The text this morning is from the Gospel according to Mark, the fifth chapter:
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. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet 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.” And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’ ” And he looked around to see who had done it. 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. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” 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?” But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” 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. Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
I like to call this narrative, “The Story of the Two Daughters.” In the first case, it is the daughter of Jairus who needs help. In the second, it is a woman Jesus calls daughter who needs help. In the first case, it’s a little girl, twelve years old. In the second case, it was a woman who has been bleeding since the day the girl was born, twelve years. In the first case, it was a plea from a despondent parent that stirred Jesus to compassion. In the second case, it was a despondent woman who pleaded for her life. In both cases, Jesus treats the women like His own children. And that’s weird.
A couple things to realize: death makes one unclean, and thus, anyone who touched a dead body was unclean. The Book of Numbers tells us,
“Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days. He shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean. But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean. Whoever touches a dead person, the body of anyone who has died, and does not cleanse himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not thrown on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him.”Also, bleeding from the “women’s area” also made one unclean, even if it is not her time of the month. Leviticus tells us,
“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. Every bed on which she lies, all the days of her discharge, shall be to her as the bed of her impurity. And everything on which she sits shall be unclean, as in the uncleanness of her menstrual impurity. And whoever touches these things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.”Now, I know that’s a lot. But I bring this all up to point out that there were strict laws the people of God had to follow in their uncleanliness. The reason for all of these laws was, well, God gave them, but also, to protect them. Leviticus goes on to say, “Thus you shall keep the people of Israel separate from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness by defiling my tabernacle that is in their midst.” The whole idea is that if you come to the tabernacle and are ceremonially unclean, you will defile the entire tabernacle. You cannot approach God in uncleanliness.
Now, let’s define that for a moment: uncleanliness doesn’t really mean that you didn’t wash your hands after the bathroom. It doesn’t mean that you’re dirty or that you’re sick. Unclean is more a state of being than a state of tidiness. In fact, God distinguishes many times between what is clean and what is unclean. That gives us the idea that uncleanliness is a state of unholiness. A clean place is a holy place, a clean animal is an acceptable animal, a clean person is a person who is listening to God.
Uncleanliness separates one from God because it is the consequence of sin. For instance, death is unclean because it is the wages of sin. A woman menstruating is unclean because that’s an egg with the potential for life coming out of her. An animal is unclean for, well, I’ll be honest and say I’ve no idea why some animals were okay to eat and others weren’t, but God still declared them that way. Uncleanliness is the state of being then that results in the effects of sin touching our bodies.
So, now think about these daughters. The youngest daughter was near death. She was near the point of literally making herself a body of uncleanliness for all who would touch her. Even as she breathed her last, her head being cradled in her daddy’s lap, her mom stroking her hair, she would have made these two unclean, separated from God for at least seven days. They wouldn’t be able to go where God was to be found, in His Temple. They could not repent of their sins, they could not say their prayers, they could not even touch others, lest they spread the uncleanliness around. No wonder then, Jairus is trying to grab Jesus as fast as he can, not just to prevent his uncleanliness, but to save his little girl.
The other daughter, well, she had been unclean constantly for twelve years. Never could she approach the Temple. Any time she sat down or laid down, it would make those items unclean for the next person. She couldn’t share a meal with people, she couldn’t share the family bed. In fact, she really couldn’t touch anyone either without the risk of making them unclean. She was utterly and completely alone, abandoned by priests and doctors alike.
And Jesus treats both these daughters with the utmost respect, as living beings. See what He does? He grabs the dead girl and tells her to get up. Except, He says she’s not really dead, but only sleeping. Jesus, the perfect Son of God, puts His hands on a dead girl and seems to go crazy, right? If He touches her, He makes Himself unclean. He makes Himself separated from God, and since He is God, this would be the worst case of schizophrenia ever. Except that to the One who breathed life into this girl’s nostrils, to the One that knit her together in her mother’s womb, death is no end of anything, but merely a short sleep until life everlasting. Death to Him is something to be mourned, something to weep over, and He did do that. But today, He takes the girl’s hand and tells her to get up.
