What could the two stories in the Gospel for today have in common? On the one hand we have a synagogue ruler with some stature and authority who comes to Jesus to plead for his daughter who is sick unto death. On the other hand, there is the woman who has suffered a twelve year menstrual flow that has rendered her an outcast from the life of God’s people and left her weak and in despair. Jairus at least could go to Jesus and plead his case but this woman was left with a chance to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. Both were praying for healing, for an end to their burden, and for life to be restored. But beyond this, their was something distinct and profound about their faith and this is what binds them together.
I suspect we have more instinctive sympathy for Jairus. After all, he was not pleading for himself but for his daughter. She was twelve and had her whole life ahead of her. She is the picture of innocence and we feel for her cause more than the woman. The woman was suffering but she was not dying. She had lost much but she was still able to get around. Her cause was not for another but for herself. I suspect we would look at her the way we look at a bag lady on the street – yes, it is sad but she just needs to try harder.
We are hard people. We judge people harshly. We have in our own minds the great difference between real needs and false ones, between the true needy and those who just need to work a little harder to deal with their problems. Oddly enough, Jesus does not distinguish them nor does He rank one need higher than another. In one respect, since the woman with the flow of blood interrupted Jesus conversation with Jairus it might seem like He is more sympathetic to the woman. The reality is this. Mercy does not look at the worthiness of the person who asks for mercy. No, indeed, the mercy of Jesus is rich, extravagant, lavish, and generous to a fault. It is a mercy that is almost scandalous in its kindness.
What Jesus was looking for in both Jairus and the woman with the flow of blood is faith. What mercy looks for is not worthiness but faith – faith that trusts in the power of that mercy. In fact, Jesus commends the faith of both and uses this moment to encourage not only His disciples but you and me to such a faith. Both of these are taking the biggest risk of all – trusting in Jesus. Jairus was a synagogue leader who had to risk his stature in the synagogue to trust in Jesus to deliver for his daughter what only the Messiah can deliver – perfect healing!
Now curiously, the woman with the flow of blood does not appear to have faith. She might appear to us to be rather superstitious – after all she reached out to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. Did she believe His clothing was magical? Did she believe that the Lord was so filled with power that merely sneaking a touch would deliver her from all that the physicians of the day could not?
There is a teaching moment here. Jesus might appear to be surprised by the power that seems to have escaped His garment and His body but Jesus is not a victim here. Jesus has come for this woman, for the sick and afflicted and those marked with the death of sin. He has come to restore the lost and seat again the estranged at His table. So Jesus calls out the woman in order to call out her faith, both for her sake and for the sake of the disciples and even for you and me. Jesus makes a big deal of this so that this woman will own her faith. When she does, Jesus sends her forth telling her that her faith has made her whole again. Yes, she was cleansed of the affliction that had troubled her for twelve years but also she was restored to be part of the fellowship of God’s house again. Her fractured life was made whole.
There was another teaching moment. Jairus’ cause had been post-poned long enough so that his daughter had died. In fact, the servants from his house not only gave him the worst news of all, “Your daughter is dead,” but also told him to give it up, go home, and leave Jesus alone. I suspect we would have said the same. “Hey, fellow, yeah, I know it is bad, but nothing more can be done so give it up and leave Jesus alone.” We are always saying the same thing. What can the Church do about broken marriages or kids who turn out bad or people who lose their goods to storm or bankruptcy, or any of the thousand other terrible things people suffer? What can we do? What can faith do? What can God do?
Jesus hears them and interrupts them. Do NOT fear. Only believe! Then Jesus left behind all those who thought nothing more could be done, took with Him Peter, James, and John, and entered Jairus’ house. The place was filled with tears and cries of sorrow – a commotion too loud and crazy for anyone to calm. Then Jesus did the unthinkable. He banished the mourners and took the grieving mother and father to the body of the daughter and raised her from the dead. To the voices of those who said to leave it alone and get on with their lives and the laughter of those who insisted Jesus could not do anything, our Lord tested their faith. They followed Him to the body and saw their daughter raised from death to life.
Twelve years of life wasted away by disease and twelve years of life lost to the power of death. My friends, to the world faith is foolishness. Even your own sinful flesh is often telling you to give up, God either cannot or will not do anything, and simply to get on with your life. These are the tests of faith. The power of God is not in magical garments or in worthy causes but in faith. Those who believe in the Lord are counted righteous, raised from sin’s death to everlasting life, and kept to the day of Christ’s coming.
Nowhere is your faith more tested than in worship. Pastors are not supermen. They have not magical answers or magical cloths to hold onto. They have no crystal balls to divine what God has hidden. Their power is their words, preaching God’s Word. Their power is in water administered with the promise of God in baptism. Their power is in the voice of absolution that makes happen in heaven what now happens on earth. Their power is in bread offered to you as Christ’s flesh for the life of the world and His blood that cleanses you from all your sin. It is all received with laughter and disdain as if this were mere foolishness or superstition. This is YOUR test of faith. Will you reach out to these means of grace to touch Jesus? Will you let the world tell you your cause is too late or your need too great or will you trust Jesus?
Every crisis of our lives is a crisis of faith. Whom will we trust? Jesus offers us the only Word that can deliver what it promises, the only water that gives new and everlasting life, the only voice that speaks and sins fall away, and the only bread and wine that feed us with heavenly food. Here is Jesus every Sunday, calling you to faith, and inviting you to reach out from the comfort of your disappointment, cynicism, and doubt. “Who touched Me?” And every Sunday we approach His throne of grace in fear and trembling and say, “Lord, it is I. I am the one who touched You. Give me salvation.” In the holy Name of Jesus. Amen
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