Sermon for June 30, 2024 6th Sunday after Pentecost

Mark 5 Jesus heals the woman with the bleed and Jairus’ daughter I am the youngest of five siblings. That means I was sometimes the victim of certain shenanigans. I remember one

time my older brother and his friends were grabbing the electric fence. We had two horses on the back acre and you only had to learn the lesson once not to brush up against the

electric fence. So my brother’s friend was grabbing the fence and going, “It’s not on! Look, it’s not shocking me!” I watched as he fully grabbed the fence for several seconds. “It must

not be on,” I thought. So I too reached out to test the fence by grabbing it. Unbeknownst to me, my older brother was at the switch-box watching; he had turned the power off for his

friend and now that his little brother was reaching for the fence he threw the power back on. Such is my deep mistrust of allyou older siblings out there. When the woman with the

bleed reached out and touched Jesus’ cloak I don’t think there was an electrical shock or current passing into her.Neither do I think there was a visible spark like the artwork on our

bulletin cover this morning. But there was an exchange of power! It says that the moment the womantouched Jesus’ cloak she felt in herself that she was healed. And what more it

says that Jesus likewise felt power go out from him. He stopped in the middle of this pressing crowd and asked, “Who touched me?” I love the disciples’ reaction, “The crowd is

literally pressing in on you from every side. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” But Jesus is insistent; he is searching the crowd looking for who had touched him, he knew that

healing power had gone forth from him! The woman finally falls at Jesus’ feet, she is afraid and trembling, and tells him the truth of what had happened. She has had a menstrual

bleed these nlast twelve years. She had spent all her money on doctors but still the bleed only got worse. She thought to herself, “If I just touch his cloak I will be healed.” And so

she did. And did you hear Jesus’ next word? The very next word out of Jesus’ mouth is, “Daughter.” He calls the woman daughter. “Your faith has made you well, go in peace and be

healed from your disease.” I love this healing story. The faith the woman puts just in the hem of Jesus’ cloak reminds me of the mustard seed, or the mother asking for just a single

crumb from the master’s table. Just touching the hem of his cloak is enough; and she was healed. Power was exchanged as the healing power of Christ goes into this woman, making

her well. But the way Mark tells this story, it is beautifully woven and crafted as a story within a story. The healing of this woman with the twelve year bleed is right in the middle of

this healing story of Jairus’ daughter. Jairus was a leader in the local synagogue. As a religious leader, really he should have been opposed to Jesus, testing him and attempting to

discredit him like all the other religious leaders. Except Jairus had a daughter who was sick. And not just sick…at the point of death. The Greek is almost more of a gut-punch, it says

the little girl was, “holding at the end.” Holding at the end means the same thing of course as “at the point of death” but it has this sense of the end is here and she is barely holding

on by a thread as the end has come. It is a desperate time. She is only twelve years old; it is a tragic time. Out of this desperation, Jairus comes not as a religious leader, but as a

father, falling at Jesus’ feet and begging him again and again thathe might come and lay hands on her that she might be made well. It would have been a powerful scene, this

religious leader down in the dust begging at the feet of Jesus. A full testimony of the power and person of Jesus to heal and make well. It is a story within a story because we are

meant to see all the little similarities and parallels between Jairus and his daughter with the woman who came with the bleed. Both Jairus and the woman prostrate themselves at

Jesus feet. Both demonstrate this amazing faith that Jesus can heal. And of course how long had the woman had her bleed? (12 years) And how old was the little girl? (12 years) This

woman had had her bleed the entire length of time Jairus’ daughter had been alive. And my favorite, Jairus comes begging as a desperate father for his beloved daughter, and what

does Jesus call this grown woman who touched his cloak? He calls her daughter. Jesus sees this grown woman the same way Jairus begs for his own little girl. Now this all matters,

because as Jesus takes that extra time to search the crowd and ask who touched him, what happens? We find out the little girl has died. Jairus’ daughter who was “holding on at the

end” is holding on no more. She has lost her battle with whatever illness had plagued her and the news comes to Jairus there in the crowd, “Your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the

teacher any further.” We aren’t told Jairus’ reaction, but can you imagine having watched Jesus “waste” time in the crowd looking for whoever touched him. Even the whole

interaction with the woman was wasting time. She had had a bleed for twelve years; surely a few more moments would not have hurt her! Again, we see that Jesus could have used a

good triage nurse. This little girl over here is at the point of death, she has priority, heal her, then you can heal whoever you want with these chronic conditions. I don’t know about

Jairus, but I would have been furious; I mean, enraged. Overhearing what they are talking about, Jesus turns to Jairus and simply says, “Do not fear. Only believe.” The same faith

that sent Jairus to Jesus in the first place, Jesus seems to be saying, “What’s death got to do with it? You trusted me when she was hanging on at the edge of death; why do you not

trust now on the other side of that same edge?” Christians have this funny thinking that somehow death is final. Weird, right? That you have until your death bed to accept Jesus but

once you’ve died, well, there’s nothing Jesus can do, it’s too late. To which the one whom broke the seal of the tomb and shattered the bonds of death asks, “What’s death got to do

with it? Do not fear. Just believe. Am I the Lord of both life and death or not?” Do not fear; only trust. Jesus enters Jairus’ house and people are loudly weeping. They have every

reason to weep, but remember this is also a culture where people hired themselves out to be professional “wailers” because they were really good at it. Not to diminish the legitimate

grief, but there was also the belief that the louder the wailing the more honor to the deceased. Jesus asks, “What is with all this commotion? The child is not dead, only sleeping.”

Now, of course she is dead. They know she’s dead. And Jesus is no fool, he knows she’s dead. But he plays their absurdity with absurdity of his own, exposing their unfaith. They even

mock him and begin laughing at him. Point made, because if they were genuinely grieving they could not have laughed. But the mocking here reminds me of the unfaith of the

disciples earlier as they too mock Jesus, “There’s crowds all around you! How can you ask who touched me?” Unfaith is swirling around Jesus. The household, the disciples openly

mocking him. In this crowd of unfaith Jesus’ words to Jairus shine like a beacon, “Do not be afraid. Only believe.” Jesus takes only his closest disciples and the girl’s mother and

father into the dark room and approaching the sick bed takes the hand of the dead girl into his hand and says to her, “Little girl, rise up.” It is the exact same verb used later in the

New Testament to speak of the resurrection. “Rise up, little girl” is the same word as rising up with Christ. Jesus has joined this little girl to his own death and his own resurrection.

This is the power of Christ’s healing. This is the power that went out from him into the woman with the bleed. Not an electrical switch thrown as the shock of the fence comes back

on, but the power of his resurrection. The power of healing is Jesus’ power over illness and disease. His power is the defeat of the devil and all his forces. Jesus’ power is the power

over death. And Jesus’ power today for you is the power of his resurrection. Jesus raises two daughters in our text today. It makes no difference that one is at death’s door and the

other has lived with a chronic 12-year bleed; in Jesus’ eyes they are both daughters, both are his precious daughters and he is a desperate father to see them made well. This is how

Jesus sees us. Jesus sees you as his dear, precious child. Jesus sees you in your suffering and desperately wants you to be made well. Enough to suffer upon the cross, enough to taste

death and decay of the grave. There in the darkest corners of the tomb Jesus speaks to you, “Do not be afraid. Only believe.” And here in these waters, in the waters of baptism, and

again and again in our confession we are joined to Christ’s dying and then, how much more, are we joined to Christ’s rising as Jesus takes you by the hand and speaks, “Dear child.

Arise. Rise with me. I have joined you to my own death and resurrection. You are forever mine.” Amen.