Nan cy McCann Hostetter
Chicago Community Mennonite Church
Sermon on Mark 5:21-43
June 28, 2009


I want to focus on the Gospel of Mark passage. The notes introducing the Gospel of Mark in the Oxf ord Annotated Revised Standard V ersion state, ``The Evangelist presents Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God . . . whose ministry was characterized by a succession of mighty works which, to those who had eyes to see, were signs of the presence of God's power and kingdom [emphasis mine].
         ``This gospel is largely a collection of narratives that depict Jesus as being almost constantly active (a favorite word in Mark is `immediately,' which occurs about forty times in sixteen chapters). On the other hand, Mark records fewer words of Jesus than does any of the other Gospels. . . .
         ``Though the Gospel is anonymous, an ancient Christian tradition may well be correct in ascribing it to John Mark . . . , who is said to have composed it at Rome as a summary of Peter ' s preachi n g .''
         That makes sense, that Peter is the on e who virtually wrote it , that it is a summary of Peter's thought. Peter the disciple is depicted in the Gospels as impetuous, changeable , prone to go to extremes ; he turns on a dime. He is likely to picture an action hero Jesus in his version of events.
        
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The Gospel of Mark begins with John the baptizer appearing in the wilderness outside the city, preaching that everyone must repent and be forgiven of their sins. He states that he is just
the forerunner of a mightier prophet to come, one who will baptize people not only with water but with the very Spirit and power of God. This second prophet , Jesus, really will inaugurate a new era.
         When John is arrested, Jesus takes over the preaching campaign. Jesus too preaches repentance of sins as a prerequisite for the coming of the kingdom of God. ``The time is now ,'' he says. ``It's finally here. Repent and believe that God's new society has arrived.''
         In Mark chapter 1, Jesus spends about one paragraph recruiting four disciples from among the fishermen before embarking on his ministry of startling deeds. These star t ling deeds include drawing demons out of people, healing a paralyzed man, healing a man with a deformed hand, and healing many pe o ple of diseases.
         Often what offends observers is that Jesus accompanies physical healing with pronouncing the forgiveness of sins. The scribes watching him in chapter 2 say to themselves, ``Who is this guy to forgive sins? Does he think he's God?'' But from the beginning of John's preaching, the gospel he and Jesus announce is that people should repent of their sins and be forgiven, and that this new beginningforgiveness-- IS the kingdom of God . The old stuckness, the old wallowing, the old trapped way of thinking is over; whoever can see this and hear it shoul d accept the new relationship appropriating God's power. One should a ccept the filling with God's Spirit. Oh -- and as an outward sign, one should also accept the healing of the body.
         Healing is linked to forgiveness when Jesus decides to heal the paralyzed man. W hen Jesus sees the faith of the bed-carriers who let the man's bed down through th e roof of the house
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where Jesus is speaking, he decide s to heal and forgive the paralyzed man. Jesus doesn't mind shaking things up. In chapter 2 , verses 18 and following, Jesus provokes the critics of his disciples' spiritual disciplines when he says, ``The bridegroom has arrived. Does it make any sense to fast at a wedding ? I'm here ; t his is the time to feast, not fast .'' Revolutionary times call for new customs.
         Jesus calls himself the ``Son of Man,'' a way of calling himself the messiah predicted by Daniel. It's another way of announcing that the reign of God has come, and the religious people will have to adjust. The Son of Man, the messiah, doesn't have to follow the Sabbath rules. Or rather, he follows the spirit of the rules, not the letter.
         In chapter 3, Jesus heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath, even though he knows the Pharisees are watching to see wheth er he will commit an infraction of the Sabbath rules. It feels wrong to us that the Pharisees miss the more important point: a man is healed ; he is liberated . But what they register is that someone is challenging their power to say what is right, to regulate lives. They are the Taliban of Jerusalem , if you will. After that healing of the man with the deformed hand, the Pharisees make a political alliance with Herod's people, and together they plot to destroy Jesus.
         We come to our passage, Mark 5. The context is a preaching tour Jesus undertakes. The passage describes two healings, one inserted as an added bonus healing into the story of the other. While Jesus is on the way to heal a deacon of the synagogue's daughter, he almost inadvertently heals the woman with an issue of blood. Both sto ries emphasize that the subject s ' belief in Jesus is what cures them. Maybe belief in Jesusacting a s though what he says is trueis the sign of the pres ence of God's kingdom that makes healing happen .
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The woman who was menstruating continually would have been classified as unclean by Jewish law. Women during menstruation couldn't enter the temple or have sex with their husbands; they had to sequester themselves from ordinary life. Furthermore, impurity was
considered highly cont agious; it affected not only the woman but also everything she touched. The woman was not to touch any holy thing, and certainly not the person Mark identifies as the Holy One of God . According to Levitical law, the woman contaminated Jesus by touching him.
