Jesus Cures it All

Year B 2 Samuel 1:1,17-27 Mark 5:21-43 “Jesus Cures it All” Fifth Sunday after Pentecost Our clothes are important Every morning all humans do the same thing. We get up, take a shower, brush our teeth, and then decide what we are going to wear. Generally in western culture it remains true that “Clothes make the man,” or in the name of a popular website, “Clothes make the girl.” Got a teenager? Then you know what I’m talking about. Then you know oh-so-purse-painfully how important it is to have the “right look.” To wear the “right duds” so you can be the “right dudes.” Even if you are not a “fashionista,” it is almost impossible not to be influenced by what the current culture says is “cool” (or “hot”). Who doesn’t want to “look good” and so “feel good” about themselves? Every week the tabloids are filled with planted or paparazzi celebrity photos — either looking their best or revealing their worst. But whatever shape they are in, what those celebrities are sporting influences the fashion choices of thousands. Designers count on it. In fact they literally “bank” on it. If someone fabulous and famous wears something, it will sell. The “knock ‘em dead” designs on red carpet runways are immediately copied into much cheaper “knock-offs” so that those with a bit of disposable income can outfit themselves like royalty. Even countries without “royal families” have their “royalty.” But while all of us — whether teenager or ladder climbing corporate bureaucrat — think that our clothes lend use power and prestige. People believed that clothes were an extension of who you are It was the same in Jesus day. It was believed that your clothes were an extension of who you were. It was believed that your clothes contained the essence of who you were. If you were a holy man or woman, then your clothes were holy also. If I can just touch the hem of his garment Perhaps that is why the woman felt that if I can just touch the hem of his garment, then everything will be okay for me. The holiness that he has inside will rub off on me. Jewish mean wore tassels of faith Not just Jesus, but all jewish men were expected to wear a tassel on each corner of their outer garment. That represented their faith in God. I had a woman make a robe for me, I cant wear the robe anymore, but she explained that the tassel represented spiritual power, and that the spirit had told her that I needed a tassel on my robe. The woman felt that if she could just touch the tassel, then everything would be okay. This woman had been suffering for a long time That woman is like a lot of us- she went through 12 year of suffering in silence. 12 years of dealing with life, even though no one really knew what was going on inside of her. Whenever she heard of a cure – she didn’t discuss it with others, but she tried it. The literature of the day gives 10 different cures for her problem, such as carrying the ashes of an ostrich egg in a rag. Nothing seemed to work. Scripture says that even back then, she went to the doctor, doctor after doctor. They took her money, but could do nothing to help her. I heard someone say the other day that God is the only doctor that will not send you a bill. She had heard that maybe this man Jesus could help her with her problem. She has tried everything else, she might as well try him. The messiah can take care of our deep need The lesson that Mark is teaching us in these miracle stories, is that Jesus is not ordinary man of faith. He has power that the others don’t have. He has access to God, he is the messiah. Last week as Jesus calmed the storm, the question was who is this that the wind and the waves obey. Today the question is who is this that can take care of my deepest need, my most taxing problem? This woman’s problem was so deep, that she couldn’t even talk about it in public. Yet Jesus was able to take care of it. Because Jesus has the power to reach to heaven and bring that peace to earth. The power of faith to overcome a 3% chance There was a man who woke up in the hospital after a horrible accident. The doctor told him that he had a 3% chance of ever walking again. I will take it said the man, God has worked against greater odds. He asked if he would be able to play the violin. The doctor told him the if he would walk out of the hospital, then he could play the violin. The man said he never played the violin, but if God could make him walk, then we would play. That man is walking well, and living happily ever after. All because he believed in the power of God. Jesus has the power to make the power of God real in our lives. Some say that you have to see it to believe it. When you have faith in God you have to believe it in order to see it. Our power comes from something bigger than anything in this world. Jesus gives her more than she expects This woman went through 12 years of pain, 12 years of being locked in a personal prison. Because of her problem, she was not allowed to be around people, she was to live in isolation. She was smiling on the outside, but on the inside she was suffering. She just wanted to get better. She didn’t want anything else from Jesus, she didn’t expect anything else. As a matter of fact, she was planning on walking away as soon as she touched him. She got what she wanted, now she needed to go on with her life. We are all just the same. We hang around Jesus, we pray, we have faith, we are waiting for a change. But if that change were to come tomorrow, would we still be faithful? 12 years this woman was waiting for a cure, If everything in life was given to us as we wanted it, would we even bother to pray? Jesus taught the woman that touching is a 2way street. We can touch, but we also have to be prepared to be touched. We can be transformed, but we are transformed in order to transform. Compassion is Jesus showed her compassion. Compassion literally means coming with passion. Compassion means to suffer along side of someone. When you show pity- you can remain at a distance. When you show sympathy it means that you are somehow better than the person. Charity is what the rich do for the poor. Compassion means to genuinely care for someone. Jesus genuinely cared for this woman. She got more than she bargained for – she was expecting to get her healing and to just walk away. If Jesus was an ordinary faithful man – he could have just observed what she was doing and let her walk away. But Jesus wants her to know who healed her, and how deep her healing really was. He wanted her to know that God had truly healed her. He stopped, looked her in the eye, introduced himself, and told her that she does not get to just walk away and go on with her life. She had been touched by the soul of God. Have you had the deep personal moment when God has touched your soul and said it is not okay to just walk away. I feel your pain, I have made you whole, walk with me. 12 connection to Jairus’ daughter 12 years this woman has been suffering. 12 years a little girl had been growing and living, and now she lay close to death. This is a story within a story. Because as Jesus is healing this woman, he has been asked to come and heal this little girl. 12 years old and near death. Once the woman is healed, they tell him that it is too late. She is dead. We give up so easily, when God never does. In order to be resurrected, we have to experience death. I am not hugging you to death, hugging youto life A business executive became depressed. Things were not going well at work, and he was bringing his problems home with him every night. Every evening he would eat his dinner in silence, shutting out his wife and five-year-old daughter. Then he would go into the den and read the paper using the newspaper to wall his family out of his life. After several nights of this, one evening his daughter took her little hand and pushed the newspaper down. She then jumped into her father’s lap, wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him strongly. The father said abruptly, “Honey, you are hugging me to death!” “No, Daddy,” the little girl said, “I’m hugging you to life!” about human nature that makes us put off the most important things until a crisis Then, one day it is too late, we have waited too long. We are like the Rabbi who did not run to Jesus until his daughter was “at the point of death .” Take a moment to examine your life today. What is at the “eschatos” — the point of death — in your life right now? What part of your spiritual or relational life is barely breathing? Find ways to make those areas (family, friendships and faith) a higher priority than career and income. Do something different this week. Before scheduling anything else, book time with God, schedule an appointment with those in your own family. Then, after prioritizing God and your family, then set up the rest of the week. Where are the dead spots in our life? The good news is that it is in those dead spots that God will show up. There are some things in our life that are dead for a reason, and some that are dead for a season. Some of those places are where God will show up in touch us in an unexpected way. Jesus was not ordinary man of faith, God’s love for us is no ordinary love. When you are touched by God, you can walk again. Compassion brings new life. Talitha cumi – it is time for us to arise When Jesus bought Jairus’ daughter back to life he said – Talitha Cumi – little lambkin, get up and arise. What is Jesus calling you out of , and telling you it is time to come to live and move one. The last words that Jesus said to the woman with a deep personal problem – go in peace and take good care of yourself, your faith has made you whole. Jesus is calling… do you believe in his words? Let us pray….