take for granted every day. Thank you for the vitality and diversity of the natural world. Thank you for the regularity and stability of the created world. Thank you for the way the body goes on functioning with such remarkable ingenuity. Train our hearts to be thankful so that we may live daily out a sense of gratitude and humility.