Mark 5:21-43

Old Testament: Lamentations 3:19-33

Rev. Stephen H. Wilkins

Georgetown Presbyterian Church

July 2, 2006

I have to admit at the outset that I have a problem with this text. Not so much in what it says, as in what it doesn’t say. Actually, more than a problem with the text itself, I have a problem with how this text has been interpreted over the years.

You see, there is a temptation for people to look at this text and draw the conclusion that if a person has enough faith, then that person will get whatever they ask for. In the realm of sickness, if a person has enough faith, then they will be healed. Certainly that’s how it appears in the story of Jairus and his daughter, with the story of the woman with the 12-year hemorrhage sandwiched in between. Both people in their desperation come to Jesus; Jesus grants them that which they are seeking.

And so it seems obvious, doesn’t it? Just have enough faith, and Jesus will do it for you. Only, you know and I know that life doesn’t bear itself out that way.

A woman with a chronic mental illness wonders why God doesn’t answer her prayers to cure her disease. She is faithful to follow the doctors’ treatment plan, and the medications calm the voices in her head, but her treatments also leave her feeling dull and lifeless. She has had many friends who have tried to interpret her illness. Some have suggested to her that "if only she had enough faith. . .", and they point to texts like today’s stories from the gospel according to Mark. Others suggest that God is trying to teach her something, and that she should listen to what God is saying to her. Still others note that "God doesn’t give us more than we can bear," so God must think she is a very strong woman.

For every hypothetical case like that of the woman just described, every one of us in this room can name several real-life situations that deal with the same issue: what do Bible stories like the ones we just read this morning have to say to people--even people of great faith--who do not receive a cure for their sickness? You see, the stories before us today do deal with faith, and they do deal with the power of Jesus to heal, but you know and I know that the stories do not provide us with a cut-and-dry universal formula for the curing of diseases, if only you have enough faith. Too much of life screams that this just isn’t the case.

The apostle Paul, arguably the most influential person in the New Testament (right behind the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, of course!), was a person of immense faith. Yet he was afflicted with some unnamed "thorn in the flesh." Three times Paul pleaded with the Lord to take it away from him. But God said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Do you think that it was because Paul didn’t have enough faith that he wasn’t healed of this "thorn in the flesh"? I don’t think so.

Eventually, we will all die. There’s no way around that truth. And when a person dies--whether it is in an auto accident, or because of cancer, or a sudden heart attack, or simply in their sleep at the end of a long and blessed life--when a person dies, is it because they didn’t have enough faith? I don’t think so.

So what do these stories about the miraculous healing of the hemorrhaging woman and the resuscitation of Jairus’ daughter have to say to us in light of diseases or conditions which go uncured? Because they are stories about faith, and they are stories that attest to Jesus’ power to heal. So, how can we make sense of these stories for people of faith who are not cured?

I believe that Mark is using these stories to help us understand something about the nature of faith. And as we learn something about what faith is, then we also begin to see Jesus differently. We begin to see Jesus, not simply as a means to whatever end we desire, but as a different kind of a Lord and a Savior.

Mark uses two people with distinct backgrounds to help us understand something about faith. Jairus is the ruler of the local synagogue, a respected man in the community, a man of significant authority. The unnamed woman is an outcast because of her condition. She is labeled "unclean," and thus she is not able to participate in the life of the community; people aren’t even allowed to touch her, lest they become unclean themselves.

Two people, completely different backgrounds, yet they both come to Jesus out of a sense of desperation. Jairus has exhausted all his influence, and yet his daughter is still dying; will Jesus come and heal her? The woman, after suffering from her condition for 12 years, is finally at the end of her rope; perhaps if she just touches the hem of Jesus’ garment she can receive the benefit of his healing power.

Sometimes we might be tempted to criticize people whose faith is borne out of desperation. Why does it seem like Jesus is their last resort? Why didn’t they come to Jesus sooner? We might be tempted to criticize the desperate faith of Jairus and the unnamed woman; yet the truth is, desperate faith has much to commend as an open door that invites us to draw closer to God.

For one thing, faith born out of desperation has accepted that if there is hope, it must come from outside ourselves. Both Jairus and the woman had apparently exhausted all other options. They had tried everything within their power. It is their utter brokenness, and their realization that they are powerless to deliver themselves, that drives them to Jesus. They are at the end of their ropes, and finally they turn to Jesus; perhaps this carpenter from Nazareth has what they need.

