Title: Bothering Jesus
Author: Christopher Harbin
Text: Mark 5:21-43
We often look to political and social structures around us to source our expectations of God and how we relate to God. We confuse our political systems as representing God after the manner of God's dealings with humanity and as carrying out God's will and intention. That same confusion is inherent to Christian nationalism. Jesus eschewed political power. It was one of the temptations he refused. Jesus refused to be the expected military and political Messiah. Why would consider God unapproachable like so many who would deem themselves too important to be bothered with the likes of us?
Jesus was a busy man by any definition. He had difficulty getting from one place to the next, as crowds dogged his steps and followed him everywhere, often as not hoping to see him perform some sign or another. This was the period of Jesus' popularity. It was the time when he had difficulty entering or leaving a house because of the multitude that would surround it like paparazzi and fans going crazy over a Hollywood star, but there was no police barricade or secret service to keep the crowds at bay. It was in just such a moment of his travels that we find Jesus in today's passage in Mark.
The disciples walked closest to Jesus, being the closest thing he had to a security cordon. While they were close to Jesus, people in the crowd were still right in their midst. One of these was a woman who purposefully touched Jesus' clothing to silently seek relief from a continual hemorrhage she had been struggling with for a decade. She desperately wanted healing and thought she might find that in Jesus. Meanwhile, she did not want to bother him. She did not want to be in the public limelight. After all, her condition made her ritually unclean and communicated the same to any person who had contact with her. If the crowd knew her condition, they would have run her off with sticks and stones, the way they treated leper ...
Author: Christopher Harbin
Text: Mark 5:21-43
We often look to political and social structures around us to source our expectations of God and how we relate to God. We confuse our political systems as representing God after the manner of God's dealings with humanity and as carrying out God's will and intention. That same confusion is inherent to Christian nationalism. Jesus eschewed political power. It was one of the temptations he refused. Jesus refused to be the expected military and political Messiah. Why would consider God unapproachable like so many who would deem themselves too important to be bothered with the likes of us?
Jesus was a busy man by any definition. He had difficulty getting from one place to the next, as crowds dogged his steps and followed him everywhere, often as not hoping to see him perform some sign or another. This was the period of Jesus' popularity. It was the time when he had difficulty entering or leaving a house because of the multitude that would surround it like paparazzi and fans going crazy over a Hollywood star, but there was no police barricade or secret service to keep the crowds at bay. It was in just such a moment of his travels that we find Jesus in today's passage in Mark.
The disciples walked closest to Jesus, being the closest thing he had to a security cordon. While they were close to Jesus, people in the crowd were still right in their midst. One of these was a woman who purposefully touched Jesus' clothing to silently seek relief from a continual hemorrhage she had been struggling with for a decade. She desperately wanted healing and thought she might find that in Jesus. Meanwhile, she did not want to bother him. She did not want to be in the public limelight. After all, her condition made her ritually unclean and communicated the same to any person who had contact with her. If the crowd knew her condition, they would have run her off with sticks and stones, the way they treated leper ...
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