Wednesday, June 26, 2024

Models

 


God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … My sermon today is entitled Models in Mark and the Church, and my focus is our Gospel (Mark 5:21-43). Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

My younger brother worked with a guy who was a model. Professionally, both Ed and his friend were chemists, but his friend occasionally did some modeling. He was not your ordinary model strutting the stage wearing the latest fashion. He was a hand model. I mention my brother’s friend for a reason. There are two models in our Gospel who show us not the latest in Middle Eastern clothing and accessories, but how to approach Jesus. Hence, the three points of my sermon are the word model, Mark’s models (Jairus and the unknown woman), and Models of the Church.

First, an examination of the word. The word model is a noun, verb and adjective. The adjective precedes words like trains, planes and automobiles. As a boy, I had model trains, planes and cars. Henry Ford used the word to describe a motor vehicle of a particular design, such as the Model T. Model comes to us from the Latin word modulus meaning a small measure or a standard for imitation or comparison or a thing or person that serves or may serve as a pattern or type. It is only in 1915 when we employed the word to mean one who displays clothes.

Biblically, the word is used throughout the Old and New Testaments. Although the Old Testament speaks more of models of altars, chariots and tumors, there is one mention of the word in Ezekiel which reads, “Son of man, sing this funeral song for the king of Tyre. Give him this message from the Sovereign Lord: “You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and exquisite in beauty.”[1]

The use of the word in the New Testament has more to deal with lifestyle and behavior than objects. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.” Later he wrote, “We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate.”[2] Because he was not shy about encouraging others to imitate himself, he told the Christians at Phillippi to, “Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.”[3] We find other examples in Romans, Peter’s letters and Paul’s epistles to Timothy and Titus. With an understanding of the secular and biblical use of the word, we turn to our two models, Jairus and the unknown woman.

Let’s set the scene. Following his control over demons and the sea,[4] it seems that nothing is impossible for Jesus.[5] He had power over sickness and death, as well as religious barriers that kept individuals from socializing with family and friends. These barriers were strictly observed because it was the Law. According to God’s command, the people of Israel put out of the camp everyone who was leprous or had a discharge and everyone who was unclean through contact with the dead. “You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell.”[6] In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus overcame sickness and death in the leper, the woman with bleeding, and a dead person.[7]

A man of consequence, Jairus was a synagogue president or elder. This shows us that not all Jewish authorities were hostile to Jesus. Yet, it was unusual for a Jewish official to have substantial faith in Jesus.[8]

Jairus’ deferential approach to Jesus, a recent arrival in town, is meant to be noticed. Jairus forgot his position and pride, and fell on his knees before Jesus not only because his daughter’s condition was at the point of death, but also because he recognized Jesus as a respected teacher with a reputation for miraculous healing powers. He saw Jesus not as a trained doctor but as a traditional healer. The story of Jairus brackets the healing of a woman suffering from 12 years of internal bleeding.

The delay of raising Jairus’ daughter caused by the healing of the woman is integral to the Jairus story.[9] After she was healed, Jesus overheard the comment to Jairus that his daughter was dead. Jesus sought to allay his fears to prevent him from despairing.

Despite the derisive laughter of the mourners, Mark recorded that Jesus expelled the faithless and took three apostles into the room with him. These witnesses were important in an environment where Jesus could be accused of necromancy. Remember, he had already been accused of being in league with Satan.[10]

Mark recorded unique details based on the reminiscences of Peter, James and John.[11] That Jesus took the young girl by the hand, like Peter’s mother-in-law, and that the fact that Aramaic is recorded, the language Jesus and his people spoke but the New Testament authors rarely used, suggests Peter’s recollection.

Sandwiched into the raising of the little girl from the dead is Mark’s account of the woman who suffered from internal bleeding for 12 years. Her bleeding made her a social and religious outcast.[12]

Since one could be defiled through contact with her, physical contact had to be scrupulously avoided. She probably had a primitive and magical understanding of Jesus’ healing, as she only wanted to touch the tassels on Jesus’ garment. When she touched Jesus, she was instantly aware that something happened. The effect of the cure was recognized immediately by the woman and Jesus, which adds to the humanness and strangeness of the situation.[13]

While Jesus was spirituality aware that something happened beyond a simple jostling by the crowd, he is unaware of who has touched him in a special way. His disciples, however, were not as spiritually perceptive as Jesus was, for they appeared stunned.

The woman was afraid for she might be condemned or further ostracized. So, she approached Jesus in fear and trembling. The woman was healed not by mere physical contact, but by faith. This was Jesus’ statement to her: Your FAITH has made you well. Her faith saved her, and to be saved means to be healed – a reference to the eschatological deliverance from the powers of darkness.

