Living in Light of the Resurrection: Healing

Mark 5:21–43 ESV

And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’ ” And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

Introduction

Michael Kenneth Williams became a famous actor in the early 2000s playing Omar in the HBO series The Wire. He died of a drug overdose on September 6, 2021 in Brooklyn, NY at 54 years old. He did not know that the heroin he purchased had been laced with a lethal amount of fentanyl. He struggled with drug addiction for most of his adult life. He was molested at 12 or 13 years old, and thought of himself as damaged goods.

In a 2016 interview with NPR’s Terry Gross, Williams described his relationship with Reverend Ronald Christian, and his experience at Christian Love Baptist Church in New Jersey. He met Rev. Christian during the second season of The Wire. He was on a downward spiral abusing drugs. He was, in his own words, in jeopardy of destroying everything he had worked for.

He said this about Rev. Christian, “I’m not saying that he accepted me in my disfuctionalism, but he loved me in it.” Then he said, “That was the first time I actually walked in a church and felt Ok. I didn’t feel dirty. I would never go into a church. It made me question myself on every level. Those events happening so early on in my life. And I would go to church with this secret, this weight. Like, I’m dirty. I’m dirty. God is never going to want me. I’m dirty. I had a very low self-esteem coming up and I just never felt like God loves me because I was dirty. I was damaged goods…And I wore that badge very early on in my life. And I didn’t let that go until I walked into Christian Love Baptist Church. I saw other men who said, “Me too,” out loud. And it doesn’t make you less of a man. It doesn’t make you dirty. Learning how to forgive myself and forgive other people. I got all of that at Christian Love.”

There’s a lot we could say about what Michael Williams shared, but here’s part of why I’m telling you this story. Whether or not you are able to relate to his experience, none of us get through this life trauma free. None of us, no matter how wealthy or successful by society’s standards, or how displaced we are from the pathway to prosperity, gets to live a life that does not need continual healing - physical, emotional, mental, spiritual healing. Pain and trauma are pervasive in the human experience. We suffer pain, we cause pain. We are traumatized, we traumatize others. Where is hope found for this seemingly permanent problem? In this Easter season our messages are honing in on living in light of the resurrection. We’ve talked about peace. We’ve talked about Joy. And today we’re going to talk about healing. Jesus’s resurrection is God’s guarantee to us that he is making all things new, and this includes our healing. There are three things I want to share with you from this passage in Mark’s gospel. Jesus Has Time for You. Jesus Has Time for Your Healing. Jesus Has Time for Your Faith.

Jesus Has Time for You

In this passage we encounter two people who are in need of healing, and two people who are desperate for Jesus to help them. Mark tells us this account in a sandwich format. He does this several times in his gospel. He’ll start a story. Then before finishing, he interrupts the first story with another one. And then he goes back a wraps up the first story. It’s not that Mark has trouble focusing on one thing. No, the stories are connected and instrumental to the point he’s trying to make. In many respects, the theme verse for Mark’s gospel is found in Mark1.14-15

Mark 1:14–15 ESV

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

By the time we get to our passage it has become clear that Jesus is a healer. He is demonstrating that the kingdom of God is at hand not only by what he’s saying, but by what he’s doing - casting out demons, healing diseases. In fact, in the passage right before ours, Jesus is in a Gentile region, that is a non-Jewish region, the country of the Gerasenes. And he heals a demon possessed man. Now, Mark says in v. 21 that he crossed over again in the boat to the other side of the sea. He’s back in Jewish territory. And because word about Jesus has been spreading far and wide, a great crowd gathered around him. When Mark says at the end of v. 21 that he was beside the sea, we get the sense that Jesus was about to begin teaching the crowd. But then a man named Jairus, a ruler of one of the synagogues came and fell at Jesus’s feet. As a synagogue ruler, here’s what we know about Jairus. He was a religious man. In fact, more than religious, as a synagogue ruler he would been consider pious. He was well respected. He was a man who carried a degree of authority in his community. He was a well resourced man. And with all of that going for him, power, wealth, respect, access to resources, his daughter lay next to death (likely with some incurable disease) and there was nothing he could do about it. Let me point out two things. First, when he says, “My little daughter,” you need to hear a depth of love and affection being expressed. You need to hear him saying in a voice of desperation, “This is my baby girl.” “This is my sweet girl.” Parents, aunties, uncles, god-parents, what term of endearment do you use to describe the young ones you love? Put that term in this text. This is as deeply affectionate as it gets. Which makes the second point that much more desperate. My precious daughter is at the point of death. She is at death’s door. Can you feel the grief? Can you feel the hopelessness and helplessness? We haven’t gotten to the woman with the discharge of blood yet, who spent all she had in search of healing. But you can imagine that Jairus brought whatever resources to bear that he could trying to help his daughter. And nothing.

