Sermon-Sunday, July 2nd
Mark 5:21-43
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We, as a culture, have become extremely cautious of the dangers that come with being unclean. Gone are the days when you would go to the dentist and have a cavity filled while the dentist dug around your mouth bare-handed. And that’s a good thing. Someone who spends their entire day digging their fingers around people’s mouths should probably wear protective gloves, especially when you consider that it has been determined that the human mouth is dirtier than a dog’s mouth. And this attention to hygiene and fighting the curse of uncleanness is not limited to the medical and/or dental field. Go into any fast-food restaurant now and what will you see the employees wearing? Hair-nets on their head and latex gloves on their hands.
But again, these make sense. I can understand why those steps would be taken. That’s clearly, working toward preventing the unhealthy spread of germs and bacteria. What I don’t understand is the irrational fears that we develop, like mice. If a mouse all of a sudden came running through here, how would some of you react? At the risk of embarrassing my mother, who is here with us today, I am pretty sure she’d be one of the first ones jumping on the pew.
In all fairness, I am no different. I have my own little irrational fears related to uncleanness. Not that I am a neat-freak by any stretch, and I think my parents, and my wife would probably attest to that. I have been known to not be bound by expiration dates on food and I have pushed way beyond the boundaries of the 5-second rule when food falls on the floor. But, as long as I can remember, I have always been freaked out by snails and slugs. I am pretty sure, I have never actually touched one, not even the shell of a snail. They just give me the willies, with their sliminess and their antennae.
At the heart of this and other irrational fears is the fear of that which we perceive as being unclean. Mice are harmless, and yet some people are afraid of them. It’s because we think of mice as vermin. You’re not so much afraid of mice, but where they have been or what they might pass on to you.
There is a strong presence of uncleanness in today’s Gospel lesson. Today’s Gospel lesson tells us the story of two miraculous healings, one of a little girl and another of a grown woman. Both the little girl and the woman would have been considered unclean by many of the people in that culture simply because of their illness.
They would have been considered so unclean that they would have literally been considered untouchable. It would have been required for them to have been shut off from the rest of society in order to protect the clean and unblemished segment of society. They would have been considered unclean and impure.
This passage begins with the father of the little girl coming to Jesus seeking His help. The girl’s father’s name was Jairus and he was a leader of the synagogue. For the leader of a synagogue to seek out Jesus’ help at a time when so many other Jewish leaders were trying to persecute Jesus, to say the least would have been a humungous political risk for Jairus.
But Jairus doesn’t just come to Jesus thinking maybe this might work. For him to take this kind of risk, he must have been absolutely convinced that Jesus could heal his daughter. And when he asks Jesus, he doesn’t just ask Him, he falls on his feet and begs Him repeatedly. Jairus is not concerned about the political ramifications of what he was doing, he just wanted his daughter to be healed and He saw something in Jesus that his colleagues didn’t. Jairus saw something in Jesus that led him to believe that this Man who so many other people seemed to be so threatened by, could actually save his daughter.
But as bold and courageous as Jairus was, there was, I think, an even bolder act of faith that unfolded as Jesus made His way to Jairus’ house to see Jairus’ daughter. As they are on their way to Jairus’ house a large crowd follows them and soon surrounds them. And then, as Mark writes, “a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years” comes up behind Jesus.
This woman had endured much suffering and much scrutiny from physicians, and had no money left to pursue further treatment, and was no better. But she comes up behind Jesus and touches Jesus cloak because she believed that if she just touched His clothes she would be made well.
In the eyes of the Jewish culture at the time, this woman had three strikes against her; she was a woman, she was sick with probably Leprosy, and she was poor. The only thing left to do with someone like that, was to isolate them from everyone else so they could be left to die without getting anyone else sick. Again she would have literally been considered untouchable.
Just to see her in the crowd would have been shocking, but then for her to actually work her way through the crowd to actually touch the person who was garnering so much attention from the crowd would have been unfathomable. And after being touched, Jesus seeks her out, she comes forward and falls at Jesus’ feet and tells Him everything, and Jesus is so moved that He tells her that her faith has made her well. And then He continues on His way, and heals Jairus’ daughter, actually he raises her from the dead.
