To Be Healed
A sermon on Mark 5:21-43
Joe Cailles, pastor
Urbanna UMC
June 28, 2009
The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
When Jesus had crossed again in
the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by
the sea. Then one of the leaders
of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, “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.”
So he went with him. And a large
crowd followed him and pressed in on him. Now
there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians,
and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up
behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for
she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she
felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth
from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the
crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’” He looked all around to see who had done
it. But the woman, knowing what
had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told
him the whole truth. 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,
some people came from the leader’s house to say, “Your daughter is dead. Why
trouble the teacher any further?” But
overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, “Do not
fear, only believe.” He allowed
no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they came to the house of the leader
of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. When he had entered, he said to them, “Why
do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. Then 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. He
took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha cum,” which means, “Little girl,
get up!” And immediately the
girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they
were overcome with amazement. He
strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her
something to eat.
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During my junior year in college, I took an advanced probability course for my math degree. By mid semester it was pretty clear I was not doing well in the class. I couldn’t keep up with the concepts and fell further and further behind. On my way to the mid-term, I was not in a good place. I knew how much I didn’t know, and I knew how unprepared I was. Anxious about what was ahead, I stopped into the chapel to pray before the test. While I don’t remember exactly what I prayed for, I can’t imagine that I had the guts to ask God for an A. Mostly I imagine I prayed, “Lord just get me through this, or get me out this. Anything, please.”
I left the chapel. I took the test. I got a B+.
So…did God answer my prayer? Maybe. Maybe just naming aloud my anxiety was enough for me to get over it and clear my head and let through what actually was in there.
But here is the punch line. I got a good grade on the midterm, but I failed the course. I had a single B+ and a lot of grades significantly lower than a B+.
I wonder now who else was praying on that campus on that day. There were 27,000 students on that campus; it was midterms. I’m guessing mine wasn’t the only,”Lord, just get me through this,”kind of prayer. Was the Lord feeling particularly generous with us that day? Did we all get good grades? Did someone that day also pray for a miracle grade and not get it? What about the more serious prayers we make to God, not the ones about grades or sports but about life and death and suffering and pain? What about those prayers that don’t get answered? Why does it seem that God answers some prayers and not others?
Our scripture passage today is two stories, sandwiched together about prayers and faith and healing. When we pray we’re often praying for some kind of healing...either of the body or of the mind or the spirit or the healing of a broken relationship. In this passage two women are healed: one young, one older, one the daughter of wealth and power, the other a human leftover, one in the midst of life, one on the sidelines of life. Prayers are said by them and for them, and Jesus heals them both. Prayers answered!
So what about us, will we be healed? When we pray to God about our healing or the healing of a loved one, will our prayers be answered? What scripture tells us is that they will be…just not always when we expect them and not always in the way we expect our prayers to be answered.
Our passage opens today just after Jesus has come back for the far side of the shore from another healing. Over there, he healed a crazy man, an outcast who lived among the graves. In this passage Jesus comes back to his own territory and immediately, one of the leaders of the synagogue, a man named Jarius comes to him, kneels before him, and pleads that Jesus go and lay hands on his daughter who is dying. Jesus agrees and off he goes. As he travels, the second story begins as someone grabs him, a sick woman who had been living with a bleeding disorder for 12 years. After 12 years of treatment, scripture says she has no money and no cure. She has nothing but desperation and faith that Jesus will heal her. Now rather than wait politely in line to shake hands with the man, she pushes through the crowd. And though she doesn’t get to see the face of Jesus, she grabs at his cloak.
The Gospel of Mark reports to us that as soon as she touched Jesus’ clothing, the disease left her, and then after Jesus realizes what has happened, she kneels before him and confesses what she has done. Jesus praises her and she leaves with her prayers answered, and her body healed. And it seems then that Jarius’ prayer for his dying daughter will not be answered. By the time Jesus arrives the girl has died.
This will not be the only time Jesus has looked at the power of death and overcome it.
Jesus says to her, “Talithia cum,” which means, “Little girl, get up.” And she does. She lives. At twelve years of age, Jarius’ daughter has life and death and new life. After twelve years of suffering and near dying, the older woman has life and new life given to her.
Prayers answered in both cases. The faith of Jarius led to his daughter’s healing. The older woman’s prayers and conviction led to her healing.
I wish I could say that’s all it takes to get what we want from God. All we need is the persistence and determination of the older woman, and if we don’t let anyone or anything stop us, we can reach out and touch God and get exactly what we want.
I wish I could say that all a parent or a grandparent has to do is seek out the Lord on behalf of our children and then our children won’t have to suffer, and they won’t have to be ill. All we parents and grandparents have to do is pray and ask on behalf of our kids and God will always answer as we would like.
