In Over Your Head

June 29, 2024
13th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Gospel of Mark 5:21-43

Have you ever found yourself at a moment in life when you felt like you were in over your head? Or, how about one of those situations in life that jam you up, and you feel helpless and lost? Or, what about those times when you find yourself just plain stuck?
I remember one of those times in my life when I was stuck… I mean literally stuck.
Outside the little Wyoming town where I grew up there was an empty muddy field where one could… let’s say… test the 4-wheel drive capabilities of one’s vehicle. On one spring day, a friend and I decided to borrow my dad’s pickup and test its “muddin’” capabilities. (As an aside, I am not entirely sure that my dad was aware of our true intentions. He might have thought that I was taking his truck to the carwash).
Anyway… We found the mud and we got stuck. I mean really stuck. Like buried to the frame all 4 wheels spinning freely stuck.
There is a saying that applies to these “stuck” moments in life, and it goes something like this, “The best thing to do is the right thing. The next best thing to do is the wrong thing. And the worst thing to do… is to do nothing.”
Now, I am not saying that borrowing my dad’s truck under a false pretext was the right thing to do. What I am saying, is that no matter how I got myself stuck… I was definitely in a place where something had to be done.
That brings me to today’s Gospel where we are first introduced to Jairus’s, a synagogue official, a person of standing in his community, whose 12-year-old daughter was very sick and near death. We then learn about an unnamed woman. Who, for the past 12 years suffered from an untreatable bleeding condition that had decimated her resources and forced her to exist on the margins of her community. Though these 2 individuals were experiencing different types of crises, they both found themselves in a situation far beyond anything they could handle on their own. I believe it would be fair to say that they were both at a moment in their lives where they felt in over their heads, jammed up, and stuck.
What was then true for both Jairus and the unnamed woman is also true for us today… Jesus is the source of our healing. Yet, notice how each came to Jesus in two completely different ways.
As I mentioned earlier, Jairus was a synagogue official, a man of standing within his own community. He had position, reputation, and a certain degree of privilege. St Mark tells us when Jesus arrived on the shore of the “other side” of the sea, Jairus came forward and pleaded earnestly to come to his house and “lay hands” on his daughter.
Though Jairus approached Jesus with humility and respect, notice that he did so without consideration for Jesus. There was a hint of entitlement in the manner in which he approached Jesus. Jairus believed his own personal position and standing granted him the right to ask Jesus for healing.
Compare Jairus’s approach with the unnamed woman. She approached Jesus in secret. She snuck up on Jesus hoping that he wouldn’t notice her. She had convinced herself that if she could just get close enough to touch his garment, she would be healed and then she could just slip away. The unnamed woman came to Jesus not because she felt entitled or deserving, rather she came to Jesus out of shame and a false sense of unworthiness.
Both Jairus and the unnamed woman were desperate. Both believed that Jesus was the solution for the very tragic and devastating circumstances of their lives. Both, through whatever measure of faith they possessed, approached Jesus desperately seeking something they did not possess. Yet they each came to him in the NEXT best way.
As Catholics we have the unique opportunity and privilege to approach Jesus here in the Mass. We proclaim and believe that he is here present with us and among us. Yet, how do we approach him.
Do we do so out of a sense of entitlement? Do we come to Jesus believing that we have somehow earned him? Do we consider our position or standing within our community has granted us a privilege that is exclusive and unique?
Or… do we attempt to sneak our way to Jesus? Hoping that we can obtain what we need on the sly?
Today’s Gospel is very clear about the healing and saving power of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. It is also very clear that Jesus wants us to approach him… to come to him especially when we are in over our heads, jammed up, and stuck. The Gospel is also very clear that Jesus wants to more than heal us, he wants to restore us.
Notice that as soon as the unnamed woman is healed Jesus stops the procession and demands that she make herself known. He was not ignorant of her. He knew who touched him. Rather, Jesus invited the unnamed women to make herself known so that she could be fully restored. Now that she was made whole in her physical body, she needed to be made whole in her community.
This woman had spent 12 years of her life outside. She had been isolated from her family and friends. She wasn’t permitted to publicly practice her faith. She had spent all of her resources searching for physical healing and for acceptance.
Jesus’ restoration into community for Jairus and his family may not have been as public, but it was just as effective and real. After the “little girl” rose out of bed, Jesus instructs the family to “give her something to eat.” In regard to community, is there nothing more meaningful, more accepting, more a statement of, “your place is with us” than in the sharing of a meal.
There is no more proper and right way to come to Jesus than as we do here at each and every Mass. Yet, let us not deceive ourselves into thinking that we have earned Jesus… or that there is anything we can do that prevent Jesus from receiving us. In either case, those false beliefs and deceptions are cured through forgiveness, most specifically through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Instead, let us do the BEST thing and come to Jesus in the full understanding that he is the sole provider of our healing, a gift that he freely gives. And… that his gift restores us and implores us to live in community.
Jesus heals us and restores us for our good and for the good of one another. We cannot receive Jesus and then not share what we have received. We cannot pretend that Jesus is just for us. We receive Jesus, his healing, his wholeness, so that we can share that same healing and wholeness with one another… even with those whom we don’t like.
Come to Jesus and be healed… come to Jesus and share your healing one with another.