This morning we meet Jairus, a senior figure in the Synagogue. He
comes and kneels before Jesus and begs him to heal his daughter. This
is a man, by the sheer nature of his position in Jewish society will
have had everything he ever wanted and the rest was at his fingertips.
We can only make assumptions about his thinking, but chances are - his
daughter fell ill, so he will have tried the local quacks, they also
will have prayed and nothing seems to have worked. He will have heard
about Jesus - who would not have heard about this man? For Jairus, this
is the family's last resort. A man of position of humbles himself and
begs Jesus desperately for healing because he know he can.
Sheila,
the mother of a school friend of mine, was diagnosed with an inoperable
brain tumour. Following her diagnosis she tried conventional medicine;
she tried complementary medicine - both to no avail. She refused to
accept her situation; she believed that she could not die. In complete
desperation she turned to a form of spiritualism - and spent thousands
of pounds on a healer who told her that she would be healed. Sadly ,
Sheila was not and she later died bitter and deluded. Jesus saw the
same ‘I have tried everything’ sort of desperation in Jairus’ eyes.
This
story is interrupted, rather rudely by another. You begin to get a
sense of what being Jesus in the crowd must have been like - as requests
for teaching and healing come one after another - people vie for his
attention. Jesus stops the crowd, someone has been healed, he feels
power go out of him. The woman in question was, like Jairus,
desperate. Having been hemorrhaging for 12 years - she was ritually,
religiously unclean, a social outcast. She couldn’t ask Jesus for
healing, she could not speak to him, she could not even look at him, but
she knew that Jesus could heal her. She is so desperate that she risks
making Jesus unclean by touching him. We can only make assumptions
about her thinking, but chances are - she fell ill, so he will have
tried the local quacks, they will have prayed and nothing seems to have
worked. She will have heard about Jesus - who would not have heard
about this man? For this woman, Jesus is the her last resort. A woman,
a social outcast risks touching Jesus, longing for healing because she
know he can.
Mother Teresa was once asked by a
reporter, “What’s the worst illness you’ve ever seen.” Mother Teresa
didn’t have to think for even a moment. The reporter thought she would
say AIDS or leprosy. But she said, “The worst disease is that of being
unwanted.” Jesus crosses the same social and religious boundaries and
shows that this woman is not only wanted, but she is loved, forgiven and
healed.
Then, as Jesus prepares to go to Jairus’s
house just as he is told that his daughter is dead and to let Jesus get
on. Jesus is not to deterred. You can only imagine what would have
been going through Jairus’s mind - why did he take so long with this
woman when he could have been at his daughter’s bedside? Nevertheless
Jesus goes to the house, and goes to where Jairus’s daughter was. He
touches her gently, taking her by the hand and tells her to get up,
raising her from the dead to the bewilderment and astonishment of those
in the room.
Paul Brand, a doctor in India, touched a
young leper and said, “My son, you are going to get better.” The young
man sobbed and sobbed. Paul said, “You don’t understand. You’re going
to get better. We’ve discovered some new medications for leprosy and
I’ve found the right one for you.” The young man sobbed all the more.
His sister finally said to Dr. Brand, “He isn’t sobbing because of what
you told him. He’s sobbing because ever since he got leprosy nobody has
touched him.”
Jesus knows how oppressive illness is.
He has seen families who believe they are beyond hope. He has sat and
talked with those who society or religion say are unclean, to be
avoided, ostracized - the outsider. He has seen desperation in
countless eyes. These healings are not dependent on the faith of the
individuals involved. They depend only on the touch of the love of God,
in his Son, Jesus.
The issue of healing is an emotive one
especially when it does not seem to happen. We assume at our peril that
if after prayer we do not get better, that prayer has failed. Look at
that women, she had waited for twelve years to finally be free of her
condition. I say that, not to duck the difficult issue, but because our
instant world expects instant results. It expects God to act just like
that ‘click!’ God does not answer to our beck and call, but according
to his loving and gracious will. Like Jairus and this woman, God only
gets called in as a last resort, but all too often gets all the blame
and none of the praise!
Healing is God’s business.
Jairus and the woman hoped that Jesus would and could act in love and
compassion. This is often how we react - we ask Jesus - politely
because we are Anglicans whether he would mind awfully healing so and
so... we come to Jesus as our last resort or as a fail-safe to the work
of doctors. Yet as 21 century Christians, we know how Jesus responds
to requests for healing in the gospels. No one is turned away.
In
desperation, many people are looking for meaning, for peace in our
world, and for healing. Christ offers that touch of healing still - as
Christians, do we seek it as our last resort? Because we make it as our
first port of call. Other people heard of Jesus’ ministry as stories
like this morning were told as gospel, as good news. We can only do the
same, if we have experienced it for ourselves. Amen.
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