Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The text for this meditation is written in the 5th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Mark: Verses 21–43:
And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. 22 Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet 23 and 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.” 24 And he went with him.
And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. 25 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28 For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” 29 And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.
34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease.”35 While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” 36 But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” 37 And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. 38 They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39 And when he had entered, he said to them,“Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” 40 And 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. 41 Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” 42 And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. 43 And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
The Gospel we just heard is a record of one miracle nested inside another. Jairus came to Jesus on behalf of his daughter who was very seriously ill. Then, while Jesus was on His way to heal the daughter, He encountered a woman who suffered from a bleeding disorder. Although this woman only wanted physical healing, Jesus knew she needed much more.
From a human standpoint, this causes a dilemma. Should Jesus remain there and deal with the woman or continue onward with Jairus? If He remains, Jairus’ daughter may die before Jesus can get to her. On the other hand, the woman has needs beyond mere physical healing, and Jesus may not be able to find her again later.
Fortunately, Jesus is not limited to the human viewpoint. He took time to deal with the woman even though it meant that the daughter would die. But then, He dealt with the daughter not just by bringing her back to life, but by bringing her back to perfect health.
When Jesus stopped and turned around in the middle of the crowd, no one was more surprised than the woman who had touched His garment for healing. The account clearly implies that she wanted her healing to go unnoticed. She didn’t want to be any trouble. She would just sneak in, touch His garment, and be gone. No one needed to know. This woman was undoubtedly shocked when Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, (Mark 5:30) “Who touched my garments?” In spite of her fear, (Mark 5:33) “the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth”. She was terrified that she was about to be punished for her actions.
You see, the nature of her bleeding condition had rendered her just as unclean as any leper. The law concerning a woman with her condition was very clear. (Leviticus 15:25) “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.” Not only was she unclean, but she had also exposed the entire crowd to her uncleanness. Strictly speaking, under the law, this woman had sinned against every member of the crowd. Her mere presence should have forced them to go to the priests for the purification ritual. She rightly expected punishment for violating the ritual cleanliness of every member of that crowd.
You see, this woman was born under the ‘Law’, the Scribes and Pharisees would condemn her for her inability to keep the ‘Law’; her sin condemned her. But the man Jesus knows her human weakness; He knows her needs, and so the account tells us that Jesus had nothing but Gospel (literally ‘Good News’) for the woman. (Mark 5:34) He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
Jesus understood that the bleeding condition was the least of this woman’s troubles. If Jesus would have let her go on her way, she would still carry the guilt of her sins. Not just the guilt of sneaking through the crowd and stealing some of Jesus’ power, but the guilt for all the other sins in her life. Physically, she would be fine, but eternally, she would still be condemned. Jesus’ words comforted her, forgave her, and gave her His peace.
Every one of us enters life with the same fear that this woman had, we are all born under the Law. Deep down inside, we know we don’t measure up. Deep down inside, we know that we need help. Deep down inside, we know that that help can only come from God. At the same time, we know that God has every right to punish us for our sin. We find ourselves in the painful situation of needing help from a source that terrifies us. We find ourselves in the situation where we want God to help us when we are struggling in our lives, but, like the woman, we want minimum contact in our need, but we distance ourselves from God the rest of the time. This is fear.
This seemingly irrational fear began in Eden. (Genesis 3:8–10) “They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” Adam and Eve sinned, and ever since, the presence of God has terrified people.
Ever since that day, humanity has laboured under the false notion that we must somehow earn our way back into God’s favour. Somehow, we must fix what went wrong in Eden. That is the reason that most people believe that religion is all about becoming a better person. It is all about getting right with God. Of course, anyone who is half-way honest will readily admit that they can’t make that happen. Therefore, God terrifies them. They know that they will not meet God’s standards on the day they must go to meet their maker, there is no human rationale that can assure us that we have been good enough.
The sad thing about all these terrified people is that they have the idea of religion all wrong. True religion is not about ‘us’ living a righteous life for God. It is about God taking on human flesh and living a righteous life for ‘us’. It is not about us getting right with God. It is about God dying on a cross so that He can give His righteousness to us. It is not about us paying the penalty for our sin. It is about God paying that penalty for us as He hangs on a cross and endures the punishment we deserve. It is not about a God who demands and takes. It is about a God who offers and gives. (Romans 5:8) “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.
The question is, since we live in a sinful world and our own sinful nature fills us with the false religions of terror, then how can we receive the true religion of forgiveness, life, and salvation?
In the Gospel we just heard, Jesus did not allow the woman to sneak off with mere physical healing. He wanted to heal her in body, mind, and spirit. So He (Mark 5:30) “turned about in the crowd and said, who touched my garments?”
He asked this question for the same reason He asked Adam where he was in Eden. Just as He knew exactly where Adam was, so He also knew all about the woman who had touched Him. In Eden, He asked in order to call Adam to Himself. In the same way, He asked, “Who touched my garments,” in order to call the woman to Himself. He knew exactly who had touched His garments and He gave her nowhere to hide. She had to come forward.
It was then that Jesus gently and lovingly laid the Gospel on her. He said to her, (Mark 5:34) “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” Jesus did not just heal her disease, but He also gave her His peace.
The woman did not seek out Jesus for healing in mind and spirit, but only for physical healing. Indeed, once her body was healed, she wanted to sneak off never to be heard from again. That is not the nature of Jesus love, the woman received mental and spiritual healing because Jesus called her to Himself and gave her His peace.
The other sign in today’s Gospel demonstrates this even more, for Jairus’ daughter did indeed die. As a dead person, she could do nothing to help herself. Nevertheless, Jesus called her and she woke up from death. It is easier for Jesus to wake a person from death than it is for one of us to waken someone from simple slumber.
Friends this isn’t Bible history, Jesus still gives His words of peace and healing today. We have His words given to His prophets before he was born. We have His words given to His Apostles out of His very human mouth … Words that the Apostles did not immediately understand, but that the Holy Spirit brought to their memory after Jesus ascended into heaven. We hear His words when we hear the reading of the Holy Scriptures as the Holy Spirit said through the Apostle Paul. (Ephesians 2:19–20) “You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone”. So it is that the Holy Spirit works faith in us through the Word of God. It is the Holy Spirit at work through the Gospel that converts us from the false religions of fear and death to the true religion of forgiveness, life, and salvation … to the religion that looks to Jesus on the cross as the source of all the gifts God gives to us.
The Gospel we just heard told us of a woman who was afraid when Jesus exposed her deed. In a similar way, our sinful nature is afraid when the Holy Spirit calls us by the Gospel. Just as the woman had no reason to fear, we have no reason to fear. Just as Jesus gave peace and healing to her, He wants to give eternal peace to us.
Jesus has died on the cross to take away all our sins. He has risen from the dead and ascended into heaven. He has earned your salvation and gives it to us freely. Don’t be afraid, but (Acts 16:31) “believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved”. Amen
The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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