June 29, 2024 – Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

“Little girl, get up!” “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” (Mk 5:41, 34)

Let’s start today’s sermon with a little experiment. I invite you all to stand up. Now turn to face one other person. Extend your hand and shake that person’s hand. Good. Now, face that person, extend your arms out wide, and…How many of you just experienced an increase in anxiety? I won’t force you to hug each other. You can have a seat.

Seriously, though, how many of you started getting nervous when you thought I was going to make you hug somebody? Touch is a powerful thing, isn’t it? I’ve read several interesting articles about the power of human touch. Many studies have been done about the devastating effects on infants if they are deprived of human touch. This is even true for adults. We all long to be touched.

Today’s passage from the Gospel of Mark narrates two powerful miracles performed by Jesus: the healing of a woman with a bleeding disorder and raising of Jairus’s daughter. At the beginning of the Gospel reading, we hear of Jairus. This religious leader asks for help and puts his faith in Jesus as the healer. He pleads for help from Jesus – to the point of getting on his knees to beg. He is desperate, needing immediate intervention to save his daughter’s life. Jesus agrees and goes with Jairus.

But as they journey, Jesus is interrupted by a woman who has been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She’s been isolated from others – marginalized and outside of society. She probably hasn’t been interacted with by society, much less had anyone touch her. She exhibited bold faith and reached out to touch Jesus’ cloak. Her faith was a factor, but not the only factor, in her healing. The passage loses a lot of its meaning if we view it as fully dependent upon her faith. In fact, Jesus’ compassion and power to heal were just as important.

And then at the end of the Gospel reading, we return to Jairus. As Jesus was speaking to the woman, some people from the house of Jairus arrived and told Jairus that his daughter was dead and there was no need to trouble Jesus anymore. Jesus overheard the news and gave Jairus two commands and a promise: “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.” Together, they continued toward the house of Jairus, and when they arrived and Jesus told the mourners that the child was not dead, the crowd laughed and made fun of Jesus. Undeterred, Jesus went into the house, taking with him Jairus and his wife, along with Peter, James, and John.

Jesus entered the room where the girl lay, took her by the hand, and told her to get up. Immediately, she got up and started walking around. Everyone was completely astonished, as we might imagine! They were thrown for a loop, floored. And then Jesus told Jairus to give his daughter something to eat and to tell no one what happened.

There’s a lot here in these two stories, but let me summarize the interplay between the two. First, desperation drives us to seek Jesus – just like desperation drives Jairus to seek out Jesus to heal his daughter. Second, even in desperate situations, Jesus notices and responds – just like he journeyed to Jairus’ house and mentioned that Jairus should “not fear, only believe.” Third, we must trust Jesus even when circumstances seem completely hopeless – just like Jairus trusted that Jesus could heal even when she was “dead.”

Friends, our faith involves risk and persistence. But Jesus responds to all – public figures and marginalized figures. Just as we are told to love one another and that everyone is our neighbor, everyone is important to Jesus. And sometimes, what leads us to encounter Jesus is our desperation.

Because healing – even the healing we hear of today in the Gospel – is always a communal event, grounded in a community of faith that believes on our behalf. When we gather together after service on the first Sunday of the month, we pray for one another – those present and those not physically with us – and we believe in God’s healing touch alighting upon those for whom we pray. OUR faith opens others to God’s healing touch.  When we believe even though others are unable to, we can help to show God pathways to accomplish the spread of God’s reign here on earth.

Jairus had his faith strengthened by this encounter with Jesus. He discovered the power of God and his life would never again be the same. I invite you take a moment to reflect on those desperate moments in your own life when you’ve encountered Jesus. It may not have looked like we imagine Jesus, but I imagine you’ve encountered him in the mouth of a stranger, in the eyes of the oppressed, and in the embrace of a friend. How has your life been changed by those moments?

The woman who has been on the margins of community has to come into the center of the community in order to receive the touch of God and be made clean. All the people that she touched as she moved toward the center were technically tainted by her presence as she pressed in to find Jesus. Jairus’ daughter, on the other hand, who enjoyed the limelight and the privilege of living in the center of the community, had to move outside of the community. She had to die. Jesus had to meet her in the darkness of isolation before she could receive his healing touch and be brought back to life.

I don’t think these are accidental details in the Gospel of Mark. Jesus has come to turn the world upside down. The Kingdom of God calls the marginalized to be brought into the community and calls the elite and privileged to experience the death of that status. Why? So that we can all have life and be made clean.

So, here’s the challenge today… We say, again and again, that we are the body of Christ. How do YOU need to be touched by God today? And just as importantly, who needs YOUR touch today?