Woman Healed Luke 8

Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to Christ. In the

name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the

Holy Spirit. Amen. I thank God with my heart

that he has gathered us together, my dear brothers

and sisters and children, to celebrate the divine

liturgy, to be lifted up to the kingdom, to be

fed with the food from heaven, to hear the word

of God. Now, let's look at this gospel a little

bit. It says here, in the gospel we heard, at

that time a certain man came to Jesus and kneeled

before him. Well, what time was that, that this

man came? Do you remember last week we heard

about the man possessed by demons and Jesus?

came to that man, and Jesus says, what's your

name? And the man says, Legion, because he had

in him a host, thousands of demonic powers that

had been afflicting him, his soul. And Jesus

healed him. He cast them out. But not before

the demon said, why are you come to torment us

before the end, O son of God? What have you to

do with us? The demons recognize the power of

God that is in Jesus, that he is God's son. And

they ask to be released into the herd of swine.

Why swine? Well, swine is the animal used by

the Roman pagans in their animal sacrifices.

And of course, the local people raising these

swine for the Romans are going to be upset, and

they ask Jesus to go. Leave us. No thanks. You've

just wrecked our economy. Jesus will do that

to you. Be prepared for something unexpected

in your life and respond not like them. And the

week before, we heard, well, sometime before,

exactly before in the Gospel of Luke, The disciples

and Jesus are in a boat, and a storm begins,

and Jesus falls asleep, and the waves are rising,

and they're coming over the side of the boat,

and the boat is taking on water, and the apostles

are frightened of dying because the sea is the

place of chaos, especially in the Old Testament.

It's the place of chaos, uncertainty. It's the

place of death. They're afraid. Of course they're

afraid. The storm is raging. And Jesus, wake

up, wake up, wake up. And he says to them, oh,

ye of little faith. We should remember this in

the times of storms in our life, in times of

difficulties. That Jesus may be silent, but he

is present. We ask God to come into our chaos

continually. Continually. We need to enter into

his peace. That's what's going on there. Besides

the fact that the scriptures are telling us that

Jesus has power over nature because he says peace

and the storm completely ends. You know, when

a storm ends, what happens? It takes a while

for the water to stop lapping and the waves to

go away. With Jesus, when he blesses, it's absolute

quiet and peace. And that's what happens. And

they're surprised. And they say, who is this

that has this power? They're only learning about

Jesus. And then he comes to the demons and he

has power over the darkness too. And he heals

that man. And now he comes to a place that is

waiting for him. He's coming from a place that

wanted him to leave, and now he comes to a place

they are anxiously waiting for him. And the crowds

are great. And this man named Jairus, the scriptures

tell us, has a daughter, as you heard, and she's

dying. She's 12 years old. And in the midst of

all this turmoil, as Jesus is coming to this

man's house, and he begs Jesus, come to my house,

please heal her. And Jesus senses, he says, someone's

touched me. And, of course, Peter, impetuous

Peter, says, Master, there's like thousands of

people here and you're saying someone touched

me? You know, kind of sarcastic, like, what are

you thinking? It's not that kind of touch. It's

the touch of desire to be with Christ. The touch

of... Faithfulness, the touch of a heart that

has suffered 12 years with this malady of bleeding,

menstrual bleeding, doesn't stop, which puts

her in a category in that culture, alienated,

alone, ritually, not morally, but ritually unclean.

No one touches her. She can't eat with her family.

She has spent all her money. and all her savings,

and everything she has to look for a cure. The

tradition tells us that this woman's name is

Saint Veronica. And tradition also tells us that

at some point in her life, she had a statue of

Jesus carved. And this comes from the fourth

century, a report that says it was destroyed.

The touch she has is the touch of faithfulness.

Born out of incredible patience. Born out of

sorrow, sighing, weeping, hope, hope. And Jesus

knows that grace has gone forth. And he says

this, someone touched me, not because he's wondering

who the heck touched me. We're speaking about

the Lord of the universe, the one who made heaven

and earth, and of all things therein. He knows

all things. He knows the secrets of our heart.

He knows our destiny. He knows where we have

come from. He knows us from before we were conceived

in the mother's womb. He didn't ask that because

he didn't know. He asked that to show the crowd

the incredible faith of this woman. Because she

could be ashamed of all of this. But he lifts

her up. And in the meantime, what happens? The

girl dies. The 12 -year -old girl dies. It's

interesting. This woman has been suffering from

this bleeding for 12 years. The moment that child

was born, this woman had been suffering. And

Jesus goes to the house, lets no one else in.

says the girl sleeping, and the poor Lord, again

and again, how he is dismissed. She's sleeping.

