For Richer or Poorer

"When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea. One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, “My daughter is at the point of death.

Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.”
He went off with him, and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon him.

There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who has touched my clothes?”

But his disciples said to Jesus, “You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” And he looked around to see who had done it. The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling.

She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”

While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?” Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. So he went in and said to them, “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.” And they ridiculed him. Then he put them all out. He took along the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and entered the room where the child was. He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around. At that they were utterly astounded." (Mark 5 vs 21-43)

St. Mark’s Gospel Chapter 5 vs. 21-43: is long and it seems to be broken, for a new story begins before the first story ends, a story within a story. Anytime we see this happen in scripture we are to take notice, pay close attention to the relationship the stories have with one another.

 

This gospel story is about two women. One is rich; the other poor. St. Mark wants us to see the difference and to see what Jesus does. It is a stylized story, characteristic of Mark. One story begins and then gets interrupted or split by an intervening story.

In this case, Jesus is first approached by the father of a gravely ill young woman. His help is needed; and he agrees to help the grieving father. But, on the way to help, Jesus is interrupted by another woman who is also in need of help, Jesus delays responding to the first request, even though it is on behalf of a young woman who is at the point of death. He stops his journey to deal with a woman who is determined to get his attention.

These are not two simple stories, accidentally connected. St. Mark has carefully constructed this story about two women to make a statement. The details of the story reveal what that statement is. The daughter of Jairus, the young girl Jesus agrees to help, is of privilege. She is just twelve years old, with the promise of womanhood ahead of her, she has lived in the comfort of affluence. Her father is a ruler of the synagogue, one of the powerful and the wealthy. She has no need of an advocate. She has one in the person of her father who approaches Jesus within the bounds of social correctness.

 In contrast, the bleeding woman has suffered for twelve years. Her future has been "spent". She, too, is a "daughter" of Israel, but she is nameless and destitute. She has no one to speak for her. She must take her salvation into her own hands by breaking the bounds of what was both socially and religiously appropriate; an outcast and an unclean woman, she touches a man in public. Will Jesus allow himself to be bothered by this face in the crowd while on an important errand on behalf of the rich and famous?

Not only does Jesus attend to this second woman, he singles her out for her faith and perseverance. His delay in responding to the first request for his help will be used to teach the rich and powerful a lesson.

. . . Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, "Do not fear, only believe."

The healing journey must take detours on behalf of the powerless. Only when the outcast woman is restored to true "daughterhood" can the daughter of the synagogue be restored to true life. That is the faith the privileged must learn from the poor. The point is: Jesus not only had time for the people around him, the truth of his vision for the kingdom he came to embody pointed to a day when all would be attended to and no one would be ignored.

As I was writing this sermon, I happened to pick up a newspaper and read an article about Warren Buffett, the second wealthiest man in the world. As most of you know he has given to charities the preponderance of his wealth, a staggering 38 billion dollars. His comments were that “His massive wealth came from the society in which he lived and to that society it should be returned, not to support the already comfortable but to enable the afflicted.”

I know that there are those who would argue against the politics of Mr. Buffett, but most would be hard pressed to argue the truth of his generosity, and the reality that very few of the very wealthy, have been so very charitable.

 

I believe the fundamental lesson Christ teaches us in this Gospel is that all of His children are deserving of His healing and blessed touch. Jesus didn't just talk about those who needed us. He had time for them. And, although this gospel is a stylized attempt to portray Jesus as a champion of the weak and the outcasts, there is little doubt that he was just that. His parables, his aphorisms and the inevitable conflict with the rich and the powerful that eventually ensued as a result of his ministry all point to the fact that in his vision of God's domain:

"the last will be first" and "the least will be the greatest." No one will be ignored.

Christians are called to do more than make pronouncements about justice. They are called to act justly to the people sitting next to them. If we cannot do that, then the world should not take us seriously about calling others to do the same. Charity may start at home but it is not to end there; it continues with all who make a claim on our love. Our efforts on behalf of others will have no authenticity if we attempt to avoid such close-hand responsibilities. Jesus always had time to deal with such claims. So must we all.

As our opening story for this week indicates, God will not force such an accommodation on us; but he will, it is reasonable to assume, give us all the time we need in order to realize that the person next to us is the one whom we need for our own salvation as much as he or she needs us.

Although our society and sometimes our churches fail to acknowledge them, there are many people who are restricted by "purity codes" today, people who are pushed aside and made to feel insignificant by those who maintain the status quo. If we are serious about acting the way Jesus did, we will reach out to those who have been marginalized the way Jesus took time to acknowledge and honor the bleeding woman in this gospel. It means more than talking about the impoverished and the powerless. It means reaching out to them the way Jesus did. How does your church do this? How do you do it?