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Strange Exchange Part 7
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
Welcome to the CommonsCast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information. Hi.
Speaker 1:Welcome to church.
Speaker 2:And as always, for inviting us into your homes this way. It really means a lot to us that we're able to continue church and community and conversation online during this time. We really don't take that for granted. But if we haven't met before, my name is Jeremy and we are getting close to finishing off the first series of this new season together. We've been looking together at the questions Jesus asked, certainly not all of them.
Speaker 2:By one count Jesus asked as many as 107 different questions throughout the Gospel narratives. But we have been taking some of these familiar stories, these interactions we have read before, and now trying to read them through the lens of the question Jesus asks. And this has been a pretty fun exercise. I think sometimes having a new angle or a new lens through which to read something that's familiar can really bring us to it with new eyes. Because part of our assumption in this series has been that when Jesus asks a question this is not just a rhetorical device.
Speaker 2:Jesus asks questions because he is interested, because he is curious, Jesus wants to hear about the people around him. And by extension, I hope that we can begin to believe that Jesus is curious about us. As we bring our questions, stories, as we bring our unique experience of the world to our faith, Jesus actually wants to hear about them. And I take a lot of comfort in that. Last week we looked at a question: What do the scriptures say and how do you read them?
Speaker 2:A really interesting provocative question that leads us into a very familiar story, the story of the Good Samaritan. But again, as I just talked about, looking at this passage through the lens of this question gave me some new ways to think about all of it. Specifically that this story is designed to draw out the interpretive grids that we use when we come to the Bible. How do you read it? Jesus asks.
Speaker 2:And this is because Jesus knows that we are always interpreting, are always making sense of the world around us. Jesus knows that even when we quote Scripture we are making choices about what we read and how we read And he brings that to light brilliantly with this story of a good Samaritan. A man is robbed and beaten and left for dead and a priest and a Levite pass by without helping. Jesus knows that there are scriptures that could be weaponized to defend that choice. Jesus knows that there are interpretations that could be marshaled to suggest that a priest's duty to the community should override his responsibility to this single individual.
Speaker 2:But in a simple story those interpretations are juxtaposed with the image of a Samaritan who sets aside years of antagonistic enculturation to stop and help someone, a stranger, even with no expectation of reward. And what this does is it puts into sharp contrast using scripture in a way that justifies ourselves. With using Scripture in a way that points us away from ourselves and toward each other. Is the Good Samaritan about being a neighbor? Of course, yes, he is that.
Speaker 2:But that's bound up in how we choose to read the Scriptures. And the more generous, the more kind, the more selfless, the more welcoming, the more inclusive we can read, the closer we will find ourselves to the way of the Jesus of grace. Now, today is our second last question and the question is Who touched me? Which, without some context, is a pretty strange question to ask, but let's pray and then we'll jump in today together. God who comes to us with good questions to draw out of us truthful answers.
Speaker 2:Not just the answers we know that we're expected to give but the answers that reside somewhere deep in our soul. And you ask because you care, because you're curious, because you want to take the raw materials of our lives and transform it, shape it, turn it into the Christ likeness we see in your Son. God, as we learn to ask questions of you, as we learn to be honest with you, would you continue to shape us, mold us, transform us? Would you help us to know that we are deeply loved right now, here, in this moment? And that even when the people around us don't see it, even when we sometimes fail to see it for ourselves, you are there on our side cheering us on.
Speaker 2:May we hear that in your spirit surrounding us today. In the strong name of the Risen Christ we pray. Amen. Today we're talking about reversals. The way that a good writer will often set up the scene to lead us in one direction only to pull the rug out from under us at the very last moment.
Speaker 2:On the afterparty a couple weeks ago, we talked about the sixth sense that came up in conversation. Remember that one with Bruce Willis talking to ghosts? And no, I don't believe you when you say that you saw it coming because that was a good twist. Sense. The clues were there but it still caught you.
Speaker 2:Yes, you. All of us by surprise. It's what made it a good story. And partly because it's fun when that happens but also because when a story works against our expectations, it reveals something about us to us. Oftentimes when we realize how quickly we've bought into a false narrative we become aware in new ways of our own bias.
Speaker 2:That's what's going on in our story today. So we're going go to Mark five and today we're starting in verse 25 where we read: When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. By the way, earlier in this series we looked at the story of Jesus crossing the lake the first time. That was where Jesus calms the storm in Mark four. But when he lands on the far side of the Lake Of Kinneret he encounters a man with an unclean spirit.
Speaker 2:A really interesting story that I didn't have time to get to here in the series, but I did put together a video that's on our YouTube channel right now. It's called Modern Readers and Demon Possession in the New Testament. Heavy title. It's a lot fun though. You can check it out here if you're interested.
