Push your way through . . .

 It is in the time of darkness and trial

                        when the purpose and meaning in life are tested

            that we find our spiritual grounding and discover faith.

 

The Gospel reading for today is about such a crisis moment

            for a family suffering for 12 long years of brokenness and grief.

I am going to tell you something today about this story

            that you probably haven’t heard before.

It may or may not be true,

            but I think it is not only probable, but implicit in the passage.

 

First, Jesus, as the Gospels give witness about him, was in his earthly life 

            a most powerful spiritual master,

and now in the Resurrection he is even more powerful for us

                        who have been baptized into his death and resurrection

                        and have been filled with his Spirit.

 

But we often miss that because we are just too ignorant 

                        in this western, post modern, highly secular culture 

            to know what to look for or how to name our spiritual experiences.

 

Today’s Gospel story is about a crisis moment;

            it’s a familiar story: Jairus, leader of the local synagogue,

                        has come to Jesus and is asking – begging – 

                        for Jesus to come heal his daughter,

            and the story within the story:

                        the woman in the crowd who touches Jesus’ robe, sleeve,  his clothing.

 

In this Gospel story

            this huge spiritual Presence of Jesus is already drawing the woman

                        and she is trying to make it through the thick crowd.

But how to get near enough to him…

She must have been both bold and stealthy, 

hiding her face so as not to be recognized 

in the close and jostling crowd, 

since if she were detected what an outcry there would be 

among all those who would be wondering 

how many of them she had touched and made unclean

by pushing her way through the crowd to Jesus.

But in a sense, the way is opened for her.

                                                The way is opened for her.

                        Such mercy and love from our Lord…

 

Then Jesus calls attention to her, affirming both her healing and her faith.

“Your faith has saved you.”  “Your faith has healed you,”

            The Greek word here is the same for saved and healed.

 

What is not obvious in the English translation 

and has been often overlooked by the translators 

is the implicit connection 

between the woman who had the flow of blood for 12 years 

and the 12 year-old girl.

Didn’t you ever wonder why the text made a point 

of mentioning the 12 years?

And in these necessarily brief and sparse ancient documents 

every little word is there on purpose.

 

The woman is quite possibly the girl’s mother.

And the word for woman and wife being one and the same in Greek, 

this shifts the whole way in which we can look at this story.

 

This story appears in all three of the synoptic Gospels, 

                        Matthew, Mark and Luke,

            and the three accounts are very similar.

 

In fact, they concur on all the important points that support what I am saying,

            that this woman was the child’s mother.

Again the Greek is clearer than the English translation

            because of syntax as well as vocabulary.

 

Now this becomes a story about Jesus healing, restoring and reconciling a family.

And this has application for us even in this contemporary setting,

in which this woman’s flow of blood – a post partum hemorrhaging –

could have been readily handled medically today as opposed to then;

a story about Jesus healing, restoring and reconciling a family 

            that it still has application for us as a parish family 

as we relate with one another.

 

First to understand why the mother of the dying child 

was sneaking up behind Jesus to touch him, 

and why she was so afraid of detection, 

why she was acting in this way, 

recall the significance of blood in that time and culture.

 

There were a lot of laws around matters involving blood,

and they had to do with ritual purity.  

Women who were menstruating were “excused” from social contact 

so as not to make others ritually unclean, 

since merely the touch of a woman during that time of the month 

            was considered as polluting all that she touched.

 

And her husband, Jairus, was a leader of the synagogue,

            so this meant that he and his family had greater obligation 

to uphold the customs of their religion and society.

 

Quite possibly this flow of blood had originated 

at the birth of their first and only child, 

and so for 12 years the girl’s mother, Jairus’ wife, 

had had to be excluded not only from society and the synagogue, 

but also from the marriage bed.

Here was a family that had been living with a severe disruption all these years, 

and now their only child was dying.

But the woman’s faith is greatly encouraged by the Presence of Jesus, 

and perhaps she reasons with herself 

that if Jesus is coming to heal their daughter, 

then she too has the opportunity to receive the overflow of that healing.

 

Jesus knows that she has touched him and that she is healed, 

and he calls attention to it, affirming both her healing and her faith,

            and thus restoring her to her family and to the whole community.

 

This is very important to note.

This is the center point of the whole story.

This is crucial for what follows.

 

A powerful spiritual connection has been made here.

This woman’s need was great.

            For the entire life of her child she had been separated from society,

                        excluded not on the basis of moral consideration

                        but because of ritual impurity from no fault of her own.

 

And now the child was dying.

One might wonder that she had any faith at all,

            that she hadn’t railed against a God who seemed deaf to her prayers,

                        a God whom she could blame for the unfairness of it all.

 

But her need was so enormous for her daughter, her family, herself

            that she would do what she had to in order to reach Jesus.

 

So the need draws her to Jesus, calls her to Jesus.

This is often how the disciple gets called to the spiritual master.

 

It is right then at the moment of her own healing

            that the word comes that the girl has died.

But Jesus continues to their home despite the news of death,

            bringing both the father, and the mother now, into the home with him,

            and only 3 of the 12, the ones closet to him – Peter, James and John.

Those without faith, all those standing outside the house wailing,

                        they stay out.

And then Jesus touches the dead body – another taboo;

            taking the child by the hand would also make him unclean,

but disregarding all that he raises her to life again.

 

And the family is completely restored and reconciled,

            all flying in the face of what seemed to be proper religious mores.

 

And Jesus orders them that no one should know about this,

                        what with all the rules having been broken,

            and because people will end up attaching to Jesus their own ideas

                                    about the Messiah

            and miss the point about faith and responding to the call of Jesus.

 

But most importantly this family was restored again, 

                                                                                    brought back together.

The family was far more important than either 

religious rules or culturally accepted norms,

            and rules were broken here for the sake of basic human relationships.

Thank God!

 

And so what do we take for ourselves from this Gospel story,

            both individually and as a parish family?

 

What might be the ways in which you and I as brothers and sisters in faith,

            might bridge cultural norms and societal ideas

                        in order to bring healing, reconciliation, and restored relationships?

 

Even though we are not all of us here related by blood, 

we can still call each other brother and sister.

 

We can think about this on a global level 

 

 

We can think about this on the local level

            in terms of how we here in this congregation 

            follow our Lord in discipleship and faith, and relate to one another.

 

What might impel you to reach out your hand to touch Jesus?

            to seek his love, mercy, healing, reconciliation, peace?

 

Would that we were as impelled as that woman in the Gospel

            that we would push our way 

                                                through whatever is blocking the way to Jesus!

                        push our way through whatever in ourselves is blocking the way.

 

Here is the Good News:

The healing Presence of Jesus is just as much here 

as it was in the streets of Jairus’ town.

You can, if you want, reach out your hand to touch the robe of Jesus.

 

Consider this: you can actually physically touch Jesus today,

                        this very morning.

His physical Presence is with us powerfully,

            albeit hidden in bread and wine.

 

You could push your way through the crowd to the altar rail

            and grab hold of the very Body of Jesus

and claim the faith that brings healing and reconciliation.

 

The healing Presence of Jesus is just as much here 

as it was in the streets of Jairus’ town.

You can, if you want, reach out and touch Jesus.

 

In his great love and mercy 

there is reconciliation and restoration and healing 

for the whole family of God.