Fearless Faith

Mark 5:21-43

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea.

Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, "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."

So he went with him. And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him.

Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years.

She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse.

She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well."

Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.

Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my clothes?"

And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, 'Who touched me?'"

He looked all around to see who had done it.

But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth.

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, some people came from the leader's house to say, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?"

But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, "Do not fear, only believe."

He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.

When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.

When he had entered, he said to them, "Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping."

And they laughed at him. Then 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.

He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha cum," which means, "Little girl, get up!"

And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement.

He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

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We are reading today about two very different “Come to Jesus” types of moments.

They are wound together into one Jesus story in the gospel according to Mark.

The second story seems like an interruption of the first. Almost as if they are disconnected, one from another.

In the first story, Jairus, a leader of the synagogue, a powerful and influential man, is in a state of desperation. His 12-year-old daughter is dying. Who wouldn’t feel desperate, hopeless even, in a situation like that? But rather than keeping vigil by her bedside, waiting for the inevitable to happen, he runs to find Jesus. He comes to Jesus, and falls down before him, begging him to save his young daughter.

This is his Come to Jesus moment, setting aside his reputation with the Pharisees and those who are already separating themselves from this radical Jesus and the things he says and does, and stepping forward in fearless faith because of his child’s suffering, because of the suffering it creates in him, trusting that if he just comes to Jesus, Jesus will somehow bring healing to his little daughter.

But on the way, there is an interruption. Somewhere in the crowd, someone has touched Jesus, causing him to recognize that power is going out of him. Causing him to stop, and look around, and say, “Who touched me just now?”

Now the disciples recognize this question as ridiculous, since there are so many people all pressing closely in around Jesus, all moving quickly along with him to see what will happen in response to Jairus’ plea to save his daughter. How could Jesus possibly be focusing in on one person who touched him, whom he says somehow drew power from him?

The scripture tells us that the woman who touched him had been bleeding continually, hemorrhaging, for 12 years. Her name is not told to us, so for purposes of this story I am going to call her Julia, just because it seems so distant and cold to keep referring to her as “the woman in the story” or “the woman who was bleeding”. So, this woman we’ll call Julia had gone to every doctor and had spent every dollar she had, and still there was no cure. Because of her bleeding and the cultural customs of that time she was always unclean, an outcast in society, a second class citizen. Like Jairus, she too was feeling desperate, hopeless. And so she decided to come to Jesus. But her Come to Jesus moment was not a public plea, like that of Jairus.

No, Julia resolves to approach Jesus quietly, secretly. And for her, the best, really the only way to do this was in a crowd. She expects that she won’t ever be noticed if she just touches him, just touches his clothing, while the crowd presses in around him. And so when the crowd goes along with him as he heads toward Jairus’ house, she sees her chance. Setting aside her knowledge that she is violating a law by even being in the crowd, much less deliberately touching Jesus, for she is untouchable, she steps forward in fearless faith, draws close to Jesus, and just touches the hem of his cloak. And immediately she feels in her body that she is healed, that her relentless bleeding has finally stopped altogether.

It’s just at this point that Jesus senses the power of this healing go out of him, and he stops, turns around, and begins to seek out who it was that touched him, that received healing from him. It’s not enough for healing to be anonymous. Jesus wants to know just whom he has encountered, whom he has healed. He wants to know the circumstances of our lives and our suffering.

And so Julia comes forward, falls at his feet in fear, and tells him everything. And then he sends her off in peace, reassuring her that her faith has healed her. It was not, apparently, her touch of his cloak that brought about the healing, but her faith, the faith that drove her to fearlessly take this action in the first place. Do not be afraid, only believe.

Well, Jesus has clearly delayed Jairus’ intention to get him there as quickly as possible. If I imagine myself as Jairus, I would be getting incredibly frustrated by now that this teacher wasn’t taking my problem seriously enough, wasn’t forsaking all interruptions to get to my daughter and heal her before it’s too late.

But Jesus does not seem to see one person’s problem as bigger than another, or as one of these people as a higher priority than the other. He does not recognize Jairus as more important or significant than Julia. He sees, in each case, a person who is suffering, and who has come to Jesus, come to the light, come to seek healing, even though they are very different people and they come to him in very different ways.

And now it appears that it actually is too late, for other people come to meet Jairus and tell him that his daughter has died. But now Jesus reassures Jairus, and says to him, “Do not fear, only believe”.  In essence he is telling him the same thing he told the woman, that it’s his faith that brings about healing. But in this case Jairus has not yet received the healing he seeks, which is the restoration of health to his daughter.

