"'CRAZY MAN', OLDER WOMAN, LITTLE GIRL... GET UP"

      When Jesus and his companions arrived back at Capernaum (after crossing the Sea of Galilee), a large crowd of people were waiting for them. Some of them may have been curious, but many of them needed his help. They gathered on the shore- men and women from all around the area- because they had heard of Jesus, and they believed, or hoped, that he would help them. They were loud and chaotic. They cried out and jostled to get Jesus’ attention. They wanted to talk with the rabbi who was making a name for himself... and one man did. It was a man named Jairus, who was an influential figure in the synagogue (the very place in which Jesus had performed his first exorcism). Jairus’ status may have given him access to Jesus, but his need was great and his desperation was palpable. Sometimes the line between hoping, believing, and being desperate gets blurred, and I don’t know how much faith Jairus had. But I do know that he fell to his knees when he met Jesus and that he begged for Jesus to come and heal his “little girl” because she was dying. Please, please, come with me so that you can lay your hands on my daughter and heal her… so that she can live. I don’t want my daughter to die!

      Jesus agreed to go and they started out to Jairus’ home in Capernaum. People were following them closely. They were bumping in to one another, they were vying for a better vantage point….when a woman reached out ...and touched his clothes. No one knows how old this unnamed woman was, but she had been bleeding for 12 years. She had been ritually unclean for 12 years. For 12 years she sought the help of Doctors and for 12 years she had been disappointed. The doctors, it seems, took her money and her condition only got worse. So, she was in the crowd for the same reason Jairus was in the crowd- because she was desperate and because she had heard of Jesus. She came to believe that she would be healed if she only touched his clothes, and knowing that she would not be ushered to the front of the line like Jairus might have been, she came up from behind Jesus and touched his cloak! Sure enough she WAS healed, but Jesus wanted to know who touched him. “Who touched me?” he asked, and his disciples laughed because the crowd was jostling him with every step he took. How could anyone know who touched him? Still, he persisted and the woman came forth. She fell down before him, like Jairus had done, and she told her story, which took courage. Seeing faith in her act, Jesus said, “Daughter, go in peace. Your faith has healed you.”

      It was a wonderful moment, but it took time, and Jairus’ associates arrived with bad news. Your daughter has already died, they said. She’s dead, so you might as well let the rabbi go about his business. Your little girl is dead! Pray that none of us will hear these words. The news was devastating, but Jesus turned to Jairus and said, “Don’t be afraid, just keep trusting.” Hang on to the faith that brought you here in the first place. Then he walked to Jairus’ house with Jairus and with the three disciples who formed his inner circle. When they arrived, he ignored those who were already mourning and also those who laughed when he said that the girl was only sleeping. He took Jairus, Jairus’ wife, and the three disciples who had come with him, into the room where the little girl was lying and he took her hand. He took her hand and said, “Talitha, cum,” which is Aramaic for “Little girl, get up.” Little girl, broken hearted man, despondent and weary woman, bewildered and frightened little boy, arise. Talitha, cum! And she got up and ate some food.

      It’s a wonderful passage, isn’t it? It’s real and it gives hope to each of us who may be suffering from a long-standing disability or illness, or filled with grief, or in the hands of some sort of demon. For any of us who has looked into the face of death, it reminds us that Jesus does have resurrection power. But it’s also a wonderful story to us, at least to those of us who've been shut-down, shut-up, held back, isolated, in need, and desperate enough to have been standing in the crowd that waited for Jesus so long ago. The passage speaks directly to God's power and our needs, and it says at least these three things to me:

1.    1) Jesus is an inclusive healer! Whether you're a man who is out-of your mind, or a little girl near death, or a middle-aged woman who is burdened with an illness, or a Syrophoenician woman who told Jesus that she also deserved some crumbs of grace, or an adultress who is being unjustly stoned, or an outcast who is living in some homeless shelter, or a person with just enough faith to stand in the crowd, or someone who needs to be forgiven a deep sin, or someone who is wealthy or poor, a church-goer or not… Jesus will meet you where you are and heal you, without considering the boundaries that keep us apart…. because there is no black or white, no gay or straight, no rich or poor, no male or female, no old or young… in Christ;

2.    2) Healing, being forgiven, and new beginnings...involve Jesus... and us. Jesus does the heavy lifting, that's for sure, because we can't heal or save ourselves...but we have to show up like Jairus did, or come to him, like the unnamed woman, or even the demon-possessed man, did. We have to open our minds and our hearts to the possibility that God can make us whole. We don’t have to understand it all. We don't have to have more faith than anyone else has ever had. We don’t have to feel comfortable in the moment… but we do need to let go and take a leap of trust. We may say, “Thy will be done, Lord,” or we may say, “I believe, help my unbelief." It’s okay either way, as long as we're willing to embrace the possibility that God can and will change our lives. If we show up for Jesus, if we come to him when he calls, if we open the door when he knocks, he will never turn us away;
       3) I am reminded once again that all things are possible with God! This doesn't mean that we will never suffer and die, but it does mean that faith is stronger than circumstance, and that, in Christ, we have a peace and a hope that nothing in this world can touch or conquer! Amen.