Jesus Takes
Time to Heal
Epiphany + 4 – February 2, 2020
“Jairus’ Daughter Healed”
Moms everywhere – enter the house and immediately beset by kids who
have needs only Mom can fill and questions only Mom can answer
· My mom – “Can you just give me 5 minutes to get in the
door and get settled/groceries put away/etc.
Crowds pressing in – filled with people in needs
that only Jesus can deal with
· Everywhere he goes, as soon as he shows up, there the
crowds of people are, pressing in, jostling, trying to get close enough to be
healed, to touch him
· Meet Jairus right away – a man of privilege and
position, respected in the community, a leader of the synagogue
o But none of that matters right now, because that
hasn’t helped his daughter – he comes and falls at Jesus’ feet and begs him
over and over to come to his house to lay hands on his daughter, who is at
death’s door
· And they are on the way in the big crowd when Mark
introduces us to another character, in many ways the polar opposite of Jairus
o Unnamed
o Woman
o Suffering from hemorrhages for 12 years
o Tried all the doctors and all they suggested – and for
all of that, she’s no better; in fact, her condition has gotten worse
o And she’s spent all of her money
o Ritually unclean – cut off from community, isolated,
invisible
· And yet here she is too, in the crowd pressing in on
Jesus, because she has heard about him, about all of the healings he has done,
and this is it, maybe her last chance, the last-ditch attempt to be healed,
reaching out for Jesus as her last hope
o And immediately her hemorrhage stopped and she felt in
her body that she was healed – and Jesus is immediately aware that power had
gone forth from him and what does he do, as he is on the way to heal a little
girl who is near death?
o He stops the whole procession to ask – “who touched
me?”!
o He looks for the woman – and she comes and tells him
the whole truth
o And Jesus says, “Daughter, your faith has made you
well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
· And who knows how long that who exchange took, but
can’t you just imagine if you were Jairus
o “Daughter? What about MY daughter, Jesus?”
o Time is slipping away – anxiety rising, near panic!
I’d be tapping my foot and looking at my watch and feeling the stress mounting,
wanting to grab Jesus by the hand and say, Come ON, Jesus – hurry up before it’s too late!!!
We can
imagine ourselves in this crowd. We can imagine ourselves or people we know
both
· as the unnamed woman – chronic illness that goes on
and on
o medical debts piling up and with nothing to show for
it
o sick and in pain for so long that people have stopped
reaching out to us,
o feeling invisible and isolated and alone
o and still desperate for healing, willing to try
whatever new supposed cure comes along
o (And that’s for people who can access health care!
Many remain rather invisible in the system b/c they don’t have $ or insurance
and so can’t get care they need for ongoing problems, but only emergency care
when it goes too far)
· Or we have been in the shoes of Jairus’ – begging for
a miracle for ourselves or someone we love
o Asking repeatedly for God to intervene
o Maybe that unending time between calling 911 and the
ambulance showing up
o Or crying out for addiction to be overcome before the
next fix becomes the last one
o Or sitting at the bedside of someone who is nearing
the end of life and wishing for a sign of hope
o And all the fortune and fame and respect and privilege
in the world can’t turn the tide for us, much as we wish it could…
· And we clamor for Jesus’ attention, like kids who need
something from Mom when she walks in the door
Jesus Takes the Time to Heal
· Unlike most moms who get a little exasperated by the
incessant, urgent (but not really that urgent) requests of their kids the
second they walk in the door, Jesus doesn’t respond that way
· When Jairus begs Jesus to come, Jesus goes.
· When the invisible woman reaches out in desperation to
touch Jesus’ clothes, Jesus stops to find out who she is, to hear her story, to
acknowledge her humanity, to offer her healing and peace and new life
· And we learn in this story that it is never too late
with Jesus
o When the neighbors come to tell Jairus it’s too late,
your daughter has died
o Jesus has another word: Do not fear, only believe
· Even when it seems like time has run out and all hope
is gone, nothing with Jesus is ever hopeless
o And so they continue on to Jairus’ house
o And Jesus goes with her parents and Peter and James
and John into the little girl’s room, and Jesus takes her hand and says,
“Little girl, get up!”
§ Be raised – same root word used for Jesus’
resurrection
§ The power of God at work to overcome even the power of
death!
Jesus Takes the Time to Heal Us
·
Not to say that
Jesus always offers miraculous healings to all
o Sickness comes; death comes to everyone (even woman
and girl in this story are not going to live forever after this encounter – but
are healed and restored for now)
o He offers hope and healing – though they may look
different to us than what we most hope for
·
When we are
grasping for faith, we reach out for Jesus
o He notices us in our need
o He walks with us in our stress and anguish
o He invites us not to fear, but only believe
·
Believe in the
one who will stop everything to find you
·
Believe in the
one for whom no situation is too desperate, for whom it is never too late (even
if it doesn’t come in our timing…)
·
Believe in Jesus,
who takes us by the hand, and calls us to get up!
·
Amen.
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