Though we are primarily concerned with the Christological and soteriological meanings (Jesus and salvation) of this story, we should not overlook its social significance. In terms of salvation, Mark teaches us that the Gospel reaches both those at the bottom of the social scale and those at the top. Despite the marked contrast between Jairus and the woman, they are both true disciples with insight and faith. It also shows that Jesus was prepared to help anyone, and was especially concerned for the vulnerable.[14]

Jesus’ statements at the end of each healing episode are telling for us. Many times, a person who has become physically well still carries mental and emotional scars. Perhaps Jesus was suggesting that the family of the little girl and the woman need to know and accept that they are now whole again. They are no longer unclean for uncleanness is a matter of the heart, not a matter of the physical condition, and this means that even corpses are not untouchables as far as Jesus is concerned.[15] To be healed of a disease and to eat with family means a new normal, one that calls for celebration and fellowship with other believers and the Lord who has called us to be His disciples.

Finally, the Models of the Church. A number of years ago, American theologian Avery Dulles introduced Six Models of the Church. He viewed the Church as Mystical Communion, Sacrament, Servant, Herald, Institution and a Community of Disciples. If interested, you can read his read his book, Models of the Church.

In a nutshell, Dulles’ models can be summarized as such.[16] Church as Institution emphasizes stability, tradition, and order as God’s system for salvation and community on earth and as God’s instrument for discovering, maintaining, and mediating truth. Church as Mystical Communion stresses the role of the Spirit in creating a meaningful and spontaneous fellowship. A personal walk with God and the enhancement of relational side of Christian experience is the ultimate goal of this model. Church as Sacrament celebrates the intersection between the human and divine. Church as Herald puts the priority on proclaiming the good news. The church is most faithful when there is an abundance of evangelistic efforts. Church as Servant seeks to touch the suffering world at the points of greatest need. The church is truest to its calling when it is feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and so on. Church as Community of Disciples emphasizes that the Church is a community of people who follow Jesus, trying to be like Jesus in everything they do, say, pray, knowing that following Jesus may include suffering.

I mention all this because as Church, we, as individuals and a congregation, must model behavior for the world. God made us righteous sons and daughters, and sanctifies us daily through His Grace. The world can learn from us, but we must first and continually learn from Scripture, particularly from Jesus, and also those models of faith who sought him.

Friends, I have covered the definition and Biblical examples of model, and as you ponder how you see the Universal Christian Church and this congregation as a model, let me conclude with a third story of healing and forgiveness lest you think they are found only as old Biblical tales that could not occur in the 21st century. Healing and forgiveness occur daily. They happen when God’s Word strikes our ears and hearts. They occur when God’s Sacrament touches our hands and lips. They take place when we pray privately and publicly.

With that Good News, here is the story of a woman who had “heard about Jesus.” She was a Sikh woman from the Punjab whose legs had been paralyzed for twelve years. Hearing reports that Jesus was healing people at a retreat center in southern India, she went there. She met a pastor and told him of her painful past, how she had been abused by her husband and finally in despair had jumped off a balcony, breaking her back. The pastor was moved to speak to her about Jesus’ teachings on forgiveness, and invited her to forgive her husband. She immediately challenged him: “If I forgive my husband, will your Jesus heal me?” After a quick prayer, he answered, “I don’t know if it is Jesus’ will to heal you, but I do know that if you forgive, you will experience a peace and joy that you have never known before.” The next day, a retreat speaker invited everyone to standup and thank God for his goodness. The woman later told the pastor what happened: “I thought to myself, I have so much to thank God for. I am alive. I have two sons who take care of me. I must praise God!” She stood, raised her hands to God, and was instantly and completely healed of her paralysis. The woman stayed at the retreat center for several months to go through instruction. She and her sons were baptized, and they went home to “tell everybody about her Jesus.”[17]

My friends, since we sing the words every Sunday after Communion, I hope that you too tell everybody about Jesus. I pray that you are a model of faith for others in your family, neighborhood, workplace, school or wherever. Whether the world sees you as a Mystical Communion, Sacrament, Servant, Herald, Institution or a Community of Disciples, it matters not. What matters is that you allow yourself to be drawn closer to Jesus like Jairus and the woman, and that your attraction of the heart brings others to Christ the Lord. And when you do, may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your minds and hearts in Christ Jesus, Amen.



[1] Ezekiel 28:12, New Living Translation.

[2] 1 Thessalonians 1:7, 2 Thessalonians 3:9, New International Version.

[3] Philippians 3:17, NIV.

[4] Mark 4:35-5:20.

[5] R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary on the Greek Text. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (2002), 234.

[6] Numbers 5:1-4.

[7] See Mk 1:40-45; 5:24b-34; 5:35-43. James Voelz, Mark 1:1 – 8:26 St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House (2013), 377.

[8] Ibid, 185.

[9] Ben Witherington III, The Gospel of Mark: A Social-Rhetorical Commentary. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (2001), 184.

[10] Mark 3:22. Ibid, 189.

[11] Ibid, 185.

[12] Leviticus 15:25-30.

[13] Voelz, 372.

[14] Ibid, 185.

[15] Ibid, 190.

[16] See http://www.lifeandleadership.com/book-summaries/dulles-models-of-the-church.html

[17] Mary Healy, The Gospel of Mark. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic (2008), 108.

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