5/14/2021

June 27, 2021 – 5th Sunday After Pentecost: Mark 5:21-43

by Rev. Dr. Neal Presa

Jairus’s 12-year-old daughter and an unknown woman who had been medically treated unsuccessfully for 12 years for a hemorrhage both needed healing. Jairus pleaded with Jesus for his daughter. The crowds are disbelieving that Jesus can heal Jairus’s daughter. The disciples misunderstand Jesus when he wonders who touched his clothes, mistaking his question as a ridiculous inquiry when the throngs are pushing and pressing upon him on every side. Spirit-time leads Jairus and Jesus into an encounter, and in Spirit-time, as like when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus restores life to Jairus’s daughter. Likewise, in Spirit-time, the unknown woman is prompted to touch Jesus’s clothes, spotting the right opportunity and the right time – Spirit-time – to seek the healing she needed and desired.

Yet, with all of this amazing demonstration of healing, Jesus desires and needs everyone involved to keep things under wraps. Now is not the time to retweet this, now is not the time to post any of this on social media, don’t put hashtag #JesusHeals, don’t use any emojis. Don’t say anything just yet. Because apart from the resurrection, prompted by Spirit-time, people will merely see the miracles as just miracles; Jesus knows our human nature and our human hearts – we will be so enamored with the miracles, we will be so astounded by this miracle worker, we will want to see more and more. And after a while, when the miracles become so commonplace, we may want Jesus to do a little bit more powerful demonstrations like moving whole mountains or making whole dams of water into wine. Apart from the resurrection, our human hearts would separate Jesus from the fullness of his mission: to teach us to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. Apart from his rising from the dead, our human eyes will miss the newness of resurrected life and hope for just another miracle. Apart from Easter morning, we would likely miss the mark that we are to love Jairus, and we are to love his daughter and his family. We are to love the formerly hemorrhaging woman. In fact, we need the resurrection in Spirit-time to change us, to transform our hearts, to enable us to truly and deeply love Jesus – not for any particular thing he does for us or doesn’t do for us that we want or expect him to do. But to simply love him for who he is. And to see ourselves and the broken world around us through the eyes and heart of God. To see that takes Spirit-time in the way that only God in Jesus knows how.

Rev. Dr. Neal Presa

Rev. Dr. Neal Presa

The Rev. Neal D. Presa, Ph.D. is Executive Presbyter of the Presbytery of San José. He also serves as Affiliate Associate Professor of Preaching at Fuller Theological Seminary, and Senior Fellow of The Center for Pastor Theologians. He is past chair (2020-2022) and vice chair (2018-2020) of the Board of Trustees of the Presbyterian Foundation. He served as Moderator of the 220th General Assembly (2012-2014), and he currently represents the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on the World Council of Churches Central Committee and Executive Committee, where he is moderator of the finance policy committee. He is moderator of the Theology Working Group for the World Communion of Reformed Churches’ 27th General Council (2025, Chiang Mai). He is author/(co-)editor of nine books and over 100 essays, journal articles, and book reviews, including the recent Worship, Justice, and Joy: A Liturgical Pilgrimage (Cascade, 2025), as part of the Worship & Witness series in partnership with the Calvin Institute for Christian Worship and with funding from the Louisville Institute. For two decades he served congregations in New Jersey and California, and as a senior administrative faculty and visiting professor/research fellow in theological institutions in the United States, Philippines, and South Africa. He is married to Grace née Rhie (a publisher of English books on Korean subjects) and they have two college age sons. Connect with Neal on social media @NealPresa or email Neal@sanjosepby.org.

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