Can You Stand It?

Are You Ready?

First in Advent

Collect: Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and [the]* dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.

Old Testament: Malachi 3:1-6, Malachi 4:4-6 (KJV)

3 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.

2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:

3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.

4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years.

5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts.

6 For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.

5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:

6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

I used to look forward to my father coming home from work. But there were times when his arrival did not turn out as I expected. These were times when my mother would meet him at the door to report my latest misdeeds, and his coming home meant judgment for me.

They did not realize it, but the Jewish people of Malachi’s day were in a similar position.

1. Disappointment

1.1. Back in 586 the Babylonians invaded, conquered their country, ransacked their capital, destroyed their temple, and took the best people back to Babylon. Fifty years later the Persians conquered Babylon. The Persian king told the Jews that any who wanted to return to their homeland could go back. Those who returned built homes for themselves but neglected rebuilding the Lord’s house, the temple. However two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah started preaching; the people got started on rebuilding; and the temple was completed in 516.

1.2. In Malachi’s time, the mid-400s B.C., Judah was insignificant. The population was only 150,000 and the territory was only 20 by 30 miles. They had no king and only a homeguard army to defend from the hostility of neighbors. Their forefathers resettled the homeland 100 years earlier. The temple had been completed 80 years before.

Now they were terribly discouraged and disillusioned. They thought the LORD had let them down. At the time the temple was rebuilt Haggai and Zechariah promised much more. Haggai told them this temple would have an even more glorious manifestation of the LORD’s presence than Solomon’s temple.

The LORD would live among his people. The kingdom would expand. People would come from all nations to learn about the Lord from the Jews. They would be glorious among the nations, and their army would the instrument of the LORD’s judgment against their enemies. The Messiah would give peace, prosperity, and glory.

1.3 But none of it had happened. With disappointed hopes came a decline in worship and devotion to the LORD. They became cynical and said things like, “The Lord calls good those who do evil,” and, “Where is the God of justice?”

We can be disappointed with God about our lives, our parish, or the church in the world. At such times we face spiritual dangers - that we will become cynical about the church, lose zeal for worship, and grow cold in love for the LORD.

2. Preparation

The residents of Judah were so ready for the glory of the LORD to fill their temple and for the Messiah to come. But were they?

2.1 In the ancient world, when the king planned to visit a city, the king would send an advance man, a messenger to make preparations. The LORD said through Malachi, “I’m still going to come to you, but before I do, I am going to send a messenger to prepare the way before me.” He reveals more about the messenger in chapter 4: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord” (4:7). He was not saying that Elijah would be reincarnated or be raised from the dead, but that he would send someone with the same bold straightforward ministry as Elijah who confronted wicked King Ahab and challenged the prophets of Baal.

They did not know it, but the people of Malachi’s day needed an Elijah, because, if things did not change, the day of the LORD would be a great and dreadful day, not just for the wicked nations, but for them. They were suffering the “frog in the kettle” syndrome. They had got so used to themselves and their sins that they did not know how displeased the LORD was with them.

2.2. Malachi’s mission was to make them see themselves as the LORD saw them.

He confronted their complaining against the LORD. When the LORD said, “I love you,” they said, “No he doesn’t, or he would treat us better.” How insulting it is to throw back in the Lord’s face his declarations of love.

The people offered defective animals for sacrifices and the LORD challenged them about it: “Try paying your taxes to your governor with such animals. Why are you surprised I do not bless you?” It would be like the LORD saying to us, “You give me whatever you can spare? Try that when you pay taxes. You come to church when you want? Try that at work. You give me your leftover energy. Try that with your boss.” The LORD is a great King and deserves the best.

The LORD rebuked the priests, “I chose the tribe of Levi to be priests. You are supposed to teach and model the truth to the people. But you show partiality in teaching, don’t follow the Lord’s way yourselves, and cause God’s people to sin."

The LORD accused the people of profaning his covenant by intermarrying with pagans. When they asked why the LORD did not look favorably on their offerings, he said, “Because you have not honored your marriage covenants.”

2.3. If someone did not prepare them for the LORD’s coming, they would be destroyed. So he sent an Elijah as his messenger to prepare the way. Jesus told his disciples that the promised Elijah had come. That was John the Baptist. John preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” and “Bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance.” He warned that already the axe of judgment was already laid to the tree to cut it down if there were no repentance.

