June 28 - Two stories about the kind of faith

the Lord would encourage us to develop.

A business executive became depressed. Things were not going well at work, and he was bringing his problems home with him every night. Every evening he would eat his dinner in silence, shutting out his wife and five-year-old daughter. Then he would escape into the den and read the paper using the newspaper to wall his family out of his life.

After several nights of this, one evening his daughter took her little hand and pushed the newspaper down. She then jumped into her father’s lap, wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him strongly. The father said, “Honey, you are hugging me to death!” “No, Daddy,” the little girl said, “I’m hugging you to life!”

That’s what Jesus did.. He took people where they were and hugged them to life. That is precisely what we see Jesus doing here in today’s gospel. This passage combines two incidents involving two quite different people: a worried father and a desperately ill woman. Both are stories about faith - and the kind of faith the Lord would encourage us to develop.

First Jesus meets Jarius, a leader at the local synagogue and a respected member of the community. He’s a prominent man, and you can picture the crowd parting so Jarius can come to Jesus - and then this proud man drops to his knees, and publicly begs for Jesus help: My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her that she may be made well and live. 5:23

Any parent can identify with his pain and panic at the prospect of losing a child. So Jarius humbly - and yet also confidently - seeks help from Jesus. And they start out to his home.

Then that story is interrupted and we meet a desperate woman who is also seeking help from Jesus. She’s an outsider who never set foot in the synagogue, the opposite of Jarius,. She has been suffering from a hemorrhage for 12 years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had used up her life savings on medical care (because she didn’t qualify for Medicaid.) Rather than getting better after all that, she feels worse - and a lot poorer. Her situation seems hopeless.

But this un-named woman has a plan. Like Jarius, she’s heard about Jesus, and she thinks: If I can but touch his clothes, I will be made well.

Why doesn’t she just ask Jesus for help?

She is not only physically weak, but ritually unclean. According to Old Testament law, she is a religious outcast, not welcome at the synagogue. And a religious teacher like Jesus would have been prohibited from touching her. But she’s determined and not going to let that stop her.

A young couple moved into a new neighborhood The next morning while they were eating breakfast, the young woman saw her neighbor hanging the wash outside.
'That laundry is not very clean,' she said. 'Maybe she better laundry soap.'
Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make some comment.
Then one day, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line:
'Look, she has learned how to wash correctly.'
The husband said, 'I got up early this morning and
Cleaned our windows.'

What we see as unclean depends on the purity of the window through which we look.

As Jarius, Jesus and disciples make their way through the crowd, this woman slips in to get close to Jesus, and touches the fringe of his garment. Immediately, her hemorrhage stopped. and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.

Her plan worked, and she thought no one had even noticed her. But Jesus abruptly stopped, turned around and asked Who touched me? for he had felt the that power had gone forth from him.

His disciples replied: What are you talking about? With this crowd pushing and shoving you, you’re asking who touched you? Lots of folks touched you.

Poor Jarius. He had Jesus rushing with him to get to his daughter before she died, and now Jesus stops with this trivial question. “Who cares who touched you? Doesn’t He know how important it is to save my daughter’s life. Let’s get going.”

An interruption to the plan. The Lord doesn’t always respond when we want Him to.

Remember last week’s gospel? The disciples were in the boat in the midst of a severe storm. Waves are breaking over the boat, and where is Jesus? He’s asleep.

Then this week Jesus went with Jarius to heal the little girl - and then Jesus stops for a conversation with some woman.

Maybe the Lord uses very human examples just to remind us that He does not always respond to our prayers when we want. His timetable is not ours.

So at times it may seem to you that the Lord is sleeping - or it may seem that he’s gone off to help someone else instead of you. We can’t know why he doesn’t respond, but in each of these incidents eventually the Lord does come through.

Each time the message is the same: Do not fear. Just keep believing.

Having seen the truth and the way, hang on without further assurance.

Jesus went on looking around to see who had touched him. The woman, knowing what had happened and that she was the one, stepped up in fear and trembling, knelt before him, and gave him the whole story.

But she didn’t have to be afraid, for Jesus said Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace, and be healed of your disease.

Her “faith” – her trust of Jesus – us what has saved her.

Look at the difference between our two main characters. Jarius is the leader of the synagogue, a respected religious leader who comes to Jesus in public. On the other hand, the nameless woman is an outsider, ritually unclean, and doesn’t openly practice her religion.

Yet Jesus interrupts his journey to converse with this nameless, unclean woman. “Daughter” implies a personal relationship. She’s not an outsider, but one of the family. She is no less important to Jesus than the child of a religious leader. With Jesus there are no insiders or outsiders - He welcomes all because all are children of God.

While Jesus was still talking. some people came from Jarius’ house and told him Your daughter is dead. Why bother the teacher any more?

Poor Jarius. Jesus knew how Jarius felt, and simply said: Do not fear. Only keep on believing

You asked in faith. Don’t give up hope now, just because you didn’t get what you wanted when you wanted. Keep believing - hang onto your faith.

By the time they get to Jarius’ house, it seems like it’s all over. But Jesus says to the mourners, Why are you making such a fuss, she’s not dead. She’s only sleeping. Of course, they didn’t believe him.

He put them out of the house, and took the child’s mother and father with him into the girl’s room. Then he took her by the hand, Little girl, get up.

What have we learned from this encounter with Jesus?

In spite of their different circumstances, both characters come to Jesus with a faith that expects something to happen. There is no hesitancy in Jarius’ plea - he is certain that Jesus can heal his daughter if he chooses. The woman expects that physical contact with Jesus will bring her relief.

They both made their request confident that the Lord could help if he chose to - they had an expectant faith.

Don’t be afraid to ask in prayer - and expect the Lord to do something. Maybe it won’t be what you wanted, so be open to the new direction the Lord pointing you to.

Jesus encourages us to be persistent in our prayers. Both were in hopeless situations. Had the woman accepted the diagnosis of her doctors - that her malady was incurable - or Jarius believed his friends - that there was no hope for his daughter - there would have been no miracle.

They both had to hang onto their faith in spite of delays and disappointments.

Faith means a relationship of trust, of personal commitment. It is faith in Jesus, not faith about Jesus. It is putting your trust in Jesus – that His way is the right way.

Act in faith in spite of your doubts. You can only begin to overcome your doubts by deciding you will act in faith anyway.

Today Carrie and Clara, Kevin and Lindsay take a step in faith by joining our community. As they come forward, they are publicly expressing their commitment to Jesus Christ – and to His church…