Josh Bascom, “Jesus Acts”
This is a Gospel reading and a sermon for anyone who has ever experienced a bit of chaos. Perhaps it’s the chaos of sleepless nights with a newborn or a sick child, the panic of some bad news in a doctor’s office or upon opening an envelope, the worry that accompanies a test, a date, or just about any significant decision in life. These moments can be difficult on their own, to say the least, but when you begin to fold them on top of one another, when they mix and compete for that scary place at the forefront of your mind, this is chaos. And for many, this is what life looks like much too often.
But chaos doesn’t always have to look and feel like a storm. Chaos can be the long and slow burn of loneliness, or the fog of depression setting in, or the distant worry for a loved one that over time creeps and creeps into the center of your life and thoughts. Chaos takes away our sense of control and it replaces it with a profound sense of helplessness.
The content and the structure of the Gospel reading today is full of these emotions and experiences. In it we see Jesus walking alongside the sea and a leader from the synagogue named Jairus comes up to him and asks for help and for healing for his little girl who is so sick she’s near death. And Jesus says sure, and he keeps on walking. But you’ll notice that he doesn’t seem very rushed. He doesn’t hop in an ambulance and throw on the siren as he speeds off to Jairus’, instead he simply continues to walk and continues to encounter more folks in need.
And as he’s walking a woman in great need comes up to him. She has been bleeding without relief for 12 years, something that would deem her unclean and unfit to participate in the religious life of her community. She has been living a life of fear and isolation for over a decade now, and today she has stepped into an even more chaotic seen with a dying child. Think about it, her suffering has been so severe, and the rejection from those around her so strict, that this man Jairus, the leader of their community wouldn’t have even recognized her. She is a nobody, a nobody who has absolutely hit rock bottom. But so has Jairus, his daughter is dying. In many ways these two people couldn’t be more different, but they are also exactly the same—they’re desperate, at the end of their ropes, and it’s precisely in that place that they both meet Jesus.
When I go down this path, thinking about the role of suffering and chaos in our lives, my mind quickly goes to the famous story of Job in the Old Testament. That long, powerful tale of a man suffering more pain and loss than any of us could imagine. And towards the end of it, after dozens and dozens of chapters, Job finally expresses his rage to God. And believe it or not, God responds, with a long detailed speech that begins with these memorable words: "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” God goes on to say, did you contain the raging seas, did you make the sun to rise? It’s a speech about God’s providence in the midst of this chaotic world. And it happens to be the longest speech from God throughout the entire Bible, and it happens to be about the topic of suffering. It’s a speech that focuses on God’s power as creator, and His providence over all that He has made: the sea, the birds, the wind, you and me. It’s a powerful passage that allows us to hear that God is concerned with every bit, of everything and everyone that He has made. It’s a passage that has brought some peace to many people’s lives for thousands of years, but I bring this up in order to argue that it pales in comparison to what we see Jesus doing in the Gospel of Mark.
I wrote this sermon in the midst of a busy and somewhat chaotic week. So it’s no surprise this is the direction this sermon has taken. And while writing this sermon, about the chaos of life, it really took hold of me. So much so that as I was listing some of our universally stressful and overwhelming experiences I had to stop and go for a walk. I had to take some deep breaths. I had to pull out all the stress reducing practices that I’ve learned over the years. And an idea popped into my mind, “I’ll go get a haircut”. I don’t know where that came from, haircuts actually make me extremely anxious. I’m afraid that I’ll tell them the wrong thing, that I’ll be the reason I end up with a mullet (as I have on multiple occasions). So as I sat there in the barber’s chair last week, I wasn’t able to escape the chaos. Instead, I found new things to worry about, and I focused my attention even further on the things I was already worried about.
I still had to walk back up into my office and finish writing this sermon. I still had to live my life, my life that’s not any different than yours, periodically full of chaos and difficult moments. I could do all the deep breathing I wanted and I could listen to as many sermons or guided meditations or whatever you do to blow off some steam as I could, but stress and chaos are still waiting for us when we’re done. What I felt like I needed in that moment, and what I think this passage is ultimately getting at is that we need someone or something to save us from the suffering of life, to save us from ourselves, to reach in and transform our situation and our very lives themselves.
That passage from Job can be a great comfort, it can remind us that God is in control and the words coming from God Himself to Job, the king of suffering, assure us of that. We are not alone in our suffering. But God doesn’t only speak to us, He isn’t only concerned with us and our suffering, with our pain and the chaos that surrounds us. God doesn’t just speak, God acts.
The long suffering woman reaches out to simply touch Jesus’ cloak, Jesus feels it, stops, and she is then instantly healed. Jesus acts. And remember, all this time things have gone from bad to worse for Jairus and his daughter. Jairus who must be thinking, “Jesus what in the world are you doing?! We have to go! My daughter is dying!” And Jairus does in the end get the terrible news that they’re too late, they’ve delayed too long and his daughter is dead. Jairus, who had faithfully come to Jesus for help, was waiting for Jesus to answer his cries and intervene, but Jesus was on his own timeline. But it was a timeline that didn’t end with death, instead, Jesus continues on to Jairus’ house where he finds the girl and tells her “Talitha cum,” which means, “Little girl, get up!” And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age).” Jesus acts.
Jesus acts, and this woman and this little girl are raised up from their figurative and literal graves. The chaos is overcome, not with words, but by Jesus’ very hand.
Did you notice that one, odd sort of detail? Mark adds the line: “she [the little girl] was twelve years of age.” The woman has been hemorrhaging for 12 years, for the entirety of Jairus’ daughter’s life who has died. As long as this girl has been alive, this woman has been suffering. This connection between the two of them provides an interesting picture of what life with Jesus looks like. In Jesus, in the midst of suffering and all of the chaos of life, Jesus is in complete control, and in his own time is acting, and providing perfect healing. This is what we also are given in Jesus and through his ultimate act of sacrifice on the Cross.
When the woman reaches out to touch Jesus, in the midst of this chaotic scene with Jesus on his way to heal a dying little girl, when she touches his cloak he stops. He not only looks at her, gives her some of his precious time and attention, meeting her where she is in a particular time and place of need and desperation. Jesus doesn’t just stop, he gives up some of himself for her, he sacrifices for her. This odd passage about Jesus losing some power when he is touched is actually a profound foreshadowing of the ultimate act of grace. There is an exchange here, there is a cost. Jesus’ loss is her gain. He has given up part of himself for her.
And this is ultimately the Gospel message for us all. In the midst of our suffering, in the midst of the chaos of life, Jesus has acted. Jesus has given up his very life, so that you and I may be healed from the ultimate chaos of sin and death. Our panic, frustrations and fears, all of it has been taken into the active hands of Jesus, and all of us have been healed by His blood. God has acted, and through that one act upon the Cross for us all, His mercy and grace continue to act and intervene and powerfully break into the chaos of our lives each and every day, and yes even transform us, our hearts, our relationships and our lives.
So take a deep breath, get a haircut, but know that when you come up for air, Jesus is with you, actively with you, and he is greater than any chaos you could throw at him.
Amen
