Year B Proper 8 1 July 2012
2 Samuel 1: 1, 17-27 Psalm 130 2 Corinthians 8: 7-15 Mark 5: 21-43
When we think about the lives of the early apostles we should quickly realize that being a Christian isn’t about living a “charmed” life. Although there were miracles such as St. Paul not being affected by the snake bite and many other healings, we also read about the intense persecution and know about the bitter end that came to many of the early Christians - including being fed to lions.
With all this in mind we could be inclined to conclude that God does not really care about our earthly sufferings and our sometimes seemingly insignificant grumblings, but this is not true.
Our readings this week re-assure us about God’s care and concern for our cares and concerns no matter how seemingly trivial in comparison to what others may be going through, or have gone through, for the faith.
Our first reading tells us about the death of King Saul and his Son Jonathon. The focus is not so much on these two characters, but on the lament that David insisted every Israelite be taught in the honor of these men. David was cut to the heart over the death of these two. And there is a lot more to this story that what meets the eye.
David had been secretly anointed king, by the prophet, Samuel, while King Saul still reigned. David had been in the king’s service and married to the king’s daughter, however, the King had often tried to kill David. David knew that King Saul’s death meant the beginning of his own reign. Other men may have rejoiced at the fall of their enemy, but not David. David understood that this man had been loved and anointed by God, so even though he was an enemy, he sought at every opportunity to offer the hand of peace and love to Saul, (an honorable example to follow).
Saul’s son, Jonathon, was an heroic warrior and best friend of David. The death of Jonathon was in God’s plan as David would not have been able to take the king ship if the Son of the King, who was so worthy, was alive. Here is the real pain and heart ache.
Jonathon knew and acknowledged that David would be the next king. He was a Godly man and there seems to be no earthly purpose for his death, except that like Jesus, he willingly gave his life so that others might live and God’s good purpose fulfilled.
Our Gospel tells two stories. Jesus is approached by a man to heal his daughter. While he is on his way Jesus is touched by a lady. It may seem that this lady’s needs were insignificant compared to the little girl who was dying. She had been suffering for 12 years from an issue of blood. One could argue that this was just one of those “thorn in the side” type issues…. “Why bother the master”?
Once again, there is so much more to this story than what meets the eye. It would seem that the condition of the lady was that she was having non-stop menstrual bleeding. This meant that she was considered “unclean” and therefore, to touch Jesus involved making him ceremonially “unclean”. It was a huge risk for her to do this, as she could have received punishment for the crime. Obviously she was desperate.
If you are female, perhaps you can imagine the physical condition of the woman…. A 12 year long battle with blood loss would have left her anemic and feeling lethargic. She would not have been able to conceive children and would be excluded from religious ceremonies and celebrations due to her “unclean” status. The obvious hormonal imbalance that must have caused this condition would have left her emotionally very fragile, not to mention the emotional effect of the added pressure of the social isolation due to her condition. We do not know if she had a husband, but one can only imagine how he would have reacted to a wife with this issue…….. It appears she was from a wealthy family as much money had been spent on doctors, but nothing had helped, so we can only imagine what kind of trials and degradation she’d been through in her pursuit for healing. But she was not dying…..
We often think that God does not care about our troubles. Or we may feel selfish in asking for healing and help, when we know that there are others so much worse off than we are. Jesus was not angry at the lady, but instead addressed her as “daughter”… not “woman” or “lady”, but a term of endearment that assumes a relationship of belonging.
Do we feel outcast and alone in our troubles? No one wants to hear our troubles…. So we keep them to ourselves. Sometimes we get tired of hearing our grumblings ourselves, but God does not. If we are hurting then that is simply the fact, and comparisons to others serve no purpose. It does seem that in putting on our brave face and not acknowledging our pain that we are also isolating our deepest and most real self from everyone, including God. We need to know that God does care and does want us to know that he most certainly is concerned for us.
If we continue to swallow and bury our pain, we end up emotionally dead.
Before Jesus reached the house of the little girl, the message came that she had died. This was of no consequence to Jesus. He took the little girl by the hand and spoke to her, telling her to arise.
Some of us may feel that we are dead on the inside and beyond help. Two things we can learn from this story about this. Firstly, there needs to be someone who can ask Jesus for you. That means we, as the body of Christ, need to be the intercessors who refuse to give up. We need to continue to hope, continue to pray and continue to seek God on behalf of others.
Secondly we note that the girl was called back to life with a command to arise… or get up. We need to respond appropriately to the call of God. A call to life is just that, but how many of us are answering the call that God has placed on our lives? If we are not “alive”, perhaps the reason is that we have not responded to the call of God.
I bet you are thinking that you haven’t been called and anointed. But guess again. I remember the poster from years ago that had, in big bold letters, “how do you know that God is calling you?” …and the answer at the bottom of the page……. “You are breathing!”
You may not remember your baptism, but if you get hold of a copy of the service you will discover that you were anointed and called and there are many promises made that require a definite response from you.
2 Corinthians 8:9 “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”
Jesus has given all so that we could be truly alive and have every good thing that God has to offer us. He is concerned about our whole life…. The little and big troubles… but we also need to respond…. To Arise and walk in our calling.
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