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.
