The Gospel for Monday, March 15, 2004
Mark 5:21-43
When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered round him and he stayed by the lake. Then the president of the synagogue came up, named Jairus, and seeing him, fell at his feet and begged him earnestly, saying, ‘My little daughter is desperately sick. Do come and lay your hands on her that she may be saved and may live.’ Jesus went with him and a large crowd followed him; they were pressing all round him. Now there was a woman who had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years; after long and painful treatment under various doctors, she had spent all she had without being any the better for it; in fact, she was getting worse. She had heard about Jesus, and she came up through the crowd and touched his cloak from behind, thinking, ‘If I can just touch his clothes, I shall be saved.’ And at once the source of the bleeding dried up, and she felt in herself that she was cured of her complaint. And at once aware of the power that had gone out from him, Jesus turned round in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ His disciples said to him, ‘You see how the crowd is pressing round you; how can you ask, “Who touched me?” ’ But he continued to look all round to see who had done it. Then the woman came forward, frightened and trembling because she knew what had happened to her, and she fell at his feet and told him the whole truth. ‘My daughter,’ he said, ‘your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be free of your complaint.’ While he was still speaking some people arrived from the house of the president of the synagogue to say, ‘Your daughter is dead; why put the Master to any further trouble?’ But Jesus overheard what they said and he said to the president of the synagogue, ‘Do not be afraid; only have faith.’ And he allowed no one to go with him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. So they came to the house of the president of the synagogue, and Jesus noticed all the commotion, with people weeping and wailing unrestrainedly. He went in and said to them, ‘Why all this commotion and crying? The child is not dead, but asleep.’ But they ridiculed him. So he turned them all out and, taking with him the child’s father and mother and his own companions, he went into the place where the child lay. And taking the child by the hand he said to her, ‘Talitha kum!’ which means, ‘Little girl, I tell you to get up.’ The little girl got up at once and began to walk about, for she was twelve years old. At once they were overcome with astonishment, and he gave them strict orders not to let anyone know about it, and told them to give her something to eat. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
Which came first, the miracle or the faith that Jesus could do miracles?
Over and over again, belief that Jesus could change separation into unity produced just that result. Few times, including the story just preceding this one in Mark, of the demoniac, and the man at the "healing pool" at Bethsaida, for example, was a healing given without a profession, and those were generally to produce an auxiliary result like getting the temple elite upset with Jesus, so he could irritate them a bit more in person(John 5:2-18); in the case of the demoniac, it was apparently to give him some instant attention in the gentile nations.
Mark also uses this account to take another swipe at the Levitical laws about diet and cleanliness. The bleeding woman was impure, and everyone whom she touched became impure. Jesus knew that he had been touched by her and carried on although he was a strong supporter of the Law. This and the Sabbath law appear to be his two main targets.
Exodus 17:6 gives one of the first instances of Israel testing God:
[God said] "Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink." Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.? He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?"
The many hands that have laid pen to scrolls in the Hebrew Bible set Jesus up for situations in which miracles were supposed to produce faith. Except that in the Hebrew Bible, God repeatedly works wonders in front of their noses, and ten minutes later they are asking "are there not sufficient graves in Egypt for this people that you had to lead us into this desert to die here?". Quite a bunch, those. And we have no instance recorded where a sign or a miracle produced faith. Awe and wonder perhaps, but never faith.
A Reflection
I don't particularly clap my hands at the little girl's reviving when Jesus pulls this particular rabbit out of the hat. I am happy for Lazarus' friends and Jairus and his family, though.
The observable facts are that nature is going to work her course out, just as established by the creator. We can hasten nature, or slow her down, sometimes. But there's no stopping the next ice age. The last one ended ten thousand years ago, and the next one is due. So is the next asteroid, for which we'll have maybe a week's notice if someone is looking for it in just the right place. So is the next unexpected volcano, like the one under Mason, Iowa. So is the next SARS and the next Ebola and the next ... you get it. If people and other creatures did not perish, we would all starve to death in short order.
When I was a "warrior," one of my very dearest friends was also a young warrior. He was married to a wonderful woman. They had a child on the way. He went to Vietnam and I didn't. He didn't come back. He was his father's only son.
My third grandson didn't wake up one morning, at age two months, three weeks. Diagnosis: SIDS. Prevention: none known.
My younger nephew was walking along a Florida river one night, slipped in, and drowned. He must have hit his head on the way in, the autopsy said.
Why wasn't Jesus there for me to say, "Master, come quickly! I belive. I have faith!"?
God gives us the minds to do science and learn about His great universe, and the hearts to love Jesus and have faith. And sometimes my heart-mind axis goes into a chaotic tumble, as it is right now. I recognize reality and my faith screams for a miracle. As Naomi said, I say to those around me, "God has dealt with me bitterly." But He has also blessed me beyond expectation.
The authors of the Hebrew Bible had little science and came up with fantastic means to explain what was going on around them. We have much science and have abandoned fantasy. All that remains is faith. And death close to us tests faith.
I am glad I don't know the author of "That which does not kill you serves only to strengthen you." I don't know that it's true. Fortunately, however, faith can be tested without being broken. Faith can be damaged without being ruined. Sometimes faith is strengthened in our climb out of the misery of grief.
Today's Forward Day by Day, from the Episcopal Church, recalls Naomi and Ruth. Naomi lost her husband and both her sons while in a foreign land. One of those sons was Ruth's husband. Ruth refused to leave the grieving Naomi, but stayed by her, faithfully.
"God has dealt with me bitterly," was Naomi's refrain. Yet Ruth bore Obed, eventually, after marrying another man, and Obed was David's grandfather. The line continued. The story goes on.
6:03:22 AM 
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