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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
The events of today’s Gospel Reading have been called an “incomparable demonstration” of our Lord Jesus Christ’s “power and authority”, and, perhaps more importantly, power and authority that are “benevolently disposed toward suffering humanity” (Marcus, ad loc Mark 5:35-43, p.373). We heard not one but two historically and literarily interwoven miracle accounts, both involving daughters of a sort, for whom twelve years are significant, and a parent or the sufferer herself falling down before Jesus, believing but also fearing, and not going away disappointed but with Jesus having worked salvation. As we this morning consider today’s Gospel Reading, we realize that “Jesus’s gift of faith drives out fear”.
Jairus and the woman who had had a chronic discharge of blood both believed and, at one point or another in their interaction with Jesus, both were afraid. Jairus quite publicly sought Jesus’s help for his twelve-year-old terminally ill daughter, believing Jesus could save her and she would live, only fearing, that we know of, later, when some came from his house and reported that his daughter was dead. The woman who had had a chronic discharge of blood secretly sought Jesus’s help, perhaps because of the nature of her 12‑year‑long affliction, believing even if she only touched His garments that she would be saved, only fearing, that we know of, later, when Jesus sought her out from the crowd. To be sure, we can relate to both Jairus and the woman who had a chronic discharge of blood, for even we who believe at times also fear.
What believing parents, with the Lord at their sides, at one time or another has not unnecessarily feared for their ill child? Which one of us believers, who have received from our gracious God the very salvation that we have sought, have not subsequently wondered whether the next thing we receive from Him instead might be harsh? Or, perhaps we are more like the messengers from Jairus’s house, who thought that Jesus might be a great “teacher” but unable to help with a dead child. Or, perhaps we are more like the mourners at the house who skeptically and scornfully laughed at Jesus, falsely confident in their own superiority, on the basis of what they were sure was better information (Rengstorf, TDNT 1:660).
As was the case in the Old Testament with the widow of Zarephath when her son died and she was reminded of her sin (1 Kings 17:18), so any sickness or death of a loved one or our own afflictions should remind us not only of sin in general’s being in the world and of other people’s sin, but also of our own sin, even when a specific sickness may be completely unrelated to a specific sin. To be sure, even though we may be physically alive, before God makes us alive in Christ, we are spiritually dead as a result both of the original sin we inherit and of the actual sins we commit. On account of that sin, we deserve nothing from God but present and eternal punishment—talk about something to fear!
But, “Jesus’s gift of faith drives out fear.” As Jesus told Jairus who had humbly fallen before Him to stop fearing and keep on believing, and as Jesus sent the woman who had humbly fallen before Him away in peace, so Jesus deals with us. God may cause grief or afflict us in order to lead us to repent, so that He can have compassion according to the abundance of His mercy. As God calls and enables us to repent, so we humbly turn in sorrow from our sin, trust God to forgive our sin, and want to do better than to keep on sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives our sin, God forgives all our sin, whatever our sin might be, for the sake of Jesus Christ His Son, our Lord.
Jesus’s miraculously drying up the woman’s flow of blood and His raising Jairus’s daughter not only demonstrate the power and authority that He has as true God in human flesh, but they also can point us to the cross, where Jesus did not use His divine power and where He shed His own human blood to the point of death in order to save all people, including you and me, and those two miracles also can point us to the tomb, where Jesus rose to demonstrate His victory over sin, death, and the grave for all people, including you and me. As we heard in the Old Testament Reading (Lamentations 3:22-33), in the midst of the horrors of the exile, God was the source of salvation for His people; as we heard in the Epistle Reading (2 Corinthians 8:1-9, 13-15), even the Church in Corinth was brought into the overflowing mercy of God (Schmitt, CPR 28:3, p.28). God’s faithfulness and abundant love flowed not only for Jairus and his daughter, and not only for the woman who had had a chronic discharge of blood, but God’s faithfulness and abundant love described in all three Readings also flow for you and for me. Like the woman in the Gospel Reading, we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
In order for us to obtain that saving faith, God, through the Office of the Holy Ministry, has the Gospel purely preached and the Sacraments rightly administered (Augsburg Confession, V:1-2). The Gospel Reading specifically says that the woman had heard about Jesus, and apparently she believed what she heard. Likewise Jesus essentially told Jairus who had seen Him to ignore the word of those who came from his house and instead to believe Jesus and what He said. God creates faith in those who so hear the Gospel! And, God saves us through His Word attached to physical means that touch us and that we can touch: water in Holy Baptism, where our faith also saves us; the touch of the pastor in individual Holy Absolution, after which we are dismissed in peace; and bread and wine that in the Sacrament of the Altar are Christ’s Body and Blood, given and shed for you and for me, for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Surely more than Jesus was concerned about Jairus’s daughter’s eating, for whatever reason, Jesus is concerned about us so eating and drinking that we might have His life in us (John 6:53)!
When the Divinely‑inspired St. Mark tells us that the woman who had had a chronic discharge of blood had suffered much under many physicians, had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse, we might relate to any one or all of those, regarding the care of a loved one or ourselves. No doubt those in medical professions also did good things then, even as those in medical professions do good things today, but we ought not expect from them the perfect care and miracles that we expect from God. And, we should not expect even from God miraculous healing or raising of the dead until the time that He has determined. However, whether a short-lived terminal illness or twelve-years of an illness, we can be sure that God has fixed a limit to the suffering of our loved ones or of ourselves: such suffering will not go on forever but will come to an end. Such suffering will come to an end in God’s time and way, even if that “time” is the Last Day, after our bodies have been awakened from their slumber in a cemetery (which name originally means “dormitory”, or a place for sleeping), and even if the “way” is the resurrection and glorification of our bodies. And, rest assured, that resurrection is not ridiculous but real!
Truly, our Lord Jesus Christ’s power and authority are benevolently disposed toward our suffering. The afflictions that God in His wisdom permits us to endure work for our good, when we let them work for our good. Yes, at times even believers are afraid and sin in other ways, which is why with repentance and faith we live each day in the forgiveness of sins that we receive from God and that we in turn extend to one another. Each and every day, “Jesus’s gift of faith drives out fear”, until faith becomes sight in the eternal joy and bliss of heaven.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +