Readings: Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15, 2:23-24; Mark 5:21-24, 35-43
It came to me quite surprisingly – and yet, it seems so very obvious – I was reading around about this morning’s readings, when I came across this sentence: “everyone that Jesus healed and brought back to life eventually became sick and died.”[1] It’s obvious isn’t it – but I’d not quite thought of it that way before. Yes, we all know the inevitability of death – one of the few certainties in our changing world. And yet, we have within our faith tradition, these stories of Jesus healing and overcoming death. The fact that every one of those who had been healed eventually will become sick again – will, eventually, die – puts paid to any idea that the main thrust of these gospel stories is about Jesus’ ability to prevent that inescapable fact: all living creatures do eventually die – sometimes very early, sometimes tragically, but always and inevitably. We all die. If there’s any truth to be drawn from this story for us today, it has to offer something more than that of simple miracle cure.
So, let’s start with Jairus....
"Jairus is uncharacteristic of synagogue leaders. Synagogue leaders do not beseech Jesus. They stand and watch disapprovingly. They discredit Jesus as a law breaker because he works on the sabbath or as unclean because of his contact with people who have transgressed the purity laws. But [here, we meet] Jairus [as] supplicant begging Jesus repeatedly. The story does not tell us how this synagogue leader broke ranks, how he came to find himself at the feet of Jesus. But the implication is that his [12 year old] dying daughter has made him desperate.”[2] The fear and powerlessness of tragedy can do that for you.
Another person ... another century....Her sister was dying. There were no two ways about it. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy had not contained the rampant aggressive cancer cells which had escaped through the lymph nodes. Their ugly new growths were visible to the naked eye; the rapidly increasing cancerous cells had lodged in the brain. Yes, her sister was dying. Their distraught mother, drawing on a life-time of literal faith belief, turned her understandable fear, powerlessness and anger towards the surviving daughter – “you are not praying enough, if only you would pray some more, the cancer would go away.” The fear formed its own cancerous growth. The unspoken words: if she dies it will be your fault.
Sometimes it’s in those desperate, awful crossroad moments, we are compelled to seek another way to understand reality. When we find ourselves on the road of deathliness, when there’s nowhere else to turn, sometimes that’s when we’ll listen for the voice of Wisdom, who reminds us: There are two paths – one leading to life and one to death.
Her sister died. Jairus’s daughter died. But as their stories unfold Jairus and his wife, the surviving sister, and her mother, are invited by Wisdom, into a place beyond fear and powerlessness, into a new understanding of life and healing that will change them forever.
Being healed, becoming healthy is less about curing and much more about what 20th century theologian Jurgen Moltmann describes as developing “the ability to cope with pain, sickness and death”. Being healthy is about having the strength to be human. In their loud commotion – their weeping and wailing – Jairus’ friends were certainly not providing such a healing environment; nor in our more contemporary story was the sister’s mother, with her blaming and anger. In both the story of Jairus’ daughter – and the story of the haemorrhaging woman, which we did not hear this morning, but which is nested within and enveloped by the Jairus-daughter story – Jesus provides the Wisdom alternative of life by bringing Divine Love into the place of fear and powerlessness – offering those in pain the strength to be human.
In her poem ‘Touched by an angel” Maya Angelou[3] describes the presence of this Divine Love
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.
We are weaned from our timidity.
In the flush of love’s light
we dare be brave
and suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
Rachel Remen, a doctor committed to bringing healing, wholeness and shalom into the medical world, provides an example of how such healing can be offered today. Very aware of the profound isolation experienced by those being hospitalized and treated for cancer, she recognises this sense of aloneness may even undermine the will to live. “When we feel the support of others” she writes, “many of us can face the unknown with greater strength. …often before their radiation, chemotherapy, or surgery, I suggest they meet together with some of their closest friends and family.. It does not matter how large or small the group is, but it is important that it be made up of those who are connected to them through a bond of the heart.
The ritual begins by having everyone sit in a circle. In any order they wish to speak, each person picks up a stone, which has been brought by the person facing the treatment, and tells the story of a time when they too faced a crisis. People may talk about the death of important persons, the loss of jobs or of relationships, or even about their own illnesses. When they finish telling their story of survival, they take a moment to reflect on the personal quality that they feel helped them come through that difficult time…. It might be determination – or humour – or faith. When they have named the quality of that strength, they speak directly to the person preparing for surgery or treatment saying “I put determination into this stone for you” or “I put faith into this stone for you.”
Often, what people say is surprising. Sometimes they tell of crises that occurred when they were young or in wartime that others, even family members, may not have known before, or they attribute their survival to qualities that are not ordinarily seen as strengths. It is usually a moving and intimate meeting and often all the people who participate say they feel strengthened and inspired by it. After everyone has spoken, the stone is given back to the person, who takes it with them to the hospital, to keep nearby and hold in their hand when things get hard.
Several patients have gone to their chemotherapy, radiation, or even surgery, with their stones strapped with adhesive tape to the palm of one of their hands or the bottom of their foot.
In response to this practice, one surgeon commented I have seen people do badly after surgery and even die when there was no reason for it other than the fact that they believed they wouldn’t make it. I need all the help I can get.”… Ritual, suggests Remen, is one of the oldest ways to mobilize the power of community for healing. It makes the caring of the community visible, tangible, real.[4]
“Don’t fear” said Jesus to Jairus, “only believe”. We who seek the way of Holy Wisdom, we who follow the way of Jesus, believe it is important to choose life over death. We believe in the power of the loving community to bring about healing – bringing into the deathly and fearful places of specific human situations, a Divine Love which will strike away the chains of fear and set people free. Those who choose to seek Wisdom will find life. Thanks be to God. Amen
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