What does Jesus do in response to Jairus’s prostrated plea? Mark simply says, “Jesus went with him.” We are meant to respond with a sense of hope for healing just like the great crowd that followed and thronged about Jesus. They are anticipating that healing is coming!

But then this massive procession of people on their way to Jairus’s house is interrupted when Mark takes us from the top of the social order to the bottom of the social order. The synagogue ruler has a name, Jairus. The title for the second desperate person in our text is only given to us as, “the woman who had a discharge of blood for twelve years.” Thirteen years before encountering Jesus she may not have been poor. But then she contracted this physical ailment that caused her body to go from discharging blood monthly to the blood flowing continually. So, even before she exhausted all of her resources going to doctors, she became an outcast. Her flow of blood made her ceremonially unclean. She was now excluded from her community because of her disease. Look at how Mark describes the last twelve years of her life. She suffered much under many physicians and spent all that she had. Her doctor visits are described as suffering. Can you imagine the nasty potions she had to drink over the years? Can you imagine the invasive procedures she had to endure for a dozen years? This was not healing. It was suffering, especially since she kept getting worse. Here she is in her desperation, pressing through the crowd behind Jesus to touch his garment. She told herself, “this man is a healer. If only I can touch his clothes, I‘ll be healed.”

Listen, one of the implications of this unnamed woman’s healing being right in that middle of the whole story does for us is highlight the way that margInalized people are centered and elevated by Jesus. We’ll talk about this more in a little while, but Jesus literally stops and turns to find out who touched him. Even though she’s healed, she comes forward afraid and trembling. She is shaking, still ashamed. Jesus brings her out of the darkness of her shame into his light and elevates her. This excluded, marginalized outcast is now a daughter. She had no place in society other than the bottom rung, and now Jesus calls her daughter. Mark didn’t need to tell us her name because the only name that matters is the one Jesus uses in v. 34, “Daughter.” She’s now family, a daughter of the king!

I need you to know this morning that it does not matter what your station in life is. Whether you are well resourced and elite like Jairus, or on the margins, under-resourced an outcast, Jesus has time for you! And it is always the case that he has time for you in your pain! He moves toward you in your pain. Your pain makes you desperate, and I need you to know that he has time for you in your pain no matter who you are! Both of these image bearers turn to Jesus in their desperation and find out that, in his love, he has time for them.

Rev. Christian modeled this in real life to Michael Williams. Williams came to realize that the pastor had no idea that he was a famous actor. Rev. Christian asked Williams to write his full name on a piece of paper for him. Then the pastor said, “What do you want me to call you?” He said, ”My name is Michael, but you can call me Mike.” Rev. Christian said, “Well why’s everybody telling me that Omar‘s in trouble.” Williams said, “Oh snap, this guy has no idea who I am! He’s never seen The Wire. He just knew that someone was in trouble and needed help.” This is our heart here at Grace Mosaic. That we would be the kind of Jesus formed community where you get to experience in real time that Jesus has time for you no matter who you are.

