Trinity three

Imagine your television for a moment.  That square box that sits in the corner of the room and dominates some peoples lives.  It’s been probably one of the most important inventions in this modern age, because it has the power to inform, educate and entertain people throughout the world.  It has the power to spread the truth as well as subvert the truth. Of course for many it’s just a form of entertainment, if that’s what you call Big Brother or I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

And now we have interactive television we can watch several things at the same time.  You can now watch Big Brother and I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. at the same time, isn’t that wonderful, that’s what I call real progress!!

But seriously, today’s reading from Mark is rather like interactive television, a picture within a picture. You can imagine the newscaster 2000 years ago, “Well Jairus has just asked Jesus to bring his daughter back to life, but if you press the red button you can see him heal a woman with a haemorrhage on the way”. 

We have two stories of healing, two stories about fear and faith, both involve females which is a very important side story in its own right. Two different stories which are intimately related to each other. Jairus is a very important man, he is a public figure in Capernaum, the head of the Jewish synagogue, and for him to approach Jesus takes a great deal of courage.  Jesus is opposed to the teaching of the leaders of the Jewish faith, so for the head of the synagogue to have faith in Jesus is really something.

In the Gospel reading Jesus is surrounded by a great crowd when one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and knelt before Jesus and says, “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”. Jairus may be opposed to what Jesus was teaching, totally opposed to him mixing with sinners, but Jairus had faith that only Jesus could heal his beloved daughter, not the Priests of the Temple, not making animal sacrifices, which was the prescribed Jewish way.  Only Jesus had the power to heal.  “Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live”.  We can imagine the anguish, the terror, the overwhelming sense of hopelessness Jairus must be feeling at this point.  His child is dead, and there is nothing he can do about it.  

Most of us have reached that point sometime in our lives when we realise that we can do nothing about what is happening. When things seem totally out of our control. A loved one is dying or seriously ill and there is nothing we can do about it, except pray, I know I have, and I have prayed to God because there was nothing else I could do. Jairus had reached that point and all he could do so trust in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, so he appeals to Jesus, “Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live”.  You can imagine Jairus saying to Jesus “Will you come, will you please come”. A desperate plea from a grief stricken father to the only person he knows that can do any good now. And Jesus leaves immediately to go the child.  That’s a truly wonderful thing isn’t it?  Jesus goes immediately, he immediately responds.  And He still does, when He hears our cries in desperation He immediately responds.  We may not realise it in our anguish, but He responds immediately and stills our hearts.

So they are all going towards the house where the girl is either dying or dead, Jesus, Jairus, the disciples and a large crowd, all pushing forward to see what Jesus will do, heal the girl or pray for her soul.  You can really imagine the scene, all walking as quickly as they can to reach the stricken child, Jairus urging Jesus on, there is no time to lose. And then suddenly Jesus stops. Jairus must have been panicking, they have to get to the house and Jesus has stopped.  Does he really care? Is He ignoring Jairus’ faith in Him, at least that’s how it seems. Jesus has stopped and is talking to a woman in the crowd, and coming from Jairus’ house is a group of people to tell him that his daughter is dead and there is no point in troubling Jesus any more.  It’s too late. If Jesus hadn’t stopped to talk to this woman He just might have got there in time and saved the girl.  You can almost hear them saying to Jairus, “You were a fool to go to Jesus in the first place”.

But you know there is always a purpose to what God does, we may not see it, or understand it at the time, but there is a purpose. Jesus tells Jairus “Do not fear, only believe”. Really He is saying “don’t be afraid, just believe”.  Jesus realises Jairus is afraid that he has lost his daughter.  Jesus is growing his faith.  “Just believe”. Jesus is saying to Jairus, and to us, “Commit yourself now to me, Just believe”  “Put all your cares and worries to me and I will take them from you”  “Just believe”.

That’s why this story about the woman with the twelve year haemorrhage is here.  She believed that Jesus could heal her.  She reached out and touched Him.  Just as Jairus coming to Jesus took a great deal of courage, so this woman reaching out in the crowd and touching His cloak took a great deal of courage.  She has endured a terrible life for 12 years, a social outcast, anyone coming in contact with her would be rendered immediately unclean.  To touch Jesus would make Him unclean. This poor woman had spent a fortune on quack remedies to heal her but none had worked, and in her mind the only person who could heal her was Jesus.  She had faith that he could heal her, so it was worth the risk. This poor woman can teach Jairus, and us, about real faith, real belief. Her faith in Jesus healed her, that’s why he stops and says to her.  “Daughter, your faith has made you well”.  Her faith in Jesus has healed her. She is now no longer an outcast, and can go about her life in a normal way.  We can’t begin to imagine what a wonderful thing Jesus has done for this woman.

But that is what he tells all of us about Faith in God, “Who so ever believes in me, shall not perish, but have eternal life”.  That’s what the dying thief on the cross had, Faith.  Faith that Jesus would save him.  “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom”.  “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise”. But Jesus will test our faith, just as He tested Jairus’ faith by making him wait while he dealt with the unclean woman. Jairus wanted Jesus to rush to his home and heal his daughter, just as we expect an ambulance to turn up in a few minutes when we dial 999, and if it doesn’t we panic, get very anxious or worse, depending on why we are waiting for the ambulance. Then our fears can easily replace faith, those two competing experiences in each of our lives.

When Jesus arrived at the house the professional wailers were already there. In the Jewish tradition as soon as someone died, professional wailers would arrive at the house and would weep and wail for the dead person for payment. They would be very quick to arrive because under Jewish law Jairus’ daughter is now unclean, just as the woman with the haemorrhage was unclean to society, and every one who touches her becomes unclean.  “Do not fear, only believe”, he tells Jairus, and then together with Peter, James and John goes into the house takes her by the hand, and tells the child, “Little girl, get up”.

Clearly the message for us from all this is that God through our Lord Jesus Christ, has the power to heal us if we believe, truly believe, in God. Very often in that heady mixture of fear and faith which grips us all during our lives, we don’t know what to do, we are so desperate, just as Jairus was for help, and then, just like the woman, we creep up behind Jesus and touch His cloak, we seem to do it secretly just in case our fears are stronger than our faith. But the real message for us is that Jesus’ power that rescued the woman, that raised the child, works through our faith, if we let it, if we open ourselves to God. And our faith acts like a conduit to allow God to heal us.  And Faith, however much fear and trembling accompany it, is the first sign of remaking, of renewal to new life.

Jesus responds to us because he has come for the sick, not the healthy, for the poor, the orphans, the widows, the sinners of this world, for all those who recognize he is filled with mercy and love. Jesus sees what is in people’s hearts and responds with mercy, love and wholeness.  May our trust in him find the same response as Jairus and the woman. Amen.