So Jesus moves right past the news of the child’s demise, and he arrives at Jairus’ house and goes inside, allowing only Jairus and the child’s mother and his three disciples, Peter, John, and James, to come in with him. And again, he goes beyond simple, basic healing. He is not calling to her from the door of the room, “Little girl, get up!”. No, just like Julia in the crowd, it’s the touch that matters. And so he goes to her, and takes her by the hand, and speaks these miraculous words to her. And up she gets. And then he looks around at the astonished parents and reminds them that she is probably hungry, perhaps they should give her something to eat. Here is your daughter, and you can now care for her as you did before. Go in peace, live your life. Your faith has made you well. Do not be afraid, only believe.

We have here two unique stories of healing. Two stories equally miraculous, and just as miraculous as we heard last week, when Jesus woke up in the boat, with his disciples in great fear, and calmed the storm that surrounded them. And what he said to the disciples in the boat was almost the same thing as he said to Jairus – why are you afraid? Do you have no faith?

Do not fear, only believe.

We need to hear these words again today, don’t we?

We have many things to be afraid of, or so it seems.

We are afraid that someone will come and hurt us.

We are afraid that we won’t have enough money to last the rest of our lives and keep us comfortable.

We are afraid of diseases that can come and cause pain, can shorten our life span.

We are afraid that the country is going to ruin.

We are afraid of international terrorists.

We are afraid of domestic terrorists.

We are afraid that the church is going to die.

We are afraid of the other – and we have many others who we perceive as different from ourselves and therefore worthy of our fear.

Jesus says to us -  do not fear, only believe.

But Jesus, you just don’t understand: we have lots of reasons to fear, lots of things to fear!

We add to the list every day, it seems, as we hear or read in the news about

·      the latest bacteria in the water,

·      the latest threat to our cholesterol levels,

·      the latest impacts of climate change,

·      the latest deaths in a church during a prayer meeting,

·      the latest rulings about health care or same sex marriage that clearly can bring us all to ruin.

Jesus says do not fear, only believe.

You know, fear is something we have in common across the human race. We fear different things, but we all face fear every day. Often when we disagree about things, when we find ourselves on different sides of an issue, we strongly oppose something, if we poke around beneath what’s going on, we can see that both sides are afraid of something, afraid that something will happen, afraid of the suffering that may result for them or for others, whether real or imagined.  Both sides are made up of human beings who are all operating out of some foundation of fear, some sense of suffering that will result if things don’t go their way.

But hope is something we also have in common. We all have some element of hope, some basis of hope for the future, something we hope for. Again, many different things that we hope for, but hope is something we have in common.

And fear and hope have something in common too, surprising as it may seem.

In his book, Jesus Christ for Today’s World, Jurgen Moltmann writes:

"What anxiety [or fear] and hope actually have in common is a sense of what is possible. In anxiety we anticipate possible danger. In hope we anticipate possible deliverance.”

The common thread between anxiety or fear and hope is a sense of what is possible. An eye toward the future. Does that eye focus on possible danger? or is it focusing on possible deliverance?

And so we have the option, we have the choice to stay stuck in our fears, our anxieties, our anticipation of danger. Or we can hope, we can anticipate possible deliverance. We can set our eyes on a future of danger or of deliverance, of fear or of hope.

And we can work for that deliverance. We can Come to Jesus with our suffering, with our fears, and we can turn our eyes toward the light that is Christ, toward the hope that comes from following him. And we can trust in the power of the Holy Spirit to put us to work on the things that matter, the things that express Christ’s love in the world, the things that bring people together rather than separate them, the things that reflect our hope and our faith and our love, and the grace that has been freely given to us, so that we can show grace to all others. Without fear.

Are we spending our energy, our sense of what is possible, on those things that bring deliverance to us and to those around us? Or are we wasting our energy on those things that might bring danger, even as we know that we will not get out of this world without suffering, without risk. Without death.

But, every day of our lives, we can step aside from our fear, if we can focus on God’s love for us and for others, if we can live our lives for others. If we can do this, recognizing that we all fear, we all suffer, and Christ is ready to heal us all, so that we can go on together in our common hope of deliverance, regardless of our differences.

Do not fear, only believe.

Both Jairus and Julia stepped away from their fear, stepped out in faith and hope, had their “Come to Jesus” moment, and Jesus did not disappoint. Jesus does not disappoint. Jesus is our common hope of deliverance.

Perhaps theologian Frederick Buechner said it best when he wrote:

 “The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you.

There’s only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you’ll reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.” [Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC, Frederick Buechner]

We have no need to fear. If we only believe, if we only reach out and take the gift of grace, that free gift, that gift we cannot earn, that gift we do not deserve  - if we only believe, we don’t have to be afraid, for God is with us, always and forever, come what may.

Amen.