Bible Text: Mark 4:21-43 | Preacher: Pastor Karen Bartkowski | Series: Mark | This scripture reminds me that Jesus really does know what it is like to be a parent!  He was on his way to doing something very important- Jairus had tracked him down and asked, well, maybe begged Jesus to come to his house because his daughter was sick.  Jesus was on his way, Mark tells us, but then, yup, just like a parent who is trying to make dinner, Jesus gets interrupted!  Interrupted by an equally important reason. As a parent, maybe we are called away to referee an argument or help with some homework. Jesus is interrupted by a woman who reaches out to touch the hem of Jesus’ robe with hope of being healed. We will talk about the rest of the story in a moment or two.  In fact, I find it so interesting that Mark chooses to tell us these stories and includes the interruption.  He starts one story, tells another and comes back to tell the conclusion of the first. Mark could have said that Jesus healed two people today.  He could have told the story of Jairus and his daughter and then told the story of the woman who had been bleeding for twelve years.  I wonder why Mark chose to include the interruption.  I wonder why Mark chose to tell the story as it really happened in chronological order.  I think such an intentional literary choice means there is a meaning in there somewhere.  I hope we can consider some reasons together today.

But, that is really just one part of this amazing piece of scripture.  Two people are healed! A young girl is sick, presumed dead and Jesus heals her by touching her and the woman is healed of a long illness by touching Jesus. We know the power of Jesus. We read this story today and maybe even miss or at least minimize the miracle.  We might be saying, “Yup, just another story about our Savior, Jesus”.  Let’s not do that today, let’s read this story in the context of Ephesians 3:20- “God can do more than we can ever think or imagine”.

There must be more to this story than we can ever think or imagine. It is important to read scripture and imagine what else there is to the story.  I think it is in that imagination where the message is for us! It is not making up details, it is opening your mind to things unseen, but that make sense in our human condition and situation.  John Wesley taught that interpretation of scripture should happen in what has been coined, Wesley’s quadrilateral. 4 ways to look at a passage of scripture when you are looking for the meaning that God intends.  Of course, the words of the SCRIPTURE itself are of utmost importance.  Jesus’ words are Jesus’ words. There is power in those words and in the words of scripture.  But Wesley then encourages Bible students, like you and me, to consider tradition, reason and experience as we seek to understand the Bible.  Tradition- what has been the interpretation through history. What have others written about this scripture? Where has this story been used in the life of the church? REASON- what makes sense?  What can we be fairly certain was happening in and around this story because it is a common human reaction? EXPERIENCE- How does this look like something you have been through before?  How does your past experience influence how you hear this story and how you understand its meaning and message?

So, let’s go back to the story, look at the scripture and add some tradition, reason and experience and see what happens…ready?

Jairus- a dad with a sick little girl.  Can you imagine his desperation?  His grief?  His sense of urgency?  Have you been there?  Desperate? Feeling like you are running out of time? It makes me sad to think of the many of you who are nodding your heads right now. You can almost hear it in his voice in the words of Mark.  Jairus might have been breathless, having run around town looking for Jesus, worried sick about his daughter. Jesus agrees to go.  We read that a large crowd starts to gather around Jesus at this point. Word of Jesus’ healing ability has made its way through the town and everyone wants to see Jesus- if not for healing, out of curiosity or wanting to witness a healing with their own eyes.  Jairus was probably thinking “hurry up Jesus”.  He might have wanted to tell the crowd to get away, “Jesus has a very important place to go”.

But, here is the interruption, especially in the eyes of Jairus.  A woman is in the crowd.  Mark tells us a couple of things about her.  She has been suffering for twelve years with a bleeding disorder and she has spent all her money on interventions to stop her disease.  All of her money to get any advice that might make her better.  But instead of improving, Mark tells us she actually got worse.  Let’s understand her situation a bit more.  In Jesus’ time, when a woman was bleeding, having her menstrual cycle, we would call it, she was considered unclean.  She couldn’t be near others, for whoever and whatever she touched was also then unclean. People who knew her and her condition would go out of their way to avoid her. They would cross to the other side of the road.  She had been treated like this for 12 years! She couldn’t marry and we know she was poor.  All because of this physical condition. Can you imagine her loneliness?  Can you imagine her shame? Can you imagine her desperation? This too makes me so sad that many of us can relate to her emotional turmoil.

Jairus and this woman believe that Jesus is the answer.  Jairus asks Jesus to come to his house and touch his daughter.  The bleeding woman just wants to touch Jesus’ robe. Did they understand the divine power of Jesus?  Did they see him as God incarnate?  Did they realize they were in the presence of God?  I am not sure about that, but I would lean towards no. They were desperate for healing, for physical healing from physical impairments.  If Jesus did this with magic, they would have been happy.  We can relate to Jairus and this woman, right?  The sickness is what we can see…the sickness is the barrier to wholeness.  We cannot be whole until we are well.

We know the end of each story, Jairus’s daughter is alive and the woman’s bleeding has stopped!  That is what the words of the scripture tell us.  Jesus says to Jairus, your daughter is not dead, she was sleeping and Mark says as soon as the woman touched Jesus’s clothing, her bleeding stopped.  We can end the story there with happy endings all around!

But, I think there is a lot more to learn when we move past the physical healing.  Jesus’s words and actions teach us a valuable lesson about healing.

