The First Gospel - The Mark Sandwich

Good morning. If I didn't say it, my name is Greg. I'm one of the pastors here at the house.

And so far this year we've been going through the book of Mark. It is the first gospel that was

written and today we're gonna jump right in. So if you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab those.

Open those, whether it's digitally or analog. If you don't have a Bible, we have physical Bibles.

Out on the bookshelf you can grab on the way home. Otherwise they're also free on digital app stores.

And if you're opening physically, look, it goes Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and those are the four

gospels in the New Testament. We're gonna be Mark chapter five. Now we have a tradition of giving

the scriptures our full attention when we read the scripture for the sermon. And so if you would like

to, you can join me in standing or sit and just give the scriptures your full attention as I read

Mark five starting in verse 21. This is gonna be a long one y'all, okay? Here we go. When Jesus had

again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while

he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue leaders named Jairus came and when he saw Jesus,

he fell at his feet. He pleaded earnestly with him, my little girl, my little daughter is dying.

Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live. So Jesus went with him,

a large crowd followed and pressed around him and a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding

for 12 years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had,

yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him

in the crowd and touched his cloak because she thought, if I just touch his clothes, I will be

healed. Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked,

who touched my clothes? You see the people crowding against you, his disciples answered and yet you ask

who touched me? But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman knowing what

had happened to her came and fell at his feet and trembling with fear told him the whole truth. He

said to her, daughter your faith has healed you, go in peace and be freed from your suffering.

While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader,

your daughter is dead, they said. Why bother the teacher anymore? Over hearing what they said,

Jesus told him, don't be afraid, just believe. He did not let anyone follow him except Peter,

James and John, the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus

saw commotion with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, why all this

commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep. But they laughed at him. After he put them

all out, he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him and went in where

the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, teletha koum, which means little girl,

I say to you, get up. Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around. She was 12 years old.

At this, they were completely astonished. He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this

and told them to give her something to eat. Let us pray. God of every tribe, every tongue,

every color, every nation, we thank you for the scriptures that they have persisted throughout

the millennia that we can still read them and learn from them. Seek you in them. And I pray

that today, whatever you have for us to learn, I pray that it would stick. That would become a part

of the framework of our faith. That our faith would become stronger as we become more like your son,

Jesus. Amen. Thanks for all you can have a seat. All right, so real quick, what were your favorite

sandwiches? Anyone? Peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Ruben, Rubens, I had a Philly cheesesteak in the

back. I didn't eat one, but someone said Philly cheesesteak in the back. BLT. Okay. Oh, what?

A torta. Yes. Yes. Anyone else? Anyone else? Oh, well, let's go to lunch. All right, so I'm

going to say the name of a sandwich and you tell me where it's from. Okay. The Big Mac.

The Whopper. The Frisco burger. The

The Double Double. Come on, California folk. In and out. Okay. The King Number 11.

I'm going to go gargantuan. Jimmy John's. The Humpty Dumpty. Roosters. The Work of Art.

Arthur. Now, I don't actually have a lot to say about sandwiches, but I wanted to bring it up

because I was curious. I know you guys are just going to love this. Has anyone noticed that Mark

likes sandwiches? This isn't a joke. This isn't a joke. This is real. Mark uses sandwiches as a

writing technique. And I'm not just talking about at the end when he says, give the girl something

to eat. There's this writing technique that Mark uses. He uses it nine different times in 16

chapters. He does it so often that Bible scholars have a name for it. It is the Markin sandwich.

That is a biblical phrase. Important, smart scholars talk to each other with words like

the Markin sandwich. So what is it? What happens is Mark will start a story. He'll lay down that

first slice of bread and then he'll interrupt that story with another event.

Just then to circle back around to finish the first story with that top piece of bread.

It makes for good writing. First, because sandwiches are good. But really it's because this is just

how life works. If you can make it through a whole day as a human being without your plans being

interrupted, you are either a hermit or you're dead. Like those are the options. And if you have

children in your life, then it is an absolute miracle if you make it through 24 hours without any

interruptions. Because life being interrupted is so normal, when we read the Bible, like we might just

read passages like this and not even notice that it happened. Or miss some of what Jesus is doing

and what Mark is trying to show us with the interruption, with the sandwich. See, we tend to

treat 99% of the interruptions that we experience every day as they're just coincidences, as though

they're just meaningless moments that just happened to happen because for the most part,

they probably are. They are just coincidences. But if you're reading the Bible and a story

is interrupted, there's probably a reason. I used to work with this guy that, well we called him

Cozy. He didn't like that. His last name was Kazaira. So we called him, what's up Cozy?

He could not be on time to a meeting. He just couldn't. And I couldn't say anything about it

because he was my boss. But it felt like he would let anything and everything distract him

on the way to a meeting that he set. And then he would say, Greg, you know, you just gotta die.

D-I-E, divine interruptions every day. Of course, my orderly time sensitive brain would think,

that's great, but just die a little earlier so you can be here on time.

Mark as an author, he's telling these stories of interruption on purpose because there's a reason

they are divine interruptions. So the story is literally being loaded with layer after layer of

meaning like a sandwich. So what is it that Mark is trying to tell us through these stories of Jesus?

