Day of the Church Year: 5th Sunday after Pentecost
Scripture Passage: Mark 5:21-43
We are not strangers to illness and death. Many of us struggle with grief and various ailments, me included. We might be having strange symptoms or currently getting tested. We might be awaiting surgery or recovering from surgery. We might live with a chronic illness and chronic pain that we have managed for years. We may be grieving the death of a mom, a coworker, a partner, a friend or the loss of a home, a job, or an opportunity.
Honestly, when I first opened the Bible to discover this week’s Jesus story, I sighed grumpily. An unintentional healing story within a raising-a-young-girl-from-the-dead story just seemed...unfair. While so many people I know are still sick. While so many people I know are grieving the death of loved ones. Why does one touch of Jesus’ robe heal the woman who had a hemorrhage for 12 years but not heal the ones among us who have received rigorous medical treatment and much prayer on their behalf? Why does Jesus raise Jairus’ daughter from the dead but not our beloved ones?
In an attempt to make sense of Jesus healing stories, contemporary biblical scholars routinely delineate between curing and healing. Curing involves the end of a debilitating illness, relief from pain, a definite medical shift. Healing, by contrast, involves connection to other people, peace and joy, freedom from fear. Healing may or may not include a cure. A cure may or may not include healing. In today’s Jesus story, Jesus cures, and Jesus heals.
You see, the ancient people of New Testament scripture saw the world in categories of pure and impure, clean and unclean, honor and shame. Men talking with and touching women beyond their immediate family stained them much in the same way that touching a dead body required ritual cleansing at the temple. The recipients of Jesus’ compassion in today’s story were, in the eyes of their culture, impure, unclean, shameful. The woman who touched Jesus’ robe who spent twelve years of her life receiving ineffective treatment, spending all she had, enduring much suffering, also suffered because her illness isolated her. And the daughter of Jairus, upon her death, became untouchable, even by those who came to mourn her. Death in the ancient world was yet a mysterious phenomenon, one people sought to avoid.
Despite its impurity, uncleanliness, and shame, Jesus, far from reviling the woman who touches him, praises her faith: Daughter, he says, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease. In the middle of a crowd of people, Jesus names her one of his family, legitimizing her touch, saving her from public ridicule. When Jesus arrives at the home of Jairus to find the daughter already dead, not only does Jesus raise her from the dead. He takes her by the hand!
The truth of this life is that we don’t always get better. Treatments sometimes fail. Some diseases cannot be cured. Despite amazing advancements, medical science does not answer every question. And even when we pray, sadly, confusingly, and perhaps unfairly, God does not always intervene with the hoped-for miracle. But healing is possible, and Jesus shows us the way with a declaration of relationship and a touch of his hand.
Quite simply, dear people of Grace, Jesus calls us into strong, healthy, loving relationships as a way of participating in his healing ministry. We can’t cure others’ illnesses, and we can’t prevent death. But we can be there for one another, be there to listen without offering fixes, be there to have fun together, be there just to be there so that we and others don’t have to be alone. This means nurturing friendships, now, today, not just when things get tough. This means risking asking people to hang out, people we find fun or interesting or who share common interests. This means, on a really practical level, doing stuff with other people, showing up for our conversations with one another, being fully present and listening deeply to what others are sharing. This means allowing others to know us. A cure is not always possible, but even when we are sick and grieving, God reaches through us to others to share healing, to be connected, to know peace and joy, to free us all from fear. Empowering us to build strong, healthy, loving relationships is not only God’s way of healing the world; it is God’s way of healing us. Thanks be to God! Amen.