[Machine transcription]
In the name of Jesus, amen.
Dear Sophia, Jeremiah, and all the baptized, I was working on the texts for the sermon
today.
I was praying and I was, in some ways, complaining slightly to the Lord.
And I said, Lord, how can I possibly teach all of these texts to your people?
The sermon is so short.
And I would love to tell you that a voice came from heaven and said,
don’t worry, you can preach for an hour, no one will mind. That’s not what
happened. In fact, probably something else happened. What I realized as I was
wrestling, because they’re so good. I mean the Old Testament, that text
from Lamentations, and then from 2 Corinthians 8, and the beautiful
double miracle. There’s so much in these texts. But this is what I
What I realized is that it’s just, it’s not just on me for you guys to learn these
things.
In fact, I want to maybe make an arrangement with you.
This is just sort of in place, but just a deal is that look, we can’t, it is not, here’s
the point, it is not enough just to learn the Bible for a few minutes on Sunday morning
from the pulpit.
This has to be our whole lives.
We have to be reading the Scriptures, studying the Scriptures, learning the Scriptures, listening
to the Word of God as individuals, as families.
We have to commit ourselves to these things because there’s just so much there.
So instead of preaching three sermons to you this morning, I’m going to make this deal.
I’m going to give you homework to study, and if you do that then I’ll just preach one sermon.
So here’s your homework.
First assignment is Lamentations 3 verse 33.
It’s in the text.
It’s the last verse of the text.
It’s the center verse of Lamentations, which is this beautiful poem in the midst of the
most horrible event, five chapters, each chapter has 22 verses except for the third chapter
which has 66 verses, so right in the middle of that 66, the very heart of the whole poem
is verse 33, God does not willingly afflict the children of men.
The Lord does send trouble, He does send affliction, He does send sorrow, He does send discipline,
not willingly, out of necessity because of our own sinfulness, always to draw us back
to His heart.
It’s the alien work, the strange work of God to send these difficulties to us.
But He doesn’t do it willingly, and in the midst of our afflictions, both as individuals
and as our afflictions as a culture, as a congregation, as a church, to know that the
Lord’s heart is not against us but is for us.
That’s homework number one.
And your second homework assignment is in the epistle lesson, 2 Corinthians chapter
8, verse 9.
That beautiful little verse, Paul is talking about how he’s collecting gifts from the Macedonians
and he’s collecting gifts from the Corinthians to take back to Jerusalem because the church
was in famine and in trouble, and he’s talking about their generosity, how they said, not
only did you give gifts, you gave yourselves first to the Lord and then to us, they collected
all these gifts and he’s commending them for it and encouraging that collection, but in
the middle of it he gives that maybe the most important verse on stewardship.
He who was rich, Christ Jesus, became poor so that through his poverty we might become
rich.
Yeah, that’s your second homework assignment to study that.
In fact, you could memorize it if you wanted to.
That’s a beautiful text.
Okay, so if you’ll do that, we’ll just look at the gospel lesson.
Mark chapter 5, which is a really unique double miracle, in fact, I don’t know of anywhere
else in the scriptures where we have this kind of miracle embedded in the midst of another
miracle.
Jesus is with the disciples, they’re sailing on the Sea of Galilee.
Every time you see sailing in the Gospels, it’s the Sea of Galilee.
Even though the Mediterranean is there, and that’s where you hear some of the Solomon’s
ships and things are happening, Jonah was sailing in the Mediterranean, but that’s not in the
Gospels.
We also have the Dead Sea, but even though there’s, wildly, there’s kind of evidence
that they were sailing in the Dead Sea.
That’s not where they were sailing.
They were sailing on the Sea of Galilee, and in fact, we know specifically that they were
coming into Capernaum, and a huge crowd comes and gathers around Jesus.
They want Him to do miracles, they want Him to teach.
And in this huge crowd presses through Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, and he comes with
some urgency because his daughter, his 12-year-old daughter, is home and sick and dying.
And he thinks that if he can just get Jesus into the house before his daughter dies, that
And maybe, just maybe, Jesus can save her from death.
So he comes and finds Jesus, my daughter’s sick, she’s dying, can you come?
And Jesus says, yes, lead the way.
And so they’re going to the house, but you have to imagine that there’s this huge crowd
around Jesus, and they’re pressing in on him, and they’re winding their way through the
kind of mazy walls of the ancient city.
And as they’re going, there’s a woman who’s there and had heard of Jesus and his power,
and she had been sick for 12 years, had a flow of blood for 12 years, and the doctors
hadn’t helped it, doctors had made it worse, but she trusts that Jesus has power to save,
and so she presses through the crowd, you can see it as this mob’s kind of, she’s pressing
through the crowd, kind of swimming her way through all these people, and finally she
gets to Jesus, and she reaches out and she touches the hem of his garment.
