10^th July 2012

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Sunday 1 July 2012

Lessons - Psalm 130; Mark 5:21-43

The distraught man said to Jesus, 'Come and touch my dying daughter,
so that she may be made well.' (v23)

And the haemorrhaging woman said to herself, 'If I touch his clothes I
shall be made well.' (v28)

These are very touching stories. When Jesus healed the bodies of the
afflicted women, the hearts of even the most sceptical bystanders were
touched. They were used to seeing healings done by pagan wonder-workers
spruiking their powers. But they were so moved by Jesus' compassion for
sufferers that they began to see in him much more than a performer of
miracles - a person who embodied the unique self-giving, personal love of
God. In his healing touch they begin to see that Jesus is the touchstone
by which gods are measured and humane acts are judged.

It is often said that suffering is no respecter of persons. This is true
here. The daughter of an important (named) religious official and an
(unnamed) outcast are united in common need. Neither social position nor
gender count where human means reach their limit. A dignified man and a
humiliated woman are both desperate for and confident of Jesus' healing
touch.

THE WOMAN IS AT HER WITS' END. She had suffered continual menstrual
bleeding for twelve years, lost all her money looking for cures and had
become worse. Her problems are medical, social and religious. She is
thought to be spiritually 'unclean'. She is treated as an outcast from the
community of faith. Desperate to be 'made well', she superstitiously
touches Jesus in the hope that she might benefit from his God-like power.

She gets more than she bargained for - a personal encounter with Jesus. He
does not want to know 'what' happened, but 'who' touched him. His question
is deeply personal. It is spoken, not to another medical 'case', but to a
particular woman 'who' is in need. The woman herself is not pleased by the
unexpected attention. Scared and shaking, she comes forward (in front of
people who know that she is an untouchable) to acknowledge her cure. She
had hoped to be touched by a medical miracle, but not to come into contact
with Jesus in such a public manner.

The bleeding stops but the full extent of her healing is yet to come.
Jesus is touched by her faith in him. He says, 'Your faith has saved you,'
thus making plain that 'salvation' is more (but not less) than medical
healing.

She is made 'well' (v34) by the fact that, in a touching moment, Jesus
calls her 'daughter'. No longer is she an insignificant, humiliated,
unclean outcast (as the crowd thought), but a 'daughter of grace' who gets
back her dignity. She is touched by the reconciling love of God embodied
in Jesus.

THE DAUGHTER IS AT HER LIFE'S END. As soon as the (unnamed) woman is made
'well' news arrives that the (well known) citizen's daughter has died. The
death of a daughter always tests faith (v23) and touches hearts. As they
go to the house Jesus tells him, rather improbably, 'not to be afraid but
to believe' (v36). As Jesus, Jairus and a few disciples arrive they hear
'weeping and wailing' (v38). Jesus says, somewhat improbably, that 'the
child is not dead; she is fast asleep' (v39).

Unfazed by predictable scoffing (v40), he goes into the girl's room with
her father and mother and three disciples, takes her by the hand and says
to her, 'Little girl, get up!' (v41). To their joy and amazement, she gets
up and walks around. Then, so that no-one is left in doubt about what has
happened, Jesus 'tells them to give her something to eat' (v43). His
healing touch restores her to life and confirms the faith of her devout
father.

In both situations Jesus puts 'untouchables' back in touch with God and
other people. The woman and the little girl were thought to be ritually
unclean: the woman because of her menstrual bleeding; the girl because she
was dead. People of faith were forbidden to 'touch' such folk. Jesus
ignores the religious law of the day. He lets the woman touch his clothes.
He touches the dead girl's hand. And what he says is very touching:
calling the (unnamed) woman 'daughter' and the (named) man's daughter
'little girl'. These 'untouchable' women are restored to life through the
healing touch of God in Christ.

Here we see the true miracle of Jesus' healing power. Through very
touching acts of compassion, Jesus puts those who, from the human point of
view are at their wits' end, back in touch with God and their communities.
These moving stories are snapshots that typify God's power over the dark
forces that scar life. They show that Jesus is not simply a 'teacher'
(v35) as they still think (4:38), but the embodied presence of God who is
at work wherever faith in God is sorely tested because lives are touched
by suffering, affliction, rejection and death.

Such stories touch our hearts, strengthen our faith and encourage us to
become part of God's healing presence in people's broken lives. They have
played a big part in the development of holistic medicine that seeks to
treat persons with dignity in the whole of their physical, social and
spiritual well-being.

But they also touch a raw nerve in many of us!

* Although we place great faith in doctors to perform miracles that we
take for granted but do not fully understand, we are sceptical about
what Jesus did. It borders on the magical and superstitious!

* But, at a more existential level, we may be angry that no such miracles
have taken place when illness, tragedy and untimely death have touched
our lives. Our 'faith' has not been answered. We have held the hands
of our sick, distraught or dying loved-ones (with names) and witnessed
the suffering of countless (unnamed) people who have been untouched by
God's healing power!

What then are we to make of touching stories that also touch a raw nerve?

They show us that God's purpose is that sick and dying bodies be healed so
that sufferers may have fullness of life. Unafraid of 'unclean' bodies,
Christ embodies God's will for all of us. His healing touch, that gives
life to two untouchable women, signifies God's opposition to all that
afflicts our bodies and God's promise that, at last, 'sons and daughters
of grace shall experience the redemption of their bodies' (Romans 8:23).

Now this would be wishful thinking were not for the fact that the Jesus
who healed the bodies of the two untouchable women is also the crucified-
and-risen One - the One who uniquely embodied the healing grace of God for
all humanity. Too often, discussion of Jesus' specific miracles takes
place in isolation from the larger miracle - the miracle of grace.

We need to remember therefore that the suffering-and-triumphant love of
God for our broken and sinful bodies is displayed in Jesus' cross-and-
resurrection. He who touched and healed unclean bodies knew what it was to
be treated as 'unclean' in the eyes of the religious law. Being crucified
he knew what it was to be touched by affliction, rejection and death. And
being raised from the dead he shows there is hope for all whose bodies
have been touched by affliction, rejection and death.

It now becomes clear why at the end of these touching stories, Jesus
'charges them to remain silent and tell nobody' (v43a). Surely, we think,
publicity about what had happened would have touched the hearts of a wider
audience! Why the reticence?

They, like us, would be tempted to have 'faith' in Jesus the miracle-
worker and miss the true miracle! Unless we see the connection between
these two moving incidents and Jesus' crucifixion-and-resurrection, we
will miss the fact that in the whole of his ministry Jesus is the
touchstone of hope for humanity.

Therefore, whilst we may be sceptical or angry about these miracles, we
should not overlook miracles in our own lives where physical, social and
mental scars have been healed, and give thanks that 'faith' in God's power
over affliction has led to cures that we could never have imagined!

These stories also assure us that, even when the sufferings or deaths of
our loved ones (and others) has not been touched by God's healing power,
we may have 'faith' because, in Christ, God has suffered and triumphed
over affliction, evil and death. Because in him God has embodied his
promise that, at last, all suffering shall end, we may have hope for the
redemption of our bodies and the bodies of those who, in this life, did
not know his healing touch.

The sermon concluded with the prayer for the ministry of healing from
Uniting in Worship p214.

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Rev Dr Max Champion is minister in the St John's Uniting Church,
Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is Chair of the Assembly of
Confessing Congregations within the UCA.