Good morning. Today we continue our sermon series in the gospel of Mark. Some of you know I sometimes speak at church weekend retreats, and frequently these retreats are specifically for women. I’ve used today’s text as a wonderful example of Jesus speaking into some issues women uniquely face.

It is, in part, about a woman whose body is not doing what it should. And she is being rejected for it. Not unlike what women can face today. And Jesus speaks to these issues. He speaks against the cultural norms of that time, just as I believe he speaks against the cultural norms today about where a woman’s value comes from. Now I can really get worked up talking about how God wants us, as women, to see ourselves. And I thought how great it would be to be able to speak to that again, with all of you.

Then it dawned on me that I’d be speaking to you boys as well. It wouldn’t be the most sensitive thing for me to ignore you. But, given that is the perspective I’ve brought to this text for many years, it has been hard for me to let go of these ideas to see what new insights, insights that cross gender lines, are here in the text. Fortunately for you guys, God isn’t just interested in women, and I do in fact believe the truth is here is for us all, whatever gender we may be.

This event is mentioned in all of the first 3 gospel accounts, but it is Mark who gives the most detailed account. Remember Mark is the shortest gospel, known for his brevity. But even Mark realizes there is much going on here and that the details matter. They matter very much. Mark gives us vivid images of the scene - wanting us to come away from the reading with a clear picture of what is going on...

This is one story, but in this one story, the stories of two women are told - one a very young woman, the one not so young – stories of their restoration. Notice as I read the passage the reference to “12 years” for each of the women – one 12-year-old on verge of womanhood, and one older weary woman who has been bleeding for these same 12 years as a result of womanhood. These are not separate stories. They are intertwined parts of one whole. Given this is the third Sunday of the church season of Easter, it is fitting that the text speaks of restoration and resurrection.

As I read the text, especially take note of the detailing of the story. What can we learn about the two women in the text? What does this passage tell us about Jesus? And what about the text speaks to restoration? What is restored?

Reading: Mark 5:21-43

At first blush when we look at the circumstances of these women – the bleeding woman and Jairus’ daughter – their outlook is bleak. They are very desperate and in seemingly impossible situations. Jesus is up against what seems to be impossible odds.

Look at how Mark wants us to know how hopeless the hemorrhaging woman’s condition was - she suffered much, under many physicians, spent all she had, was no better but grew worse.

She was in a very desperate place.

The situation for Jairus’ daughter is no better. We read initially that she is at the point of death and then she’s reported to be, in fact, dead. Jesus was told not to bother. Mourners had already arrived to grieve her death. They laughed at Jesus for implying there was a chance. Jesus was too late. The 12-year-old was dead. Impossible to heal.

The story is set in the context of desperation and impossibility. And yet, it is a story of restoration. We read that Jesus restores both women. And he restores them in a number of ways.

Let’s first look at the woman with the flow of blood. She felt the flow of blood stop after she touched Jesus, so the first sense of restoration is physical. She was physically healed. But the restoration is more than that. The word here used to refer to her disease is a word that can also be translated scourge or suffering – implying something beyond, something much more than just a physical illness.

Under Jewish law, a woman on her period was considered unclean and therefore untouchable. This woman had been bleeding uncontrollably for 12 years – a 12 year period - unclean and untouchable for that long. In addition to the physical illness she had been a social outcast. Alone. So the physical healing brought with it the ability to be touched again, a freedom from shame; a restoration back into community.

Jesus then tells her to “go in peace.” The word for peace here is “shalom” – the Jewish word for wholeness. Peterson’s The Message translation of vs. 35 says instead of “go in peace and be healed of your disease”, “you’re healed and whole. Live well, live blessed.” Jesus restored her broken life back to a life of wholeness. Physical healing, place in community, wholeness. This woman’s life was fully restored.

Jairus’ daughter is also fully restored. We read that she was dead. (There is some question with vs. 39. The best way to look at it given what is going on, is that Jesus is saying though she is dead, her death will be no more lasting than a sleep. Jesus brought this dead body, a corpse back to life. And as she came back to life physically, he also restored her to the community of her family. From death he fully restored her to life.

Two seemingly impossible situations. Tet Jesus restored these folks back to life – physically and relationally - bringing both of them shalom, wholeness.

I’d like to make 3 observations about these twin restorations.

First, the restorations occur both as part of planned event and as an unplanned event. The resurrection of Jairus’ daughter was the result of a deliberate journey to see her. The healing of the hemorrhaging woman occurred in the context of an interruption.

Jesus responds to Jairus’ begging and begins to go with Jairus to his daughter. He has a destination, a goal in mind – the house of Jairus and his family. And the crowd is with him on the way. And on the way the bleeding woman touches him. At the moment the woman touches his garment, we read Jesus felt energy leaving him and he stops to ask “who touched my clothes?” And his disciples responded “what do you mean? Lots of people have touched you – the crowd is pressing in on all sides!” From the crowd’s perspective, this was no reason to stop. They were in a hurry. Jairus’ daughter was at the point of death. But Jesus stops. And he will not proceed until he finds the one who touched him.

