No one lost in the crowd

In tomorrow's Gospel reading Jesus raises a little girl from the dead. Then in between two instances with Jairus daughter—being asked to come to heal her and the healing itself—a woman who has hemorrhaged for years touches Jesus' robe and is healed. Jesus' miracles are themselves parables as they teach us about God's kingdom. Several important healing take place: 1) Jairus' fear and grief and healed, 2) the woman is healed from the issue of blood, 3) Jairus' daughter is raised back to life and health.

Perhaps as importantly as seeing these people healed, we see a few people through Jesus' eyes. Jairus was the religious leader, the important person in this story. He finds the touch he needs from Jesus for his daughter. But the two women in the story are less important to their culture. One is the woman who has been ritually unclean for years. She is cut off from her community of faith by her disease. The other is the young girl healed in a culture where female life was worth less than male life and 60% of all babies which were live births would die by puberty. The girl's life was only meaningful to her family—not to her community and culture.

Famed Christian writer William Barclay has written of the sinking of the Titanic's press coverage and what it showed of how the world sees things,

The next day, the headline of a famous newspaper was devoted entirely and exclusively to the death of the multimillionaire, John Jacob Astor. At the end of the article, the newspaper almost casually mentioned the other 1800 people who died. The other 1800 were not that important. Such is the attitude of the world and many public media, but not God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is concerned about every single person and no person is lost in the crowd, however unimportant that person may be in the eyes of the world.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor + King of Peace Episcopal Church