Proper 8B, 2024

Text: Mark 5:21-43

Title: Twelve

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Twelve years.  Twelve wonderful years.

That’s how long that Jairus and his wife had spent with their daughter. 

They had rejoiced at her birth. They had rejoiced to watch her learn to walk and talk.  They rejoiced to see her run and play. 

Then they watched her begin to mature, to start to notice the other boys in town.  Jairus and his wife knew that their time with her was fleeting, that before long she would be betrothed and likely become a mother herself.

And so they cherished their time with her, these last few years of life with her in their home.

Jairus was one of the head men at the synagogue.  Jairus and his wife would certainly have brought their daughter with them to synagogue week after week, month after month, year after year.  They would have taught her the prayers and the songs of God’s people, and all the stories of old.

Jairus’s daughter was one of the twelve tribes, one of God’s chosen people.   He had brought them out of Egypt and given this Land.  He had given them the Law and made them holy.  And her parents would have found no greater joy than in teaching her about the Lord who loved her and chose her as His own.

But now this twelve-year-old had started to change.  She no longer had that sparkle in her eye, that spring in her step.  She grew weaker and weaker and sicker and sicker.

Nothing seemed to work, and Jairus became more and more worried.  He was ready to try the longest of all long shots- the new preacher who, rumor had it, could even heal the sick.

They had had their daughter for twelve years, and they were not going to give her up.

Twelve years.  Twelve terrible years.

That’s how long this woman had been suffering.

The bleeding would not stop. It just would not stop.  Instead of coming and going each month like with all the other women, it just kept coming and coming.

It was painful.  It was embarrassing. 

Worst of all, it made her unclean. She could not go to the temple to pray. She had to avoid touching other people, or she would make them unclean, too.

She had been to every doctor she could find.  Instead of making her better, the doctors made her worse.

And they had bankrupted her.

Now she was not just sick, but she was poor and alone.

Who would care about her?

Who would love her, after 12 years of suffering?

Every year that Jairus’ daughter had been alive, this woman had been in pain and suffering, both physically and spiritually.

And today Jesus comes to heal them both.

For the woman who was bleeding, it was as simple as a touch. 

Now when someone who is unclean touches you, you become unclean.

But Jesus is not normal.  He does not become unclean.  His cleanliness, His holiness makes those who touch Him clean.

When this woman touches Jesus, Jesus doesn’t become unclean, Jesus heals her.  Jesus makes her clean and whole once more.

And when Jesus takes this little girl by the hand, even after she has died, He is able to make her well and whole once more.

These are Jesus’ people.  He loves and cares for them.  And with His touch, with His word, He heals them.

Jairus and his wife had gone through every parent’s worst nightmare.  Not only was their daughter sick, but their daughter had died. There’s no greater pain and agony. I have a twelve-year-old daughter, too. If anything happened to her, it would be like ripping out my own heart.

But Jesus came, bringing His life and His hope, and His joy into that house of gloom and despair.

Jesus is stronger than death itself.  He rose from the dead.

And that’s a good thing, not just for Him, but for you, and for all His people.

Jairus had faith.  He trusted in Jesus to take care of him and His family. And Jesus did.

The woman had faith, too.

She had been through her nightmare as well.  Twelve years of suffering.  Twelve years of dashed hope.  Pain, loneliness, isolation, disappointment.  No help from anyone.

But she had faith in Jesus. She trusted in His power to heal. And He did.  She was one His people, too.

And so are you.

Twelve is the number of God’s people.  When God has a people, it’s always a twelve.

In ancient times there was Jacob, also known as Israel.  God did not choose one of his sons, not two or three or four, but He chose all twelve. Twelve tribes, twelve plots of land in the Promised Land, everyone included, no one left out.

If you were an Israelite, you were one of twelve, you could find your place within these twelve tribes.

Many centuries later, God came to do His choosing once more.  Jesus called disciples for Himself, the first of His new people.

Jesus didn’t call one or two or three apostles.  He chose twelve.  A new Israel. A new people.

Twelve is the number of God’s people.

You are one of the new people of God, a spiritual descendant of one of the twelve apostles.

If you are a member of the church today, it means that you are connected all the way back to one of the twelve, one of the apostles.  Jesus told them to baptize and teach, and they did.  And so did those who came after them, baptizing and teaching down through the ages.

You have been baptized; you have been taught.  You are a member of the apostolic church.  Your faith is evidence of the work that the Holy Spirit has done in you here in the one, holy, Christian and apostolic church.

And because you are one of His people, Jesus cares for you, the same way that He cared for Jairus and his family, the same way that he cared for this woman, and even better.

When Jairus comes to Jesus, he asks Jesus to come and lay His hands on her, “so that she may be saved and live.”

That is each of our prayer. That we may be saved and live. Sometimes we get to enjoy that here and now, when the Lord answers our prayers and grants us His healing gifts. But sometimes we have to wait for the new life of the resurrection to experience this healing and wholeness.

But be sure of this.  Jesus won’t abandon you.  Jesus won’t ignore your needs.  He will come with His words and with His touch. 

One day Jesus will come to you and say to you, “Arise,” and you will, together with all His people.