And sometimes, sometimes, Thanks be to God, that is all it takes. Sometimes we get what we pray for…when we pray for it…in the exact manner we have prayed for it. The illness is healed. The child recovers. The brokenness is mended. We get a passing grade on the test. Sometimes we know God has heard us and God has delivered.
But sometimes, many times, often times, our prayers do not get answered exactly as we had wanted.
Sometimes, too many times, the disease is not defeated. Sometimes, too many times, those we love suffer and they die too soon. Sometimes, too many times, it feels like the answer to our prayers is a flat out “No.”
Is God capricious? Does God play favorites? Do some get healed and others don’t because God has a quota? How does it really work? How does prayer and faith and healing function for God and for us?
I’ve been talking to the children in Sunday school this past month about prayer. We’ve been focusing on the Lord’ Prayer these past two weeks, focusing today on two phrases. The one at the beginning, “Our Father,” and then mid way through when we say “Thy Will be Done.” Those two parts of the Lord ’s Prayer, Our Father and Thy Will Be Done, lead us into how prayer can function for us and for God.
“Our Father” the very first words of the prayer remind us that we are in a relationship with God. And it’s not just “My” father in Heaven…Our father, reminding us that we’re in this together. Prayer isn’t meant to isolate us and make us think only of ourselves and what it is we want…the “Our” part of the Our Father is a little reminder that we have relationships with each other. Their needs are bound up with my needs…and that an answer to our prayer may just lie with one of those others who are praying Our Father too. They may be an answer to our prayer and we might be answer to their prayer. We need to be ready to be the answer to someone’s prayer.
The “Father” part reminds us that we call God Father like Jesus did because God first calls us children of God. God cares for us and loves us because we are God’s own beloved children. And Our Father wants a relationship with us, a living, loving, moving, communicating relationship with us.
I think many of us tend to think of God as a sort of cosmic, Giant Vending Machine in the sky. And that our prayers are like quarters. We put in the prayers in the machine and we put them in faithfully and with determination because we really want what we’re ordering, and the we faithfully push the healing button, or the “Please God let me pass the test” button or the please God let my life be more than this” button. And then we want God to drop down our prayers into our lives like a candy bar at the bottom of the machine.
God isn’t a vending machine. Our prayers don’t work like correct change. God loves us. God wants life and health and wholeness for each one of us. We know that because that’s what God’s son Jesus offers to us and to those he touched. And in Jesus Christ, God shows us that power of life over death, the power of hope over despair and the power of mercy over rejection.
If our prayers, if our healing in mind and body and spirit don’t happen in the exact way we ask for in the exact time we ask for it, perhaps God answers our prayers in a far better way than what we ask for.
I read a story this week: “A man of deep faith who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease when he was still in his fifties. He and his wife prayed that he might be healed. Twenty years later he is in the last stages of this debilitating disease. He says his prayers were answered. He says in all sincerity, ‘I have been healed, not of my Parkinson’s disease, but I have been healed of my fear of Parkinson’s disease’.” [From Michael L. Lindvall’s article “Mark 5:21-43, Pastoral Perspective,”page 189-190, Feasting on the Word, Year B, volume 3]
Our father loves us, and removing fear makes way for life. Our father loves us, and though God has not removed death from our experience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have been promised that beyond this life lies the resurrected life to come.
“Our Father” and “Thy Will be Done” teach us to pray. We say that to God “Thy will be done” each time we pray the Lord’s prayer. Thy will be done…not my will, even if it is completely sincere, completely selfless and completely obvious to me that my prayer should happen.
When Jesus himself was near his time of trial, he prayed to God that he would not die, that he would not suffer. Jesus said, “Take this cup away from me, Father.” “Let me live.”is what he was saying, and then he added those other words, those words we need to add to our prayer. “Not my will but thy will be done.
Whatever prayers we lift to God, for a passing grade, for the healing of the body, for the healing of a broken relationship, for whatever it is that we need to talk to God, let our prayer end with “Thy will be done.”
Let us be strong enough to submit our will to God’s will Let us be willing to let God be god and maybe perhaps answer our prayers not as we would like but in a better, Godlier way. Let us be willing to give up trying to control life and death and miracles and healings as if we could pull them from the great snack machine in the sky. Instead, let’s let God love us and bless us and change us and lead us into life and renewed life and new life. Like Jarius and the older woman let us knee our wills before God’s will. And let Thy will be done in all of our life.
We will continue to pray to God. We will continue to ask God who loves us for what we need and what our loved ones need. And then we will allow God to answer our prayer, to heal us, not by our own will but by God’s will. Amen.