The Touch (Mark 5:21-43)

 Sermon

How many of you know about the cheese touch?

The Cheese Touch is a feature in Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. One day, Greg Heffley—the main character—spots an old, moldy slice of swiss cheese laying on his middle school playground. He bends down to look at it; it grabs his curiosity, and he’s about to touch it, when another classmate runs up and stops him. The classmate says: “You almost got The Cheese Touch!”

This is how the classmate explains The Cheese Touch in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie:

“Nobody knows when, or how, but one day, that cheese mysteriously appeared on the blacktop. Nobody knew who it belonged to. Nobody touched it. Nobody threw it away. And so there it sat, growing more foul and powerful by the day.

“Then one day, a kid named Darren Walsh made the biggest mistake of his life. He touched the cheese!” 

He tried to deny it, but his classmates knew: Darren had the Cheese Touch! And they all ran from him. 

“It was worse than nuclear cooties! He became an outcast. The only way to get rid of the Cheese Touch was by passing it on to someone else. And so began the Cheese Touch Frenzy. Friend turning on friend. Brother turning on sister. It was madness! 

“Until a German exchange student named Dieter Muller took it away… Thankfully, he moved back to Dusseldorf, and took the Cheese Touch with him. 

“And so the cheese sits, patiently waiting for its next victim.”

I don’t mean to make light of the ancient understanding of purity, but I imagine it being not too different from this. If someone was impure, or unclean, others would steer clear of them, because if they touched them—if they had any contact with them— it would render them impure or unclean.

Impurity in the Bible didn’t come from touching a moldy slice of swiss cheese; it came from contact with a corpse; or from having a skin disease often translated (mistranslated) as “leprosy;” or from the eating of certain “impure” foods. 

Impurity could also come from the involuntary flow of fluids from the body. So, if a man has a wet dream, or a woman has her period, they were considered impure until they could be purified.

These things were impure or unclean because they were seen as a defilement of a person. It wasn’t necessarily a sign of sin, but a person who was impure or unclean would have to go through purification rites, and a waiting period, and then be pronounced clean by a priest.

The reason for these rituals and for designating certain actions or people as clean or unclean, pure or impure, was to maintain the ritual purity of Israel and its sanctuary. 

So: a little different than the Cheese Touch… But not that different. And the story of the Cheese Touch can help us better understand today’s scripture story.

As we heard, When Jairus came to Jesus, and asked him to please come and heal his twelve year-old daughter— because she was on the point of death—Jesus went with him.

So did a huge crowd of people, who had been following him.

It made the road they were traveling on as crowded as the hallways at Greg Heffley’s middle school during passing period. People were brushing shoulders, bumping into each other, all jostling to be close to Jesus… who was trying to follow Jairus, so he could heal Jairus’ twelve year-old daughter.

And that’s when Jesus felt… the touch.

He felt this touch, because it was the touch of an impure, unclean person. More specifically, it was the touch of a woman who had been having a continuous, involuntary flow of blood that had been going on for twelve years…

Jesus said, “Who touched me?”

The disciples said, “What do you mean? Everyone’s all bunched up together, all pressing in on you.”

And Jesus said, “No, no, no; someone touched me…”

And then, the disciples, and everyone else knew, that someone impure and unclean had touched him. And, because that person had touched him, Jesus himself was now considered impure and unclean.

Jesus had The Cheese Touch.

Instinctively, they all took a step back; and they wondered: how could he possibly heal Jairus’ daughter now? If Jesus was impure and unclean, there’s no way God would work through him to heal anyone; God’s not going to dwell in someone impure or unclean. God’s not going to reveal God’s power in someone who is now impure or unclean. Not until Jesus had purified himself, performed the rituals, and waited whatever the prescribed term was…

And by then, it would probably be too late to save Jairus’ daughter.

Now, when everyone took that step back, there was one person who, instead of stepping back, stepped forward: The woman who had touched him.

She stepped forward, and—in fear and trembling—she fell to the ground and confessed that it was she who had touched him.

The whole crowd got silent. They expected Jesus to react with anger toward this woman, just as the woman herself expected him to react with anger. What would he do, now that her touch has rendered him unclean, and jeopardized the healing he was about to perform for Jairus’ daughter?

Oh, and Jairus: what do you think his reaction was? His daughter was on the verge of death! He didn’t have time to wait for Jesus to go through the purification rituals, to get rid of The Touch. By then it would be too late!