This woman had been an untouchable for twelve years. She was in a hopeless situation . Her disease prevented childbearing, which determined women's value in her society. Childlessness was a disgrace, and grounds for divorce. Think of someone perhaps yourself who has a long-term illness , and who has grown weary of battling it. HIV, infertility, cancer, mental illness, chronic painthese diseases make one feel not only ill but socially stigmatized, an outcast from normal life, unclean. Not right, not reconciled to one's fate. And isolated in dealing with one's lonely struggle. The woman had been coping with an unceasing menstrual flow for twelve years . She had exhausted her money in going to doctors who put her through torturous experiments, but she had only grown worse, not better. Imagine her feeling of defeat, and her loneliness.
         Into the woman's bleak life comes news of a healer traveling around the country. She says to herself, ``If I can just get close enough to touch himclose enough just to accidentally brush against his clotheshe could heal me . I could be made well .'' She can imagine wholeness. So in the press of the crowd surrounding Jesus o n his way to Jairus' house, the woman comes up behind Jesus and touches his clothes. ``And immediately [there's that word again] the flow of blood stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.''
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Jesus knew what had happened, al though she had snuck up behind him. It was not a casual jostling, for he felt in his body ``that power had gone forth from him.'' Someone had touched him with intent. ``Immediately'' he whipped around to ask, ``Who touched me?'' The healed woman came forward to confess, and Jesus said, ``Daughter, your faith has made you whole. You are a lready a member of the new order. Go in peace, and be healed of your disease.'' It is the woman's orientation toward healingher faith that Jesus c an heal her, her willingness to risk acting on itthat heals the woman. She was already living in the new reality, and Jesus confirmed it. Both Jesus and the woman cross ed boundaries. A man and a woman shouldn't have been talking in public, let alone a man and an unclean woman. But the woman took a bold step to seek out and approach Jesus, out of her imagination of the new way of living . Jesus is pictured as so charged with power that it affects people who simply touch him. This power consists of both strength and spirit; it is what we ca l l ``dynamism.''
         Healing our spirits, our minds, may be more difficult than healing our bodies. Vic Myers's sister Sylvia finally decided that God was healing her chronic pain graduallywhich marked a huge turnaround from her having steadfastly maintained that nothing could help her . Perhaps from the moment of that changed orientation, that changed imagination, she began to be healed of her pain.
         While Jesus is still speaking to the woman healed of vaginal bleeding , someone comes from Jairus' house to say, ``Your daughter has died. It's all over. Don't bother the Teacher a nymore.'' But Jesus ignores the messenger and says to Jair us, ``Do not fear; only believe. Do n't be afraid ; just have faith . Entertain l ove, not fear in your heart.'' He takes only his inner circle of disciples wi th him, and proceeds to Jairus' house.
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When he arrives, he has to throw out the mourners, who are weeping and wailing ostentatious ly. Jesus says to them, ``Why are you making an uproar with your crying? The child
is not dead, but sleeping.'' The mourners laugh at him; perhaps they think he's crazy. They seem invested in their version of the story, and in their roles in it. So Jesus puts them all outside and takes the child's mother and father and his own disciples, and goes in where the child is. He takes the g irl by the ha nd and says to her, ``Little lamb , get up.'' And immediately the girl gets up and walks, an d the onlookers are immediately overcome with amazement. But Jesus tells them sternly ma kes them promisenot to tell anyone about the resuscitation. And he tells them to give the girl something to eat, in order to incorporate her into normal life again.
         Again Jesus has violated taboos; corpse impurity was the most severe of all the Levitical impurities. Jesuit commentators John Donahue and Daniel Harrington say, ``The Jesus who emerges from these stories is one who is compassionate in the face of human suffering and who makes the needs of these sufferers the norm for his action, to the disregard of social taboos and conventions. He talks to a woman in public and violates the stringent taboo against touching a corpse. Faith, especially as embodied by the bleeding woman, can exist in the face of seemingly hopeless situations. It involves not simply an intellectual conviction but also a bold [emotional] trust that crosses barriers (symbolized both by the social constraints and the mass of people blocking access to Jesus). It can spring . . . from deep concern for a loved one or from desire for release from life-denying suffering'' (Donahue and Harrington 182).
         Let us think about our own lives. Are you living in wholeness? Can you imagine wholeness? Let's try what my colleagues call a thought experiment, or what we here at church

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call a meditation. Sit quietly; close your eyes, and imagine wholeness. Are you ready to risk acting in such a way as to touch Jesus and tap into his power? Can Jesus bring you wholeness and healing?
         What would it mean to act on the new reality you suspect is hidden under the face of ordinary life? What would it take to reach out to touch Jesus? What is stopping you? What beliefs would you have to giv e up? What ideas about yourself would you have to abandon? That it's too late? That it wouldn't do any good? That you are not worth saving? That things are really all right as they are? That it's too hard to change?
         Jesus shows in his response to Jairus' little girl and to the woman with vaginal bleeding that he doesn't like suffering, that he feels for us, and that he wants us to imagine our new lives with his power. ``Don't be afraid; just have faith,'' he says to us. ``Your fa ith has already made you well. Do not fear; only believe. Do not fear; only love and believe.''
May God give us faith to live in his new reality. You may open your eyes when you are ready.