The Marcan Sandwich
Story: Sermons and eggs
As some of you may know, I have recently retired after 12 years as Vicar of the East Marshland Benefice in the Diocese of Ely
As we were taking the bed apart in our bedroom I was surprised to find two baskets under the bed
One with 3 eggs in and the other with £100
So I asked my wife Maddy what did this mean
She said: Every time you preached a bad sermon I put an egg in the basket
I was quite chuffed about that
Three bad sermons in 12 years. Not bad!!
And then I looked at the other basket and asked what is this?
She gave me a mischievous smile - that only a Vicar’s wife can and said:
Every time I got a dozen I sold them
Hopefully this isn’t an egg sermon
Story: Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great 19th Century Baptist minister defines faith this way,
"Faith is believing that Christ is
what He is said to be, and
that he will do what He has promised to do,
And then to expect this of Him."
Tom Wright the former Bishop of Durham in his book “Mark for Everyone” describes this passage as a “Marcan sandwich”.
For Mark interweaves the story of the healing of the woman with an issue of blood/ into the story of the raising of Jairus’ daughter.
Why
Because as it turns out both stories are closely related.
There are similarities
1. Faith
Faith figures strongly in both stories.
Both Jairus and the unnamed woman have “an implicit trust in Jesus and the power he bore” (The Message of Mark, Donald English p.114}
1.1 Jairus
Jairus shows his faith actively by falling down upon his knees.
Where his faith in Jesus comes from, we are not told.
Perhaps Jairus later became a Christian and this was his story which was recorded by the Early Church.
1.2 The Woman
The woman is too fearful to display her faith in Jesus publicly.
So she sidles up to him hoping simply to touch the hem of his garment.
I think she knew that she would be healed by doing so
However Jesus recognises power leaving him when she in faith touches the hem of his garment.
Jesus asks his followers – “Who is it who touched me”– and they are as incredulous.
To them it is as ridiculous as someone asking “who touched me “ in the middle of a rugby scrum!
Jesus doesn’t ask the question to embarrass her – but to show a very simple equation.
Her faith + his power = her healing.
Both Jairus and the unknown woman realised that the only solution to their problem was Jesus.
But while there are similarities to the stories there are differences too
3. Man/Woman
There is the man/woman divide
In Jesus day, Jewish society was incredibly paternalistic.
Women were second class citizens in Jesus day.
So much so that a Pharisee would pray, "I thank God that I am not a woman, Gentile or Samaritan"
4 Different social backgrounds
4.1 Jairus
The second difference is that Jairus and the woman from totally different social backgrounds.
Jairus was a pillar of Jewish society – the president of a local synagogue.
Jesus was becoming a well known personality as he moved from Nazareth to Caperaum and some of the local Jewish rabbis were unhappy with him.
His interpretation of the law was uncomfortable to them – and if the local ruler Herod Antipas got to hear about THIS NEW “Kingdom of God” movement there would be trouble.
So it takes courage for Jairus to come and fall down on his knees before Jesus.
4.2 The Unknown woman
The woman on the other hand, was a social outcast.
Her problem put here outside of the community .
And I think the point Jesus is making is this – no one is too good or too bad for Jesus.
The kingdom of God is open to everyone. And faith in Jesus is the key.
6. Touch
And what does Jesus do to effect the healing.
He touches both the unclean woman and a corpse – that is Jairus’ daughter.
Two no no’s in Jewish society.
Touching a corpse made you ritually unclean and touching a woman with an issue of blood also made you ritually unclean
But what we consider unclean, Jesus is prepared to touch and make clean.
The woman loses her stigma of the issue of blood and the corpse, Jairus’ daughter is raised to new life.
The woman with the issue of blood was not only restored to her community, she was given peace by Jesus - a peace that the world cannot give
You might have missed it –as I did when I first read it
Jesus called her his daughter.
And as Rev James Laurence so clearly put it
“And that was the greatest miracle of all to be claimed as God’s beloved child.”
For that is what the Christian life is all about.
Story: At the end of the Second World War, at the Nuremberg trials where the surviving top Nazis were put on trial, the allies appointed Henry Gereke a Lutheran minister and Fr Sixtus O’Connell to look after those who claimed to be Protestant and Catholic respectively.
Two of Father Sixtus’s congregation came back to faith and six of Henry Gereke’s congregation came to faith.
People like von Ribbentrop, Keitel, Sauchel to name a few who were executed. Others like Albert Speer and Admiral Raeder who weren't eexcuted came to faith too
On the scafford where 11 top Nazi’s were to be hanged, Joachim von Ribbentrop said to Gereke
“I’ll see you again”
as he was being prepared for hanging. (see the story in The Cross and the Swastika by Fred Goldsmith)
Some who had committed evil crimes had to pay for their acts but the grace of God was still extended to them.
For no one is beyond the pale for Jesus