Through sin, we are all like the older woman who had been sick for all those years and Jairus’ little daughter. We are unclean. One thing that we see in this lesson is that uncleanness doesn’t discriminate. Jairus’ daughter would have come from a very respected and honored household, the older woman, on the other hand had probably long since been considered an outcast, and probably came from pretty humble beginnings. But uncleanness attacked both of them, and as a result they were separated from society.
Certainly in our enlightened society, we don’t exhibit that type of isolationism anymore do we? Maybe not to that extent. But, how would you react if you were, oh I don’t know, in a movie theater and you were sitting next to a complete stranger, and then somehow you found out that this person sitting next to you was HIV positive? Would you get up and move? Would you put your hands in your pockets, being careful not to touch them? Would you move over one seat? Or would you introduce yourself?
The uncleanness that our Gospel lesson speaks of is obviously much more serious than when a 2-year old plays in the mud or something like that. It’s the type of uncleanness that can’t really be seen. It’s an uncleanness based in fear. The biggest casualty of this type of uncleanness is relationships.
And that is what sin does. It comes in and makes you unclean and tries to prevent you from not only from being in relationship with each other, but from being in relationship with our Lord. But our Lord is not like us. Our Lord does not respond to our uncleanness with fear and isolationism. Instead He sends you a Savior; a Savior in the form of a Son who is the living incarnation of our Lord.
He sends a Son who takes our uncleanness with Him to the cross and in exchange, through the waters of baptism you receive His cleanness, His righteousness. This is a cleansing that you experience daily. You experience it in His Word, you will experience it in a few minutes when you come forward and partake in His supper, and you experience it in each other.
Christ Jesus comes to you daily and makes you clean. As I said earlier, uncleanness does not discriminate, but neither does God’s mercy. Through Christ Jesus, God’s mercy is extended to all; be they rich, poor, black, white, farmer, rancher or whatever. So when you do find yourself sitting next to someone for whom society tends to see as unclean, fear not, because it might just be that Christ Jesus has brought you there so through you, the Spirit could reach out to this person and make them clean, or perhaps it’s the other way around and the Spirit will work through this person to cleanse you. Either way, fear not.
Amen
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We, as a culture, have become extremely cautious of the dangers that come with being unclean. Gone are the days when you would go to the dentist and have a cavity filled while the dentist dug around your mouth bare-handed. And that’s a good thing. Someone who spends their entire day digging their fingers around people’s mouths should probably wear protective gloves, especially when you consider that it has been determined that the human mouth is dirtier than a dog’s mouth. And this attention to hygiene and fighting the curse of uncleanness is not limited to the medical and/or dental field. Go into any fast-food restaurant now and what will you see the employees wearing? Hair-nets on their head and latex gloves on their hands.
But again, these make sense. I can understand why those steps would be taken. That’s clearly, working toward preventing the unhealthy spread of germs and bacteria. What I don’t understand is the irrational fears that we develop, like mice. If a mouse all of a sudden came running through here, how would some of you react? At the risk of embarrassing my mother, who is here with us today, I am pretty sure she’d be one of the first ones jumping on the pew.
In all fairness, I am no different. I have my own little irrational fears related to uncleanness. Not that I am a neat-freak by any stretch, and I think my parents, and my wife would probably attest to that. I have been known to not be bound by expiration dates on food and I have pushed way beyond the boundaries of the 5-second rule when food falls on the floor. But, as long as I can remember, I have always been freaked out by snails and slugs. I am pretty sure, I have never actually touched one, not even the shell of a snail. They just give me the willies, with their sliminess and their antennae.
At the heart of this and other irrational fears is the fear of that which we perceive as being unclean. Mice are harmless, and yet some people are afraid of them. It’s because we think of mice as vermin. You’re not so much afraid of mice, but where they have been or what they might pass on to you.
There is a strong presence of uncleanness in today’s Gospel lesson. Today’s Gospel lesson tells us the story of two miraculous healings, one of a little girl and another of a grown woman. Both the little girl and the woman would have been considered unclean by many of the people in that culture simply because of their illness.
They would have been considered so unclean that they would have literally been considered untouchable. It would have been required for them to have been shut off from the rest of society in order to protect the clean and unblemished segment of society. They would have been considered unclean and impure.