Don't despair. Don't weep. They laugh at him.

The Lord has just stilled the waves. He has cast

out a legion of demons from a man. He's healed

a woman who came to him. And he lifted her up

and said, your faith has made you whole. He ascribes

it to her, not himself. And this is public. And

he goes to this room and they laugh at him. We

dismiss the Lord. We forget about the Lord's

power. The gospel here, my dear friends, is not

just about the healings. The healings are for

the sake of those people in that story. And yes.

In this marvelous book, The Theology of Healing

of Illness, the author points out for us that

Christ never hesitated to heal those with bodily

illnesses and infirmities who requested it of

him. He did not... hesitate not once to present

himself as the physician of souls and bodies

because he is the lover of mankind. He says,

those who are well have no need of a physician,

but he has come, he has come to heal. In fact,

in the early church, pagan observers described

Christianity as a religion, quote, For sick people.

For the sick. Because paganism would boast that

thanks to the gods, we are strong, we are well,

we are powerful. There was no sense of charity

and love for the poor. That comes from Christianity.

There was no care for the woman or the slave.

No, that comes from Christianity. It's Christ

who raises us all up. But today's gospel is not

just about Christ the physician in this life.

Those people, Jairus, this woman, the throng

of people, the people that came into the room

and laughed at Jesus when he said, she's only

sleeping, she will rise. They had a very ill

-formed, a very weak understanding of what the

life of the age to come was all about. Is there

even life after one dies? They did not know.

They had no developed teaching. Some believed

in the resurrection. So this story for us isn't

about Jesus coming to each and every person to

heal them of every malady they have. My brothers

and sisters, In the gospel, he didn't heal everybody.

And we ourselves know whether you're dealing

with an illness or a dear friend or relative

is suffering from an illness, a life -threatening

illness, or you or a friend or relative have

been alienated and lonely and waiting and just

reaching out to touch Christ. This is about trust

in the living God, about whom we just sang, O

Christ, thou didst descend into Hades and destroyed

the power of death and the sting of death. And

we are lifted up. We have to hear those words,

that he is the savior of the soul, too. We focus

on our bodies. Of course we do. We want to be

well. That's a blessing. But when someone's ill,

when someone's going through that tragic and

difficult trial, like that woman, Veronica, in

the gospel, or that father grieving for his child,

for us, it's not God testing us because he doesn't

know. It's God allowing us to become firm and

mature. And blossom in the kingdom of heaven.

To become true Christians. And we must be always

searching to trust and touch Jesus. So that we

can feel his grace and power in our soul and

heart. Whether we are sick. Whether we are ill.

Whether we are sad. Whether we are joyful. It

doesn't matter. The power of the cross of Christ.

We live after that. We live after the resurrection.

And the life of the kingdom of God is going through

our veins. We are not like those two in the gospel.

We are not like the disciples before the resurrection

and Pentecost. We are like them after the resurrection

and after Pentecost. we can look at a man like

St. Nectarius today, born 1846, died 1920, terribly

slandered as a young bishop, terribly slandered,

had to leave his Episcopal see, worked as a janitor

in a boys' school until he was appointed a headmaster.

Even after he founded the monastery on the island

of Aegina and was an old man suffering from illnesses,

74 years old, I guess. Is that right, my math?

1920, 1846? In a hospital, having been slandered

even to the day of his death. But God is not

mocked. And the faith... of the righteous one

becomes manifest and known because that's when

he died the blanket in the hospital room the

blanket was taken off of him and it was put on

a man who had been absolutely paralyzed had been

fallen off a high ladder and that man got up

and walked and the nurses and the doctors exclaimed,

glory to God, we don't know how this was. And

from that day on, miracles after miracles have

been occurring by the prayers of St. Nectarius

and his holiness. So brothers and sisters, our

takeaway today is that faithfulness of St. Nectarius,

that God is faithful to us. We know, we believe,

we live. in the light of the resurrection, whether

we are sick, whether we are ill, and failing

badly, whether we are joyful or sad, let us be

faithful to the cross of Christ and to our Lord,

who has shown us over and over his faithfulness

to us, and let us reach out to touch him so that

we are close. It's no good for us to live our

Christian life casually. We have to feel the

power of the cross. And sometimes that means,

as St. Paul says, if anyone is a follower of

Christ, you can count on it. You will feel the

suffering of the cross. And in that suffering,

you are united to the joy of the kingdom. To

our Lord be glory, now and ever, to ages of ages.

Amen.