Named and Claimed

St. Mary’s Episcopal Church

We’ve got some great stories today. All of today’s Scripture is full of such good stuff. We have two miracles, two stories of healing. We have the beginning of a healing, then it is interrupted, and then it gets picked back up again. We have two very different characters, two different people coming before Jesus, and both of them are coming to Him seeking healing.

First we have Jairus. We know his name, we know that he was a leader in the synagogue. So it is safe to assume that he is a man of some authority with power and prestige. He is a leader. And he kneels down before Jesus and begs him to come and see his daughter, who is about to die. He tells Jesus that he knows that if he will come and lay his hands on her that she will be healed. Jesus says, of course, and is getting ready to go with Jairus. But then we have an unknown woman, a woman who is not named, as is unfortunately often the case in Scripture. We don’t know her name. She doesn’t, or can’t approach Jesus. We hear in the story that she sneaks up on him from behind.

And oh, this poor woman. We hear of her suffering. She has been bleeding, she has been hemorrhaging for years and years, and has “endured many physicians” in seek of a cure. Some of us can relate to that. She is still searching for answers as to what is wrong with her, and wants a cure and healing. Not only has she endured this suffering and pain, but she has spent all of her money trying to find out what is wrong with her and to find a cure.

This woman sneaks up to Jesus, coming around behind him and says to herself, I know that if I can just touch the hem of his cloak that I will be healed. She has this amazing faith. Not only was this woman suffering from this bleeding that went on and on for years, but in her society at that time, she would have been completely ostracized. She would have been excluded. In fact, she would have been harshly and unjustly judged. People would have assumed she did something terrible, that she must be a really bad sinner and that God must have it out for her. She was cut off from her community. She was excluded from what is essential to our human lives, and that is relationship and community. Not only was she suffering in her body, but also in her mind and her spirit, emotionally and mentally.

She comes before Jesus and she dares to reach out and touch his garment. Jesus knows right away. He says that power was gone out from him and that is was because a woman of faith had touched him. He asks the question, who touched me? The Disciples probably think, are you crazy? Everybody is touching you. We are in a huge crowd. But Jesus knows he has been touched and the woman who touched him has been healed. The Scripture says that immediately upon teaching the edge of his cloak the woman was healed. She felt it in her body, and she knew she had been healed.

Not only was she healed physically, she was also made whole in other ways. Notice how Jesus addresses her. And this is really important. Jesus calls her daughter. Maybe if you have a daughter or a child or grandchild or adopted child or you serve in that role for someone, then you know the power of that bond and that love between a parent and a child. Jesus says to her, you are my child. He restores her to dignity, and he restores her to community. She was on the outside, but now she is brought in. Jesus says, you are mine. You belong. Welcome. He heals her in her physical body, and restores her to community and to relationship that is so essential.

That is what Jesus does. That is what Jesus invites each and every one of us into. Jesus desires to heal us. Jesus desires to remind us of this essential ingredient to our being. We are God’s children. God claims us by naming us and says you are mine. To name and to claim. James, Sue, Malcolm, Cindy, you are my child. The healing that Jesus brings may not always be a physical healing for us. We pray for healing and restoration of our physical bodies, but it doesn’t always occur. But Jesus does bring to us healing and belonging, and a reminder that God made us out of love, and because God is good, then we are good. Because God is love and loving and we are created out of that love, then we are loved and loveable. How we need to hear that and remind one another of that essential truth. We need to be together in community, and that is what we strive to create as we gather here at St. Mary’s. We come together, we hear Scripture, we pray for one another, we are nourished at the Table, and are reminded of whose we are. We belong to God and God loves us unconditionally. We are God’s children.

Let’s go back to the interrupted second healing. Jesus makes his way toward the house of Jairus, and people come out and say, don’t bother the teacher any more. We’re sorry to tell you this, but your daughter has already died. As is the custom, there is a lot of commotion, wailing and weeping, but Jesus says, she is not dead. She is just asleep, to which I imagine the people scoffing and guffawing at him. But Jesus puts them out of the house, takes his three favorites and the girl’s parents with him, and they go upstairs to where the young daughter is lying. We’re told she is twelve years old. My daughter just turned nineteen, and I can remember when she was twelve, and the love and preciousness of that age. Jesus says to the young girl, Talitha cum, little girl, get up. He raises her from the dead. The power of Jesus’s love and healing transcends death. We know that. At funeral services, Paul’s Letter to the Romans, Chapter 8 is often read. There is a long list of things accompanied by the question, can anything separate us from the love of God? Can any of the powers on this earth, any of the hateful, corrupt, destructive forces of this world, or even a supernatural world, separate us from the love of God? Can death? No, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ. Not even death. We see that in this scripture. Jesus returns this young, precious daughter to the family and restores that community and that loving relationship.

So, children of God, each and every one of us, remember whose you are, and remember that because of it you have inherent dignity and lovability, and that you are loved without limits. Remember that nothing, nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ.

AMEN