Jairus, I’m sure, was filled with despair and anger. He was just barely hanging on to hope as it was, but now, because of this woman’s touch, any hope he had was gone, because now, there’s no way Jesus would arrive in time to heal his daughter.

How dare this woman think that her life was more important than the life of his daughter, who should have had many years to look forward to, and who was the daughter of an important synagogue leader like himself!

If that is indeed what Jairus was thinking, I can’t tell for sure, since the scripture doesn’t say. Perhaps he, like everyone else, was holding his breath, waiting to see how Jesus would respond. Perhaps Jesus would condemn this woman for him, so that he wouldn’t have to.

The woman was still on the ground, trembling in fear. It had only been a moment since she stepped out from the crowd, but it had felt like an eternity.

Seeing her, and hearing her confession, Jesus responded: “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

That was not the response anyone was expecting. Was she really healed? How could that be? If she were truly healed, that would mean that, instead of her uncleanliness affecting Jesus, making him impure and unclean, the energy went the other way; Jesus’ purity and cleanliness transferred to her, taking away her impurity and uncleanliness…

It would be like someone trying to pass on the Cheese Touch to Jesus, but instead, Jesus got rid of the Cheese Touch… destroyed it… made it powerless… so that neither he nor the woman were affected by it, and so that neither of them could pass it on.

The crowd was astonished, but didn’t have time to ponder the implications, because at that moment, while he was still speaking, some people came from Jairus’ house to inform Jairus that his daughter was dead, and that he shouldn’t trouble Jesus any longer.

Their timing is remarkable. The news arrived at the exact moment of the older woman’s healing. At the moment the woman was healed, word arrived of the daughter’s death. As if the two things were connected.

But it’s not the only connection. Remember, the girl was twelve years old, while the woman had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. Her bleeding, her infirmity, began the day the girl was born.

It’s as if only one of them could live, like there was only enough life-energy for one of them; if that life-energy was split between them, neither of them would be whole, and when the woman was healed, all the life-energy transferred to her… and the girl, with all the life-energy taken out of her, died…

Jairus prepared to quietly, sadly, follow those who had delivered this news back home.

But Jesus, who had heard their news, said, “Do not be afraid; just believe.”

When they got to the house, Jesus went in to where the girl was, along with Jairus and the girl’s mother.

And Jesus took her by the hand…

If this girl were really dead, touching her would render Jesus impure and unclean. Touching a corpse makes one unclean. And Jesus would have to go through the purification process and perform the rituals and wait whatever the prescribed waiting period is…

And the power of God could not possibly dwell within him as long as he was in that impure, unclean state, because how could God dwell in anything or any person who was unclean?

And yet, Jesus was not afraid of the Touch, and the power of God did dwell in Jesus, and did work through Jesus, for a second time, as the girl opened her eyes and got up and began to walk around… all to the amazement of those who were gathered there with him.

They were amazed, because they saw both the woman and the girl restored to wholeness, restored to their complete selves, empowered to take or retake their place in their community. 

Both the woman and the girl were moving into the next stage of their lives—the older woman, into life after menopause, most likely, and the girl, into life after puberty, into adulthood. They were both at an age where the body transitions from one stage to the next. But that path forward was blocked for both of them, until Jesus healed them.

And they were both limited by a society that denied equality and freedom to people because of their gender, and because of their age, and because they were both determined to be in a state of impurity. The girl was not yet in that prime demographic where people pay attention to you, and the woman was on the verge of moving out of that prime demographic, and to a lot of people, things like that are important. But Jesus showed that it doesn’t matter who you are, how old you are, or what your gender is, or even if you have the Touch of uncleanliness: God affirms you and God has the power to heal you and liberate you and empower you to be who you were meant to be. 

It doesn’t matter if you’ve been declared unclean—not even if you have the Cheese Touch. God can make it so that you don’t have the Cheese Touch, or any of the stigma associated with the Cheese Touch. 

The power of the Cheese Touch is reversed. It’s turned on its head. Instead of a curse flowing from the Cheese Touch to you, a blessing flows into you from God, and that blessing can flow through you into those around you. 

Just thinking about how this would play out in a middle school makes my head spin; tell those middle schoolers that the Cheese Touch curse has been reversed, all because of the power of God, and they would start questioning everything they believed; their entire social structure would be upended; and they would be overcome with amazement, just as those who were with Jesus were overcome with amazement. 

