This week we celebrate two healing stories. A little girl age twelve and a woman who had been hemorrhaging for twelve years. As the crowd gathers around Jesus a desperate father asked Jesus to heal his daughter. Jesus and the crowd follow him to his home. While they walk a woman who had been menstruating desperately wanted healing so she attempted to do so in secret. Why in secret? After Jesus identifies who he had just healed messengers came to announce they were too late, The little girl had died. Jesus followed Jairus to his house and when the family told Jesus the girl was dead, he responded she was only asleep. They laughed at him.
Today I am focusing on how much work was involved in getting those two miracles. Lastly we will explore the “She is not dead, only asleep” statement. I will use these two healing stories as a metaphor to help us to see what we need for spiritual healing and resurrection.
- Woman with the issue of blood.
- Social and economic consequences.
- Orthodox Jewish communities in Jesus’ time contained a building called a mikveh, or ritual bath. During their time of the month, women of the community lived in semi-seclusion. Their physical relationship with their husbands was suspended. They were considered ritually unclean, according to the law of Moses. At the end of that time, they went down to the mikveh, bathed, and were declared clean again.
- She sought healing in secret. Why? She was unclean.
- She was persistent. So was Jesus. Jesus did not seem to care that their religious tradition said she, and now he was unclean.
- You will strain a gnat and swallow a camel. It is not our physical body and what we ingest that makes us unclean. It is what comes from our heart, inner self that makes us unclean.
- The first miracle was about persistence. The healing power of touch.
- The second was about not giving up!
- Your daughter is dead, why bother?
- Don’t be afraid. Believe!
- The child is not dead but asleep.
- They laughed at Jesus
- Little girl, get up.
- Give her something to eat.
- How do we get the miracle of healing and spiritual enlightenment?
- Humility: Synagogue Leader fell at Jesus; feet and begged for his daughter’s healing.
- Hope beyond hope.
- Persistence
- Honesty
- Faith, your faith has made you well and she was freed from her suffering. Overhearing[a] what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
- Don’t allow the mocking from those around you to pull you off the course you set.John Dietrich, Once you decide what action to take, take it! Never give up on it!
- “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”
- Nurture the Soul! 43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.
- She is not dead, but, she is asleep. This seems to be the challenge for spiritual consciousness. We are so caught up in the business and worries of life our soul seems dead. We are no longer connected to it. However, it is not dead, it is just asleep.
- We cannot kill the soul. Our soul is our eternal energy. We can block it out, we can ignore it, we can become totally estranged from it. However, we cannot kill it.
- Our soul is eternally connected to God. We must never let it go
Call to Celebration
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Offertory
God, you invite us into relationship as we are and where we are presently. There are no parts of ourselves we need to hide from you. May we have the courage to bring our brokenness into the light. May we find absolution in knowing nothing separates us from you. Amen
Full Service Service June 27
Scripture Lesson
Mark 5:21-43 NIV
Jesus Raises a Dead Girl and Heals a Sick Woman |
21 When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. 23 He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” 24 So Jesus went with him.
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
35 While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”
36 Overhearing[a] what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” 40 But they laughed at him.
After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. 43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.