In my last home, I had a picket fence built around my back yard. I thought when I had it built that it would keep my two Yorkies safe by giving them a nice back yard to play in and one that they couldn’t escape from.
I was wrong. Queenie, the little female, discovered that some of the pickets were far enough apart that she could squeeze out between them. Having a fence that didn’t keep her safe was no use at all, so I bought some 1x2’s and screwed them across the ends of all the pickets half way down from the bottom rail. This made the openings shorter and I hoped that this would keep her inside. It didn’t. She watched oh so carefully as I installed the additional boards and when I was done I watched as she trotted around the fence, poking her head through the slots until she found a spot that was still big enough to squeeze through.
I was not about to be outsmarted by a 9 lb dog, so next I bought wire and strung the wire between the 1x2’s and the ground trying to make the spaces even smaller. To make a long story just a bit shorter –this didn’t work either. She walked along the fence again poking her head into the slots until she found a spot somewhere in the fence where the ground is just a little bit lower than anywhere else and she could still fit through, and she still occasionally gets out.
I could tear my hair out in frustration, but I have to admire her tenacity. She knew what she wanted and she simply never gave up until she found a way to get what she wanted.
Persistence, resolve, ‘stick-to-it-iveness’. It’s a quality I admire whether it’s the convict with the gumption to dig a tunnel out of the prison wall. Or the person who takes their driver’s test five times before mastering the ‘parallel park’ and ‘three-point turn’. Or the person who getting a poor diagnosis from a doctor then gets a second and a third and a fourth opinion until he or she finds the one who can do something positive.
It takes a certain amount of courage to keep hammering away at a problem when others would throw up their hands and give up. It requires a certain kind of determination not all of us have to keep going when the going gets tough – and it takes a certain kind of faith to keep knocking on a closed door when no one seems to be answering.
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This morning, we come to one of the most famous scripture portions in all of Mark – and one of the most famous ‘Markan sandwiches’. Mark’s is the shortest gospel and through it all, Jesus and the disciples are rushing here and there. Mark uses words like ‘immediately’ and ‘at once’ to convey this feeling of hurriedness… and he used this device called the Marken sandwich, a story within a story, to show that even as he is going to one place something else is happening in the meantime.
Jesus has just returned from the region of the Gadarenes. This was on the east side of the
He returns to
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Jesus is first greeted by Jairus, a leader of the synagogue. As a leader in the synagogue, Jairus is also a leader in the community. He is respected and he leads an upright and righteous life. He is known as one who does all the right things right. He keeps the law and obeys the torah. Yet in this morning’s scripture portion we find him humble, desperate and determined. He falls at the feel of Jesus and begs him repeatedly to come and heal his 12 year old daughter. No doubt he has already called in the doctors, lots of them, yet to no avail as his daughter still lies ill and at the point of death.
In humility, and determination, the great leader of the synagogue comes to the savior who agrees to accompany him to his home.
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As they are on the way, a crowd presses in on them and among them is a desperate woman.
The unnamed woman in this morning’s scripture is also one of the elite of
She has been sick for 12 years – 12 years – what were any of you doing 12 years ago in 1997? Three years before Y2K - four years before ‘9/11’? Can you imagine getting a bad diagnosis and spending 12 years looking for a cure for your condition, of going from doctor to doctor, of taking medicines that did no good and still being willing to try something more?
The woman in this morning’s scripture portion has spent all that she has on doctors and their cures – and she is no better for it – in fact, scripture tells us she had spent all she had and she was left worse off instead of better. She can’t go to the synagogue. She can’t visit friends of be in the company of the elite members of society with whom she used to run shoulders. Everything she touches becomes unclean - yet she still doesn’t giving up. Instead of walling herself up in a prison of self-pity – instead of accepting the prejudice and segregation from society her condition required – she hears about the coming of Jesus and slips quietly into the crowd to be nearby as he passes by.
She risks a lot. If she is recognized people will back away so that they will not be contaminated by her. If she is found out she risks rejection from a man who might refuse to touch her because of her condition. As Jesus passes by in the crowd, she waits until he has passed by and reaches out to tough the fringe of his garment – she doesn’t ask for much - just a touch – just the bottom edge – the bottom edge of a cloak that is coated with dust. She doesn’t ask for his full attention or an hour of his time – just a split-second – because, just because this healer might just be the one who can heal her.