Jesus Has Time for Your Healing

Jesus has time for you. He has time to see about you. And he has time for your healing. I want to be clear here. When I say that Jesus has time for your healing, I am not saying believe in Jesus and you are guaranteed to experience healing in this life from whatever ails you. That‘s not true. Is it possible? God is able to heal through ordinary and extraordinary means. So, yes it’s possible, but it’s not guaranteed. We have miraculous healings in our passage, but Jesus didn’t heal everybody in Israel. My point in saying that Jesus has time for your healing is to emphasize a word that isn’t found in our passage, but that jumps out at me. Patience. Or as the King James translations puts it, “longsuffering.”

Let me ask you this. What do you think Jairus is thinking as Jesus is making his way to heal his daughter, but stops to see about this woman? How urgent is his daughter’s situation? Have you ever had to go to the emergency room? Typically, you’re only going to go to the emergency room if you have a medical emergency. And, it’s likely that you think your medical emergency is more important than everyone else’s. But the physicians and medical staff have to make judgments on which order they’ll see people based on the severity of their condition. In fact, you might find yourself next in line and all of a sudden someone comes in who has a life threatening issue. They’ll be seen immediately, and you’ll have to wait a little longer.

Jairus’s baby girl is on her last breaths and Jesus stops to engage and take his sweet time with someone whose condition is bad, but she’s not about to die. What would you be thinking? What would you be saying? We need to go Jesus! We don’t have time for this. But Jesus is not in a rush. And he’s not anxious. During communion we’re going to sing a song that’s become a favorite of mine. It’s on repeat for me at least weekly. I think I listened to it two times yesterday on my plane ride home. The title of the song is He Has Time. It’s written in response to the #MeToo movement, but it resonates so much with me because we all find ourselves suffering in this broken world just like Jairus and his daughter and the woman with the discharge of blood. And we need to know that Jesus has time for our healing.

Something’s been stolen. Under the weight of the curse you’ve broken. You can’t shake the feeling. He’s not in a rush he has time for your healing. Lean on his shoulder. It’s never too late and your story’s not over.

Jesus runs after the broken ones. Weeping with those who weep. Crowns them with purity. And years of shame shatter in Jesus’ name. He is here and he has time to take what’s wrong and make it right.

Can you hear twelve years of shame shattering for this sister in v. 34 when Jesus says to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” Do you understand that in your suffering, in your trauma, in your pain this is the benediction that Jesus wants to pronounce over you, “Go in peace.” I am not being flippant or formulaic here. We need to sit in this story. These are real people with real pain and real trauma who turn to Jesus in their desperation and find out that he has time for their healing.

Jesus Has Time for Your Faith

Here’s the deal. We need to know this last point because this is actually the whole point. Jesus has time for you. Jesus has time for your healing. But the emphasis in both of these stories is faith. Jesus has time for your faith.

This dear woman in vv. 25-34 was under a misimpression. She was more focused on magic and superstition. She said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” In her mind, touching the clothes of a holy man had magical power. And Jesus was not going to leave her living under that deception. Two things happened when she touched his garments. Immediately the flow of blood dried up and she knew in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus knew that power had gone out from him. I know the text in v. 29 says, “she felt in her body,” and in v. 30 says Jesus “perceiving in himself,” but the words translated as felt and perceiving come from the same root word. She knew and he knew. More to the point, she knew that he knew. He turns around, scanning the crowd and says, “Who touched me?” The disciples are like, “Jesus, you see all these people? It’s impossible to know who touched you.” And v. 33 is a beautiful scene. Even though she is shaking with fear she comes into the light, falls at his feet and tells him everything. And now we get what he wants her to know. “Daughter your faith has made you well.” Daughter, your faith has saved you, go in peace. Jesus needs to correct her misunderstanding and let her know that it is her faith in him and his power that has made all the difference.