This passage begins with the father of the little girl coming to Jesus seeking His help. The girl’s father’s name was Jairus and he was a leader of the synagogue. For the leader of a synagogue to seek out Jesus’ help at a time when so many other Jewish leaders were trying to persecute Jesus, to say the least would have been a humungous political risk for Jairus.
But Jairus doesn’t just come to Jesus thinking maybe this might work. For him to take this kind of risk, he must have been absolutely convinced that Jesus could heal his daughter. And when he asks Jesus, he doesn’t just ask Him, he falls on his feet and begs Him repeatedly. Jairus is not concerned about the political ramifications of what he was doing, he just wanted his daughter to be healed and He saw something in Jesus that his colleagues didn’t. Jairus saw something in Jesus that led him to believe that this Man who so many other people seemed to be so threatened by, could actually save his daughter.
But as bold and courageous as Jairus was, there was, I think, an even bolder act of faith that unfolded as Jesus made His way to Jairus’ house to see Jairus’ daughter. As they are on their way to Jairus’ house a large crowd follows them and soon surrounds them. And then, as Mark writes, “a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years” comes up behind Jesus.
This woman had endured much suffering and much scrutiny from physicians, and had no money left to pursue further treatment, and was no better. But she comes up behind Jesus and touches Jesus cloak because she believed that if she just touched His clothes she would be made well.
In the eyes of the Jewish culture at the time, this woman had three strikes against her; she was a woman, she was sick with probably Leprosy, and she was poor. The only thing left to do with someone like that, was to isolate them from everyone else so they could be left to die without getting anyone else sick. Again she would have literally been considered untouchable.
Just to see her in the crowd would have been shocking, but then for her to actually work her way through the crowd to actually touch the person who was garnering so much attention from the crowd would have been unfathomable. And after being touched, Jesus seeks her out, she comes forward and falls at Jesus’ feet and tells Him everything, and Jesus is so moved that He tells her that her faith has made her well. And then He continues on His way, and heals Jairus’ daughter, actually he raises her from the dead.
Through sin, we are all like the older woman who had been sick for all those years and Jairus’ little daughter. We are unclean. One thing that we see in this lesson is that uncleanness doesn’t discriminate. Jairus’ daughter would have come from a very respected and honored household, the older woman, on the other hand had probably long since been considered an outcast, and probably came from pretty humble beginnings. But uncleanness attacked both of them, and as a result they were separated from society.
Certainly in our enlightened society, we don’t exhibit that type of isolationism anymore do we? Maybe not to that extent. But, how would you react if you were, oh I don’t know, in a movie theater and you were sitting next to a complete stranger, and then somehow you found out that this person sitting next to you was HIV positive? Would you get up and move? Would you put your hands in your pockets, being careful not to touch them? Would you move over one seat? Or would you introduce yourself?
The uncleanness that our Gospel lesson speaks of is obviously much more serious than when a 2-year old plays in the mud or something like that. It’s the type of uncleanness that can’t really be seen. It’s an uncleanness based in fear. The biggest casualty of this type of uncleanness is relationships.
And that is what sin does. It comes in and makes you unclean and tries to prevent you from not only from being in relationship with each other, but from being in relationship with our Lord. But our Lord is not like us. Our Lord does not respond to our uncleanness with fear and isolationism. Instead He sends you a Savior; a Savior in the form of a Son who is the living incarnation of our Lord.
He sends a Son who takes our uncleanness with Him to the cross and in exchange, through the waters of baptism you receive His cleanness, His righteousness. This is a cleansing that you experience daily. You experience it in His Word, you will experience it in a few minutes when you come forward and partake in His supper, and you experience it in each other.
Christ Jesus comes to you daily and makes you clean. As I said earlier, uncleanness does not discriminate, but neither does God’s mercy. Through Christ Jesus, God’s mercy is extended to all; be they rich, poor, black, white, farmer, rancher or whatever. So when you do find yourself sitting next to someone for whom society tends to see as unclean, fear not, because it might just be that Christ Jesus has brought you there so through you, the Spirit could reach out to this person and make them clean, or perhaps it’s the other way around and the Spirit will work through this person to cleanse you. Either way, fear not.
Amen
posted by Steve at 2:07 PM
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