And if that’s what would happen on a middle school classroom, imagine what could happen if we, the church, allowed God’s power to work through us, to upend our society’s current ways of thinking, and how people are classified, and ostracized, and vilified, and disqualified, and crucified…

Think of all the ways we categorize people, and declare them unclean, or unworthy, or less-than-equal, or undeserving of equal rights, or undeserving of medical care, or unqualified for citizenship…

Imagine how the world would change if we upended all those categories, and we allow God to work through us to lift people up, heal them, make them well, set them free, and restore them to wholeness…

This can happen, by Christians who follow the example of Jesus…

…by those who are not afraid of a little touch…

…by those who understand that the only touch that really matters is the touch of the savior, the touch of God, the touch of the one who created you and who placed the holy image in you, and who loves you—loves everything about you—the one who affirms you, affirms the person who you truly are…

That touch, the only touch that really matters, the only touch that really has power, is the touch that heals, and makes people whole.

Wholeness (Mark 5:21-43)

It was the talk of the town: Jairus’ daughter was ill. She couldn’t get out of bed, and hadn’t been seen in public for days. Jairus had used his influence and his more-than-adequate financial resources to secure for her the best possible medical care, but so far, nothing was helping. Indeed, some of the rumors floating around were that she had died.

Those rumors were false. She wasn’t dead; not yet, anyway. However, it was starting to appear that, unless some miracle of healing were to occur, death would come soon.

Being the daughter of such a prominent community leader, her situation was being closely followed by the tabloids. She was twelve years old, the age when society started paying attention, the age at which one made the transition from childhood to adulthood. Jewish regulations—which, obviously, Jairus was familiar with—set twelve as the minimum age at which a girl’s marriage contract could be drawn up. (For boys it was thirteen.)

This should have made her the darling of all the magazine covers, and would have, if she were well enough for the photo shoots. She was the perfect age, her dad was a “celebrity” of sorts…. Scripture doesn’t say what her name was. I think her name was Paris. Or maybe Miley.
As I said, Daddy had done everything he could to help his little girl, but nothing worked. Death seemed like it was days, perhaps hours, away. He was desperate.

He had heard about Jesus. He had heard rumors of his miraculous healings. The tabloids had reported on those, too, although Jairus knew from experience that half the stuff printed in the tabloids was lies and fabrications. Just the other day, the papers had printed something about Jesus controlling the weather. I mean, really! The articles actually said that Jesus spoke to a howling wind, commanding it to cease, and it did. That sounded too absurd to Jairus. But then a trusted friend told Jairus that he saw first-hand a miracle in which Jesus had healed a man who had been paralyzed. This man had been paralyzed for years, but after he met Jesus, he could walk freely. If Jesus could do that, then maybe he could control the weather as well.

Jairus remembered when the paralyzed man was healed. He didn’t see it happen, but people came to the synagogue, asking him about it. At the time, Jairus had been skeptical, and he told them that this healing could not possibly have happened. But so many people seemed to be convinced, including his trusted friend. Could the rumors be true?

But how would it look for a highly respected synagogue leader to go asking, begging, for help from this Jesus? Oh, the paparazzi would love that! How much respect and influence would he lose if he humbled himself that way? He couldn’t do that; he couldn’t go to Jesus and humiliate himself that way, could he?

One look at his daughter was all it took for him to know that, yes, he could.

He found Jesus down by the sea. An enormous crowd was gathered around him. “Great,” thought Jairus. “Just great.”

Jairus made his way through the crowd. When he reached Jesus, Jairus fell at Jesus’ feet, and begged him: “My daughter is at the point of death. Come, lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.” As the words came out, his desperation overwhelmed him. The crowd no longer mattered. All that mattered was his little girl. He cried out again: “Please, sir; my little daughter is at the point of death. Come, lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live!”

Jesus began to follow him; and the crowd did, too. In fact, everyone was pressed in together, jostling one another. It was like trying to get in to see the Lakers victory celebration at the Coliseum.

In the midst of this huge crowd was a woman who had been having hemorrhages for twelve years. In fact, she remembered the day it all started: it was the day she had read in the tabloids about the birth of Jairus’ daughter.

Like Jairus’ daughter, she, too, had been seen by many doctors. However, she did not have the money and the influence that Jairus did, and all of her medical treatments had left her broke. Health care is expensive, you know…

The worst part of it all was that nothing had worked. Despite the medical treatment, her condition had grown worse.

