Whiteboard: In the Meantime

Jesus is criss-crossing the Sea of Galilee, going back and forth from the Jewish side to the Gentile side as he continues he ministry of preaching and teaching, healing and miracle-making all in the name of sharing the Good News of the Kingdom of God. 

We're back on the Jewish side this week, his home turf, and stuff starts happening fast and furious. Jesus is approached by a leader from the synagogue, a man name Jairus, who has a sick daughter at home. So sick that she is about to die. He asks for Jesus' help and Jesus agrees to go with him.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the crowd.

As soon as Jesus gets off the boat on his home turf side of the Sea of Galilee the crowds started up. And as Jesus was going with Jairus to his home to see this sick-to-the-point-of-death little girl the crowds keep following him and pressing in on him.

In the midst of this crowd is a woman. A woman who is brave, and sick, and desperate. A woman who old purity laws dictate really shouldn't be there. She has had an ongoing hemorrhage of blood for the past 12 years. She has "endured much" at the hands of physicians which sounds closer to torture than it does to medicine. This woman is in the midst of the crowd that is pressing in on Jesus and somehow she knows, she just knows, that if she can touch Jesus (even just the fringe on his garment) then she will be made whole. For the first time in a dozen years she will be healthy again. And so she reaches out, she presses in, she touches his garments...and it works! In an instant, in a flash, the 12-year hemorrhage is over. She is healed! She is well! It is a miracle.

Time plays a funny role in this week's Gospel text. On the one hand, the woman with the hemorrhage of blood (scripture never gives us her name) is healed instantly. But look closer. She's been struggling for a dozen years! We tell the story of the instant, but we gloss over the part of the long suffering.

At the same time, in the moments that it takes Jesus to figure out what is going on (he fells the power go forth from him and demands an accounting; an accounting that the woman bravely gives by the way) we find out that Jairus' daughter has died. Of course, Jesus has another miracle in store for her. But that means that the healing of the woman with the hemorrhage happens en route ("in the meantime" if you will) to another miracle. It is an incredible story and powerful reminder that sometimes ministry is "the thing that happens on the way to the other thing" and that sometimes interruptions aren't simply annoyances but are genuinely holy encounters.

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Mark 5:21-43 A Girl Restored to Life and a Woman Healed

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered round him; and he was by the lake. Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, ‘My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.’ So he went with him.

And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. Now there was a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.’ Immediately her haemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ And his disciples said to him, ‘You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, “Who touched me?” ’ He looked all round to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.’

While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, ‘Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?’ But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe.’ He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. When he had entered, he said to them, ‘Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.’ And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, ‘Talitha cum’, which means, ‘Little girl, get up!’ And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.