Each gospel has a unique personality, telling Jesus’ story in its own special way. Understanding these differences helps us learn more about who Jesus is and why he matters to us. This year, we’re focusing on the Gospel of Mark. Mark often shows Jesus asking people to keep his identity a secret, building a sense of mystery. This reminds us that Jesus’ true identity is fully understood through his suffering and resurrection. Mark’s story is fast-paced, using the word “immediately.” He also uses the “sandwich technique,” where one story is interrupted by another, like today’s story about Jairus’ daughter, which is interrupted by the healing of a woman. This shows how different parts of Jesus’ ministry are connected. Mark foreshadows key events, with Jesus predicting his suffering and death. This prepares us for the gospel’s climax and highlights the importance of the cross. Mark’s vivid details, like Jesus’ emotions and healing touch, make the stories come alive. There are many conflicts in Mark between Jesus and groups like the Pharisees, showing his authority and leading to his crucifixion. These things together help us better understand the message Mark wants us to get about Jesus and the difference he makes in our lives. Remember that as we continue this year with Mark.
Let us pray. May only God’s Word be spoken and may only God’s Word be heard; in the name of Jesus. Amen.
You know, sometimes I find myself really wrestling with Jesus’ healing ministry. I understand in my head why healing is so important in the stories we read in the gospels. But there’s also the real, everyday truth of Jesus’ healings that goes beyond just the intellectual or theological. The gospel stories are told to help us understand the life of Jesus Christ, this man from Nazareth who was both fully human and fully God—love itself, living among us. His healing ministry was a big part of his real life, and what the gospel writers chose to share about it shows what they understood it meant then and what it still means for us today.
Ultimately, every healing Jesus does points back to his main mission: he came down from heaven for us and for our salvation. He makes a way between us and God, and between God and us—a connection that can’t ever be broken. We often say that Jesus conquered sin, death, and hell, and that’s absolutely true, but that’s just one part of how Jesus brings us salvation. Salvation, which can be a bit of a tricky word to pin down, also comes through healing. Sickness isn’t what God wants for us if we’re to live full and abundant lives. Jesus’ healing ministry shows us that.
And yet, this is where I struggle. In the gospels, Jesus seems to go about healing people quite freely, even those who just call out to him. But today, when people cry out for healing, it doesn’t always seem to happen in the same way. We still say that Jesus heals, and I believe he does, but it feels intellectually and theologically dubious to simply say, “Well, it’s different now.” Healing and salvation before our earthly life ends must be more than just getting rid of disease or being cured. When we think about being created in the image of God’s eternity, as we heard in the second lesson today from the Wisdom of Solomon, and when we reflect on God’s original good design for us, we find a deep wellspring of strength and hope that can help us through even our darkest times. Bearing God’s image confers an inherent dignity upon us, that we carry God’s own imprint upon us. Our lives, with all their complexities and struggles, are part of God’s larger redemptive story.
When we’re in persistent pain and suffering with no cure in sight, the holy presence of God affords us peace, a peace that surpasses understanding. This peace isn’t just the absence of conflict; it’s a deep healing that touches our fragile lives. It reassures us that we’re never abandoned, even in our weakest moments. God’s presence breathes peace into us, as Jesus breathes upon the disciples huddled together in the upper room on the evening of the resurrection. This peace reminds us, is a constant reminder of our worth and dignity that are always there—even when we’re suffering.
As we find new ways to care for bodies that have become frail, this Godly peace takes on new importance. Learning to adapt and endure is an act of resilience. It’s grounded in our trust in God’s good design for us. Even when our patience runs out, God hears our cries. Our ability to live, to love despite our struggles testifies to God’s image marked upon us. Our ability to live, to love despite our struggles shows our capacity, granted by the Holy Spirit, for compassion and care, to bear God’s creative and redeeming love to our part of creation.
Whether we’re in ease or pain, in life or nearing death, our lives belong to God. “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord,” says St. Paul. “So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” This conviction foundations us in trust and hope that support us through everything. Knowing that we’re held in the eternal embrace of God helps us face life’s uncertainties with a steady heart. Our fragile lives, though subject to health and life’s ups and downs, are part of a promise that goes beyond even the worst sufferings.
So what does this mean for us in practical terms? In our day-to-day lives, going about our everyday business? When we live like these things really make a difference to us, they change how we live every day, especially if we’re sick or grieving. Knowing that we’re created in the image of God’s eternity gives purpose to our lives and comforts us when things seem stacked against us. We see that our lives, despite their difficulties, are filled with significance, within the pattern of God’s grand design. Just consider how comforting this hope is for those dealing with long-term illness or mourning a loved one.
