Jesus Heals

by Jerry Fuller, OMI

• In a recent episode of the comic strip Shoe, the "Perfesser," a confirmed bachelor, espouses the joys of being single:
  "Ah, the advantages of single life," the old bird declares in the first panel. "Total control of the television remote.nag-free over-the-sink dining.no dress code."
  But in the last panel, sitting alone in his big comfortable chair with his remote and bag of potato chips, the Perfessor sighs, "Too bad no one's here to see how happy I am without them."

Life can be so much easier and safer when we have nothing to with others-don't get involved, walk away, mind your own business are much safer approaches to life. But in today's Gospel, Jesus does not hesitate to wade into the messiness of life in order to transform such messiness into healing, such as death into life. In the two miracles we hear today, Jesus ignores custom and taboo in a way that modern readers may miss: in taking the dead girl by the hand, and in allowing the sick woman to touch him, Jesus became ceremoniously unclean and not permitted to enter the synagogue or temple. But to respond compassionately to the plight of these families becomes more important, more sacred, than the "safety" of convention and tradition. (1)

Today Jesus heals a woman and an official of the temple. Mark, in whose gospel we read, presents these healings as a box within a box: the first box would be the
healing of the woman, the second, the healing of Jairus' daughter. Both stories throw light on each other and on the way Jesus healed.

First of all, Jesus was out where the actiowas. The official of the synagogue, Jairus, had sent for Jesus to come heal his daughter. On his way, surrounded by crowds, Jesus felt power going out of him. This was because a woman had touched him.

This woman suffered from a flow of blood, something medicine today could have healed her of; but she had had recourse to many doctors for eighteen years, to no avail. She was at her rope's end. She knew that her religion told her she would contaminate anyone she touched, making the one she touched unclean and forbidden to enter the temple. She also faced death for touching another. Nonetheless, she took advantage of the crowd surrounding Jesus to touch just the hem of his garment, thinking she could go unnoticed.

Her act was an act of faith. She respectfully did not touch Jesus, knowing she would by law be contaminating him; but she touched his garment. Nonetheless, Jesus felt that the power to heal flowed out of him. He turned and asked who touched him.

The apostles chided Jesus, saying the crowd was so great, who could know who touched him. Apparently Jesus persisted in looking about, and the woman, seeing she could not go unnoticed, admitted she had touched him. Jesus was willing to take the risk of being thought unclean in order to heal this woman. Jesus often broke cherished Jewish laws in reaching out to others to heal.

Even though Jesus had felt power go out of him, he did not claim that he had healed the woman. He said to the woman "Your faith has saved you." We, too, are to pray in faith. But if our prayer is not answered as we want it to be, we should not trouble ourselves that we have little or no faith. Jesus answers our prayer, but in another way we had not expected.

After healing the woman, Jesus proceeded to Jairus's house, there to bring the little daughter back to life, again by touch. Touch is so important in Jesus' healings. Sometimes it may be the very touching that is the miracle needed, since it conveys to the one loved that we love them. Loving touch always heals.

• A friend was visiting the chaplain of a hospice. In the course of a conversation, the chaplain said that, that weekend, eight of the hospice's 30 patients had died. The visitor asked about the effect of so many deaths on the staff. That was tough, the chaplain said, and shared one particular story from the weekend.
  That Saturday, a woman who had been at the hospice for a couple of months had a visit from her teenage son. It was a great visit, filled with laughs and fun and hugs. At noon the boy told his mother that he was going to have lunch with friends but would be back late in the afternoon.
  But shortly after the son left, the mother called the nurse on duty, a wonderful young woman who was the patient's favorite nurse of all. "I think this is it. I may be dying."
  The nurse checked her vital signs and replied honestly, "It's possible you are." The patient then asked the nurse, "Will you hold me? I think if you hold me I can do this well." The young nurse did not hesitate-she got into the bed and cradled that emaciated body in her arms-and held her into eternity.
  The visitor then asked the chaplain, "What about the nurse? What did it do to her?" The chaplain replied that the nurse had taken four days off to go to the mountains to think and feel and decide whether to come back to work again.
  "Do you think she'll be back? The chaplain asked.
  "She'll be back. You learn in a place like this that caring hurts-but when you really care you offer something special-and become special yourself." (2)

Such loving care is a miracle in itself, and we should recognize it as such, for it is often the miracle God grants us if we will be open to it. Jairus had this kind of loving care for his daughter. He was a top official in the synagogue. The leaders of the synagogue had little use for Jesus, seeing him as a threat to their position. But Jairus did not hesitate to ask this Jesus to come heal his daughter, even though he knew his fellow top religious leaders would look down on him for looking to Jesus for help.

Jesus stresses the need for trust when he goes into the little girl's room with three of his apostles. The Jewish onlookers laughed when Jesus said the little girl was not dead but asleep. Jesus then ordered them out of the room and said to Jairus, the father: "Do not fear, only trust." Trust, faith, is always needed in healing. Jesus kept his three apostles in the room for he knew their faith would also surround the girl and be a back up to his own actions.

Jesus took the little girl by the hand and said in Aramaic, "Talitha koum", which means "Little one, arise." Immediately the girl opened her eyes and let Jesus pull her up gently to a sitting position by her hand. He said, "Get her something to eat," knowing of the voracious appetite of teenagers. Jesus always thought of others' needs, not his own.

What does Jesus offer (and by implication what does the church have to bring) to those in pain and suffering that medicine does not? One thing is simply a ministry of presence. The only thing worse than suffering is suffering alone. It need not be so. Jesus took time to walk with Jairus and to talk with the woman. God's Spirit calls Christians to be a suffering presence, to accompany the sick and grieving in their journey, and to assure them that they are not alone, that God shares their pain.

Jesus also exemplifies a ministry of promise. The journey to the home of Jairus was interrupted when Jesus stopped to be present with the sick woman. Jairus was undoubtedly anxious. His daughter lay dying, and his fears were confirmed when messengers reported that the girl was dead (5: 35). Yet Jesus had neither forgotten Jairus nor lost control of the situation. He uttered a word of promise: "Do not fear, only believe" (5:36). So is the church to speak a message of hope that God can bring redemption out of suffering (2 Cor 12; Is 53:4-5).

Finally, Jesus is open to a ministry of power. The woman was healed, and Jairus' daughter was restored to life. There is no way to anticipate or manipulate such outcomes. In one case it is faith that is determinative (5:34), in the other instance the miracle follows the authoritative word (5:41). Yet not all who have faith or receive the word are healed. Here, however, the Gospel stands as a sign of what will be true at the end of history: the power and purpose of God will overcome disease and death (1 Cor 15:51-57). The hope of God's ultimate victory then enables the church to live triumphantly now in the midst of suffering (Rom. 8:18). (3)

1) "The joy of single life?" Connections, 13th Sunday of the year, July 2, 2000.
2) Ibid.
3) Curtis W. Freeman, "Theological themes," Lectionary Homiletics 12 (8): 2 (Lectionary Homiletics, Inc., 13540 East Boundary Road, Building 2, Suite 105, Midlothian, VA 23112) July 2000.

(Comments to Jerry at padre@tri-lakes.net. Jerry's book, Stories For All Seasons, is available at a discount through the Homiletic Resource Center.)