Image: "The Other Side", 2020, Rocky Gap State Park, Md
Luke 7:9 When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!”
Luke 7:16 Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen up among us”; and, “God has visited His people.”
Luke 7:28 For I say to you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
Luke 7:50 Then He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
Luke 8:24–25 And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 But He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!”
Luke 8:48 And He said to her, “Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”
Luke 8:53–54 And they ridiculed Him, knowing that she was dead. 54 But He put them all outside, took her by the hand and called, saying, “Little girl, arise.”
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Luke's superb story-telling skill adds subtle dimensions to these stories, already so familiar to us in broad outline. An example is the raising of Jarius' daughter. Only Luke records that the father and the mother accompanied the disciples into the room. I am sure that the "professional mourners" that gathered at a death bed in those days, were also already present there and are included in the "all" who "wept and mourned." But we who have been present as a beloved family member died, know how it must have affected those parents. They were distraught and barely in control. When Jesus said "she is not dead, but sleeping", it must have brought out all manner of horror and even anger. "How can you say that? I know that she's dead! Do you have no feelings for what we are going through?"
This adds a very human touch to the story. Luke brings us into that room and touches our hearts in so doing.
Now we read that Jesus sent them all outside. It's possible that this "all" included the parents but it might have been all those "other" mourners. I think the parents and the disciples stayed because: (1) we have what appears to be an eye-witness account, and (2) "her parents were astonished"
Here we see the depths of our Savior's compassion for us in our grief. The answer to death, with its horror and cutting pain, is faith. "Only believe, and she will be made well" He had said. (8:50) That is such a difficult thing to really embrace when it applies to us. A friend or a pastor comes alongside us, puts his arm around our shoulder as we quake with sobs, and says: "Only believe... she is only sleeping..." and we might just run from the room.
But, in a sense, for Christians, it is true. For born-again Christians, death is sleep.
Jesus, answering the Sadducees when questioned about the resurrection from the dead, said "Moses... called the Lord 'the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'. For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him." (Luke 20:37f) In this amazing statement, Jesus was saying that then, and now, God is still Abraham's, Isaac's, and Jacob's God. In other words - they still are in joyous communion with Him even though their earthly bodies have perished centuries before. Jesus' summation that "He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him" applies directly to those Patriarchs but also to all of who truly have God as their God!
Understood in this way we see what death for a Christian truly is: in it, the body sleeps, but the spirit is ecstatically joined to its life-giving King. There is a very real sense in which such a soul is "more living" than we are.
Here is the challenge, the obstacle, confronting our faith. Do we, can we, really believe this? Can we take it to heart such that the most stupendous horror present in our world, death itself, loses its sting as far as we are concerned? Is it really possible to have a certain joy underneath our grief when we lose a beloved saint, knowing that our grief is for us not for that friend or family member?
The answer, of course, is "Yes!" It is not only possible but present before us. All that we have to do, is "only believe!"
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