Advent calls us to look at the condition of churches and ourselves.  What do we see? A lack of awareness of sin; failure to take sin seriously; a lack of the fear of the Lord; and, in some cases, redefining sin as good. We do not see ourselves as God sees us; we doubt God will judge. We ministers don’t prepare people for Christ’s second coming in judgment.

3. Advent

3.1. The LORD will send a messenger to prepare the way, but he will also send another messenger who is different from John the Baptist. He is called Lord and the messenger of the covenant. They seek him, delight in him, because they believe when he comes the age of blessing they long for will arrive. God says this messenger will appear suddenly in his temple.

But will they be able to endure his coming? Do they know what he will be like and what he will do? He is like a refiner’s fire. The refiner must make his fire intensely hot in order to melt the precious metal and separate it from the dross. This is the only way to get pure gold or silver. He will be like fuller’s soap. Fuller’s soap is not like your dishwashing or laundry detergent. The fuller washes sheep’s wool, cleansing it of oils and dirt before it is made into cloth. He uses lye soap that is so harsh it burns the eyes and nostrils.

The messenger of the covenant’s coming will be salvation for some, judgment for others. He will refine the dross out of some, purifying them. He will cleanse priests and people so they may offer pure and pleasing worship to the Lord.

But he will also cleanse the dross from among this people by separating evildoers from his own. In him the LORD will also draw near for judgment against others - “the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me.”

The messenger of the covenant is the Son of God incarnate in Jesus. The first time he appeared in the temple, when his parents brought him there at 40 days old, old Simeon declared his saving work. Simeon took the Messiah into his arms and said, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32). The way that Jesus brought salvation to his people and purified them from their sins was by himself being consumed by the fires of God’s judgment in their place.

When he came to his Father’s house, the temple, in the last week of his life, he revealed that his coming meant not only salvation but judgment. When he saw the merchants profaning the temple courts, he wove a whip out of cords used to tie animals, overturned the tables, and drove them out saying, “This is supposed to be house of prayer, but you have turned it into a robbers’ den.”

The first coming Jesus set in motion both the saving and judging work of God. His second coming will mean final judgment for all who do not repent. For those who repent it will mean their full and final salvation. We will all be found on one side of that divide or the other - on the side of judgment or salvation.

God's Will for You: Give Thanks

Thanksgiving: God’s Will

Text: I Thessalonians 5:18. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.



A Christian wants to know the will of God. When the risen Christ appeared to St. Paul on the road to Tarsus and Paul was converted, he immediately asked, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”

For some Christians, seeking God’s will is knowing what to do about decisions we have to make. Study history or biology? Marry Bob or Harry? Buy the standard or deluxe washing machine?

So they may seek a sign from God. There was a young farmer who was trying to decide if he should become a minister. One day when he was working in the fields he looked up and saw clouds that formed the letters “P” and “C.” He thought, “I’ve got my answer! That means, ‘Proclaim Christ!’” He didn’t consider the clouds might mean, “Plant corn.”

If we truly want to know God’s will, we must turn not to signs, but to the Bible, the only infallible revelation of God’s will. The Bible is clear about giving thanks.

St. Paul tells us in the 18th verse of the 5th chapter of 1 Thessalonians, “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” Giving thanks is God’s will. Paul had a great concern that new Christians know the importance of giving thanks.

Paul knows that failure to give thanks is a mark of those who know from nature that God exists but suppress what they know:

...when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened (Romans 1:21).

Giving thanks is an outworking of the new life we have in Christ:

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:6,7).

Thanksgiving is the opposite of the old self-gratifying life:

But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks (Ephesians 5:3,4).

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:18-20).

Even when we are anxious, or perhaps especially when we are anxious we must not forget giving thanks when we make our requests to God:

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God (Philippians 4:6).

So Paul repeatedly exhorts Christians to be thankful people:

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful (Colossians 3:15).

And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him (Colossians 3:17).

Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving (Colossians 4:2).

It is clear that being thankful is essential to being a Christian. Paul not only tells us to be thankful but to be thankful in everything.

