The Real Power of One

13^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24; Psalm 30:4; 2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15; Mark 5:21-43

Just before the outbreak of World War II, a young stockbroker from England named Nicholas Winton traveled to Czechoslovakia to see if he could help with the refugees pouring across the German border, many of them Jewish. What he saw so moved him – large numbers of children, many orphaned or lost – that he felt he must do something. It took awhile, but he organized a system to bring as many of these children as he could to northern England for the duration of the war. One of the biggest obstacles he faced was trust; as one rabbi put it, “Who are you?”

Last week, we heard the disciples ask the same question about Jesus. Then, and to this day, people wonder not only who he is, but whether to believe in him. For some, like the refugees, it literally is a question of life or death. We meet two of them today: The first, a man of wealth and influence; the second, a woman, outcast and lurking in the shadows. Of course, Christ is most interested in what lies beneath these appearances; he wanted to see their faith. And not only see it, but transform them by it.

At first, he didn’t see the woman’s faith, he felt it. She didn’t want to be seen, and was content to touch only his garment, believing that if she touched Jesus himself, her impurity would spread to him. But the opposite is true with God; his purity spreads to us. And look at the effect it had! Jesus asked who touched him, not because he didn’t know, but because he wanted to engage her, to let her tell her story. Physical healing wasn’t enough; she also needed inner catharsis. Who could blame her after twelve years of the pain, loneliness, and frustration that could tempt anyone to despair?

He had a different challenge in mind for Jairus. When he came to Jesus, Jairus believed he could heal his daughter’s illness. But, when news came that the girl had died, Jesus told him not to be afraid, but to have faith. Didn’t he have faith? Well, it’s one thing to believe that Jesus can heal someone, another to believe that he can raise them from the dead. Jairus knew the psalm we heard today, including the verse, O LORD, you brought me up from the netherworld; you preserved me from among those going down into the pit (Psalm 30:4). Now, Jesus challenged him to have faith not only that those words were true, but that he is the LORD who would fulfill them. He did, and we know what happened; his faith was more than rewarded. His daughter was alive again.

You might have noticed how the healings both involve the number 12: the woman bled for twelve years, while the girl died at age twelve. As for the woman, her flow of blood meant that she was unable to have children all that time. As for the girl, twelve was the age when women became eligible to be married. Thus, the Holy Spirit is teaching us that when Jesus heals, he not only restores life, but the ability to give life to others.

This has huge ramifications in the spiritual life. Earlier, I mentioned Nicholas Winton. When the rabbi asked him who he was and why he wanted to do this, he said that he was one man; as for why he wanted to, he said, “Because I can, I must try.” Once people had faith in him, he was able to save 669 children who otherwise would have gone to death camps. As it turned out, those children grew up, and many had families of their own. It is estimated that by the time Winton died in July of 2015, his actions directly affected at least 6000 more lives. As the years go on, that will only increase, all because one man’s encounter moved him to challenge himself that others might live.

We, too, are only one person. But think of all the encounters we have every day, with other people and, in contemplation, with ourselves. Every one of those is Christ’s challenge to us to make a difference for the better, to give and to speak life. Who is the woman, bleeding in pain, loneliness, or frustration, in need of the catharsis that only confession to Christ can give? Who is the man needing to understand Jesus more deeply, needing someone to show him how life-changing faith is? Sometimes, they’re out in the open, sometimes the shadows. Sometimes, they are us. At all times, think what the effect would be, not only on that person, but on all the people they affect because we decided that, because we can, we must try.

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