Speaker 2:But all of that will fill in the gaps between Jesus crossing the lake in chapter four and now crossing the lake again here in chapter five. But here he goes back to the Jewish side in Galilee. And as we read, one of the synagogue leaders, a man named Jairus, came to him. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. Now, before we go any farther, let's set the scene here for a moment.
Speaker 2:In chapter four, Jesus had been teaching and telling parables and the crowd is getting intense so Jesus crosses over to the other side of the lake and has a nap in the boat. He's tired. Except a storm comes up and he calms the storm and he lands on the other side. He encounters a man with an unclean spirit. He heals him.
Speaker 2:This freaks out the townsfolk and they ask him to leave. So he gets back in the boat, crosses the lake again, and is immediately met by the exact same crowd he tried to get away from. So this is a pretty intense period for Jesus. And I think we should keep that in the back of our minds all of that intensity as we read what unfolds now. There's a lot of excitement about Jesus.
Speaker 2:Jesus is doing his best to maintain his mental health and get rest in the midst of it all, the crowd will just not relent. And then all of a sudden, through the crowd strides Jairus. Now here in the NIV we read that he was one of the synagogue leaders, but the word here is actually the word Archesudengogos. And it does mean a leader in the synagogue, but even more directly what it actually means is a ruler of the synagogue. So this isn't just some random gentleman recognized for his contributions to the community.
Speaker 2:This man is a big deal. He's likely very wealthy, he's very respected, he has clout and access, and you can see that because in the midst of this crowd that Jesus can barely get moments away from, Jairus is able to part the crowd, walk to the front, and present his petition to Jesus. Now he's very respectful in that. Notice that it says that one of the synagogue leaders named Jairus came and when he saw Jesus he fell at his feet. He takes all of this social clout that he has, all of this privilege at his disposal and he uses that to get to Jesus and then he lays it all down before Jesus.
Speaker 2:There's something very noble, very humble here, particularly when we read that he pleaded earnestly with Jesus, My little daughter is dying, he said. Please come, put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live. And so Jesus went with him. So now we're like, Okay, okay. I can get with Jairus.
Speaker 2:I mean, he's a leader, he's respected, and yet he comes and he bows down to Jesus. And not only that, I mean, the dude doesn't even want anything for himself. He just wants to help his dying daughter. I mean, this is a good guy. And he is.
Speaker 2:In fact, that's part of the point of the story. Last week I talked about over reading a conflict narrative into the Gospels. Certainly Jesus has conflict with various religious leaders. Some of those leaders happen to be Pharisees, but by no means are the Pharisees as a group the enemy. Jairus is a ruler in the synagogue.
Speaker 2:The synagogue was product of the pharisaical movement. Ergo, Jairus is a Pharisee. And he is being held up here as the model of selfless nobility. However, all of that is just the setup for our real story today. Because in the second half of verse 24 we read that a large crowd followed and pressed in around Jesus.
Speaker 2:And a woman who was there had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet instead of getting better she grew worse. Now again, we'll keep reading in a moment, but quickly: subject to bleeding. We don't know exactly what this means.
Speaker 2:Lots of speculation that this has something to do with a menstrual condition, but honestly that's just speculation. The text doesn't tell us and Marc doesn't seem to think that those details are particularly relevant. What he does think is relevant though is her exploitation. He points out that she had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all that she had. And we have to understand today doctors are trained and tested extensively.
Speaker 2:We use evidence based treatments, we understand that health care is a human right. But in the ancient world this was not the case. Medical care, if we want to call it that, was for profit. And there are myriad examples in antiquity of quote unquote doctors exploiting the sick for personal gain. Now look, wasn't picking on lawyers last week.
Speaker 2:I am certainly not picking on doctors this week. We just have to understand that we can't map our experience of these words and professions onto the ancient world as a one to one analog. Because the writer here is pointing this out so that we notice not just her sickness, that's not the point, it's also her exploitation. In fact, in the NIV we read that she had suffered under the care of many doctors but that really softens what the Greek is actually saying here, which is she suffered much from many healers. And if you have ever suffered much from someone who claimed to heal, I am so sorry.
Speaker 2:Because when we tie the suffering that we experience with the disappointment of realizing that we have been manipulated or exploited then everything hurts just that much more. And yet, when this woman heard about Jesus she came up behind him the crowd and touched his cloak because she thought, If I could just touch his clothes I will be healed. Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt it in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, who touched my clothes?
Speaker 2:Now, there's more to the story both for Jairus and his daughter and for this woman, but there's a lot we need to talk about here already. So we need to cover healing in his wings, advocating for yourself, and interruptions and priorities. But let's start with this question of healing because this is I mean this is a very odd story. Is Jesus some kind of healing battery that you can activate by just touching? You remember those old nine volt batteries that used to test by touching to your tongue and if you'd close the circuit between the poles using your soft wet skin on the tongue?