“God did not make death,” again, as we heard from the Wisdom of Solomon today, “and he does not delight in the death of the living.” What comfort this promise must be for those those who are sick! Suffering and death aren’t part of God’s original plan but are intrusions, corruptions even in the goodness of creation. Illness isn’t a punishment or abandonment by God, but are things we face with God’s support. Knowing that God created life for incorruption encourages us to hold onto hope. We find comfort in knowing that our lives have eternal significance, have significance to God himself.
For those who have lost loved ones, this promise offers still a different kind of comfort. The idea that “through the devil’s envy death entered the world” situates our grief within a broader spiritual conflict, assures us that our loved ones’ lives were, and indeed still are valued by God. It helps us mourn with the certainty that death doesn’t have the final say. Indeed, God has transformed death by his Son, not into a prison for eternity shut away from life with him, but a gateway to eternity of life with him!
In daily life, for us, we can do nothing other, we must cling to this fundamental promise. And because we do, we grow more and more resilient, we grow more and more in the Holy Spirit, who comforts us and calls us together into a community, a community of believers bound together around the most important thing for us—Jesus is Lord over life and death. Understanding our inherent worth and God’s care for our lives gives us courage to call out for support and compels us to offer it to others. How can we do any other? Our mutual support for one another reflects God’s love for all creation. For example, a sick person might find comfort in knowing that their friends and family are extensions of God’s compassion, providing help and support as expressions of Jesus’ love. Just think of the meal trains that we provide for those here at Emanuel who are dealing with serious diagnoses or who are recovering from surgery…That right there is what I’m talking about!
Believing that God created us for incorruption can also inspire us to take active steps in our healing processes. Some people wrongly believe that going to the doctor belies a lack of faith in God’s ability or willingness to heal, but that’s just ridiculous. God has called people to be nurses and doctors and dentists and so on precisely because through them he can and does work his will for wholeness in our lives. Seeking medical treatment and engaging in spiritual practices are together all part and parcel to taking active steps in God’s healing desire for our lives.
Understanding our inherent worth and God’s care for our lives likewise goads us to actively participate in the mysteries of faith, the revelations of God’s grace, and in particular, the sacrament of communion, where the body and blood of Jesus, given for us, is a real testament to salvation, to healing. In this sacred meal, heaven meets earth and earth reaches up to heaven, creating a mystical union that offers us a foretaste of the promised healing of all creation. As we partake in communion, we not only receive physical bread and wine, nourishment for our bodies, but also spiritual nourishment and grace. We’re reminded of God’s overwhelming love for us. Communion cements our place in God’s redemptive plan, rouses our trust in our relationship with God, and galvanizes our hope as we face life’s challenges. It’s a powerful reminder—done for the remembrance of Jesus, we say—that God’s love and restoration are always free to us, offering comfort, healing, and the promise of a future where all things are made new, even now.
Understanding our inherent worth and God’s care for our lives also helps ease the fear of our own death. We belong to God. We’re part of an eternal story, a story that starts with peace that surpasses understanding and ends with that same peace. Knowing that allows us to embrace each day with gratitude and purpose, rather than being paralyzed by fear.
And even as we go through mourning ourselves, we honor the memory of friends and loved ones by sharing stories and continuing their work. In remembering them, we turn grief into strength and continuity, we take heart knowing that their lives continue to have meaning—precisely because they, like us, belong to God.
For us and for our salvation, Jesus Christ, in his healing ministry, embodies the unity between divine compassion and human suffering. For us and for our salvation, Jesus came down from heaven, bridging the chasm between our mortal frailty and eternal hope, affirming that our trials are but fleeting shadows cast by God’s enduring light. For us and for our salvation, Jesus fills us with the Holy Spirit, who daily calls us to embrace the strength in our inherent, God-given dignity, and to trust that every act of grace, every moment of resilience, is a testament to the unbreakable bond between humanity and God. As we tackle the complexities of pain, loss, and uncertainty, we hold fast to the promise that our lives, no matter how fraught with suffering, are cradled in the eternal embrace of a loving, motherly God, whose healing touch transcends time and space, guiding us ever onward to a future radiant with hope. For us and for our salvation, for us and for our healing, God calls us to rise with unwavering courage, knowing that in every struggle, we are eternally cherished and divinely healed, empowered to embrace each day with hearts pulsating with the eternal love of God.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Rev'd Daniel W. Spigelmyer, Jr. 