And the answer is so much. Overall, if you're paying attention, these stories are in complete

contrast. They are intentionally opposite from each other. What do I mean? So first,

Jairus has a name. Anybody notice that? You're reading this story. Two main things happen,

and only one of the players gets a name. What's the woman's name? No, we don't know. We don't

know her name. Because Mark is intentionally showing us just how different these people are

from each other. In life, social class, in the way that they feel about themselves,

he sets that tone with the most basic concept. He has a name, she remains nameless.

And then the man, he advocates for his female child in public, while the woman couldn't openly

advocate for herself. Why? Because in the first century Middle Eastern culture, women were

restricted from speaking to men in public. So Jairus can just walk up to Jesus, interrupt

whatever is going on, and ask for whatever he needs. But the woman, what were her options?

Listen, she doesn't sneak up behind Jesus and touch his robe because she didn't think

he would hear her, or because she didn't think that he was good. She snuck up because she

wasn't allowed to ask. Mark is making it clear that she has to sneak up because she has no one

that will speak up. That'll preach, come on, that'll preach. Actually, if we back up in

the book of Mark, to Mark chapter two, we find the story of a paralytic man, a man that has no

ability to go seek after healing from Jesus on his own. But if you remember the story, he's brought

there by his friends. They are so bold that they tear the roof off of the house where Jesus is,

and lower their friend down to Jesus. Jairus can interrupt, the friends can literally destroy

someone's house, but this woman has to hide what she's hoping for. Where are this woman's friends?

Where are the men? Where are her advocates?

Where are her advocates? See, Frost is a reader in our haste, in our context, in our culture,

in our world. We might think that these two people are just the same. They're both women,

they're just different in age. They're just people that need healing from Jesus, but in a culture

that only valued the voice of men, Jairus have the honor of his daughter being healed in private,

in the emotional comfort of his own home. This woman has to pile risk upon risk, and attempt to

hide her hope for healing in a public place, because there was no one that would speak up for her.

And there's the contrast, not just of their cultural differences, but their social standing.

This woman's issue of blood would have made her perpetually, ceremonially unclean for 12 years.

Even if she had wanted to make the trip to Jerusalem and go to the temple for Passover,

or for a religious festival, she wouldn't have been allowed in. The religious law would have

prohibited it. Now locally, being ceremonially unclean would not restrict someone from going

to their local synagogue, but it is likely, almost sure, that 12 years in, that shame had pushed her

out. Compare this with Jairus and his daughter. He's literally one of the leaders at the local synagogue.

He probably knows who this woman is.

He's surely one of the most influential people in town.

Mark is adding the layers to the sandwich. Then there's the question of wealth. We don't know

for sure, Mark doesn't use these words, he doesn't say this guy was wealthy, okay? But it's safe to

assume that Jairus has a level of wealth and security, and that he's a man of his word.

It's safe to assume that Jairus has a level of wealth and security, and it's not just an assumption,

just because he's named, because he has an important role. We can start to assume that

because Mark specifically leads us to that assumption by telling us that the woman has nothing.

See, she used to, if that's implied, but now she's poor because she spent everything that she had on

her illness on doctors, and Mark actually says she suffered a great deal under the care of many

doctors, people she was meant to trust. They said instead of getting better, she grew worse.

Mark does this to infer that these doctors, the people that she should have been helped by,

had taken advantage of her, that they could see that they weren't helping, but as long as she had

money, they would figuratively bleed her dry. So it makes it all the more meaningful that when she

is healed, when Mark says that her bleeding stopped, the words there that we translate stopped,

literally means dried up. They had taken all of her money,

but he's the one that brought healing and dried up the problem.

Then think about this. All the doctors couldn't help her. She could not, no matter what she did,

no matter how much money she had, no matter how many doctors she had seen, she could not

keep herself from bleeding, and then Jesus could not keep himself from healing.

Because when she touched his clothes, the healing power that she had,

she could not stop, could not be kept in. It flowed from his body without his consent,

without him consciously choosing to do so. This is, as far as I can tell, the only unintentional

healing in all of the gospels. Now some will say, well of course he knew. He's Jesus. He had eyes

in the back of his head. He just wanted her to see that she was healed. He wanted her to see that

he had eyes in the back of his head. He just wanted her to speak up for herself. But it literally says

that he turned around but kept looking around to see who had done it. So there are plenty of other

times in the scriptures where the author says, and Jesus knowing what they were thinking, that Jesus

is pointed out as knowing someone's thoughts, as knowing something that he could not have known,

but not hear. Mark means to tell us exactly what it says. That he was so full of power to heal,

her faith was so full of hope, that the juxtaposition of she could not stop bleeding,

but he could not stop healing.

See, Jesus is used to healing intentionally, empathetically, compassionately, face to face,

eye to eye, on purpose. And then a woman that for 12 years, it had no control of her life,

who couldn't keep from bleeding, is made whole by Jesus who could not keep himself from healing.

