June 30, 2024 - Sixth Sunday after Pentecost - Two "Sandwiched" Stories

First Reading; Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24
Psalm 30 

Gospel: Mark 5:21-43

 

In last week's Gospel Jesus calmed the wind and sea. The blog post mentioned the miracle of walking on water in the post because the TV series The Chosen conflated the accounts of those miracles together and many congregation members are currently watching.

 

This week's Gospel starts, "When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea." Two more miracles are then described. Miracles consistently highlight Jesus' divine power and compassion. There are differences, however, on what their unique natures emphasize. Some of those differences depend on where they take place, including which side of the Sea of Galilee they were on.

 

The feeding of the 5,000 obviously takes place on land. It also takes place on the non-Jewish side of the sea. Calming the sea and walking on water obviously is on the sea. In today's Gospel, the setting returns to land again and back to the Jewish side of the sea. Miracles performed on land tend to focus on human needs and direct interventions in people's lives, whereas those on water emphasize his control over nature and the elements.

 

Pastor Joan Beck was guest pastor today and she talked about these two intertwined stories being layered or, as she put it, "sandwiched" together. One story has a child coming back from death briefly interrupted by a narrative of a woman healed from bleeding, which parallels how her illness is interrupting her life. Touch is important in each. The woman touches Jesus' clothes and Jesus takes Jairus' daughter's hand.

Again, when this morning’s gospel opens, Jesus and the disciples are going back over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee and dramatic healing follows. They were also shocking. This is where "touching" becomes important in another way. In both cases, Jesus was touched by or touches someone deemed impure in those times - a woman with an uncontrollable menstrual flow and a newly dead girl, who is at the average age for menstrual cycles to start.

On both sides of the lake, people who are outcast and suffering are engaged. On the “unclean” side, with the Gentiles, it would be expected that Jesus and the disciples would encounter people who were completely different, those considered unworthy and untouchable — whom respectable people held in contempt.

The healing also happens to people respectable Jewish people would not be comfortable touching and that doesn't seem accidental.  Consider the crowd in this story initially holding Jesus in contempt and ridicule by laughing at him when he declares Jairus' daughter is only sleeping. Interestingly this comes after last Thursday's debate where one candidate expressed a cynical contempt for what is happening currently in the  nation, and the other struggled hard to articulate his positions against that contempt.

In both stories the daughters are restored to their communities. For the woman even being in the crowd is a violation of the purity rules. Jesus gives her the opportunity and she tells her whole truth. And Jesus says to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” 

For Jairus' daughter, after she gets up, Jesus tells them to get her something to eat. As Pastor Joan preached, the healing was not the end of these stories. The woman was recognized as no longer being unclean. She could participate in public life with her neighbors. And, lastly, the broader community is given responsibility to take care of Jairus' daughter when Jesus tells them to give her something to eat.