Mark 5:25-34; June 30, 2024; Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
This is indeed one of my favorite passages in scripture. For it is so powerful in how raw and vulnerable it is. The drama. But also, for how it captures perfectly just what a leap of faith is all about. She reached out and touched the hem of his garment…
And, more than just that, I think one of the more interesting theological moments is found right here in verses 30 and 32:
“30Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ 32And he looked all round to see who had done it.”
Jesus asks, “who did that?” as if he is surprised about who was walking with and next to him… poking a hole in the argument that he, like we fashion God to be, was omniscient. That he always knew and knows all.
His question, “who did that?” leaves room then for Jesus to be surprised and amazed by our lives, by who we are, and our free will to act and behave as we do.
And honestly, I like that more. I like that more than an unchanging, lifeless, animatronic version of Christ, whose movements you can either always guess at or know in advance, or that gets stuck in time and place altogether, unmoved and un-swayed by the passengers coming toward him (like Tiana, on her sad “Bayou Adventure,” that I referenced the week before I left on vacation).
Now, all of this, I grant you, is an unpopular theological opinion (that Christ perhaps didn’t and doesn’t know all), but hey, the PNC brought me in as one of the more unpopular schematics of a pastor to begin with. So, take it up with them! Not me. j/k
But really, this idea that Jesus can be surprised by who wants to know and reach after him, is liberating. It’s liberating! For it offers each of us a chance to break the mold we’ve been given.
And it allows Christ himself to feel new compassion even upon those who were once deemed unclean and unpopular by his own scripture and people at one point in time.
For here again, just as it is today, Christ makes room in his heart for everyone, even the most surprising of figures, the unclean, this woman with her hemorrhages, and all those who are hurting, who are suffering, and who are on the outskirts and fringes, who in the end just want someone to touch and walk with them. To walk with them. To walk with them…
2 In my trials, Lord, walk with me.
In my trials, Lord, walk with me.
When my heart is almost breaking,
Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me.
3 When I’m in trouble, Lord, walk with me.
When I’m in trouble, Lord, walk with me.
When my head is bowed in sorrow,
Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me.
My friends, this woman had been to doctor after doctor, physician after physician. Mark records in verse 26 that “she endured much” and I think that’s putting it mildly. For 12 years she walked around with her heart breaking looking for a cure with none to be found.
Making matters worse, her religious leaders, of all people, told her that according to the Word of God, she was one of the most unpopular sort, for she was “unclean” because of her bleeding, and thus, no longer allowed in the Temple. In the Temple, of all places. Can you imagine?
And so, with that one fateful reach, when she extended her arm and touched the hem of his garment, all time came to a stop, as both rule and law caught up to her….and so, she fell to the ground in both shame and sorrow, thinking what have I just done?
For you see, by custom, whomever she touched would also be rendered unclean.
This then is why she was so afraid when Jesus, the Rabbi of rabbis, spun his head around and demanded “who did that? Who touched my clothes!?” Who made me unclean?
And so, with fear and trembling she came forward and answered Jesus, saying, “it was I Lord, it was me. I, who have no rights…I who am unclean… I… touched you. Out of hope and sheer desperation, that just maybe you would help me… that just maybe you would see and heal me.”
And to all of this Jesus said not… “Go to Hell!”
And to all of this Jesus said not… “Get behind me, Satan”
And to all of this Jesus said not… “Your illness and unpopularity are well deserved, woman.”
No… to all of this, Jesus said… “Daughter”
“Daughter” is what he said, and “Daughter” is what he called her. And immediately she was healed. And she went in peace.
In peace… as one in and of Christ’s own family.
My friends, in Jesus Christ we are not only known, but we are also seen, and his eyes and his words bring with them healing power. No matter then who you are, no matter how “unclean” you’ve been, real or gossiped about, Jesus sees you and spots you in a crowd. And will even suspend his own assumptions and movement in time just to learn your name and welcome you into his flock.
Thanks to be him. Alleluia!
Amen.
