A Matter of Death and Life

Jesus is going to the house of Jairus to heal his daughter when the trip is interrupted by the poor woman touching his robe and hoping fervently to be healed of her complaint of many years.

The first point we can draw from the complex story is that Jesus remains available to all, regardless of station or wealth.

Both the rich man named Jairus and the poor woman whose name we do not know are regarded by Jesus as persons worthy of attention.

Looking at it another way,

neither the man's wealth, nor the woman's impetuousness is able to manipulate Jesus.

He will deal with those whom he chooses, no matter what.

Neither can we bribe Jesus with monetary offerings or prayers, or trick him into doing something that is foreign to his will for us.

The second point is related to the first.

Jesus begins to work with us where we are.

Jesus did not have to make a house-call;

his word would have been sufficient.

Yet in this instance, Jesus felt it was important to visit the house.

Jairus is identified as a rich man who has undoubtedly been after the local doctors with no results.

He is desperate:

he makes a public spectacle

by falling down in front of Jesus to implore his help.

A rich man, a ruler of the synagogue, there in the dust in front of the itinerant carpenter. Amazing!

Jesus should perhaps have upbraided him for causing such a commotion,

for looking to him as a last resort,

or for regarding him mostly as a wonder-worker.

Jesus passes up all those opportunities.

he simply says, “Come, let us go to your house. Pay no attention to the messengers of gloom. Come.

And then there is the woman who steps up behind him and touches the tassel at the corner of his robe.

Jesus could have given her quite a lecture also.

With her bleeding disorder, she was considered unclean.

She should have no contact whatsoever with other people.

And now she has done the monstrous thing of touching Jesus which would render him unclean also.

Moreover, she has some sort of a magical understanding of Jesus' power.

Jesus is a magician in her view, with an aura about him so that she can slip in close and grab a bit of that without others knowing about it.

Imagine the lecture that Jesus could have given her about the impropriety of trying to manipulate God for her own ends.

But again, he does not.

He turns to her in spite of her overly-bold behavior and he half-baked superstition and begins to work with her.

That is good news for us also.

In whatever state we are,

with whatever kinds of understandings,

at whatever levels of maturity we are,

Jesus is there, ready and willing to engage us in the venture of faith.

Over the years, people have approached me from time to time and said something like

“Yes, I'm curious,

I might want to talk about this God,

but I'm not quite sure yet.

Let me get my act together first, and then I might consider Christianity.

I can't enter right now because of my questions and puzzlements.”

Such persons have sensed that their motivations are not quite right, and so this story of Jesus is pointed at them and indeed at all of us.

For who among us can say that we have gathered here this morning with perfectly pure motivations?

Each of us comes with a mixture of good and not so good reasons.

But in each case, Jesus patiently begins to work with us.

The greatness of Jesus is that long before he straightens out our false theologies,

long before he corrects our false ideas,

he accepts us.

He starts with us where we are. [Ron Lavin]

...with our marriage problems

and employment worries,

health concerns,

family dysfunctions,

in joys and sorrows....

Jesus is there and ready to begin.

That readiness on the part of Jesus signals the third point of the Jesus-story:

Jesus' actions mean for us a new beginning.

This is dramatically seen in the story where Jairus and his daughter, as well as the ill woman all have a new life.

Things are not as they were, because of the encounter with Jesus.

For them, every day that follows will be a looking back to that special and momentous day when Jesus changed their lives completely.

Every day, therefore, they will be asking the “So what?” questions:

“So, what does that event have to do with me here today?”

It is the same with us.

The day of our first encounter was the day of our Baptism.

Every day since then has been a time of asking the question :
What does it mean to me today that Jesus took time to deal with me,

to make promises to me,

to commission me,

to encourage me?

And every day our answer will change just a little bit.

Through much of this year we are reading from the Gospel of Mark and trying to understand his point of view.

There is an amazing pattern here.

The disciples are not magically changed form rabble to believers – it is a long process.

Why do they first follow Jesus?

--perhaps their reasons are good or not so good, but they begin to follow.

--the healings and other events such as we heard last week in which everyone is asking “Who is this Jesus?”

--In teaching and events the people are amazed, but everyone, including the disciples, comes to understanding very slowly and on a bit at a time.

--Only at the resurrection are Peter and all the rest able to put the pieces together;

--Only at the resurrection will they look at the whole story to see how it all makes sense.

That is the way our Christian lives work also.

When God calls us first at Baptism, whether as infant or adult, we do not know what it is that we are entering, or in what directions we will be led.

We can only begin, follow, and allow God's Holy Spirit to stir up in us that gift we call faith.

As the days and years go by, we begin to use the words and forms of the faith in worship and in how we live our lives and work with each other.

And in the process of using those words and forms, we begin to glimpse what it means, how it all fits together.

We continue to unwrap and use the gift of faith throughout our lives, so that by the time we reach the end of our journeying in heaven, it shall all be clear.

--all false motivations are laid aside,

--unwise words and deeds wiped away,

--griefs and sorrows overcome,

--only the promise and its fulfillment remaining.

Even though that is true, we usually hesitate in voicing it that way, for there is the danger of turning things into a “someday, somewhere far far away” kind of faith that has nothing to do with today!

Jesus gives not only life after death, but also life before death.

Jairus' daughter was not resurrected, she was returned to this life...

...but it was a sign pointing toward eventual resurrection.

and in the meantime, it was also a sign that God has much more to do with her.

And this is then our final point from the stories today: that God continues to surprise us with different tasks that fit within his will, even when we have been ready to give up.

We don't know what happened on that next day with Jairus, his daughter, or the old woman.

What does it mean for them, for me, for us, that God has reached out to each of us?

When we sing that old 19^th century hymn Just as I Am, I have a suspicion that we do so with a hidden thought:

“Take me just as I am. Don't change things because I like them pretty much as they are.”

The hymn writer knew that Jesus is not satisfied with that. He says:

Just as I am, thou wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve.

Bit by bit, Jesus will transform us from an anonymous gathering of individuals into his community the church, for life.

This is the kind of healing that we need the most!

This week I read the story of a person with cystic fibrosis who was offered the chance for a lung transplant and didn't know whether to accept it or not!

He said, “It was a hard decision, because I had been living all my life preparing for death.

When I was a child, the life expectancy for a person like me was 7 years;

when I was 15, it was 17

when I was 22, it was 25.

I've been living at the edge for so long, I didn't know if I could deal with the prospect of a full long life.

I was prepared for dying, but not for living!”

That was spoken by an individual, but it could also be said by a congregation as a whole.

Look up, listen!

What you receive this day in your hand and in your heart can change your individual life and our common life as God's people in this place.

Our next hymn sings forthrightly:

Sing, pray, and keep his ways unswerving...

You'll find his promise true to be.

God never will forsake in need

The soul that trusts in him indeed! [LBW453]

May God give us life together, now and always!

Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.