Proper 8 -- Wisdom 1: 13–14; 2: 23-24; Psalm 30; II
Corinthians 8: 7-15; Mark 5: 21-43
A
homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given
at St. John’s Church, in Huntingdon,
Pennsylvania, on Sunday, June 28, 2015.
“FULLY
RESTORED”
(Homily text:
Mark 5: 21-43)
Imagine that, as you are about to
enter the church, your priest greets you at the door and begins to ask a series
of questions about your health and about your lifestyle and occupation: “Do you have any skin conditions or
disorders? Have you come in contact with
any blood, or with a dead body? Are you
a ‘notorious sinner’ (for example, is your occupation tax collector or
prostitute)?”
I suspect, if such a scenario as
this were to take place at the front door of our church, many people in this
day and age would simply refuse to answer such questions. Furthermore, I suspect that many – if not
most – people would not attend service that morning.
But such things did take place 2,000
years ago at the Temple in Jerusalem as worshipers went to do the sacrifices
and ceremonies that the Law of Moses required.
Priests were stationed at each entrance, and their job was to screen out
any and all person who were considered to be “unclean” because of a number of
different situations, such as the state of their health, and their lifestyle or
their occupation. According to the Law
of Moses, only those who were “clean” and who were perfect could enter into
God’s presence.
Two observations are in order at this
point, I think:
- Such practices and such a mindset seem very strange to us, don’t they?
- I would make a terrible priest if I had to work at the Temple 2,000 years ago.
If we can keep this ancient mindset
in mind, we can see a deeper dimension to Jesus’ healing of the woman who had
had a severe bleeding problem, and to the raising back to life of Jairus’
daughter, for the issue of who is “clean” and who is “unclean” figures
prominently in each case.
Ritual purity – that is to say, the
ability to enter the Temple for worship by being in a “clean” state – affected
all aspects of Jewish life in Jesus’ day.
The woman who suffered such a terrible illness was ritually unclean….she
could not enter the Temple at all.
Furthermore, anyone who came in contact with her also became ritually
unclean. Jairus’ daughter had become
unclean because she was dead. Touching
her – as Jesus does as He raises her up – also made Jesus unclean.
The system and the attendant mindset
created two classes of people: those who
were “in” and those who were “out”.
Moreover, the sense that the gospel accounts convey is that if a person
was “out”, they were permanently “out”.
This was especially true in the estimations that the Pharisees and the
priests had of tax collectors and prostitutes….such persons were forever “out”,
beyond the reach of being able to become “clean”. Or at least that’s the sense the gospels tend
to convey, I think.
But, of course, any brief reading of
the gospel accounts shows that Jesus spent a lot of time with those who were
“out” according to the calculations of the Jews of His day.
An added dimension must be taken
into account when we consider the ancient people’s regard for those who were
either “in” or “out”…..God’s people rightly regarded the human condition in its
entirety, as a unified whole. That is to
say, a human being was created in the image and likeness of God (see Genesis 1:
26). Being made in God’s image meant
that a human being was made up of body, mind and spirit. Each of these aspects of what it means to be
human were interconnected, one with another.
So, for example, what affected the body also affected the mind and the
spirit. The same is true of the spirit’s
condition affecting the mind and the body, and so forth.
Arising out of this view of the
human condition as being a unified, interconnected whole was the idea that
illness or sickness was caused[1]
(at least in part) by sin. So it’s
possible that the woman who suffered from a hemorrhage was also regarded as
being a sinner, her illness being caused by some grievous offense against God.
We said a moment ago that Jesus
spent a lot of time hanging around with those who were the outsiders of His
day.
Jesus cuts through the perceptions
that were common 2,000 years ago, restoring those who were ill to good health,
and raising those who had died, restoring them to life. He breaks down the barriers that separate
people from God and from one another.
The Lord’s purpose is to restore all
people to a relationship with God and with one another. Such a purpose is now given to the Church as
its mission.
It is the work God has entrusted to
us as God’s people, to break through the barriers that separate, in order to
restore everyone to a healthy relationship with God through Christ, and to
restore one another to a lively and ongoing relationship with one another,
gathered around the Lord.
Today’s gospel reading provides us
with some important reminders about how this process of restoration works:
Faith
is key: Notice that Jesus commends
the faith of the unknown woman who managed to get close enough to Him to touch
his garment. He says quite clearly that
her faith in God’s ability to heal was the key that made her healing
possible. Many times in the gospels, we
read that faith was the central reality that made healing possible. Faith involves putting our trust in God’s
ability to do something. The woman who
was healed put her faith in the power of God that resided in Jesus, and that
made her restoration possible. (I can’t
resist saying that both the unnamed woman and Jairus had faith in Jesus’ power
to help them in their respective plights, while the disciples were still
unbelieving….people who have faith may surprise us!)
Change
is inevitable: The woman who was
healed was forever changed, and her circumstances were improved
dramatically. The same can be said for
Jairus’ daughter, and for her entire family.
The truth to be gleaned here is that, when we encounter God, things will
change. God never leaves us where He
finds us.
What might we take away from today’s
reading? After all, this is always an
important question to ask whenever we hear or read a passage from Holy
Scripture. Perhaps the “take away” from
today’s reading might be this:
We
human beings are a unified entity:
In that, the ancient people of God regarded the human condition
rightly. What we do with the way we live
our physical lives will have an effect on our minds and on our spirits. The same is true of the ways in which we
think and believe, for our mental and spiritual states will have an effect on
our physical lives.
The
Lord comes to offer healing to the whole person: Since we are a unified entity and are created
in the image and likeness of God, the Lord comes to address the wholeness of
who we are. No area of our life can be
set aside, to be “off limits” to God’s power to cleanse, to heal and to
restore. We cannot shut God out of any
area of who we are. To do so limits a
faithful response to God’s power, for if we shut God out of one area or another
of who we are, we will – in effect – be telling God that we can handle that
area that we have tried to shut off to God all on our own power and ability.
May we, through the power of the
Holy Spirit, surrender the whole of who we are to God’s power to restore, to
heal and to cleanse, that we may be restored to a right relationship with God
and with one another.
AMEN.
[1] In addition to sin as a cause of illness,
demon possession was also regarded as being a cause.