Her condition had kept her from being a part of society. She was in that stage of life we call menopause, but was unable to make that life transition because of her condition. She was stuck there. Plus, her bleeding made her unclean. Jewish regulations prohibited her from having contact with anyone,… which meant that she had been living in seclusion for the past twelve years.

For twelve years, society had waited for Jairus’ daughter to come-of-age and taker her place in society; and for twelve years, this woman had also been waiting; waiting to reclaim her place in society.

She knew she shouldn’t be there—she was “unclean”—nevertheless, she snuck through the crowd toward Jesus. She thought to herself, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be made well. I won’t bother anyone; no one needs to know.” When she reached Jesus, she reached out and touched his cloak, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped. She could feel in her body that she was healed of her disease.

Jesus stopped walking. “Who touched me?” he said. Well, everyone was touching him, pressing in on him; everyone was jostling one another. It was like the crowd leaving Disneyland after a Friday night showing of Fantasmic.

Jairus was at that very moment touching Jesus, daring to grab him by the hand, and lead him, as quickly as possible, to the bed where his daughter was dying. Didn’t Jesus realize how urgent this was? But Jesus would not budge.

Jesus looked around. It was then that the woman emerged from the crowd, and fell at Jesus’ feet, terrified that she had been found out, terrified that she would now be cast out of society forever for what she had done. “It was me,” she confessed; and she told Jesus the whole truth.
Jesus did not cast her out. Instead, he welcomed her by addressing her, using a word that signified relationship: “Daughter,” he said, “your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”

At that very moment, some people arrived from Jairus’ house. By the looks on their faces, Jairus knew why they had come, even before they spoke those awful, horrible words: “Your daughter is dead.”

Does it seem strange to you that the announcement of his daughter’s death came at the precise moment of the older woman’s healing? Could this have anything to do with the fact that the woman’s illness began twelve years ago, at the time of the girl’s birth? What is the mysterious connection between these two lives?

If the story were to end here, it would be easy to conclude that God’s preference is for the poor, the lonely, the outcast—people like that woman. She was healed; the rich and quite possibly spoiled daughter was dead. The one who deserved healing is healed; the one who already had everything in life is dead.

Had the story ended there, perhaps this is how the tabloids would have written it up. I confess to you that this is how I myself would be tempted to interpret it. I would be quick—too quick—to judge the prominent official’s daughter; Paris, or Miley, or whatever her name is. And as far as the tabloids, well, we know that today’s hero often becomes tomorrow’s villain. The angel of one day becomes the next day’s demon. That happens all the time.

But this story is not yet over. When the news came of the girl’s death, Jesus said to Jairus, “Do not fear; only believe.”

They left the crowd behind, but another crowd was waiting at the house: friends, family, and the professional mourners that were a part of the ritual that surrounded the death of any prominent Jew in those days. They were all packed in and around Jairus’ sufficiently-sized home, making a commotion, weeping and wailing, pressing in together, jostling one another for room. In number, it was like the crowd that will be gathering later today for our “Evening on the Patio.” (Hey, one can hope!)

Jesus said, “What’s with all this commotion?” He sent them outside. Then he took the girl by the hand, and he healed her. He made her well.

So both the woman and the girl were made well. This story, like all of the New Testament, was originally written in Greek, and the Greek word here is sozo. Sozo means to be made well. It means to be made whole. It means to be healed. And sometimes, it is translated as “to be saved.”

Salvation. Healing. Wholeness. This is what was missing from the lives of both the girl and the woman. The stories of how they received sozo—the stories of how they were made whole—these two stories are intertwined with one another. It’s as if the healing of one depended upon the healing of the other. You cannot tell one of these stories without telling the other.

Now I have heard kids in youth group say, “I won’t come if so-and-so is there.” I’ve even heard adults say things like, “I won’t be part of that committee as long as he’s there,” or, “I won’t attend that church as long as she’s there.” But don’t you see? We’re all in this together. We’re all broken in some way. We’re all in search of healing and wholeness. The healing of one is connected to the healing of all. The girl’s healing was connected to the woman’s healing, and vice versa. My healing is connected to your healing. His search for wholeness and her search for wholeness are one. These are things that you cannot separate.

My family recently went to see the movie “Up.” Maybe some of you have seen it. “Up” is a movie about the search for healing and wholeness. There is an old man whose brokenness comes from unfulfilled dreams and the death of his wife. There is also a young boy whose brokenness comes from having an absent father. Their lives are broken until they come together. It is only together that they find healing. It is only together that they find wholeness.

The same is true for us. And that is why we’re here.