I love this about Jesus. He was on his way to see Jairus’ daughter and along the way to his destination or goal he was touched and responded to that touch. Over and over in the gospels we see Jesus responding to the interruptions in his life.

When I have a goal or project, the whole world can come crashing down around me and I wouldn’t take notice. I’d ignore it. I’d be determined to finish what I was doing. Early on in our marriage Jeff would try to give me a hug and kiss when he got home from work while I was busy getting dinner ready. He’d come home, wrap his arms around me from behind – given I was facing the stove or kitchen counter fixing dinner – and he’d give me a hug and kiss on the neck. But I’d instinctively scrunch up my arms, tighten my shoulders, maybe turn and glare at him. Couldn’t he see I was busy? This wasn’t the time for hugs and kisses – if he wanted to pitch in and help with dinner, fine, but to hug and kiss me was insensitive of him, He was interrupting me. I was busy fixing dinner!

Don’t we often look at the stuff of our lives as interrupting our plans? Don’t we frequently resist interruption? What if interruptions are actually invitations? Invitations from God we frequently miss because we see them as messing up our plans, our to-do-lists, our life.

Sometimes the interruptions are obvious calls to serve. When my kids were infants and crying at night due to hunger, I knew this interruption of my sleep was not something to ignore. But what about the times when the phone rings and we choose to ignore it because we are too busy? Or the times we are walking down Queen Anne Ave. and see someone we know coming our way, and we quickly turn in such a way that they can’t see us...after all, we are in a hurry, can’t be interrupted.

I don’t know the places in your lives where an interruption might be an invitation, but I’d encourage you to try to be open and attentive to what they might be. The crowd missed the bleeding woman. Jesus didn’t.

Jesus restored the bleeding woman in the interruption. However, he also restored Jairus’ daughter, the person he was traveling to meet when interrupted. We see here God’s work of restoration can happen both in moments of planning and in spontaneous interruptions.

So first, restoration can happen both in planned and interrupted moments. Now second, God’s restorations are tailor-made for the individual involved. In this story Jesus connects with each person uniquely. This is no one-size-fits-all restoration.

Let’s look at how Jesus connects with the folks he healed, how he cared for them. Jairus got down on his knees and pleaded with Jesus to come to his daughter saying that his daughter was at the point of death. He knew she was dying.

As an aside, notice that Jairus refers to her as his “little” girl – which we know is more of an endearing phrase than literal one – we later read that she is 12 years old. In the Jewish culture of the time, it was in a girl’s 13th year of life – when she is 12 1/2 – that she is considered a woman, ready to be married.

For Jairus to say “little girl” would be kind of like my referring to my 20-something sons as my “little boys." Not something they particularly appreciate either. But earlier this year when one of them needed to be suddenly hospitalized, as far as I was emotionally concerned, he was once again my little boy.

Jairus was worried sick about his little girl – his much beloved daughter. And, Jesus knows this when he approaches Jairus’ daughter.

Look at how Jesus acts. He addresses this young woman directly. He uses the phrase Talitha, which is feminine and means “little lamb." In other words, he addresses her endearingly as the beloved little daughter she was. He is tender to the girl and, by extension, tender to Jairus.

The girl was only 12 years old, on the verge of womanhood and a daughter of a synagogue leader; a much respected position, with a respectable family status. Eugene Peterson, in his Message translation of verse 38 refers to the mourners in the house as “Jairus’ neighbors bringing casseroles.” In other words, Jairus’ daughter had the support of her community; Lots of it.

So in light of this, let’s look at how Jesus handles the situation at her house. He kicks out the crowd, shoos them away. When the neighbors and relatives are gone, the only ones left are Jesus, the 12 year old, three of his disciples and her parents. When she comes to, her parents will be the first people she sees. Jesus also charges them to get her something to eat. Now try to think of what a 12 year old would want when coming to...not lots of people around but her parents and food. Jesus restores her in a way that fits who she is.

In contrast to this 12 year old girl, see how Jesus responds to the older woman. As I noted earlier, the hemorrhaging woman was not just physically sick. She was alone and untouched because of her bleeding. This means that she had no community and that she had no intimacy. And Jesus responds to her in a way that fits who she is and what she needs.

In contrast to the healing of Jairus' daughter that took place inside her house with just her parents, Jesus and a few disciples, this healing takes place in a crowd. Notice that there is nothing private about this encounter. The woman may have wanted to sneak away without being noticed, but Jesus wouldn’t let her. He addresses her in front of the whole crowd.

How come? I think it is because once she is healed, she is now no longer alone, outcast, unclean. She once again belongs in community. Jesus wants both the crowd and the woman to experience this truth. Notice too, that he doesn’t tell her to keep quiet about it as he does with many of his healings, including his healing of Jairus’ daughter. This is a very public act. He wants this woman and the others around her to know she is restored, no longer carrying the fear and ostracism she once had.

Jesus even goes further then that. Notice how he refers to her – he calls her daughter. This is the only place in all of the gospels where Jesus calls someone directly by the title “daughter”. He refers to the daughters of Jerusalem, for example, or refers to the bent over woman as a daughter of Abraham, but never does Jesus address anyone personally as simply daughter.

