Finally, Jesus arrives at the bedside of the little girl. He touches her – making himself unclean. Horrify his fellow Jews. A great religious teacher should know better, and leave touching the corpse to those who will entomb her.
And why? He’s never met her, and she’s already dead. They are already grieving, something that was a big production in that culture, sometimes even involving paid musicians and wailing women to make it clear how much grief there is.
They assume he’s too late, and probably think he’s laughable for even coming and promising to help the poor grieving dad. At worse, he may hurt the situation more, giving the dad some false hope.
But he ignores all the laughter, and simply tells her to get up, and she does.
Sleep is a metaphor, we don’t need to explain this away, she was clearly dead.
But for Jesus, death is like sleep. He has the power to destroy death’s hold on us. And he does.
Again, this is not because he was going to physically run around the world raising each of us from the dead just like her. With her, he’s pulling back the curtain, showing us his kingdom. No sickness, pain, and no death either. When his kingdom comes in its fullness, he intends to raise from the dead anyone who has faith in him, and his ability to heal them from every sin, even death.
We’ve seen him interact with these two people, and how it reveals God’s kingdom.
You may not be dealing with a chronic illness like the woman, and if you’re listening, you’re not dead like this little girl.
But you still need a miracle that can only happen through faith in Jesus.
We all have a problem with sin. It’s our rebellion against God that led to death, sickness and all that’s broken in the world. That girl’s death, and woman’s illness, only exist because we humans broke this world and introduced all this dysfunction.
If you’ve ever tried to deal with this on your own, you may be as desperate as the sick woman, or grieving father.
There is good news, God has a plan, and you can be part of it. If you truly believe Jesus is God, and transforming our world into one where there is no sickness, pain, death or evil, then your faith in him heals you of all these things.
Challenge: What sin do you need to be healed of? In your desperation, turn to Jesus and ask him to heal you, and have faith that he can indeed.
Meeting with a Group? Your discussion questions are in this week’s Group Study Guide
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