Wiaitng in line

Mark 5:21-43

          When Jesus is told that Jairus's daughter has died, I fully expected Jairus to complain. Jesus should not have aided the hemorrhaging woman. I could imagine Jairus complaining that Jesus should have tended to his ill daughter first.

          This is the kind of world we live in now. There is little room for patience. There is an expectation of immediate gratification. Heaven forbid we would relinquish our place 'in line' to let someone else go first, especially if our daughters' life was hanging in the balance.

          I was speaking about Las Vegas with a coworker and she relayed the scenario where she got up from a gambling machine only to have someone else sit down where she'd been and almost immediately hit the jackpot. "That's my money" she retorted.  We have that sense that everything should be in order or in our time, no one else's. 

          Save for those who may see the cosmic wisdom of how things unfold, we often have a keen sense of entitlement, of getting our due in the correct order and not letting anyone "cut" in front of us.

There is little wisdom, no sense that God is in control and just perhaps, maybe even know better. We are never eager and most of the time not even willing to let our faith lay in the hands of anyone else, some cosmic force and certainly not God. 

          In today's passage things may not have played out as people expected but it all turned out ok and the loving hand of God prevailed. There are so many lessons in this passage but that is the one that strikes me today. I hope I will remember that when I get cut off on the highway or someone cuts into the line in front of me. Forget about the cosmic for the moment, let's think practical.

         Do we let God's plan unfold in our everyday ordinary existence? Do we demand our place in line whether it is at work, food shopping or even in church? How do we acknowledge God's plan in our lives in the ordinary things of life?

         

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered round him; and he was by the lake. Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, ‘My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.’ So he went with him.

And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. Now there was a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.’ Immediately her haemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ And his disciples said to him, ‘You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, “Who touched me?” ’ He looked all round to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.’

While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, ‘Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?’ But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe.’ He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. When he had entered, he said to them, ‘Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.’ And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, ‘Talitha cum’, which means, ‘Little girl, get up!’ And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.