13th Sunday – B
July 1, 2006
Have you ever found yourself caught in the middle?
Caught in the middle of something much bigger than yourself?
You usually end up there because you want something,
or you may have a connection to one of the players,
or you are caring for a loved one trying to restore hope for them
sometimes you may have not seen it coming.
Today’s gospel is one of those stories.
We are told a story within a story.
It’s the gospel writer Mark’s – sandwich technique.
There are two healing stories going on while Jesus is busy teaching the crowds.
Jairus wants Jesus to help his daughter who is at the point of death.
and a woman in the crowd has heard about Jesus
and believes that if she touches him
she can be made clean.
There is the official request by Jairus – the synagogue official
and the secret one – by the woman who was considered unclean because of her condition.
She wasn’t even supposed to be in the crowd, let alone allowed to touch someone.
The stories are sandwiched together to show that both requests are the same –
not really a request for physical healing or even physical life
but a request to be saved, to be made clean, to be restored to community
and to be assured of life in the resurrection.
They want what everybody else has.
There are interesting connections to Jesus’s resurrection made I this story.
The little girl is told to get up – to arise, in the original language
– only used again in the good news of Christ’s resurrection.
The woman, part of the crowd, places us all in the scene
we have all, in our rituals, especially in Lent and Easter, placed ourselves
in the crowd longing to stretch our hand out
-
to just touch Him.
New life is a gift from God – new life is found in being lifted up
We need to see all of our healing in a larger context – it is personal and yet not.
It is usually achieved because of our shared hope and faith.
People rise up because there are those to share life with.
There are before us many opportunities to lift people up and offer them the healing they desire.
We can offer to another the good news that they too are saved and can feel whole again
because they are connected to the God who,
as Wisdom reminds us,
has given them being,
created them imperishable
and in the image of His own nature.
Never underestimate the power of your phone call, your thank you, your helping hand, your visit.
Believe in the power that you possess to turn a few minutes of your day into a significant
moment for another.
In all of this, Jesus gives us the example of humility.
He rescues the girl from death,
the people are amazed and don’t know what to say.
Jesus doesn’t take the opportunity to show off,
he quickly redirects the witnesses by being very practical – give her something to eat.
Move on –
ultimately what anyone who is hurting or desires healing really wants is to be normal again.
Jesus gives both daughters (the daughter of Jairus & the woman he later refers to as daughter)
the invitation to be included with one difference
– they possess and experience that will keep them there
and eventually give them life eternal
– now they know it’s really about that
– that day, Jesus saved them from a world that echoes something different.
May we be witnesses of these things, like Peter, James and John, the official witnesses to
Jesus’s glory and call – first at the transfiguration and later in the home of Jairus –
and may we believe that
New life is a gift from God – new life is found in being lifted up
no longer on our knees, like Jairus and the woman, pleading with Jesus
but hearing the command of Christ:
Go in peace and be cured.
I say to you arise!
You won’t get caught in the middle if you rise above it
look for the way to offer the remedy of salvation.