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She gets more than she bargained for. As she reaches back her hand she discovers that she is indeed healed – and that she had not escaped notice. Jesus turns and asks, ‘Who touched me?’ She may have reached for his garment, but the healing came from Jesus himself. She had hoped to escape his notice, but she receives his full attention. He turns and speaks to her directly: ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease.’
When she humbled herself to join in with the crowd, when she humbled herself to touch the hem of his garment, she finally encountered the great physician. Her actions, motivated by her faith and empowered by her humility, made all the difference.
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Their conversation is interrupted when people from the home of Jairus come and announce that Jairus’ daughter is dead. Although there had been an expectant rush to Jairus’ home before, they now perceive the situation as hopeless and ask, ‘Why trouble the teacher any more?’ Don’t waste his time. Let him go back to his home. Don’t let him come into a home where there is a dead person. Don’t invite him to a place where there is sadness and mourning. Don’t invite him into a house where he will be made ritually unclean and unable to minister again for a whole week.
But Jesus persists – and Jairus does not argue against it. Although his daughter is now dead, and by all logic beyond the help of Jesus, they still continue to his home – where the miraculous happens again. Jairus has humbled himself to seek the help of this itinerant prophet and Jesus will honor that desperate request. Jesus enters the house and with his inner circle of disciples, enters the young girl’s room, ‘Talitha cum – Little girl, get up’ and she does. Jairus’ faith is exhibited differently from that of the unnamed woman, but it was still a humble, determined faith that allows the miraculous to happen.
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It seems that sometimes our faith is demonstrated by what we allow - by what we do not prohibit – as much as it is by those things we actively do. Faith heals. Faith makes people whole. Faith saves. It does not need to be a faith that understands all the mysteries of theology – certainly no one in this story – not even the disciples really understand that Jesus is the son of God – but faith, real faith, leads us to act on what we believe – leads us to act in spite of logic and circumstance and pride – because if we really believe, then we bet our lives on that reality and we humble ourselves to some to the master.
Verna Dozier in her book, The Dream of God, writes: ‘The important question to ask is not, 'What do you believe?' but 'What difference does it make that you believe?'’ (p. 105).
All of us can ask ourselves that same question. What difference does believing make in our lives? Does our faith tell us to sit alone at home fearing a world at war with itself? Does our faith tell us to accept things as they are, meekly giving in to someone else’s ideas and diagnoses? Is our faith so feeble that we cry out to God in prayer – if we ever pray at all – but never expect an answer, a healing, or a change for the better?
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In the post-modern world, many of us have abandoned the humility of our faith and exchanged it for pride: pride of self, pride of position, pride of accomplishments. We find ourselves left with the mess of our lives discovering that we have nothing. Many of us have forgotten the power of the gospel and find ourselves overwhelmed by the power of the world. Many of us say that we believe and then act as if God did not exist.
And many of us see our situation as so desperate, so helpless that we too ask, ‘Why trouble the master? There is no hope. There is nothing that can be done.’
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Outside our doors is a world full of people who believe there is no hope. A world full of people still left with the mess of their lives and no way out. A world full of people living in misery and despair – maybe some even in this church building – who could have changed lives if they would only reach out for the hem of Jesus’ garment, if they would only just allow the master into their home and into their lives.
But how will they know if no one ever tells them? How will they know if they never hear the stories of Jesus, if they never see the lives of Christians changed and molded into more than they were yesterday?
Maybe, just maybe we can let them touch us. Maybe, just maybe the healing touch of Jesus can work through us as through the hem of his garment and they can have the assurance of faith and hope of prayer as well as the comfort of knowing that their illness, their predicament, their imperfection has not made them unclean to us and that they are still beloved by God.
Why trouble the master? Because the master cares. Why trouble the master? Because the master can and will do something. Why trouble the master? Because that is why Jesus came. That is why Jesus lived among us, teaching us and healing our diseases. Because that is why he died on the cross to save us.
If we believe, if we have faith, we will trouble the master and we will see the power of God. Amen.