Jairus implored Jesus in v. 23, “Come and lay your hands on my daughter so that she may be healed and live.” And now, just like things went from bad to worse over the course of twelve years for the woman with the discharge of blood, things have gone from bad to worse for Jairus’ twelve year old daughter. We’re told in v. 35 that while Jesus was still speaking people came from the ruler’s house to tell him, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher anymore?” Hope is gone. It’s time for grief and mourning. When it says in v. 36 that Jesus overheard them, the nuance is that he’s ignoring them. She’s dead, but he’s still going. The story’s not over. So he says to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid, only believe.” Only have faith in me and my power. It’s the same point. They get to the house and there’s all this commotion, weeping and waling. Jesus says, “What’s all this commotion about? The child isn’t dead. She’s sleeping.” And, of course, they think he’s out of his mind. They know she’s dead. Jesus puts them out, takes the parents, Peter, James, and John and goes in where the child was. Taking her by the hand he says, “Talitha cumi,” Little girl, I say to you arise. Now I know that some of y’all when you trying to wake up your adolescent child for school or for church, you’ve got to use your outside voice to get them to wake up. But Jesus isn’t shouting her. It’s like the morning when it’s time to wake up for the day. He comes to her bedside, holds her hand and says, “Baby girl it’s time to get up.” Just like the flow of blood dried up immediately, immediately at the voice of Jesus, the girl got up. She gets up, walks around and Jesus says, “Give her something to eat.”

The thru-line in the stories is Jesus’ emphasis on faith in him. Sometimes we can be fooled into thinking that this thing is all about us. I’ve used the pronoun “you” and “your” in each of these points, but you and I are not at the center, nor are we the hero of this passage. Jesus is at the center. It is his love, his compassion, his sacrifice, all so that we might know him. The reason for us to have faith in Jesus is his cross-shaped sacrificial love. Mark has displayed that sacrificial love in this passage in a way that’s easy to miss. Did you notice that Mark says in v. 30, “Jesus perceived that power had gone out from him” when the woman touched his garments? What’s that about? If we’d been reading Marks gospel we would’ve already seen Jesus casting out demons, healing the sick. At the end of chapter 4 he even causes the winds to stop blowing and calms the sea. And it says nothing about him being drained of power in any of those instances. Do you mean to tell me that healing this woman’s flow of blood weaken him? No family. Mark is setting us up for the cross. He is letting us know that the price for our ultimate healing is Jesus hanging in weakness on the cross, where we will hear him cry out in desperation in Mark 15:34, “My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?” This cry of desperation was necessary for our eternal healing. So that living in light of the resurrection means we know that healing is coming. We know that just like he got up, we’ll get up.

The question, family, is this. How does our faith in Jesus make us well even if our pain and suffering continues? Our faith in Jesus makes us well by reorienting our gaze from our affliction to the promise of his presence and glory. Job found that his gaze was reoriented in his affliction in our Scripture reading from Job 42. Job was in such pain and anguish that he wished that he had never been born. And we know that at the end of the book of Job, he is healed and his fortunes are restored. But he’s not healed yet in chapter 42. And this is what he says,

Job 42:1–6 ESV

1 Then Job answered the Lord and said: 2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 4 ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ 5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; 6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

In the middle of his pain Job says, “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” When he says, “I repent in dust and ashes,” the sense of the word isn’t grief and sadness. The sense is that he is comforted in dust and ashes. He is consoled in dust and ashes. In the middle of affliction, he is comforted because by faith his gaze has been reoriented. Or as the apostle Paul put it in 2Cor4.16-18

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 ESV

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

In her book Invitations to Abundance, Alicia Akins says of Christians, “we are people of hope.” And she asks a question about our response to affliction. “Is there anything we can do besides hunker down in the darkness and ride it out till the end?”

[W]e look before and behind. The restoration is not just nearer to us than it was for Israel, but the Restorer has come…[H]e dwells within us and has brought his feast there. Spiritual myopia suffocates hope. Shortsightedness barricades our escape. Focusing only on the present hardship while either ignoring God’s past faithfulness or failing to look forward tot he completion of God’s work of renewal makes despair like quicksand. Instead, we open our hearts to God’s story in Scripture, in our lives, and in the testimony of fellow witnesses of his grace around us. Regardless of how far back ruin and devastation reach in our stories—even if it feels like we are enmeshed in them now—we have hope. And we live out of that hope not by wishful thinking, but through God’s Spirit and the routine rehearsal of the truth that his faithfulness will continue in the future as it has in the past.

Family, he has time for your faith.