Do you remember what Jesus said after the woman touched him?  He wanted to know who it was.  I think Jesus knew all along who it was.  He was giving the woman an opportunity to be recognized, to be exposed, to show the crowd exactly who was healed.  Imagine this, she is already healed right?  She got what she came for and she could go home.  But, that is not enough for Jesus.  He wants to heal her in another way too.  He wants to heal her relationally.  Her bleeding stopped, yes. But Jesus wanted everyone to know. He says in front of the whole community, Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease. Jesus made sure that the crowd knew her healing was no magic but as a result of her faith.  Jesus wanted to publicly announce that she is well.  That, indeed her bleeding has stopped.  Jesus says, “go in peace”.  Peace after her storm of illness for twelve long years!  Jesus was willing to reach out to this unclean, unwell, suffering woman and offer her peace.

Now Jairus is watching this whole thing, right? Hurry up Jesus, why are you wasting your time with this poor, unclean woman?  I am a leader in the synagogue and my daughter needs you!  Remember last week, when Pastor Dorry told us the disciples said the same thing- Jesus don’t you care that we are perishing?  What about us?  What about me?  I can see Jairus pacing around, wanting to drag Jesus to his house and away from this crowd.  And then he gets the news he has dreaded…your daughter has died.  Do you think he thought to himself, see Jesus I told you we needed to hurry?  I cannot believe that you made the choice to stop and talk instead of coming to my daughter’s side.  Now, see what you have done?  It’s too late!

Jesus must have known that is what he was thinking when he said, Do not fear, only believe.  Do not fear, only believe.  As Jesus teaches so many times, faith is the vaccine for fear.  Jesus goes on to the house anyway, despite the lack of faith of Jairus’s friends, and maybe even despite Jairus’s lack of faith.  Jesus doesn’t wait for Jairus to agree, he just continues to do what he had planned all along. He went inside and told the girl to get up!  And she did.  We don’t know what she was sick with but we know that her family thought her dead and now she was walking around the house!

2 people healed…2 happy endings!  But, this is where I love to use my imagination.  Mark doesn’t tell us anything else about what happened to this young girl’s family or to the woman.  Scripture doesn’t tell us the rest of the story…but there has to be one, right?  For me, these two stories have always been so powerful when I consider what happened next…

Let’s start with the woman- she has been ostracized, likely for her whole life.  She was ignored, ridiculed, bullied.  It started because she had a physical disease.  She suffered emotionally, socially and psychologically too.  She left the crowded area not bleeding, which meant she could now touch people and be touched, she could share space, she could make friends and build relationships.  Maybe she fell in love, got married and had kids.  And now she also had this AMAZING story to tell.  Can you picture it?  People wanting to hear her story?  Maybe she dedicated her life to serving women like her- those whose physical situation affected their relationships. She now had this ability to tell people about Jesus and how he treated her.  How she felt wanted, accepted and whole when Jesus called her “daughter”.  What could that do for another woman? And what does that kind of energy do for a community?  I wonder if everyone got excited about a faith in Jesus.  I wonder how many of the people in that town and in that woman’s community were members of the church after Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Her healing was not just for her.  Jesus knew that physical healing was just the part people could see right away.  Social healing, relational healing, community healing all happened too because of the power of Jesus.

And don’t miss what Jesus tells Jairus and his wife to do after their daughter is healed.  Jesus says give her something to eat.  Some scholars say Jesus said this so that it would be obvious that she had physical healing.  If she could eat, her body was working normally.  I see something else happening too.  Remember that Jesus sent a whole bunch of people out of the house.  I am sure they were waiting outside- peeking in the windows?!  Jesus’ instructions to give her something to eat likely turned into a party with food and drink. Doesn’t that make sense?  They had something to celebrate!  A celebration that brings people together. One was healed and many rejoiced!  And can you imagine how much love that little girl got that day and probably for the rest of her life?  She had a story!  Her story would inspire others, her story would give others hope, her story would give her a chance to talk about Jesus!  Her parents had a story to tell.  The people at the party had a story to tell.  Can you imagine how many people knew about Jesus because of this?  Jesus told them not to tell, but it is hard to imagine they didn’t!

I know a lot of what we talked about today isn’t in the Bible.  We had to use our imaginations to continue the story.  Maybe we are right about what happened next and maybe not, but the idea that God extends the healing beyond the physical matches what we know about God, doesn’t it?  We know that God wants wholeness for us- wholeness of body, mind, and soul. And God wants us to be in whole relationship with God and with each other as a community.  We know that God is in the business of transformation- of taking what is and using it for good.  God used these healings as a catalyst for relationship building.  Out of the despair, came joy.  Out of the marginalized, came acceptance.  Out of the doubt, came faith. Not just for one, but for many. This is not a smooth, straight path though. God’s grace enables us to have faith and be able to reach out for Jesus, and then, as we have talked about this month- the anti- call shows up- the disciples trying to move Jesus along and encouraging him to ignore the woman or Jairus’ friends saying what’s the use- she is dead.  An interruption of sorts. We might think that God cannot pay attention to us and our situations and needs if there is so much else going on all around! How can God care about me and everyone else? I think Mark is telling us that Jesus doesn’t forget us when it seems like our story is interrupted. Jesus didn’t forget about Jairus and his daughter when he stopped to speak hope and mercy to the woman he called daughter. Our perceived anti-call, the interruption, is never a barrier to the power of God. But, God gets the final word- healing and wholeness-not just of the two in these stories, but of their families, their friends and their communities.  Then and now–

We can renew our faith when we study this scripture.  We can see ourselves in the people and situations in these stories. We can and should use the imagination that God has given us to see how healing has happened in our lives because of the healing of those around us!  And how our healing has healed others! Our stories, just like those in the Bible, can bear witness to the infinite love God has for us and for God’s power and ability to heal all of us- as individuals, as families, as a church, as a country and as a world in ways we can never imagine!

May our faith make us well.

To God be the glory.

Amen.