Giving thanks for everything means giving thanks in good times when life is going well and there is not too much that troubles us. Giving thanks in prosperous times would seem natural and easy. But often it’s not. Have you ever noticed that children who lack for nothing lack gratitude and are more prone to complain when things don’t go their way? Unfortunately that trait is not confined to children. We tend, as Bishop Ryle wrote, “to hide our blessings under a bushel and set our troubles on a hill.” We need to cultivate the spirit and practice of thanksgiving and to be intentional about giving thanks. With the psalmist we should say to ourselves, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”

We should give thanks in bad times when life is hard, when we feel it is falling apart. The emphasis is on maintaining a spirit of thanksgiving in all circumstances. You cut the pumpkin pie and realize you took it out of the oven too soon. You have an automobile accident. You have the aches and pains of old age. But we seek intentionally to have a thankful spirit.

Let me tell you how we can be thankful in everything, even for the bad things. It is because you know that for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose, all things work together for good. God is in control and has a plan. Sometimes we see God’s good purpose in this life. You look back and you see that God was working for your good in things that were very painful. We won’t always see the purpose in this world. But for those in Christ, God weaves together every thread of our lives into a beautiful tapestry we will see in the life to come.

There is one thing you can always be thankful for - the certainty of the salvation God has accomplished for you in Christ Jesus. Your sins are forgiven. You are adopted into God’s family. God’s Spirit lives and works in you. You know the verdict that will be rendered on the day of judgment, because you are righteous in Christ. You know that God who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in Christ. You can be confident that God who did not spare his own Son but delivered him up for you will with him graciously give you all things. You know that nothing at all can separate you from the love of God in Christ our Lord.

We are happy to observe Thanksgiving Day. But for Christians thanksgiving is a way of life.

Better Days to Come

Better Days to Come

Sunday next before Advent

Collect of the Day: Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For the Epistle: Jeremiah 23:5-8 (KJV)

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.

In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord Our Righteousness.

Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

But, The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.

We live in the present, but not just the present. We live in the past by our memories. We live in the future by our hopes. Reality is today. But we may long for the past which we tend to remember as better than it was and hope for a future that will be better than today.

1. Israel’s Past

1.1. If I asked, “Who was the best U.S. President?” I would get different answers. Washington. Lincoln. Roosevelt. Reagan. If I asked, “When were our country’s greatest days?” there would be no consensus. But if you asked any citizen of Judah in the days of Jeremiah, “Who was the best king of Israel?” there could have been only one answer, “David.” If you asked, “When were your country’s greatest days?” the unanimous answer would be, “The days of David and Solomon.”

1.2. The Israelites were liberated from Egypt and took possession of the land the Lord had promised to Abraham. But soon there was political turmoil, moral chaos, and enemy invasions. God raised up  Judges who never achieved more than partial and temporary success. Israel needed a king. Eventually Saul became king, but he was a disaster.

Then God made David, “a man after God’s own heart,” king. He had remarkable achievements. David captured Jerusalem and made it his capital. He unified the nation under his kingship. He made Jerusalem the religious center of the land. He made preparations for the building of a temple of the Lord by his son. He increased Israel’s military power, defeated her enemies, and expanded her borders. David made Israel part of the balance of power in its region. He prepared the nation to achieve its greatest glory under Solomon.

1.3.  David was Israel’s best and greatest king, and he and Solomon produced its golden age. However,  the people of Jeremiah’s time may have engaged in the human tendency to sanitize and idealize the past.

We know about David’s moral failures, the rivalries among his sons, about how he had to abandon his capital and almost lost his kingdom to his own son, Absalom. We remember Solomon’s 700 wives and 300 concubines, many of them pagans, and, that, though he built the Lord’s temple, he also built pagan temples for his wives. Those wives turned his heart away from the Lord.

When Solomon died, one of his sons became king and made foolish decisions so that the kingdom was permanently divided, north and south. From then till its fall, every king of the northern kingdom was wicked. There were good and bad kings in the south, but the trajectory of the kingdom was downward.

The “golden age” of Israel spanned the reigns of David and Solomon and lasted but 80 years.

When do you think was the golden age of the church? Maybe you think the Apostolic age. Perhaps the 16th century and the English Reformation. Or the 19th century the era of missionary advance. But read the New Testament letters and the history of the church, and you will find that the golden days were not so golden as you may imagine.

2. Israel’s Present

2.1. Jeremiah’s ministry as a prophet in Judah began when godly people might have entertained  hopes. Josiah, a good man, became king in 640 B.C. when he was 8 years old. When he was 16 he sought the Lord and soon began reforms. He purged the land of idolatry. When he was 26 he ordered repair of the Lord’s temple.

