The attention and concern of the nation recently poured out to 7 year-old Max Page (the “little Darth Vader” in the Volkswagen commercials) who had to undergo open heart surgery. His sweet angelic looks combined with such a serious medical condition captured the hearts of the public. Is there anything that gets our attention quicker than a child in distress?
It’s not surprising, therefore, in our Gospel lesson today to see Jesus hurrying through the crowd in response to the frantic plea of Jairus, a prominent citizen and leader of the synagogue. He abruptly confronted Jesus urging Him to come to the rescue of his 12 year-old daughter who was mortally ill. When I was the director of different church social services programs in my past ministry I would sometimes become frustrated with the many interruptions to my administrative duties which experienced regularly. However, I would have to stop and remind myself that the interruptions were also an important part of my work and ministry. Someone once said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re making other plans!” Often we find the interruption is of greater consequence than what we thought was the important work we were doing.
Jesus left the crowd of many to minister to a single person. Jesus was never too busy to respond to the needs of individuals. His public ministry of only three short years was constantly centering on particular persons: a blind man by the side of the road, an epileptic youth brought by a distraught father, a troubled tax collector worried about his spiritual life, a widow mourning her deceased son.
Yet even Jesus, the Son of God, could not minister to everyone. As you and I look at the vast needs of the world we are overwhelmed. Yes, we want to help, but we hardly know where to begin or where to stop. The temptation is to despair, wring our hands and feel that anything we might do would be of so little help or no significance. Quite the contrary; where your ability and the world’s needs intersect is where you are most needed and have the potential to do the most good. Did not Jesus say, “inasmuch as you’ve done it to one of the least of these, you have done it to me”?
Jesus went hastily with Jairus to his home and on the way was interrupted yet again, not so noticeably this time. From behind he feels the flick of fingers on the fringe of his outer garment. Immediately he stops and says to his disciples, “Who touched my clothes?” The disciples all but laughed as they responded, “You see the crowd pushing in on you and you ask who touched you?!” Surely they tried to hurry Jesus on to Jairus’ house, since he was an important community leader. But Jesus would not be deterred.
Then the person came forward: a woman who related her sad story of suffering from a debilitating and chronic illness for twelve years with no cure despite many attempts by the medical professionals. This is another classic example of Jesus’ response to a poor outcast soul – she was not only ill, but because of her hemorrhaging she was considered “unclean” by the religious laws of the time. But Jesus expresses his immediate affection for her by calling her “daughter” and then pronouncing that her faith has made her well. In that instant she went from nobody to somebody to everybody.
Sixteen centuries ago St. Augustine affirmed that God loves each of us as if we were the only person on earth, yet God loves all as God loves each. Think about it: There’s no one on earth today that God loves any more than God loves you, nor is there anyone God loves any less than God loves you.
That realization should give us reassurance of our own self worth as well as the self worth of all other persons.
The woman in our Gospel never gave up hope, no matter all the frustration and disappointment she experienced over many years. Still on the way to Jairus’ daughter, the news comes that she has died. Upon arriving at the house Jesus is confronted by much lamenting and mourning, no doubt in extravagant Middle Eastern fashion, and proclaims, “Why are you making such a commotion, the girl is only sleeping! Then he takes her hand and she gets up.”
I preached a couple of weeks ago about the “us and them” world of Jesus’ day (not unlike our own). In today’s Gospel we see Jesus again dramatically smashing barriers in a divided world. A woman who is considered unclean due her hemorrhaging illness is freed from her bondage and received into the fellowship of hope. A synagogue leader has his daughter restored and gathered into the community of those who receive the good news of Christ.
Throughout his ministry Jesus will eat with sinners, fellowship with the unclean, gather in the Samaritan, and accept the stranger. One of the reasons people tend to see faith as a religion about God instead of a relationship with God, is the sense that they are too insignificant. But time and time again (like we hear in the Gospel today) Jesus demonstrates a relationship with a compassionate God. He teaches that faith is not about rules, regulations, and religion. It is about reaching out to God, who reaches out to us through Jesus Christ into our pain and anguish.
Today’s readings reinforce for us the undeniable reality that suffering is not unique to us or to our times. Wars, hunger, economic disasters abound and may bring us to despair; personal illness, pain, and loss may cause us to lose hope. Sometimes we feel as if we are alone in our pain and may ask, ‘Why me?’ There is much to fear in this country and in the world today: fear of “the other”, fear of losing a job and not being able to pay the mortgage, fear of crazy people with guns, fear of a hit and run by a drunk driver, fear of not succeeding, oh so many fears! How do we confront them? The psalmist’s answer is to wait for the Lord; St. Paul’s answer is to remember what Jesus did for us; and Jesus’ answer is to be whole. This wholeness, or “holiness” is possible only when we are focused on the one who brought us new life with a trust so complete that it takes away fear, even fear of death.
“Who touched my clothes?” And we confess, “We touched you Lord, for we are afraid.” And then he says to us, “Your faith has made you well, healed of the evil that swirls around you, free of the fear that is being proclaimed on the street corners, released from the need to squander your energies on things that do not matter.” All we need to do is to approach Jesus, bleeding and believing. Come to the hem of his garment and claim your rightful place as a child of God; because you are God’s sons and daughters.
And Jesus took the little girl’s hand and said, “Get up.” And then told them to give her something to eat. Hear what he says and approach his table now in gratitude, free from fear.
Amen.
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