June 30, 2024 Sermon
Sermon title: “Jesus Heals TWO!”
Scripture: Mark 5:21-43
(Other lectionary suggestions include II Samuel 1:17-27, Psalm 130, and II Corinthians 8:7-15.)
Mark 5:21-43
A Girl Restored to Life and a Woman Healed
21Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea. 22Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet 23and begged him repeatedly, "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." 24So he went with him. And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. 25Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. 26She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. 27She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28for she said, "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well." 29Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my clothes?" 31And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, "Who touched me?' " 32He looked all around to see who had done it. 33But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. 34He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease." 35While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader's house to say, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?" 36But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, "Do not fear, only believe." 37He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. 38When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39When he had entered, he said to them, "Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping." 40And they laughed at him. Then 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. 41He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha cum," which means, "Little girl, get up!" 42And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. 43He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
The two people Jesus heals in today’s Scripture reading are not together. In fact, one is a little girl and one is a grown woman. One commentator says that what we are reading is a Markan sandwich: the story of the older woman “sandwiched” in between the beginning of the story of the little girl and its end. The term “Markan,” of course, refers to the Gospel of Mark.
Why did the author of Mark do this? True, the story may have happened that way, but Mark puts them both together because he feels they BELONG together. There are some superficial similarities: the girl is 12 years old and the woman's bleeding had been going on for 12 years. But perhaps Mark puts them together because they were both dead in certain ways. The little girl was certainly dead, and the woman with the non-stop bleeding was dead to society, dead to relationships. Perhaps in Mark’s mind, Jesus brings new life, whether it's life after death or new life to someone who is the “walking dead,” if I may use that expression.
Interesting, isn’t it, that Jesus feels the power go out of him? I mean, did the bleeding woman’s faith make her well, or was it some combination? Also, we get the Aramaic in the words, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Get up, little girl!” The fact that those words were remembered and recorded probably points to an eyewitness account. But in both stories, Jesus brings new life, and Jesus himself is on the road to bring new life to us all. Says N. T. Wright, “Both stories are about fear and faith, and the power of Jesus to take people from one to the other. Both, singly and together, are worth spending time ‘inside’, in the sense of meditating on them, imagining you are in the crowd watching it all happen......” In Wright’s words, it's “a wonderful way to turn scripture into prayer - and today, as in Jesus’ day, to turn fear into faith.”
I need to say something else right now. We, as you know, are in the middle of an election season or cycle, and there is a group called Faithful America, which is urging ministers to speak out against Christian nationalism. What is Christian nationalism? According to Faithful America’s website, “Christian nationalism is a political ideology that claims America was founded to be -- and should remain -- a so-called ‘Christian nation’, despite the clear intent of the Constitution to separate church and state and to honor religious liberty for all.” Also, Christian nationalists claim that only conservative Christians are true Americans.
This group, with whom I agree, wants preachers to speak out against this heresy of Christian nationalism, and it urges us to do so now, around the 4th of July, which is coming up this next week. How does today's reading speak to this topic? In it we can see Jesus’ teachings of love and his approach to power, which are directly contradicted by Christian nationalism. As we heard this morning, “This selection from Mark tells the story of Jesus healing two people: a hemorrhaging woman who grabbed his cloak, and the deceased daughter of the synagogue leader Jairus. The story ends with Jesus telling those who witnessed the girl's resurrection and healing to keep the event a secret.”
Says the Faithful America website, “There are at least two contrasts a preacher can draw between this reading and the heretical, dangerous approach of Christian nationalism. First, Jesus did not set any requirements for receiving love and healing from him. These two women were suffering, they needed him, he was going to help, and that’s all there is to it. Christ’s love is unconditional, with no pre-conditions. He did not order them to stop sinning first. He did not check to make sure that they believed all the right things about all the right cultural issues of the day. He did not ask about their politics, identity, or behavior -- he just loved them. This stands in stark contrast to a movement that promises vengeance and dictatorship, demands the death penalty for political opponents, openly mocks Americans who don't vote the same way, tries to take rights away from the LGBTQ community in Jesus’ name, threatens to jail women who receive abortions, mocks racial equality as ‘woke’, and even seeks to overturn key health care laws. This is why Christian nationalism is not Christian: We are to love our neighbors, no exceptions."
One more thing from the Faithful America website: “Christian nationalism seeks power for conservative white Christian men and their allies, and approaches power as a zero-sum game where non-Christians deserve less power and fewer rights. As worship leader Sean Feucht told a ‘Pastors for Trump’ rally, ‘We want believers to be the ones writing the laws. Yes. Guilty as charged.’ But instead of seeking attention in this story, Jesus explicitly told those who witnessed his miracles not to spread the word yet. This was simply love for love’s sake, and healing for healing’s sake. Jesus already had all the power, so holding power is not a bad thing, but he did not use it for himself – he used it for others. Christians are called to make a difference in society, including through the political and policy processes, but we must do so for everyone, not just our fellow Christians.”
Finally, I personally believe in the separation of church and state, and I just wrote a check to renew my membership in Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. So, I am not telling you how to vote. In fact, it would be illegal for me to tell you how to vote. But I AM telling you to remember who you are: a Disciple of Christ, a follower of Jesus. Keep that in mind when you mark your ballot. There is a bumper sticker that says, “Whom would Jesus bomb?” Here's an idea for another one: whom would Jesus exclude? If you said, “Nobody,” you answered rightly.
Pastor Skip
