28th June 2024
Jesus’s concern for the marginalised
…Jesus realised that power had gone out from him. He turned round in the crowd and asked, ‘Who touched my clothes?’
Mark 5:30 (NIVUK)
Jesus was on his way with Jairus, a synagogue leader, to save Jairus’s young daughter who was seriously ill, but as he went, Jesus stopped to talk to a woman who had been sick with chronic bleeding for 12 years. Jairus and the disciples were agitated by this. Why would Jesus stop to deal with someone who had a chronic condition, who could wait a little bit longer, when there was someone with an acute problem that needed immediate attention? Why did Jesus do that?
One of the reasons is it showed Jesus’s love and grace for those society looked down on. He stopped for an unnamed, socially marginalised, unclean woman, and put her before a named, male, religious leader.
Over and over again this was a feature of Jesus’s ministry. Whether it’s respectable people alongside Zacchaeus, who was a political outcast (Luke 19); Simon and the fallen woman who was a sexual outcast in Luke 7, or the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 who was a racial outcast, Jesus always finds the connection with the outsider, the marginalised, the person without power.
Jesus showed that he eschews the world’s standards of power, status and achievement. It is not the high and mighty that will get to Jesus first, simply because of their position, rather it is those who admit their need. You don’t need achievement to get to Jesus. All you need is need.
If Jesus had marched ahead with a prominent member of society and ignored this hurting marginalised woman, what would that have conveyed? That Jesus was a respecter of persons? That he was only interested in those deemed worthy? By stopping for this woman Jesus was showing that he is a God of grace. Giving his healing and tender words to someone undeserving, to someone who hadn’t earned his love, but who had a need and came to him.
Jesus’s love and grace are available to all hurting, broken and marginalised people, which is very comforting because it means we don’t need to be part of the ‘in-crowd’, or be a certain level of respectability; it is freely available to all, including you and me.
When we understand the grace Jesus shows us, we will be in a better position to extend his grace to others, as his servant’s heart permeates our thinking and actions.
Prayer
Loving Father, may our hearts remain open to receiving your grace today and every day, and may we embrace your love with gratitude and joy. Help us also, as we journey through life, to share your grace with others, especially those who are hurt and broken, extending kindness, compassion, and understanding to those we encounter. In Jesus’s name, Amen.
Study by Barry Robinson
About the writer:
Barry Robinson is a minister in Grace Communion International
and Regional Pastor for Southern England, the Midlands, and Wales
Local congregation:
Grace Communion West Hampstead
Sidings Community Centre
150 Brassey Road
West Hampstead
London
NW6 2BA
Meeting time:
Sunday 12.30 pm
Local congregational contact:
Gordon Brown
gordon.brown@gracecom.church
Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church