Brokenness & Death – Wholeness & New Life

Mark 5: 21-43

Roger Lynn

July 22, 2018

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Considering that the stories come to us across a span of almost 2,000 years, the situations seem surprisingly familiar. We know about suffering. We know about feeling cut off. We know about death. The stories of Jesus’ interactions with the pain of his day are stories with which we can identify.

In the course of his travels, Jesus encounters a man who is terrified that he will lose the most precious thing in his life – his daughter. She is very ill and he is out of options. Perhaps it is faith which drives him to seek out Jesus. Perhaps it is desperation. Perhaps it is something of both. But regardless of how he comes to this point of openness in his life, the man invites Jesus to make a difference. “Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.” (Mark 5:23) Unspoken in that plea is the additional hope that in the healing of his daughter he himself might also be restored to wholeness and find life again. So, driven by compassion, Jesus starts out with him for his home and daughter. But before he gets there other pain intervenes. This time it is a woman who has suffered for many years from a bleeding disorder. It is worth noting that such a condition would have meant far more than just physical suffering. Under Jewish law, such a condition would have rendered her ritually unclean. She would, in effect, have been cut off from her family, her friends and her community – a social outcast. It is not hard to imagine the desperation which led her to resort to such a desperate plan. She had heard the stories about Jesus – that he was a healer, a miracle worker, a man of God. As Jesus was walking with the crowd towards the home of Jairus she saw her chance and she took it. As with Jairus, it was probably a mixture of faith and extreme need which prompted her to reach out and touch his cloak. She probably didn’t know exactly what to expect, but what she found was healing. What she found was new life. Jesus said to her, “Go in peace.” And for the first time in twelve years she began to believe that peace might indeed be a possibility in her life.

During this encounter with the woman, tragedy comes crashing in on the life of Jairus. Word comes that his daughter has died. His greatest fears have come to pass despite his efforts to have it be otherwise. All hope is shattered. He is ready to give up. And then Jesus calls him back to faith. It was faith which led him to seek out Jesus in the first place. Why let that faith stop short of full measure? Jesus says to him, “Do not fear, only believe.” (Mark 5:36) Then with just the inner circle of disciples, Jesus goes on to the man’s home, breaks up the funeral arrangements which are already underway, and wakes the little girl from her slumber of death. She rises to new life and in so doing new life fills the entire household.

In both of these stories, tied together and intertwined as they are, there are some themes which still speak to us. First, notice that in both cases no one really sees what is happening. These are not dramatic public displays of God’s power. The woman with the bleeding disorder touches Jesus in a crowd and tries to stay anonymous. When Jesus senses that something has happened and asks about it, the disciples don’t even understand the question. The crowd is pressing in around him. What in the world does he mean, “Who touched me?” In the raising of Jairus” daughter, there are a few witnesses, but even they don’t really see anything. It is a spectacularly unspectacular miracle. Jesus just takes her by the hand and she gets up. When we reflect on the ways in which God works in our own lives we begin to recognize that such is indeed the way of things. God is the source of much healing and new life, but much more often than not it happens in quiet, subtle, easily missed sorts of ways. It comes in the gentle touch of a friend or the peaceful feeling that surprises us after an extended period of turmoil. 

The other thing to notice in these stories is the fact that Jesus doesn’t really do anything. It isn’t about what Jesus does, but rather it is about the fact that he is serving as a conduit for God’s love and power. It is not his actions which bring new life. It is God’s presence. And that also connects with our own experience. Often we find comfort, healing, and new meaning in our lives not through some dramatic change of circumstances, but rather through a renewed awareness of the ongoing presence of God. How often have we simply forgotten what is true – that God is always with us? We can bear much when we remember that we do not ever have to face this life alone.

These ancient stories have remained fresh over all of these years because they continue to speak to us where we live. There are occasions when our own suffering threatens to overwhelm us. There are experiences when we feel cut off from the world around us. There are circumstances when the world seems just too painful a place to live in. There are times when death seems to be all around us and times when we ourselves feel dead inside. May these stories remind us that, like Jairus and the bleeding woman, we can bring our whole selves to God, pain and all, and discover once again the source of healing and wholeness and new life. May we learn to move beyond our fear into the new life to which God is always calling us. May we learn to share such healing with the world.