It Doesn’t Matter
NL Year 1 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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What do you think would make someone feel like they could not come into a church? I remember a pastor friend telling me a story about a man who didn’t want to go into the sanctuary of a church because, “something big lives here”. For some reason this man who was a very large and tough lookingI biker had this sense that something too great for him lived inside the church and he couldn’t be there. I wonder what gave him that idea? Perhaps other possible answers to that question involve past hurts. Maybe they felt hurt by God, another person of faith, the church as an ‘institution’. Maybe they don’t feel like they are good enough to come to church. Perhaps they have a perception that only good people come to church. Maybe they don’t feel they know enough or believe enough. Maybe they feel that there is this threshold of faith that has to be achieved. I’m sure there are countless other possibilities that we could sit down and talk about and flesh out, and I do feel this would be a great conversation to have, unfortunately we don’t have the time right now to get into all of it. I really wanted us to get into this mindset though of the how and why people come to seek Jesus.
This idea of coming to Jesus is at the center of these two stories that are sandwiched together in our reading from Mark today. The reason for their coming to Jesus is the same. Jairus comes to Jesus for the healing of his 12 year-old daughter who is near death and this other woman wants to be healed from the bleeding that has plagued her for 12 years. While the need for healing is the same in both stories the circumstances in each story are very different.
Jairus, as the text tells us, is a leader within the synagogue and more than likely was well respected in the community. His role probably made him well known and more than likely meant that not only did he have a lot of influence in the community, but that he was also likely well off. We don’t get any context for this little girl’s illness. We don’t know if the doctors had been to see her. We don’t know if the religious leaders had been to see her. We just don’t know. Which is odd because we get a very detailed account of the other woman, but more on that in a minute. All we know is that Jairus’ daughter is about to die and the help that Jairus seeks out is that of Jesus. Someone he had probably heard, as the author Mark has told us many times, had cast out many demons and healed many people in all the areas he had traveled, and that word of that healing had spread throughout the entire region.
Then we have the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. For her we do get all kinds of details and quite honestly it is amazing what she has gone through. First of all, the very fact that she had been bleeding for 12 years! But then we learn that she had been seeking medical attention and not only did it not get better but it got worse as a result of trying to be healed by the doctors. And if that isn’t bad enough, but in an attempt to have the doctors heal her, she had spent everything that she had to try to have this bleeding stopped. She has nowhere else to go until she hears about everything that Jesus had been doing for other people and like Jairus she comes to Jesus seeking to be healed.
So not only are the circumstances different for these two people seeking healing, but so is the way that they go about it. This woman wants to do it quietly without recognition or interaction despite doing it in the public setting of the city and the crowd. Honestly I don’t blame her. With all the religious and cultural stipulations as well as just the state of mind she was in, I would have also wanted to touch him quietly and pray that it worked. If it didn’t then she was still in the same boat, and if it did then she could finally experience a new kind of life outside of being a ‘patient’. Jairus, however, while also coming in the midst of the crowds, engages with Jesus publicly and vocally seeking to have him heal his daughter. So again, they both seek a healing from Jesus, but everything else about their status, circumstance, and the way they go about it are all completely different.
That’s what really struck me as I engaged with this story. As the gospel writer Mark sandwiches these two stories together, we see all these differences in the details, and yet, none of that matters. Which seems like an odd thing to say because Mark spent a lot of time detailing it for us. So what I mean by the fact that it doesn’t matter is that to Jesus it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter that Jairus is well respected and probably well off. And just as equally it doesn’t matter to Jesus that this woman has no money left becuase she had spent it all trying to find a cure. It doesn’t matter to Jesus that she was bleeding and hiding in a crowd. It just doesn’t matter to Jesus. It doesn’t even matter that the 12 year-old girl passes away before he can get to her.
That’s the message that we should be sharing with everyone, especially anyone who feels that for whatever reason they can’t come or don’t feel welcome to come and experience God. Jesus took the time with these two women regardless of their status in society, regardless of anything really. Jesus saw the faith of the woman who had been bleeding and stopped and took the time to make her known and to make sure she knew that she was loved. Jesus also saw the faith of Jairus and the love he had for his daughter, and took the time to care for that family as well. Jesus has the time and makes the time to be with all people in whatever situations they find themselves in.
So what do we say to the person who feels they don’t belong or deserve to be in a place of worship or in the presence of God? It doesn’t matter. God doesn’t need your perfect collected self. God just needs you, in your brokenness, in your imperfections, just as you are. Jesus comes to you in the crowded store, in the quiet of your home. Jesus meets you in your frustrations and in the calm of the day just as he met these two women just as they were. Just come as you are and Jesus will take the time to be there to walk alongside of you. And so will this community. In the midst of all our imperfections and brokenness we walk with and beside each other knowing that the rest doesn’t matter. Come just as you are for there is healing and love when we walk in the presence of our Lord. And remember the rest doesn’t matter. Amen.