Speaker 2:If that charge was waning you'd end up with a slight tingle? If you accidentally grabbed a new battery you'd give yourself quite a start. I think that was actually half the fun in doing it. But is that how it works with Jesus? You just sneak up behind him?
Speaker 2:You grab his pinky fingers and suck that sweet healing voltage out of him? Not exactly because this is actually a story about our interpretation again. You see, way back in the book of Malachi which by the way is the last book in your Old Testament, there's a prophecy that came to be understood as speaking about the coming Messiah. It said, But for you who revere my name, the Son of Righteousness, which for the record is talking about the sun in the sky, that's the metaphor here, not sun as in sons and daughters, but the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays, then you will go out and frolic like well fed cows, and you will trample on the wicked, and they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act, says the Lord Almighty. Now, that's a good translation.
Speaker 2:Clearly that's what the image is all about, the rays of the sun beating down on a renewed and healed world around us. But Hebrew's a very image driven language. The word that's translated rays as in the sun's rays here is kanaf. And that actually means wing or fringe, sort of like the tips or the edges of something. You can see that it's used for the sun's rays that makes sense, but in Jewish culture there's another very famous reference to fringes and tips and wings.
Speaker 2:Numbers chapter 15, God gives a command to Moses and says, speak to the Israelites and say to them, throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments with a blue cord on each tassel. And you will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all of the commands of the Lord that you may obey them. So it's this sort of really beautiful form of a mnemonic device designed to help the Israelites keep the Lord's commands in front of them all the time. Every time they looked down they'd see these fringes on the corners of their garments and they'd be reminded of their commitment to God. This became a big deal.
Speaker 2:I mean by the time of Jesus it was even fashionable to draw attention to your faithfulness through the size of your fringes. In Matthew 23 Jesus even calls this out. He says everything you do is done for people to see. You make your phylacteries wide and your tassels long. You love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues.
Speaker 2:This is what he's talking about. The fringes or the wings of their garments. So how does this all connect? What does it have to do with our story today? Well, as these tassels and these fringes became more important as public symbols of your righteousness, people started making connections between Malachi's promise and the coming Messiah and then between the wings of the Son of Righteousness and the fringes on their garments that displayed their righteousness.
Speaker 2:And over time a popular myth developed that perhaps when the Messiah emerged that Son of Righteousness would bring healing in his wings. Perhaps even just touching the fringes on the Messiah's garment would be enough to heal. So that's what our woman is doing. She is desperate for a solution. She's been sick for twelve years, she has no money left, she has nowhere else to turn and so she sneaks up through the crowd, she gets down and she crawls along the ground and she touches the hem of Jesus' garment.
Speaker 2:Does she believe this rumor about the Messiah? Is she convinced that Jesus is the Messiah? I mean maybe she's just willing to try anything at this point. Except it works. We read this strange sentence here: Jesus realized that power had gone out from him.
Speaker 2:And again, I don't think a battery is the best way to sort of conceptualize this. I think a better sense of the language here is something more like Jesus sensed God's power moving through him. But Jesus isn't involuntarily healing this woman. Jesus is somehow aware of God's healing in the world around him. But he turned around in the crowd and asked, who touched my clothes?
Speaker 2:And the disciples are like, what are you talking about? I mean Jesus there's a huge crowd here everybody is touching you chill! But Jesus kept looking to see who had done it then the woman knowing what had happened to her came and fell at his feet and trembling with fear told him the whole truth. Daughter, he said to her, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.
Speaker 2:Be freed from your suffering. I don't know if you caught it here but right here this is actually the big I talked to ghosts moment in Mark's story. This is the plot twist right here Everything has been building to since we started and happens with a single word from Jesus. Think back to where we started. A rich respected man, a ruler in the synagogue comes to Jesus and the crowd parts for him.
Speaker 2:And we've seen people question Jesus, we've seen them challenge him. Maybe that's what we're expecting here but no, this ruler of the synagogue, he bows down. He humbles himself. He asks for Jesus' help. I mean this is the hero we need.
Speaker 2:A man who wants only to help his dying daughter. But then as Jesus agrees, as Jesus turns to follow him, another appears. A woman someone the crowd will certainly not part way for. A suffering woman someone the crowd will certainly not respect. A bleeding woman someone the crowd will actively avoid coming into contact with for fear of ritual impurity.
