We are beggars

Mark 5.21-43

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost B

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. AMEN

Mark has a penchant for sandwich stories. He’ll start to tell a story, but he’ll interrupt it by telling another story, and then at the end of that he’ll conclude the initial story.

Most of the time the stories are connected somehow, or they are intertwined because they’re meant to interpret each other.

The stories of Jarius and his daughter and the woman with the flow are the bread and butter of a Markan sandwich story.

The two stories have some elements in common:

There are issues of fear and faith.

The crowd plays a large role in both stories.

The little girl is twelve years old when she dies.

The woman has had her hemorrhages for twelve years.

And yet- they have some differences also:

The little girl’s father, Jairus is a religious leader in the community, probably with pretty high standing whereas the woman with the flow of blood is ritually unclean, and essentially an outcast.

Jairus makes a formal request of Jesus while the woman sneaks up to Jesus and steals a touch.

Like last week, these stories display the power of Jesus. They demonstrate that Jesus has power over illness and death. The first half of the gospel of Mark is full of the healing power of Jesus, his popularity and his reputation as a great teacher. The gospel of Mark follows Jesus and the disciples throughout the region of Galilee as he teaches and preaches and brings healing to folks who have mostly been forgotten.

But today there is an interesting juxtaposition- we have the plight of Jairus and his dead little girl. Jairus, a man of high standing, a man well respected in the community- probably one who would have had many resources available to him- and he sees fit to seek out Jesus and to ask him for his help.

And then we have the plight of the woman- a woman who has exhausted all her resources, who is not really a part of society due to the nature of her illness, but who has heard of this preacher Jesus, and so she seeks him out, believing that merely touching his garment will heal her.

At one level these two are worlds apart. But as Mark intertwines their stories, we see they are in the very same place. They are in desperate situations: Jairus has lost his little girl. The woman with the flow of blood has no social standing and a lifetime of illness. Their only hope is left in the healing power of Jesus.

There’s a story about Martin Luther. It is believed that the last words Luther ever wrote before he died were these: “We are all beggars, this is true.”

Though it is so simple, it is so very profound.

You see, Luther struggled his whole life to understand the nature of God as it is revealed through Jesus Christ.

He came to the conclusion that God comes down to his human creatures as Jesus in order to show his love and mercy for us, not his wrath or vengeance.

However, Luther was taught as a young man that salvation was wrought through our repentance and penance. If we, as human beings did certain things or behaved in certain ways, then we would be able to merit our own salvation.

But this is not true.

We did not ascend to heaven to have God send Jesus to us, try as we might- we cannot be God. It didn’t work in the garden of Eden and it isn’t working for us now (we think we know what’s best for us and for our world and for our societies, don’t we?). But the economy continues to stink, people are still dying, and I’m still freaking out about money.

We can’t build a ladder and get to heaven. It’s not possible.

But God built a ladder and came down to us.

He comes to us and we turn to him, like beggars- with our arms outstretched and our hands open to receive his mercy, to receive his love, to receive his life.

Just like Jairus.

Just like the woman with the flow of blood.

They had nothing in the face of death and illness.

What could they do?

Where could they go?

The answer is the answer that is always right in Sunday School.

Jesus.

Jesus was walking among them.

With nothing to lose, the woman reaches out and she is able to touch Jesus’ garment.

And in that moment a great power went out and she was healed of her illness.

With nothing to lose, Jairus seeks Jesus and he goes into his house and he touches the sleeping dead girl and tells her to wake up. Talitha cum. She is restored to life.

They are beggars seeking the mercy of God.

They cannot save themselves, it is only Jesus who is able to restore them back to life.

Now, there’s the danger that as I speak of human beings as beggars before God that this somehow degrades our humanity.

Beggars that we are, primarily by our own doing, by our sin and brokenness, because we are unable to be who it is that God created us to be.

I cannot on my own believe that God will make everything right. I cannot on my own believe that all of our troubles will be solved by the grace and mercy of God.

And so, we stand here before God as beggars.

We stand with the woman with the flow of blood. We stand with Jairus mourning for his little girl.

We stand, we kneel, helpless, worn out, tired folks with nowhere else to turn.

And although we will always be beggars in this world.

Although you come to this table and you will kneel before the very presence of God and you will seek his mercy and love with your arms outstretched and your hands open.

Jesus pulls us into his embrace and reminds us that he is always in relationship with us. He is our brother. He is our savior. He is one with us.

You will leave this table standing tall. You will have been given the very presence of God to nourish you and to strengthen you. You will receive the living God and he will make you whole. He will send you out restored as he sent the woman who was healed from her twelve year flow of blood.

Your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Be healed.

And though it may seem that death is all around. Like Jairus, we may be at the end of our rope and we have lost everything as he lost the life of his little girl.

But it’s not true.

Jesus tells Jairus and the people, “Why are you weeping? She is not dead. She is only sleeping!”

It’s not what you think.

This world will pass away but the word of the Lord stands forever.

I cannot on my own believe that what God did in Christ Jesus has conquered all the evil in the world. And yet, it is true.

I cannot on my own believe that Jesus Christ prevailed over death by dying on a cross and rising on the third day.

And yet, that is what happened.

He is alive.

We are alive.

There is no death any more.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

His mercy never comes to an end.

They are new every morning.

You come as beggars but you go out, standing tall, called to be Christ to the world, called to go out and to proclaim that it is not death, it is not illness that will consume this world, it is the love of God for his creation, it is the love of one who came to live among us, who came to die and to rise again so that we would know, that we would see the love of God come down to us, to lift us up, to send us out.

Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.

Thanks be to God.

AMEN