And Jesus feels it, immediately she feels it too, she’s healed, it says she could feel
it in her body that the blood had dried up and that she was healed from that
moment and in amazement she kind of backs off immediately full of awe but
Jesus stops and says who touched me the disciples are like what are you talking
about everybody is touching you you’re in the middle of this mob what do you
mean who touched you but amazing to see that this touch was a different kind of
touch it was the touch of faith it was the touch that knew that Jesus has the
power to save.
Who touched me?
Jesus stops and he’s looking around to try to figure out who had touched him, who he
had healed, who he had done it.
It’s amazing that he didn’t know.
Now as he’s doing this and the crowd has stopped and people are milling around, the lady is
kind of at the back of the crowd and she realizes that she’s been caught.
She kind of comes forward to explain what had happened and I just can’t help but thinking
that Jairus is there thinking, let’s get moving.
You know, remember my daughter, remember what we are doing.
Try to stay focused here.
And I think there’s something to it.
I mean, we even see a little glimpse of this like in Mary and Martha.
Remember how Lazarus had died and Jesus comes four days later and Martha says to Jesus,
Lord, if you had been here, he wouldn’t have died.
It’s like, Jesus, we know you’re powerful to save, but once you’re dead, you’re dead.
So Jairus is trying to get Jesus there while his daughter was still alive.
But Jesus has stopped and he’s giving his attention to this lady who comes forward and
confesses everything.
It says in the text, she told him everything that he did, sorry, she told him everything
that she did.
How she was sick, how she desired healing, how the doctors hadn’t helped, how she had
believed, how she had touched the hem of his garment, how when she touched the hem of the
garment, she felt strong again and saved, and Jesus commends her, daughter, your faith
has made you well, which is an amazing thing.
Jesus is always saying your faith has made you well, and we look at the text and we say,
Jesus, you are the one who healed her, you’re the one that made her well.
But just for us to kind of put into the side of our minds that Jesus always attributes
the power to faith.
Faith is that which apprehends the gifts of God.
Faith is that which holds on to what the Lord gives.
Faith is the believing of His promise.
Faith is the trusting that God cannot lie.
Faith is the way that we have what Jesus and really the Father and the Holy Spirit are
giving to us.
Your faith has made you well.
Go in peace.
You’re healed of your disease.
And as Jesus is giving his attention to this woman who was healed, someone comes from the
house of Jairus and says, it’s too late.
Don’t trouble Jesus anymore.
Your daughter died.”
And you have to imagine that, I mean, you can see it in your mind’s eye, can’t you,
that Jairus just, all his hopes are dashed.
This is at last, the last desperate attempt at life to get Jesus there.
And how, when he was leading Jesus through the city, how he, maybe we’ll make it in time,
I think we can do it, let’s go.
No, but now it’s too late.
Jesus overhears the conversation, and amazingly,
he turns to Jairus and to the one who came from the house,
and he says to him, don’t be afraid.
Just believe.
Only, in fact, the text says, only believe.
It’s a sola fide text.
Only believe.
Lead the way.
And so Jesus goes with Jairus into his house.
He takes James and John and Peter and they come into the house and the whole crowd which
was there presumably to pray for the girl as she was sick and as she was on her deathbed
has now turned from a group of prayer into a mourning party.
Maybe someone had got out the lute and they were singing and they were wailing.
They were making a big commotion as is the custom in those days and in that place.
They were mourning with deep sighs for this girl who had died so early.
and Jesus comes in and he looks at the crowd and he says to the crowd what are
you guys doing and they would say back to what do you mean what are we doing
we’re mourning the girl is dead she’s 12 she just died we can’t believe it how
sad and where were you by the way what do you mean what are we doing and Jesus says
to the crowd stop it stop weeping stop crying the girl is not dead she’s
sleeping and they think that’s pretty funny. The text says that they all go
immediately from mourning to laughing at Jesus. We thought you might be our hope.
We thought you were gonna be the one to come and help but you don’t even know
the difference between life and death. You don’t even know the
difference between someone who’s sleeping and someone who’s breathed
their last. They laugh at Jesus, but he kicks them all out, get out of here. And
he goes with Jairus and his wife and Peter and James and John and they come
into the room where the little girl is and he says to her, it’s one of these
beautiful places where where Mark wants to give us the original Aramaic words
that came straight from the lips of our Lord Jesus,
Talitha Kumi, little girl, I say, wake up.
And he touches her.
As you would gently wake up a child that’s sleeping,
and this little girl opens her eyes and sits up alive.
And he gives the girl back to her parents and says,
it’s kind of funny, it’s pretty practical,
give her something to eat, she’s probably pretty hungry.
Time for some breakfast.
Now how amazing is this?
It’s not just that our Lord Jesus heals the sick.
Our Lord Jesus raises the dead.
