What's in a Name: Mark 5:24-28
Big faith frequently comes from unexpected sources. I love discovering huge reservoirs of faith in surprising locales. Full disclosure: I love finding huge reservoirs of anything good in unexpected places. As a math teacher, I love finding students who have an incredible capacity for doing math successfully but have never seen themselves as a math-type person. As a woodworker, I love finding people who have an inner joy of watching wood turn into something cool but never saw themselves as an artist or even a woodworker. This is no different than gemstone hunters who coined the phrase finding a diamond in the rough. The discovery of latent potential frequently gives a tremendous high.
Jairus and Jesus are having a moment. A huge crowd gathered to experience this moment. The crowd gathers because they want to be there when Jesus does His next version of the impossible. They gather tightly around, dripping with anticipation about this latest showdown between Jesus and a member of the religious elite. We have two powerful people in their respective communities and plenty of witnesses to see whatever takes place.
Into this moment steps – perhaps even crawls – a woman with a medical issue. She is so unnoticed Mark didn’t record her name. Don’t lose sight of that detail. We know Jairus because he’s a community leader. We know Jesus because, well, the whole Gospel of Mark is written to make sure we know Jesus. The powerful players of the story are on stage and in place and we get interrupted by a woman who is so insignificant to her community that nobody bothers to record her name. We might even wonder if anyone noticed her.
Spoiler alert for tomorrow: Jesus notices her. We’re going to save Jesus’ reaction for later, though. There’s more to say about this woman.
Examine the faith of this woman. Her plan doesn’t even include talking to Jesus. She’s small. She’s insignificant. She has no expectation that anyone would ever want to know her name. But she has faith that far exceeds anything anyone would have cause to expect. She believes that if she can just touch the hem of Jesus’ clothing her medical issue will resolve. She believes that Jesus is so powerful that He can heal the insignificant without needing to waste any personal time on her. Spoiler alert: Jesus doesn’t think she’s insignificant.
She is amazing. She doesn’t need the spotlight. She doesn’t need people to know her name. She doesn’t need Jesus to come to her home. She doesn’t need to even make eye contact with God’s own son. Yet her faith is so impossibly huge it explodes off the page. This woman, whom I still cannot call by name because it isn’t recorded, is an incredible spiritual diamond in the rough. Every time I read her story, I am struck by the size of her faith and the humbleness of her heart. Big faith frequently comes from unexpected sources.
