Mark 5:21-34

After receiving a fairly cold reception from the Gerasenes, Jesus returns to the other side of the lake to be immediately accosted by a man in need.  Not just a man, not just a respected leader of the Synagogue, but also a father.  See at some point parenthood changes everything.  As a leader of the Synagogue Jairus might have viewed Jesus as a dangerous dissident stirring up the people with a false hope, yet as parent with a desperately sick child Jairus now viewed Jesus as his only hope.  And with desperation in his voice Jairus begs Jesus to be the saviour for his twelve-year-old daughter.  And so Jesus goes.

Jesus goes because a father is desperate not to lose a daughter that he has only had twelve years to love, but in the crowd is a woman who has spent the last twelve years as a social outcast.  Due to continual bleeding this woman would have been considered ‘unclean’ in Jewish society and unable to come into contact with any other law observing Israelite unless she would make them unclean.  And so for twelve years this woman has been an outcast not just in society but also religiously, unable to participate in her faith, the one place that should have offered acceptance was the cause of her rejection.  And yet here she was in the crowd on this fateful day.  She had heard the rumours of Jesus, and in a desperate faith believed that if she could just reach out and touch his cloak then she would be made clean.

At the core of it – this woman’s superstitious belief resulted in a selfish act, through touching Jesus, as she was considered unclean so would he.  In her desperation to be made clean she would have to make him unclean.  But that’s the point, the only way for any of us to be made clean in God’s eyes we must make Jesus unclean, our forgiveness is bought when he takes our sin, our uncleanness upon himself.

And so in a moment of desperation, this unclean woman reaches out and touches Jesus and immediately she feels the illness leave her.  Getting what she thought she wanted she attempts to quietly disappear into the crowd, yet Jesus is not content to let her go.  In the rush to get to the bedside of Jairus’ daughter, to save the life of this desperately sick twelve-year-old girl Jesus stops and asks, “Who touched me?”  In bewilderment the disciples try to explain that everyone is touching Jesus. He is in a crowd, there is no time to stop they have to get to the girl.  But Jesus stops and asks, “Who touched me?” Timidly the once ill woman ventures forth and admits to her act of desperations.  She came for healing but Jesus offers her more, he calls her daughter and affirms her faith, to this woman so used to rejection – Jesus offers acceptance.

Now: Read Mark 5:21-34

Then: Go Swedish (what’s this?)