Speaker 2:A poor woman who has lost all of her money to those who saw dollar signs in her pain and here she comes sneaking up behind Jesus crawling on the dirt through the crowd without the dignity to wait for her turn. And she reaches out and she takes what she needs from Jesus. Think about the scene that Mark has set up here for us. The rich, respected man does everything that's expected of him because he has every opportunity to play by all the rules society has given him. And then the poor, ignored woman looks out for herself and takes what she needs without asking for it.
Speaker 2:And Jesus turns impatiently to the crowd demanding Who touched me? The woman falls trembling before him and the question Mark is asking us is, How does your Jesus respond? Does he tell her to wait her turn? Does he scold her for circumventing expectations? Does he threaten to remove even this healing from her?
Speaker 2:Or does he take all of the narrative empathy that we have invested in Jairus and his daughter and now give it to her? That's what the story is about. It's about the inversion of our expectations. It's about the subversion of our social hierarchies. It's about the way society is structured to give privilege to some and then leaves others to advocate for themselves.
Speaker 2:And it's about how Jesus has a preferential option for the latter. Scholar Bruce Molina describes the context in the first century this way. He says: a symbolic point of view, honor stands for a person's rightful place in society, his social standing. And this honor place is marked off by boundaries consisting of power, sexual status and position on the social ladder. Honor is the claim to worth along with the social acknowledgement of that worth.
Speaker 2:The purpose of honor is to serve as a sort of social rating rating which entitles a person to interact in specific ways within his or her equal superiors and subordinates according to the prescribed cultural cues. And Jesus rejects all of it. Because Jesus' care for this woman is not predicated on how well she can navigate the rules of polite company. It is predicated on her need now, here, in this moment. Hear this: God listens when you advocate for yourself.
Speaker 2:Now does that mean that Jesus ignores this man Jairus? No. I mean after he interacts with this woman, after he calls her daughter and transfers our empathy to her, he then proceeds on to Jairus' home. He heals his daughter as well. He extends the boundaries of salvation even to those at the top of the social order, even to those who may express their religious faith in ways distinct from himself.
Speaker 2:Remember Jairus is a Pharisee after all. But what Mark is telling us here is that Jesus' willingness to travel to Jairus' home actually had nothing to do with the respectability associated with the way that he asked. And far too often we have imagined that salvation was waiting for us on the other side of respectability. In other words, we thought that grace was for those who didn't need to ask for it. Certainly not those who have to ask for it again and again and again and again.
Speaker 2:We imagined that justice is for those who don't need to demand it. Equality is for those who patiently wait for their turn. Peace is for those who silently endure. And yet here Jesus prioritizes the one who has no one but herself to count on. And for those of us who are the woman in this story today, we need to know that God's love for us has nothing to do with our ability to navigate the politics of respectability.
Speaker 2:In fact, the less honor you are afforded in the culture that surrounds you, the more dignity you are gifted with in the common wealth of God. But then for those of us who are Jairus today, those of us like myself who have every opportunity, every chance to articulate our needs and to be heard when we do it, We have to understand that we are no less sacred. Our pain is no less real. In fact it's the very construct of social honor that often obscures what it is that really hurts all of us. I mean for all of his privilege Jairus is in the end no less immune to losing what he loves most deeply.
Speaker 2:But sometimes when we have become too insulated from everything that surrounds us, it is in waiting for our turn that salvation comes to find those of us who've never had to wait. In that moment our eyes are open to the pain that we once glided by. Our hearts are extended to include the stories in the dirt at our feet scraping for what they need. And it's only once we actually see the world as it really is. Our neighbors as they really are, our God as God truly exists that we can actually be fully welcomed to the table, to the seat God has prepared for us alongside the woman who once sat at our feet.
Speaker 2:God elevates those who have to advocate for themselves, those who scrape for the dirt to get what they need. God humbles those of us who have the place to ask for what we need to be heard when we do it. And yet all of this is God's grace. That we may see the world for what it really is. We may see God for who God is.
Speaker 2:May you sense God's grace surrounding you today. Encouraging you to speak up for yourself when you need to. Teaching you to offer your priority to another when you can. Inviting you to the way of Christ in all of this. Let's pray.
Speaker 2:God, for all the ways our privilege has blinded us to the stories around us. And we have not realized the ability that we have to come to plead to you, to plead to the powers that be around us to get what we need from them. God, may our eyes be opened in what we see that for what it really is. Blessing and gift and at the same time sometimes curse that blinds us from what the world really is. Now for those of us who have not been afforded the voice, may we offer ours to them.
Speaker 2:May we lift them up the way that you did. May we honor their advocating for themselves and teach them that their voice, their place, their dignity is sacred. And in that, may all of us come to model the grace and peace found in the way of Jesus. May our hearts change. From that may our relationships change.
Speaker 2:From that may our systems, structures, our society be completely reinvented in the model of your kingdom and commonwealth. In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray. Amen.