But here, here with a woman who has had no relational connection for years he does so. He heals her scourge, makes her whole, draws her back into community, and intimately connects with her. Calls her daughter. There is an intimacy in this moment between the two of them. She experiences the love of Christ. I also think there is tenderness here – just like Jesus referring to the 12 year old as a little lamb, calling this woman daughter is a sign of affection and care.

Jesus relates with each of these women in ways that fit who they are and what they need. Restoration by Jesus is not a one size fits all. And the same is true for us. Jesus meets each of us in a way that fits our uniqueness, our areas of brokenness – whatever age or stage of life we are in. Jesus wants to restore us in ways that fit who we are.

In my meeting with folks in spiritual direction, I frequently see this. Two people may, for example, both be grieving a significant loss, yet are met by God in different ways; ways that fit who they are. One person, given the importance he places on theological truth, may need to talk about various perspectives on God’s presence in suffering – because seeing this bigger perspective is what helps him see how God is caring for him, meeting him in his grief. Another person could care less about theological truth, the bigger perspective at this time. He simply wants to feel like God is with him right now in his suffering. So, instead of talking, we might go to silent prayer and God might meet him in prayer with a reassuring image or word, maybe a verse of Scripture – which is what he needs in his grief.

Jesus wants to restore us in a way that fits who we are. God’s work of restoration may occur both in planned activities and in the interruptions. And this work of restoration is always customized, fits who we are.

Now third, notice that to enable these restorations to occur, Jesus had to become unclean himself. In both cases Jesus touched these women. (In vs. 30 he asks the crowd who touched him and in vs. 41 he takes the girl by the hand.) Touching them made him ritually unclean. It was not permissible to touch a woman during her period. It was not permissible to touch a corpse.

In both Luke’s and Matthew’s account of this event we’re reminded that the hemorrhaging woman touched the “fringe” on Jesus garment. This is probably the fringe on a garment that Israelite men were commanded to wear to help them remember the commandments and to do them. (You can read about it in Numbers 15.) I think it is useful for us to have this picture in our minds because sometimes we forget Jesus was Jewish and a keeper of the commandments. He did not treat these laws lightly. His usual practice of keeping the commandments makes his behavior in this case (where he supersedes the laws dealing with uncleanliness) that much more remarkable.

In the book of Leviticus, we learn about what it takes to be clean and unclean. The Jewish law forbids touching any person or thing that is unclean. If you had contact with them you too were unclean. And, there were serious consequences. You were to be physically removed from your family and community. You were certainly not allowed to enter the temple. God is holy and pure. You could no longer be in the presence of God. In the Levitical law, exposure to menstrual blood and exposure to a dead body both made one unclean; unable to be in the presence of God and others. Here Jesus encountered both.

But for the sake of restoration, Jesus became unclean. He touched a woman with menstrual blood. And He also touched a dead body. He sacrificed his own purity for the sake of the others. He became unclean, and in doing so healed both the bleeding woman and Jairus’ daughter.

The more I spend time in this passage, the more I see in it a foreshadowing of the cross and resurrection. Images of Good Friday and Easter are here: a body rising up; a corpse being referred to as a lamb, Jesus being mocked by the crowds here just as he was mocked by crowds on cross.

But these more subtle signs are only here to draw us to the most important link: Jesus was willing to make himself unclean in order to bring life out of death. He did this here for the sake of these two women. On the cross, as the only human without sin, Jesus takes on sin for the sake of the whole world. He makes himself unclean so that no longer would we have to be removed from the presence of God. Through the death and resurrection we now have the opportunity for restoration with God, we too can now receive God’s shalom.

In this story, Jesus brings restoration and wholeness to two women - one on the verge of womanhood and one weary from it - by being willing to be made unclean. The result is a wholeness; a restored, resurrected life. Through his amazing power, he works tenderly, compassionately, uniquely and fully, restoring life to these two very different women.

This same Jesus longs to work through his power, tenderly, compassionate and uniquely to fully restore us as well. I’d encourage you to ask yourself: Where do you need restoration? Where do you want healing? How might Christ provide restoration?

Remember Easter Sunday when Dan reminded us that it is because of Easter we don’t need to be afraid. I would encourage you to ask yourself: Is there something, some part of you that you are hesitant to bring to Jesus out of fear? Maybe you are hesitant because your situation isn’t nearly as desperate as these mentioned. Or maybe you think yours is even more desperate and impossible for Jesus. Whatever it is, remember Jesus wants to meet you and restore you in a way that exactly fits who you are. This isn’t generic one size fits all restoration. It is tailor made for you.

Remember he can meet you in some place where you might expect to encounter him and his healing touch, or he can surprise you and show up in a most unanticipated way.

And his desire to do so is so great that he is willing to take on our brokenness himself to do it. At the cross he has already taken our sins, our grief, and our wounds on himself so that we can be free from them. This is, after all, what Easter is all about.

In this passage Jesus brings restoration - in a sense, brings Easter, to these two dear daughters. May we also experience the loving restoration offered by Christ.