Year B

Mark 5:21-43

The Rev. Denise Vaughn

Reach Out and Touch

Frederick Buechner, a theologian and author in his book ‘The Faces of Jesus,’ introduces his readers to the Jesus of the Gospels by looking at the different characteristics or aspects of the face of Jesus and in doing this he says we learn who God is. Jesus had a human face but to see all the ways he had of being and of being seen by others changes and challenges us. Buechner says, “It puts us back on our feet”.  One of these faces of Jesus was his ministry and his role as he understood it. “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” He came for the poor, the brokenhearted, the sick and the needy and from the beginning of his ministry these were the ones that Jesus particularly addressed rather than those who could have given him a more powerful following.

This servant face is what we see today in our gospel, a touching and rich intertwined story of two healings that reveal who Jesus is and his mission. Obviously, these two stories are different. And yet, at their core and at their most basic level, they are the very same story. They are in fact the stories of two desperate people who, when they come in contact with Jesus, are changed and transformed from death to life. They are put back on their feet. This is more obvious in the case of the little girl, because she had died. Jesus arrives on the scene; he reaches out to her, touched her, and told her to get up. And she did.

The move from death to life is a bit more difficult to see in the story of the unnamed woman but someone who has been hurting inside for twelve years has been slowly dying. So when she sees Jesus she makes her way through the crowd and reaches out to touch his cloak. This touch brought her from death to life. A touch that would make Jesus ritually unclean in the eyes of the Jewish leaders but Jesus was willing to become ritually unclean in order to heal people, and although Jesus has the ability to heal from a distance, he prefers to touch. Touching is a means by which Jesus acknowledges our humanity. These two stories of healing point us to a central understanding of Christian life: Christ touching us and us touching Christ and in that touch we discover our identity as beloved, redeemed and holy children of God. Jairus and the woman reached out to God and touched, and God reached out to them in their need.

We reach out to touch and be touched to receive life because we are all of us dying and having the life drained out of us until we encounter Jesus. Until we touch and are touched by God and brought back from death to life. What these stories of healing tell us about God, is that God hears our cries and is touched by human anguish. We especially see our Lord’s concern and care which should encourage us to seek our Lord’s help. We should be encouraged to reach out, to ask Jesus for healing. But these healing miracles also raise for us the question that many of us have asked, why are some who seek the Lord healed and some not? Does prayer work?

Recently, I read a story of a man of deep faith who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease while still in his 50’s. He and his wife prayed and prayed that he might be healed. Twenty years later, while in the last stages of the disease he told one of his friends that his prayers had been answered. He said, “I have been healed, not of Parkinson’s disease, but I have been healed of my fear of Parkinson’s disease. Pray as we may, we know that not all of our prayers are answered as we pray them. What this man found in his touch of God through prayer was trust in God’s touch of him despite the reality. He knew that his salvation would bring the ultimate healing with God.

We proclaim Jesus as the one whom “even the wind and the sea obey” our Lord and master, and even though the two healing stories today have happy endings, the reality is not all our prayers are answered. So how do we hold onto faith when our prayers are not answered? It may be helpful to remember that prayer is not simply a matter of trying to bend God’s will toward our will. We pray your will be done, but to remember that to ask something of God is so we can grow in our relationship with God. The mystery of prayer is that it brings us in contact with the divine touch that can change us and make us aware of the continuing presence of God in our times of need. God’s mind may or may not be changed, in human terms, but we-our mind and heart-may be.

To open eyes to the reality that God cares and has compassion for each one of us, Jesus was open to the needs and pain of others. He came to bring physical and spiritual healing so might have hope beyond this life. His touch brings life, healing and wholeness; it is a touch that saves us. Salvation means healing and wholeness. This is our hope and the hope we are to make known to all who are suffering and sick or in need, to all who do not know this saving, compassionate God. The Wisdom of Solomon reading today claims that the immortality of the soul is the hope of the righteous. Stay faithful, Wisdom assures those in the real world because life does not end the way the world presumes. “God does not delight in the death of the living” therefore, God’s way leads to life and this is the good news for all who hope in the Lord.

Jairus and the woman in the crowd knew where true hope was to be found. They came with hope and faith. Faith is an attitude of wide-open expectant trust that moves us toward action. It moves us to reach out to God, to grow in our relationship with God and with others. This trust is what Paul is urging the Corinthians in his second letter where he reminds them that though genuineness of love we touch others as Christ has touched us. Jesus gives himself fully to us; just asking for us to give ourselves fully to him. Asking us to reach out and touch to receive life.  This touch of faith heals, saves and helps us to see truths we cannot understand with human reason. Today, these healing miracles help us to gain insight into the face of Jesus and into the reality of our lives as his followers. In Jesus, God’s promised future makes its love and power present. With faith we touch the face of Christ and this touch will make us well. “It puts us back on our feet”.