Desperate faith helps us realize that if there is to be hope, it must come from beyond human capacity. It is the kind of faith that we saw in the verses from Lamentations. Lamentations is often referred to as the "Book of Tears," for it consists of lament after lament, crying out to God over the destruction and devastation of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians. There are descriptions of horrifying conditions, and all around is utter desolation. Yet in the midst of all the despair, the writer of Lamentations turns to God, and makes the confession of faith that we read earlier this morning. It is faith born out of desperation that says, "This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness."

Desperate faith helps us look beyond ourselves. Desperate faith realizes that we are inadequate against the onslaught of pain and suffering. Desperate faith realizes that if there is hope, it must come from beyond ourselves. Desperate faith drives us to God.

Desperate faith also helps us realize that we’re not the only ones who are desperate. Some have thought that the story of the hemorrhaging woman was mistakenly inserted into the middle of the story of Jairus and his daughter, that it is an interruption. Yet it is precisely that same interruption that helps Jairus see that he wasn’t the only desperate person.

It’s a trivial saying, and you’ve heard it often: Misery loves company. And I don’t want to use it in the traditional sense, that people want to suck others into their own suffering so they don’t have to suffer alone. But it is true that one of the effects of experiencing suffering, one of the effects of desperation, is that it helps us notice suffering in others. And so the unclean woman becomes an object lesson for Jairus, that he’s not the only one with problems. Desperate faith helps us listen to the cries of the crowd.

Desperate faith also connects us to Jesus, and we find in Jesus one who cares. Jairus found in Jesus a sympathetic man who dropped what he was doing to go with him to heal his daughter. The woman, who didn’t even expect that Jesus would acknowledge her, was content simply to touch his clothes. But Jesus wouldn’t let it stop at that. When he learned of the woman’s faith that had driven her to him, Jesus not only acknowledged her existence, but he went so far as to receive him as one of her own: he called her "daughter." "Daughter, your faith has healed you. . ."

He called her "daughter"! Can you imagine what that meant to her? Someone who had been shunned as an outcast for 12 years, now she’s restored into a new family, and she’s been called "Daughter"!

You see, it’s certainly true that Jesus is interested in healing diseases. But even more than the disease, Jesus is interested in the person. Desperate faith drives us into the arms of a Savior who not only is concerned with our health and our well-being, but who is interested in us. Desperate faith helps us to see Jesus in a different light. Desperate faith helps us to see Jesus, not as a means to an end, but as a friend who has our interests at heart.

And in that regard, desperate faith helps us see that there is a difference between healing and cure, that the faith that drives us to Jesus will bring healing, even when there is no cure. "There is an important difference to be made between curing physical or mental diseases and seeking wholeness, or healing, through faith." One seeks nothing more than an end to a particular disease, while the other recognizes that healing is an ongoing process that involves spirit and soul, and is part of a lifelong journey with Jesus. Jesus does not always promise a cure; but he does always invite us to healing and wholeness.

I remember an incident from when we lived in Cleveland, North Carolina and I was serving my first church as a pastor. Our next door neighbor was the daughter of a Southern Baptist minister, and since she knew I was a pastor, she was not shy about talking about faith. One day she told Carol and me that her mother had had some troubling spots appear on her mammogram, and that she was being called back for further tests. About a week later, she told us that when her mother went back for further tests, the spots had disappeared. Our neighbor’s response was that God had answered the prayers of her family and friends, and that her mother was cured as a result of those prayers.

I also remember another situation that took place not long after we moved to Midland. The mother of one of the members of the church was slowly losing a long and painful battle with cancer. After several hospitalizations, the mother finally passed away. But I remember talking to the church member in the hospital hallway. She said that, even though her mother wasn’t cured from her cancer, she was now healed, in the presence of God, more whole than she ever was when she dwelt on earth. She said that cancer may have taken her mother’s body, but cancer didn’t take her mother.

In the two situations I just described, one was apparently cured. And for that we give thanks to God. But even when there wasn’t a cure for the second, there was healing that exceeded even the greatest expectations.

"This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness, O Lord. Great is thy faithfulness."

"Daughter, your faith has healed you. . ."

Desperate faith turns us toward God and opens the door for a lifelong journey toward healing.

How desperate is your faith?