Did He make Himself unclean? I don’t see how. Yet did He break the Law of God? Well, maybe, but only if she had stayed dead. After all the dead don’t start breathing again. The dead don’t start blinking and eating and talking again. So, even though the girl was dead, to Jesus, it was just sleeping. And did you see the care for her? He took her by the hand. When I want my son to come with me, to follow me, to stay safe, to stay secure, to know that I’m watching him, loving him, protecting him, I take his hand. I guide him where I want him to be. And this is Jesus, taking this girl’s hand and guiding her to life, to Himself, forever. I can only imagine that she and her family were amazed, but became also devoted followers of Jesus.
But before they could get there, Jesus was distracted on the way. You can imagine Jairus, who had gone out of his way to get Jesus to follow him to his sick, dying little girl sighing and rolling his eyes and becoming so exasperated when Jesus stops in the middle of the crowd and says, “Who touched me?” Oh my goodness, Jesus. Are you that dense? Are you dumb? Do you not feel everyone around you? Do you not know that each person wants a piece of you? Come on. My daughter’s dying; get to it!
But Jesus stops. He knows. The older daughter you can almost see shirking back into crowd until His watchful stare. As His eyes settled on her, she fell at His feet, telling Him that she believed even touching His clothing would heal her for everyone else had failed. And it did. Jesus, you would expect, should have been angry. This woman had been bleeding for twelve years. She was unclean. And yet, you can almost imagine Jesus reaching out His hand and taking hers and bringing her off the ground, and looking at her eyes, tears welling up in His own, “Oh, my dear daughter. Faith has made you well.” He tells her to go in peace. She’s clean. She doesn’t have to wait. She doesn’t have to make sacrifice for her uncleanliness. She can go to the Temple. She can pray and praise and give thanks. She can hug her family. She can sit and laugh at mealtime. She is made whole, she’s cleansed, she’s set right with God.
You see, our Lord treats these two daughters the very same way: with compassion, with care, and with a cleansing word. One is cleansed by faith, not by her own works, but because she had faith in the One who could save her and bring her back to God, and she was. The other is cleansed, not by a work of her own, but because the Lord who made her spoke into her ears the very words of life. Both women were saved, not by their own works, but by the work and power of Christ. Both these women mattered to Jesus; both these women were His daughters of the faith. And He cares for them. He gives them what they need, cleansing, being brought back into the life of faith.
It’s not to say that Jesus raised every dead person He ever met. It’s not to say that Jesus even healed every sick person He encountered. But it is to say that Jesus restores to life those who have been looking for Him. He never rejects those who desire to be clean, to be set right with God, to be part of the faithful. Whether they knew it or not, these women were looking for Jesus, not to make their lives better, but to give them an eternal life, a promise forever, salvation. And these two beloved daughters are no different than you or me.
We cannot save ourselves, we cannot cleanse ourselves. We are dirty, filthy, stinking, diseased, unclean souls. We are conceived in sin. We are born sinful and are enemies of God. We should be, and are, separated by God and given over unto death. Yet, our Lord, in all of His generous care, compassion, and cleansing, would stretch His hand out and pour water over your head, saying, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The same hand that took these daughters to life everlasting brings you also to life everlasting. Jesus never hesitated to bring someone the gift of eternal life, and so He has not hesitated with you. These daughters, these beloved girls belong to Jesus, and so do you.
Jesus stopped for both of them because they were both lost sheep, wandering in the wilderness. They had been separated from God, one according to the Law of God, that the power of God might be seen in her healing, and the other by the effect of the fall, that she would die because of sin and be raised to newness of life. And so it is with you. You may be separated from God, or feel far from Him, because of your sin. You know which of the commandments of God you have broken; you’re a sinner, a big one. Yet, our Lord would even have compassion on you. You may be a great sinner, but you have a greater Savior who has washed you clean from your sin. You may be suffering the effects of sin in this life, but you have a Savior who overcame the grave, the wages of sin, and gives to you the same promise of everlasting life that He possesses.
Through Baptism, you have not only been washed clean from all your sin, but welcomed into the kingdom of God. You have been washed, and our Lord who wants you come with Him, to follow Him, to stay safe, to stay secure, to know that He’s watching over you, loving you, protecting you, takes your hand. He guides you to where He wants you to be. He guides you to where you can pray, praise, and give thanks. He says, “Son, Daughter, get up.” You are not dead, but you are now alive in Christ, and you are right where He wants you to be: here, receiving Him, hearing His Word, receiving His Sacraments. You are His daughters, you are His sons, and He cares for you with the deepest compassion, and He has taken away your uncleanliness forever. You are no longer separated from God, but you are now made right in Him, you are clean, now and forever. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment