“Is it me, Lord?” - June 27, 2021 Pastor Jacqueline Hines

 

“Is it me, Lord?” - June 27, 2021

Pastor Jacqueline Hines 

The gospel of Mark was often put on the back burner for early readers. Not only is it shorter than the other gospels. Mark does not include the story of Jesus’ birth, or the Sermon on the Mount, or parables like the Good Samaritan or the Prodigal Son. According to Acts 12.12 Mark’s mother’s name was Mary. Mary was a common name, just as many today share the same common name. Mary held prayer meetings in her home. Some traditions suggest that it was Mary’s home where the Last Supper was shared. I have to remind myself that Mary was the mother of Mark, but Mark is not named among Jesus’ 12 disciples. The names of the 12 are Peter, James, John, Andrew, Bartholomew (or Nathanael), James, Judas, Matthew, Philip, Simon, and Thomas.

Mark’s gospel really wants us to see that Jesus is a healer in chapter 5. There are about 40 miracle stories in the gospels and about 30 of them are about someone being healed. Just as in the bible, healing happens in a wide range of ways and areas of our lives. We ought not to think of it as simply in our body, for healing happens in our relationships, in our animals, in our community relations. Forgiveness heals. Healthy habits heal. Repentance and righteousness heal, but most of all love heals.

In chapter 5 alone there is more than one word for healing. There is  Sozo (sode'-zo) transliterated to mean to save, keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction, injury or peril, to save a suffering one from perishing, to save from disease, to make well, heal, restore to health, to preserve one who is in danger of destruction, to save or rescue. Iaomai  (ee-ah'-om-ahee) means to cure, heal, make whole, free from errors and sins, to bring about one’s salvation. Hugies (hoog-ee-ace') is transliterated to mean sound in body, restored to health, made whole, not deviating from the truth.

Disease and distress can be complicated and even mysterious. There are some things even doctors cannot explain about what goes on in our bodies and minds. That is a good reason to trust God with our whole being. God can work around the unknown, the places where there is no light. God can maneuver around our weaknesses and broken pieces and fulfill a wonderful purpose in our lives. God can!

In Mark’s story, Jesus hears a father’s plea for the healing of his dying daughter. Then he feels the tug on his tassels from a woman who has suffered, bleeding for twelve years, going from one practitioner to another and no cure was in sight. Then, when Jairus, a spiritual leader in the synagogue was told his daughter had died, Jesus said she was just sleeping.

These two stories both focus on a female who was either dead or dying. Mark’s focus on the feminine is a message in itself. His message could be viewed as somewhat political, inflammatory, and indicative of the ongoing struggle societies have to do justice and to love mercy. Societies struggle for balance when boys are preferred over girls and women are to be barely seen and rarely heard. In Mark’s day, that’s how the power was played. That’s what the economy showed. No matter what or where a society is, somebody is always at the top and somebody is always at the bottom. Power can be reversed from moment to moment and situation to situation. The struggle for balance is found in every family, every neighborhood, in every government.

We struggle in order to avoid staying at the bottom of the heap and to make it to the top. No one wants to be at the bottom when the bottom is bad. No one in their right mind chooses to live under the Ben Franklin Bridge like a father and school aged daughter I met years ago when they took shelter in the basements of several of our churches. No one wants to leave their country risking rape and robbery after their brothers were kidnapped in the middle of the night and left for dead like the Guatemalan mother who lived in my home for a while.

No one wants to spend weeks and months working to overthrow their government only to see their plans fail and innocent people jailed and killed. Just ask Dietrich Bonhoeffer the German Lutheran pastor who was hung in 1945 for attempting to assassinate Hitler. Just ask the million Chinese gathered in Tiananmen Square China in 1989. In the 90’s I was in class with a young Chinese woman who was telling her experience in China during the Tiananmen Square student protest for freedom of the press and freedom of speech.  I was trying to be sympathetic when I referred to her situation as a disturbance. The professor gently rebuked me helping me to see that by using the word “disturbance” I was minimizing the situation that was known to many as a tragedy and a massacre. Word’s matter. It is good to hear each other’s stories. It is good to grow more sensitive to each other’s joys and concerns. It is God’s way of helping us to bear one another’s burdens. For, a burden shared is half a burden. Hearing each other’s stories is a way for healing to happen.

The woman in the crowd was burdened with a medical condition. Home remedies did not handle it. Doctors did not fix it. She heard that those who went to Jesus were being healed and helped. So she decided to find Jesus and see what he could do for her. Have you ever brought your physical ailments to Jesus? Have you ever asked God to heal you or change something in your life? What did Jesus do for you? What did Jesus say to you? Were you completely or partially healed? Were you challenged to forgive someone or to give something to someone? Were you given a cross to bear and tears to weep that would give you deeper joy and understanding of God, but you still would not want that cross again. Whether or not we even ask, we are blessed, but if you ask, if you have a little talk with Jesus, he will answer.

This woman touched the hem of his garment. She touched his clothes. And Jesus said, “Who touched me?” I have been to worship services where, as the preacher is preaching and the spirit is moving in an extraordinary way, another preacher will get up and touch the preacher’s robe on the shoulder or sleeve ever so lightly. This is understood to be a way of connecting to God. It is a way of affirming that God is present in a special way and that high and holy blessings are right there, not to be missed. It is a way of touching God to get something glorious. Holiness is all around us. God’s blessings for us are within our reach and if we get close enough and touch them, healing and help happens no matter how hopeless and helpless our situation.

This woman was not the only one trying to touch Jesus’ clothes. Matthew 14 tell us that when the men of Gennesaret recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him ³⁶ and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

Old Testament laws have instructions and templates for the design of the sanctuary which we can see in many sanctuaries today, including Bethel’s, but there is also a pattern given in the scriptures for the design of religious clothes. There are instructions for what fabrics and colors to use. There are directions for Jewish men to wear tassels with blue cords on the corners of their robes. This was done, and is still done, to identify them as those who followed the ten commandments, those who were chosen to bless those in need, support the lonely, and help the poor. Today, men and women of God may wear special robes, collars, and crosses as a way of saying, “I serve the living God. I am a child of God. I want to help and heal wherever God leads me and however God enables me.” Clothes identify who we are. Modern healers in America are often identified wearing white coats and scrubs.

It is commonplace to see symbols of prestige on the corners of shirt pockets that identify certain values. At times a designer’s brand name may be on the corners of our sleeves, on the back of the collar, or the brim of a hat. Clothes can send a message. There is a difference between summer clothes and winter clothes and often between men’s clothes and women’s clothes, between Sunday go-to-meeting clothes and Saturday afternoon picnic clothes. If you have three stripes on your sleeves, we know you have earned a doctorate degree. If your graduation ceremony hood is pink around the edges, it identifies you as a musician. In Jesus’ day, it was often the bottom of their skirts, their robes, their hems, their fringes that told their story. Sometimes they called it their wings. God’s love is expressed in Ezekiel (16.8) with a description of God putting the corner of God’s skirts around God’s people or spreading protective, affectionate wings over them. Ruth (Ruth 3.9) asked Boaz to cover her with his “wings” which is the same Hebrew word (Kanaph) for the corners of his robe. In some families if you take someone under your wing, they are under your guiding, protective arms. You are covering them, showing extraordinary concern and care for them. You are holding them close to your heart. With all that love, healing and help is bound to happen on one level or another.

She saw the hem of his garment and it gave her hope. She expected to find shelter under his wings.  She touched the hem of his garment waiting for him to respond and reciprocate, to indicate that he lived up to the symbols that he displayed. She identified with his power and his grace, she acknowledged that Jesus could help her, she saw no symbol in him or on him that repulsed her or made her want to run away. When she touched him, Jesus asked a question. The disciples thought it was a silly question. “Who touched my clothes?” Another version says “Who touched me?”

There is good touch and bad touch. There is gentle touch and rough touch. There is healing touch and there is touch that hurts. There is the “I am here to help you” touch and there is the “Please, for God’s sake, help me” touch. Like Jesus, we know what touch is what. We just need to know who it is. As Christian, we want to be as close as we can to Jesus. We want to be under his warm and protective wings, abiding in his grace and mercy.

For most of us there are at least a dozen places in our minds, our bodies and our circumstances where we need more of Jesus’ help and healing. When Jesus asks the question, “Who touched me?” You may want to cry out “It’s me, it’s me, it’s me oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer. I need a blessing, I need a break, I need help, I need hope, I need wisdom, I need courage, I need strength, I need peace, I need healing. It’s me Lord, I want to be healed in any way you can heal me. “Is it me, Lord? Is it me that you can sense is touching you today?