B Cycle – 13^th Sunday in Ordinary Time 24

Mk. 5:21-43

What do you think it will take to reverse the declining number of individuals who profess a belief in Jesus Christ?  Will it take gifted preachers? Or a deeper focus on the doctrines and theology of our faith?  Will it take a more engaged laity who worship openly, giving thanks to God for the His presence in their lives?  If you think about any of those “remedies” you should see those are things we do on Sunday’s when we gather to worship or when we are attending programs on church property.  

What do we do when we are not on church property has the potential to draw more people to consider what faith has to offer them.  What we do and what we say while in public places is our witness.  Is our lived faith is saying to others we believe what Jesus did removed the barrier of sin between ourselves and God?  I remember a conversation with some individuals who had moved from their hometown in Michigan to a community in eastern Tennessee.  They were talking about a common sight in that community of predominately southern Baptist.  Men, women, teens, daily gathered in groups at the local fast food restaurants with their bibles open having a bible study.  What the newcomers said mockingly was they wished they could go into a McDonald’s and not see people praying. 

Jesus said to the disciples go and become His witnesses.  Go and make disciples of all the nations.  The last words we hear each Sunday are “go and live the gospel.”  The task of spreading the gospel is ours not our bishops, pastors, deacons, or educators.  We are the disciples, and this gospel today challenges us to look internally and see if we believe enough to fight forces which are preventing us from encountering Jesus.  Today’s challenges us to determine if we are living our belief in Jesus.  Is Jesus the answer to our deepest hunger, our deepest pain, our deepest desires? 

The scriptures identify Jarius as a “synagogue official.”  We have no more details about him than that but if you have seen the series “The Chosen” we get a clearer picture of his own struggles with Jesus.  We know the majority of Chief Priest and Pharisees adamantly believed Jesus was a “blasphemer.”  Jarius in the Chosen is curious about Jesus because of the healings Jesus is reported to have performed.  Curiosity is the beginning of any believer’s quest to an encounter with Jesus.  The multitudes did not flock to see Jesus only to experience a miracle.  They went to hear Him speak because He fed their desire to know for certain the meaning of their own existence and the reality of God’s love.  Curiosity drove Jarius to learn more about Jesus so when a crisis arose in his life he knew where to find help. 

The woman with the hemorrhage suffered for twelve years.  Even if she wanted to worship God, the “law” prohibited her from any gathering because she was “unclean.”  She is an outcast rejected by the religious leaders and by society.  She was a “sinner” unworthy of any attention or inclusion.  She is “those” people whom we judge as unworthy.  Think about it for a moment, she is only one of many individuals rejected by the religious leaders and the pious people.  She is the woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, the lepers, the blind, or the sinners who were judged as unclean. 

 All we know about her is that she “heard about Jesus” and believed He could restore what she because she was unclean.  Her dignity, her friends, her family, and inclusion at the table of the Lord.  How easy it is for us to judge “others” unrighteousness” and condemn them.  Yet, her need, her hunger, her desire for contact with Jesus was stronger than the “law” which prohibited her from being on the street that day.  She ignored the glare of others, the judgment of others, just to touch His garment.

This gospel is about the miracle of faith not the miraculous “raising Jarius’s daughter” or the end of “twelve years” hemorrhaging.  What we do not know is what they did after the miracles, but we can speculate based on other miracle stories.  They would not have been silent any longer. Jarius would have had a tough time convincing the Chief Priest and Pharisees that his daughter was dead not sleeping (which is the term Jesus used).  He had witnesses, in that room, weeping and mourning her death and they would be telling her story.  The woman would have been talking about the instant healing that occurred the moment she reached out and touched Jesus.   She would be in the temple, return to her family and stroll through the market while everyone pointed to her and told her story.

Each of us are to be witnesses and by our witness create within others a desire, a hunger for what Jesus offers each of us.  The response to those folks in Tennessee was a quick terse response by my wife (yes not me, my wife) saying, “she admired their faith and wished more of us would follow their example. Each of us has opportunities to give witness and to encourage others to encounter Christ.  When the concept of “separation of church and state” banned prayer from our local high school it did not deter our teens.  Instead of gathering in the classroom they met each morning at the “flagpole” and prayed before they entered the school.  We need more courageous flagpole events to provide be bold in our witnesses and proclaim Jesus Chris is the answer to all our needs. 

The challenge of today’s gospel is to examine ourselves and ask ourselves if our faith in Jesus Christ is strong enough to draw the ridicule of others.  If it is then we are living our faith instead of practicing our faith.