Two individuals, deep in personal crisis approached Jesus within minutes of each other. He had returned home to Capernaum from his jaunt to the other side of the lake. The crowds heard he was back and they surrounded him there on the shore. A man pushed his way through the mass of curious people. The gospel of Mark tells us his name was Jairus and he was a recognized leader in the local synagogue. When Jairus saw Jesus, he fell at his feet and began to beg Jesus for help.
Picture the scene. It’s the lakeshore. The sand is moist. The air is hot. The people are everywhere, dirty, soiled, sweating. A leader, a man of dignity and prestige, a man everyone knew by name but would have called him “Sir” anyway, finds Jesus and falls to his knees at the level of everyone else’s feet. And begs. He begs.
“My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” That’s some kind of bold, right there! His great need moved him to his knees in the mud. His social position gave him every right to approach and ask. His faith? Well, that remains to be seen.
There were so many people, like Main Street at the Minnesota State Fair on a record-breaking day. Pushing. Crowding. Trying to see. A woman in the crowd lived with an unrelenting hemorrhage of blood for the last twelve years of her life. Her physical condition made her a legal and religious outcast among her own people, in her own town, to her own family and friends. She’s been to the doctors, the leading specialists, the village quacks. She’s tried them all. She’s suffered at the hands of both intelligence and ignorance with no positive result. She was tired, weary, wary, and afraid. But she was there.
She had heard reports about Jesus. The reports of his power and authority and grace and compassion nurtured the seeds of hope in her tortured soul. She had no right to ask, but she had great need that moved her to action, to take the risk. And faith? Well, that remains to be seen.
She moves quickly, quietly through the crowd, drawing as little attention to herself as she can. To be seen is to be dismissed. What she must do she must do without notice. She came up behind Jesus in the crowd and touched the tassel hanging from the shawl all Jewish rabbis wore.
“If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” She didn’t need a face to face. Just a touch. A touch would be enough.
Jesus stopped the parade mid-stride. Power had gone out from him. He knew it. And she knew it, for from the moment her fingertip had passed gently along the tassel, the flow of blood stopped. Jesus, pushed and shoved by the crowd as much if not more than anyone, stopped and said, “Who touched me?” It was not until he asked that she came and fell at his feet, but come and fall down and tell him the whole story of her life is exactly what she did. Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease.”
As he was speaking, a messenger from Jairus’ house arrived with the news of his little girl’s death. They thought it no longer necessary to bother Jesus, but Jesus said to Jairus, “Do not fear, only believe.” Mark tells us how Jesus continued to Jairus’ house where Jesus took the child by the hand and raised her from the dead.
A dignitary and an outcast, both in crisis, both bearing the burden of great need. One had the right to ask, the other, according to custom, did not. One came and fell at his feet first. One fell at his feet after. One man. One woman. One begging for a daughter. One a daughter begging for herself.
Two individuals in crisis approach Jesus within minutes of each other. They could not have been more different. They could not have been more similar. They have one thing in common. Faith. They believe that Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Son of God, cares about human beings in their distress. And they act in faith to seek from him a response to their need. And he does. He does respond to their need.
This same Jesus responds to the needs of those who come in faith to him today. The key is not a fat wallet or a sad story. The key to God’s heart is faith. The certainty that God exists, that He is all He reveals Himself to be, that He loves us and acts in good will towards all He loves, this is the focus of faith.
Those who come to him in faith, he will not turn away. That’s the Good News.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. Pastor Dale McIntire has served as pastor of the Cornerstone Community Church in Grand Marais since April of 1995.
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