During the restoration, a priest found the Book of the Law. Josiah’s secretary read it to the king. When the king heard the Law, he was dismayed at the greatness of Israel’s sin. He led leaders of the people to renew their covenant to worship and serve the Lord alone.

But Josiah was killed in battle against Egypt, and with him died the reformation. A son reigned for 11 years and was wicked. Judah was caught in a  power struggle between Egypt and Babylon. Babylon invaded Judah and captured Jerusalem for the first time. They installed a man named Zedekiah as a vassal king, but Zedekiah rebelled. Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem, ransacked the city, and deported the best and brightest of the people.

Jeremiah carried on his ministry during the decline from hope to full scale rebellion against the Lord. He saw Judah’s total defeat, the end of David’s line, and the destruction of God’s kingdom.

No matter how dark you perceive these or future days to be, they are not so dark as the days of Judah in Jeremiah’s time. We approach the time of  year that brings the shortest and darkest of days. But in such days we begin Advent. Advent calls us to repent but also to hope. It prepares us for coming of the day when the people who walk in darkness will see a great light.  

3. Israel’s Future

3.1. Jeremiah ministered in the darkest days of the kingdom of God, but he foresaw better days - not in his lifetime or for hundreds of years, but sure to come.

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch...

Think of David’s dynasty as a tree that became diseased. Though at times there was hope for the tree’s recovery, the disease of moral corruption was never cured. Eventually it proved fatal to the tree. The dynasty ended. There would be no more kings in David’s line. To all appearances the tree was dead. But the Lord, whose word is sure, spoke, and said that he would raise up from the tree of David, a righteous Branch.

3.2. The righteous Branch will be a king. As the years passed it became increasingly hard to see how there would ever be another king. During Jeremiah’s life the kingship ended and Judah went into exile. Even when the exile ended and some of the people returned to the land, there were some Jewish governors of the land but never a king descended from David. Judah was ruled by one power after another. To believe God’s promise of king in David’s line anytime after the time of Jeremiah you had to hope against all hope.

The king God promised to give be a very different sort of king - “a righteous branch,” who would “reign and prosper” - or “rule wisely” -  and “execute justice and righteousness in the land.” Many foolish, immoral, wicked, corrupt, and unjust kings ruled Judah after David. The kingdom split into north and south because the immaturity and foolish decisions of one of David’s grandsons. The most hopeful time after the Exile was when a priestly family led a successful rebellion against the Greeks. But there were two problems: (1) There was no king and those who ruled did not come from David’s line. (2) This priestly dynasty became dictatorial and corrupt and produced societal and political chaos. It got so bad Jewish leaders asked the Romans to come in restore order. They did but they also occupied Palestine. That was the hopeless state of affairs when our Lord was born. One disappointment after another. One dashing of hope followed by another.

3.3. Still there was God’s promise - a righteous Branch, a king who would rule with wisdom and personal integrity and enforce justice and righteousness in the land. The coming of this king would mean salvation - salvation for God’s divided people. Not just Judah, the part of the country that remained loyal to David’s line till the end came, but also Israel, the rebellious north, would be saved. He would save both from oppression and unify them under his rule.

This king would be so good and righteous, so wise and successful a ruler, administer such perfect justice, and make the people so righteous that he would be called a remarkable name - “The LORD Our Righteousness.” For a king to deserve such a name he would have to far surpass even David, who, though he was great, could never have deserved or lived up to such a name.

Who could such a perfect King be? Has he come or, as John the Baptist’s disciples asked, “Are we to wait for another?” The New Testament answer is that the King from David’s line has come, great David’s greater Son, our Lord Jesus the Messiah.  He conquered a far worse enemy than the Babylonians or Romans. The devil. He accomplished a far greater salvation than salvation from from political oppression. Salvation from sin, death, and eternal condemnation. He brought about a far greater unity than unity of the two small, estranged Jewish kingdoms. He broke down the wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles and brought them together in one church that spans the world.

Having accomplished his work of salvation on earth, he ascended to heaven and sits at God’s right hand. He is on the throne now.  And he will rule until all his enemies are placed under his feet, till every knee bows, and every tongue confesses him as Lord.