In fact, so strong is His power over death and the grave
that He looks at death and gives it a new name.
He calls it sleep.
This is one of those sweet names of death.
The old theologians called it the
Dulce Nomine Mortae.
The sweet, candy names of death that the Bible speaks of, like being gathered to one’s fathers,
or departing in peace, or seeing the face of Jesus.
Here Jesus calls death a sleep, and the main thing about death as a sleep is that it means
that you’re going to wake up.
We need to see death the same way.
And this is the challenge that this text puts before us today.
This is the challenge that the Holy Spirit has for our own hearts today, is that can
we see death the same way that Jesus sees death?
Will we look at death with the eyes of the flesh, with the eyes of the world, with our
natural eyes, or will we look at death through the spiritual eyes of Jesus?
Imagine it.
Imagine that you’re in the room, that all of us are gathered and we’re all mourning
and weeping along with this family and there in the front of the room is the bed on which
the body of this precious girl is lying and no more breathing and no more heartbeat and
we can see the difference between dead and alive and we’re all standing there and we’re
looking at death and then Jesus walks up to you and he says, what are you looking at?
Why are you so sad?
This isn’t death, this is sleep.
And here’s the question, do you laugh or do you see what Jesus sees?
Do you confess what He confesses?
Do you believe what He promises?
That this is not death, but rather it’s sleep.
And here the scripture invites us into a marvelous thing, and that is that we begin to see things
entirely differently when we see them with the eyes of Jesus.
us. Death is no longer death. Death is no longer fearful. Death is no longer the end.
Death is no longer even the punishment for our own sins. Death is, in fact, a sleep,
a rest until He wakes us up in the glory of the resurrection. Will you see it that way?
And even more, because when we look at the world, we see it falling apart. We see the
affliction that comes to us in the world, it looks to us like the world is overcoming
the church, but Jesus doesn’t see it that way.
He sees this world as the place that he’s ruling and reigning for the sake of the church,
that he’s working all things together for the good of those who love him and are called
according to the purpose.
Will you see it that way?
Or the devil?
Oh, I guess we don’t see the devil, little glimpses.
We see his work, we see his handiwork, we see his signature and all these things.
And we see how he’s trying to tear the world apart, and it looks to us like the devil’s
is a roaring lion seeking to devour us, that he’s having his way in the world.
But Jesus sees him as the defeated enemy, as the one who’s shamefully become a spectacle
by his death and resurrection.
Jesus says, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
Will you see it that way?
Or maybe, most importantly, we look around at other people and we see failures and sins
and we look at ourselves and our own lives and our own doing and our own days and we
see our own failures, we see our own mistakes, we see our own rebellion, our own anger and
lost and greed and restlessness and bitterness and blasphemy and all the things that we’ve
done wrong.
When we, in other words, see our sin but Jesus sees you and He doesn’t see a bit of it.
When He sees you, He does not see a sinner but a saint.
Can you imagine?
It’s not that you and Jesus are looking at this girl and who’s died and you see things
totally differently.
Can you imagine that you and Jesus are looking at yourself in the mirror and you say, Jesus,
us, look at this fool, look at this sinner, look at this lawbreaker, look at this one
who deserves your wrath and to be cast off, and Jesus says, that’s not what I see.
When he looks at you, he sees you wrapped up in his righteousness and covered in his
perfection.
He sees you reflecting his own glory.
He sees you deserving the place in heaven that he’s now winning for you, not by your
own works or righteousness but because of the forgiveness of sins. He, when he
sees you, he sees his death on the cross. He sees his blood and righteousness. He
sees your forgiveness. In other words, he sees you as a glorious saint. That is the
gift of baptism. That is the gift of the forgiveness of sins. That is the gift of
the gospel. He, and you want to, just I think like the people in the room when
Jesus says she’s sleeping, we want to do the same thing. When Jesus says you’re
perfect. Oh Jesus, I’m not perfect. And he kicks that laughter out of the room
because all of your sins are forgiven. Because he delights in you, because he
smiles at you. Will you see yourself that way? These are the eyes of Jesus. The eyes
that looks at this girl and says she’s not dead, she’s asleep. The eyes
that look at you and say, you’re not dying, you’re living.
The eyes that look at you and say, you’re not unholy, you’re holy and perfect.
And even when we fail to see ourselves and the world this way, it is how the Lord Jesus
sees us.
And in that we rejoice.
So may God grant it.
May God grant us the wisdom of his word and spirit so that we look at death through the
eyes of Jesus.
We look at the world through the eyes of Jesus.
We look at the devil through the eyes of Jesus.
We look at each other through the eyes of Jesus and we even look at our own sin through the eyes of Jesus
Who loves you?
died for you and
Sees you as his precious child
May God grant it for Christ’s sake in the name of Jesus
Amen, and the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord
Amen
