Rabbi Thaumaturge

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea. 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 hemorrhages 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 hemorrhage 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 around 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.

Mark

Introduction

OK, I know you are all wondering what a thaumaturge is. Simply put it is a person that performs miracles. There were a number of thaumaturges in Jesus day, he was on among many. The others were magicians, soothsyaers, and partitioners of magic. Their works were meant to astound, they were “wonder workers.’” Jesus of course was no mere wonder worker. Rather, Jesus’ miracle working was meant to show he was Messiah ushering in the Kingdom of God.

As you may know in Matthew John the Baptist sent some of his displaces to ask Jesu who he was:

Matthew 11:2–6 NRSV

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

As you know in Matthew

Jesus answers more or less the Kingdom of God has arrived in me. This is similar to what he did in Luke in the synagogue when reading from Isaiah.

A being for being a Rabbi, no Rabbi was ever a thaumaturge.But Rabbi Jesus was. Let’s take a look at these miracles this morning and see what we can learn and see what application what we learn can have for our lives.

Exegesis

Last week we left Jesus, after calming the storm, sailing to the gentile side of the lake know as the Decapolis or 10 cities. When he arrive there he immediately encounters the Geraseene demonic. He drives a legion of demons out of the man and into a herd of pigs that run off a cliff into the lake and die. This scares everyone who sees it and the folks ask Jesus to leave and they sail back to the other side, the Jewish side of the lake. Once again. as Mark says, a great crowd gathers around him. Along come a rich man, the president of the synagogue, Jairus. He pleads with Jesus to come heal his daughter who is gravely ill. So jesus goes with him.

Mark then, interrupts this story with another one. This is a very common techniques Mark uses throughout his gospel. Its like a sandwich, one story interrupts the beginning of another and when its finished the first story is engaged again and finished. Mark writes this way for a reason, so we must look at these 2 stories as a unit.

The story that interrupts is a story about woman who has had an issue of blood for 12 years. She was desperate, just as the leader of the synagog was desperate. She would have been a social outcast, even gettin near her would render one un clean. Being ritually unclean was not a sin, I think most folks are confused by this clean/unclean concept. Depending upon the type of ritual uncleanliness a bath was called for, sometimes a sacrifice, and always time away from others. Sometimes a day sometimes up to 40 days, like after child birth.

This woman, in fact, just by her presence would have rendered the entire crowd unclean! She would have had trouble buying food, she would not be able to leave her house. She most likely was not married. She would have been totally ostracized by her community. The closest thing we could compare this to are people suffering from aids until we really understood how it was transmitted.

She takes a huge risk in wanting to touch Jesus without his permission. Yeas and there was some superstition involved her, she though just by touching his garment, as if his garment had magical qualities would heal her. I believe she thought that Jesus would never know he was touched. Luke tells us that she “touched the fringe of his garment.” Like a good Jew Rabbi Jesus would have had tassels on the four corners of his garment. (Show prayer shawl).

But since Jesus heals her, not his garment, he knows somone has touched him. Now, a normal rabbi would have scolded this woman for what she had done. You don’t touch a man, or anyone else for that manner, if you are in an unclean state. Even not, a woman should not touch a Rabbi this way.

But Jesus looks at her and calls her daughter, a term of endearment, much less formal than woman. He has accepted her into his family by using the word daughter. The he blesses her with shalom, by using the word peace, he has declared she is a whole person. The word healed is the greek word sozo which literally means saved. She truly has been saved physically and spiritually! This is a significant theological event and we’ll get to that in a few minutes.

So now jesus turns back to go to Jairus’ house. But messengers arrive and say don't bother the Rabbi she has died. Can you imagine, Jesus stayed to help this woman why Jairus; daughter died! if you were Jairus how wold that make you feel? Jesus says “Do not fear, only believe.”

Well you know the story. Jesus gets their and raises her from the dead. I cannot imagine the range of emotions Jairus must have gone through during this time. Desperation, exasperation, mortification, and elation! portably in an hours or two time.

Application

I said we would come back to this theologically. Here is what is happening. jesus has just made himself unclean in two way, the most serious touching a dead body! As a Rabbi he is saying that there is no clean and unclean when it come to people. Secondly, he has honored both the woman and the little girl who was of betrothal age. No self respecting Rabbi would have done any of what Jesus has done. He has shown that women are welcome int he Kingdom of Heaven, that in the Kingdom of heaven there are no out castes no clean and unclean, and finally there is no economic or social stratas in the kIngdom. The little girl came from a rich family, the woman was most likely destitute. Mark said she had spent all her money on physicians.

All of what I just said would have been totally scandalous in Jesus day. jesus was no ordinary Rabbi. He was far out of the box! Honoring, women, making himself “unclean,” rich or poor, it made no difference. In fact he allows the destitute woman to interrupt what he was doing for the President of the synagogue! Unheard of!

I think this shows us that the love of Jesus can overcome anything. His love is totally redemptive, it can overcome anything! it is this kind of love that we need to let Jesus practice thorough us. We are not capable of this kind of love on our own. We want to divide and label. We want to separate because we have the need to be better than the next guy. We turn up our noses and we are shocked by what others do around us. Yet Jesus love is meant to bring us together, not tear us apart. As paul says:

Galatians 3:23–28 NRSV

Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:23-

So what are we to do then? Don’t do things that separate us let Christ work through us to bring people together. The kingdom is not about us and them its about us, we.

Have you been the last one picked for a game/ have you ever been bulled or made fun of? I can remember once in high school someone whom I called my best friend showed up at my house with a car full of people. He had promised me a ride to a basketball game and he shows up with the car full and says, “I don’t have enough room for you.” I was the other. Obviously, he valued the friendship of the people in the car with him more than he valued mine. It is unfortunate that we spend much of our lives drawing boundaries between ourselves and the “others.”

Racism, ageism, classism, homophobia, xenophobia, these are not things of Jesus’ love. Have you even considered that by saving a seat at church, in a pew, turns someone into an outcast? You have basically said, “I don’t want you sitting next to me.”

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