A play consists of four major parts - plot development, climax, working out the consequences of the climax, and the end. Think of history this way. The Old Testament is plot development. Jesus is the climax. We live in the days of working out the consequences of Jesus’ coming for our salvation. The end will come with his second coming.

Hail to the Lord's Anointed,

great David's greater Son!

Hail in the time appointed,

his reign on earth begun!

He comes to break oppression,

to set the captive free;

to take away transgression,

and rule in equity.

Three Desperate People

Desperation, Disease, Death

Twenty-fourth after Trinity

Collect of the Day: O Lord, we beseech thee, absolve thy people from their offenses; that through thy bountiful goodness we may all be delivered from the bands of those sins, which by our frailty we have committed. Grant this O heavenly Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen.

Gospel: Matthew 9:18-26 (KJV)

18 While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

19 And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples.

20 And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:

21 For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.

22 But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.

23 And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise,

24 He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.

25 But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose.

26 And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.

You’re rocking with the heavy metal band in a concert hall in Paris Friday night. You hear a bang not coming from the band. Four men with automatic rifles are in the balcony firing into the crowd. Bodies and blood are everywhere. You’re not dead yet, but you may be at any moment.

What do you feel? Desperation.

St. Matthew tells us about three desperate people.

1. A Desperate Father

1.2. Jesus was explaining to some disciples of John the Baptist why his disciples didn’t fast when he was interrupted by a desperate man. He was an important man in the city of Capernaum. St. Matthew calls him a “ruler.” We learn from St. Mark that his name was Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. Synagogue rulers were something like Senior Wardens. They had responsibility for the building and also for the weekly services including the Scripture readings. They occupied places of prestige and respect in their communities.

1.2. But he was a desperate man. According to Matthew, he said, “My daughter is even now dead.” According to St. Mark she was not yet dead, but at “the point of death.” This is not a contradiction between the two evangelists, but Matthew condenses Mark’s account. According to Mark, while Jesus and the man were on their way to the man’s house, people arrived and told them man the daughter had died.

Being an important man has some advantages today - such as access to the best doctors and treatments. In Jesus’ time, however, personal importance had no advantages in the face of illnesses. It remains true today that prestige and money provide only limited advantages protecting us and our children. Troubles come to everyone.

Those who are parents know how hard it is to watch your sick child when  you can’t do anything to make it better. I remember lying on the couch feeling very sick, and my dad saying, “Son, if I could take it for you, I would.” You hate that your child is suffering, and you hate the feeling of helplessness. It’s one thing to see your child with a virus, but what a desperate thing to see her life ebbing away and beyond human hope.

1.3. Desperation will humble you to do things you would otherwise not do. This ruler was likely not in the habit of begging, but this one came to Jesus and knelt, and said, “Come and lay your hand upon her, and she will live.” Capernaum was Jesus’ home base in Galilee. No doubt the man had heard Jesus’ teaching and witnessed his miracles. And he had come to faith in Jesus and believed Jesus had power only God has. That is why the man knelt - an act of worship. If there was any hope for his daughter, it was that Jesus would come, lay his hand upon her, and restore her health.

When we are desperate for whatever reason, we can go to Jesus. He can do anything. He may not heal when we or those we love are facing death. He may not save our jobs, investments, or marriages. But it will not be because he doesn’t care or lacks the power. What we know is that he always saves those who come to him in desperation because of sin, guilt, and condemnation. With that he guarantees that when he returns he will deliver us from everything that now produces desperation in us.

2. A Desperate Woman

2.1 How relieved Jairus must have felt when Jesus began to follow him to his home. If Jesus were going, then the case of his daughter was not beyond hope. But then there was a delay because  of a woman who was not likely to die in the near future, certainly not in the time it would take Jesus to go to Jairus’ home and minister to his soon to be dead daughter.

Delays can be frustrating, especially when our situation is desperate. Later Jesus’ friends Martha and Mary sent word to word to Jesus that their brother Lazarus was very ill. You would have thought Jesus would have set out immediately to go to Lazarus. But he didn’t. He deliberately delayed. By the time Jesus got there, Lazarus had been dead four days. Martha perhaps with some reproach, said “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Jesus always knows what he is doing. The problem is that we don’t know what he’s doing We have to trust him because we know he is trustworthy.