And if you're looking closely, if you're looking closely, you just might start to see the foreshadowing

of Jesus's future. Here, Jesus doesn't see who touched him. And soon, Jesus would be blindfolded

and beaten. Tell us who struck you, Jesus. Reminds us that when the garments that this woman had

touched for her healing would be gambled away by soldiers, her body bleeding uncontrollably,

it telegraphs the moment when his body would be broken, bleeding uncontrollably on a cross

to cover the sins of the world. All the people within his eyesight and his heart were

blinded by the blood of Jesus. All the people within his eyesight and beyond, whether they knew it or not.

There's one last parallel here, one last contrast that links the stories of this woman

and the young girl. Listen to what it says here, here at the end. We read it, but I'll read it again.

She took by the hand and said to her, which means little girl, I say to you, get up.

Immediately, the girl stood up and began to walk around. She was 12 years old.

Right there at the last second is like this M. Night Shyamalan moment,

where you see one last thing that you were introduced to at the very beginning of the story

that then, if you remember what we've talked about in previous weeks, that when you see certain

things in the scriptures, you're supposed to pay attention. Last week, Jesus on the mountainside,

choosing his 12 disciples, prophesying, putting out forth that these will represent the 12 tribes that

will be united again. The beginning of this story, we're told that the woman had been bleeding for

how long? 12 years. This woman has been ill the entire length of this little girl's life.

This is no coincidence. This is told to us on purpose.

It's not coincidence. We're supposed to see that these healings, one of a woman ill for 12 years,

one little girl's entire lifetime, opposite in every single way. We're supposed to see this as

a symbol that Jesus is healing the 12 tribes of Israel, making them whole.

Come on, right? I mean, there's so much, there's just so much here, guys. So we have to get to the

end where we say, well, how do we participate with any of this? Well, when you put it all together,

I think that the single overarching message that we should walk away with is about women.

Because these women aren't just pawns in a story about how Jesus can heal.

They're not side notes in a secret message about the 12 tribes of Israel.

We're not supposed to just learn a lesson and then forget about the women. The women are front and

center because the women are the primary point. Mark has spent all this time talking about the

women. Jesus has spent all this time with them and all the opposites, all the contrasts, just to make

it as clear as day that the gap between these women is filled by Jesus. There is no woman,

listen, with your ears, there is no woman, no person that calls themselves woman anywhere on the

spectrum of this life that is overlooked or left out by Jesus. Listen, Jesus healed plenty of people

in the gospels. Mark didn't have to, we always have to remember this when we read stories, the writer

didn't have to, we always have to remember this when we read stories, the writer didn't have to,

when we read stories, the writer did not have to tell us this particular story. Mark didn't have to

tell us this story the way that he did. He didn't have to sandwich these two things together about

two women on opposite ends of a spectrum from each other. He could have just told us more stories

about men. There's plenty of stories of men being healed. Mark wants us to see how Jesus cares about

women in a way that no one else does. He doesn't rebuke the woman for touching him. He doesn't

demand his power back. When he healed the little girl, he doesn't make a public spectacle of her.

He doesn't trot out and say, look how great I am, I just rose this little girl from the dead.

He says, give her something to eat.

He honors them where they are because where they belong is in his kingdom.

No woman can be so far out on the edges that Jesus does not welcome them in.

So let me just speak to the men in the room for a minute.

Men, where are the women in your life?

Are they on the edge? Are they a plot device?

Are they a character meant to get your point across?

Or are they the most honored layers of the story?

Listen, me saying that women should be honored is not the same as saying women are weak. Women are strong.

This unnamed woman took care of herself. She sought out doctors with her own money.

She was bold. She went and grabbed his clothes, knowing the potential of the world.

But just because women are strong and wise and brilliant doesn't mean that they don't also benefit from the men in their lives advocating on their behalf and choosing to make them central instead of on the edge.

So many years, I've been trying to figure out how to make them central.

So many years, it has been the culture that women are a plot device.

That women are a side note.

I think that God is a side note.

I think that God in Jesus is telling us so many ways that women are the point.

Jesus was born by a woman.

The first testimony of Jesus being resurrected was given by a woman.

They're not on the edges. Women, you are not on the edges. You are smack dab right in the middle of the kingdom of God.

And I hope that this is a place that is safe for you.

Where the men around you will not look at you as the people that just hold the babies in the nursery.

Where the men around you will not look at you as the people that just hold the babies in the nursery.

But the people that carry the mission and vision and voice of Jesus Christ in this world.

Amen? Let us pray.

Father, I thank you that you gave Jesus an earthly mother.

That we would not think of this whole thing as only including men.

That you humbled yourself to be mothered, to be raised.

In so many ways I wonder if the way you treated women wasn't just a direct effect because you'd been raised by one.

Remind us where we've come from.

No one of us in this room is here without women. Without a woman birthing us, raising us, caring for us, teaching us, loving us.

Later today people will celebrate a bunch of men running around on the field and I pray that we celebrate the women in our lives.

Moving us with your Holy Spirit.

Let us not be afraid of femininity.

Let us not expect it to be weak or soft.

For our eyes to be open to all of its strength.

Amen.