2.2. This woman’s desperation was different - not the desperation of an acute condition, but a chronic one. She had an “issue of blood” that had lasted for 12 years without relief. St. Mark tells us she had suffered much under many physicians, had spent all her money, and, not only was no better, but worse. With a constant flow of blood for 12 years she had to be anemic. And her condition made her ceremonially unclean which would have meant others had to avoid any physical contact with her or they would be unclean.

There are some problems that can’t be fixed - whether diseased bodies, or unhappy marriages, or mental illness, all kinds of chronic problems. We seek help from doctors, ministers, counselors, family, friends, but no matter how interested they are or how hard they try, their help does not succeed. All of us have things we have to live with.

2.3. But this woman had faith in Jesus. She believed Jesus could heal her. Her faith was far from perfect, but it was real. She reasoned, “If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.” She seems to have had faith mixed with superstition for she believed that contact with Jesus’ clothes would make her well. There are still people who think relics from saints, or the water of Lourdes, or the Shroud to Turin - or even the water of baptism and bread and wine of Holy Communion - are magical.

But the truth is that Jesus’ clothes had no magical powers. It is not Jesus’ clothes or any other physical things that bring about healing - physical or spiritual. Jesus is the healer and Savior. Jesus stopped to make it clear to her that it was not contact with his clothes but faith in him that led to her healing.”Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole.” The result? “And the woman was made whole from that hour.” Jesus honored her faith, not because it brought her in contact with his clothes which she thought had miraculous powers but because it brought her to him who could heal her. But he was not content to leave her with faith mixed with superstition.

Jesus accepts true faith though it is mixed with errors and weakness. But he wants us to grow into a purer and stronger faith - faith that focuses entirely on him, the truth of his word, and the confirmation of the sacraments.

3. A Desperate Girl.

3.1. The little girl’s case is the most desperate of all. She is dead, and when you’re dead, really dead, beyond any medical means to revive you, there is no more hope.

The little girl was dead. St. Mark tells us she was 12 years old - 12 years and now her life was over. If you go to an old cemetery, you may notice how many infants and children are buried there. Childhood death used to be very common, and it still is in places that are not served by modern scientific medicine. But the fact that many children in Jesus’ day died did not make the death of this little girl any less final for her or any less painful for her parents.

When Jesus and the girl’s father arrived, the funeral had begun. With no embalming Jews buried the deceased the same day the person died. Every society has customs associated with death. One Jewish custom was that families hired flute players and professional mourners who came to the home quickly. When Jesus entered he saw musicians and heard the mourners making a loud noise. The procession to the cemetery would begin shortly.

3.2. Jesus told the mourners to leave the room, and said to them, “Your services are not needed. The little girl is not dead but sleeping.” The mourners knew this was ridiculous. So they laughed in scorn. This girl is not asleep. She is dead.

Jesus said something similar to his disciples when his friend Lazarus died. “Lazarus has fallen asleep, and I go to waken him.” The disciples responded, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” John adds the comment, “Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but the disciples thought he meant taking rest in sleep.” Jesus then said plainly, “Lazarus is dead.” Jesus was talking about “the big sleep.” But Jesus was going to wake him up by raising him from the dead.

That is what Jesus was going to do with his little girl. As soon as he got rid of the mourners, Jesus went into the room, took the little girl by the hand, and she got up. Death is not hopeless when Jesus intervenes. He gives life to the dead.

The Gospels record three cases of people being raised by Jesus - this little girl, a widow’s son, and his friend Lazarus. But these resurrections were not like Jesus’ resurrection and not like the resurrection that will happen when Jesus returns. These three were restored to life, lived on for awhile, and then died. Jesus rose to immortal life, and he will raise his people on the last day to life that cannot be touched by death and decay.

As a Christian you have already had one resurrection. Jesus saw you in the state of spiritual death because of sin. He took you by the hand, and said by his Gospel, “Arise,” and you came to new life in Christ. But there is another resurrection for you. The resurrection to eternal life in the body. St. Paul tells us, “Behold I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep (there will be some Christians alive when he comes) but we shall all be changed, in moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”

Because of Jesus, death is not final. That is why when we bury Christians we commend their spirits to God and their bodies to the ground in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a “great gettin’ up mornin’” yet to come. We will sleep in our graves, but when Jesus comes, he will say, “Wake up!”, and we will rise to share in his glorious resurrection life.