Third Last Sunday Service
St. Matthew 9:18–26
While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples. And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. And when Jesus came to the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. And the report of this went through all that district.
The lessons for this Trinity Season—(which comes to an end in a couple of weeks along with the church year) have been especially about your life as a believer in this world, about the unique perspective you have being one of those. You’re here, but really heading there—to the place God has prepared for you in His kingdom. The hymn writer states it so well:
Brief life is here our portion;
Brief sorrow, short-lived care [care meaning, worries];
The life that knows no ending,
The tearless life, is there.
There is eternal rest; There is a mansion with the blest—the hymn writer goes on to say.
This isn’t that place. It’s filled with struggles—physical ones among them, like for the woman in our text. It’s filled with death too, like for the daughter of the man who comes to Jesus in the text.
Who of us hasn’t seen our share of these struggles as well? The Last Sundays of the Trinity Season—the end of the church year—are about the end of the world, the end of our lives here. Fitting.
Speaking of our hymn, you might have been thinking to yourself, “What a strange title for a hymn—The World Is Very Evil! It’s not a happy sentiment, is it? But not every hymn we sing is called something like that. Through the hymns you express what it is to be a believer in this world. Sometimes, that’ll have you singing: Rejoice, Rejoice, this happy morn; other times: The world is very evil. And of course, we note that a hymn like this points out the great darkness of this fallen world—not as an end, but as a comparison to the joy that waits for us as believers in Christ (which the hymn goes on to do). St. Paul talked like this one time: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18).
In our text, too, we see the darkness of this world. What else can we call it when a man comes to Jesus announcing, “My daughter has just died.” What could be sadder than that? What darker? What more likely to cause a person to say something like, the world is very evil? Reminds me of Jacob’s statement from the Old Testament book of Genesis, at the thought of losing his young son: If harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol” (42:38). The world is very evil, The times are waxing late—that isn’t an overstatement of the way we might feel here in certain moments. And in between those moments it doesn’t do us good to pretend that it isn’t the case.
It also doesn’t do us good to forget our own contributions to this world’s evil. The nature that you’ve inherited is the same that your first parents took upon themselves when they disobeyed God in the Garden. The death sentence that you have isn’t an unjust one. What you, and the girl in our text who has died, and all others born of sinful human fathers and mothers in this corrupted world deserve is for God to abandon you to the eternal death, the eternal punishment you have earned by your sins.
But dear believers, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus in this text. Note how He responds to the cries of His people who are overcome with the darkness of this world. These are believers like you. They know Jesus. As far as the man is concerned, death isn’t even too big for Jesus. Even that isn’t too late to be asking HIs help. The man says, Come and lay your hand on her, and she will live. What a strong faith that is! And Jesus’ response is to get up and follow him. The woman doesn’t think Jesus even needs to be bothered to hear her story, go with her somewhere, or anything like that; she only need touch His garment to be healed of her condition. And of course, she’s right about it—it happens, and Jesus commends her faith.
But Jesus goes with the man, follows him to his house.
There’s a section of hymns in our book under the theme: Death: A Sleep [as if to say, death is merely a temporary situation; it’s an entrance to eternal life, no more lasting than a sleep]. These hymns come up in the Trinity Season (this season that is about our lives in this world). I Know of a Sleep in Jesus’ Name; I Fall Asleep in Jesus’ Wounds—these are some of the hymn titles in that section. It’s interesting here, this morning because of what Jesus says to the flute players and crowd making a commotion outside the man’s house. He says, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.”
Now, it’s important that we recognize what Jesus is doing here. He isn’t saying that it only seems like the girl is dead—maybe having some condition that causes a person to appear dead, even appearing to have stopped breathing. “There’s a perfectly reasonable explanation” is how a lot of Bible critics would speak about a text like this. Jesus doesn’t mean that when He says, the girl is not dead but sleeping.
The man had left his house and gone to find Jesus, after all, and announced to Him that his daughter had died, most likely after investigating in every possible way to determine whether or not it was the case. His great hope was that he would discover some sign of life in her, of course. But people know what death is. Nothing about the girl indicated in any way that she was still alive, because she was dead. Having gone and found Jesus, then, He and the man had gone back to his house to find that the mourners had already come (another very clear sign that she had certainly died). They found Jesus’ suggestion that the girl wasn’t dead to be laughable. Of course, she was dead.
Jesus’ statement, the girl is not dead but sleeping is an indication of what He is doing (or maybe has already done). He is there, now. It is His will that the girl be restored to life in this world. He is the almighty for Whom nothing is impossible. So, it is the case. The girl who had been dead is alive! Had it been Jesus’ will not to restore the girl to life in this world, His referring to her as sleeping would still apply, because to a believer in Christ, wearing the garment of His righteousness, death is a but a sleep from which the person wakes to eternal life.
And now we watch and struggle—Another one of the lines from the hymn. We struggle with things that happen to us in this world, and with things we do ourselves. We cry out to the Lord, Why are you letting this happen to me? Aren’t you going intervene? Won’t I have relief? And we cry out, Forgive my sins, O Lord! Take this guilt away from me that burdens me so. Strengthen me to do Your will instead of my own.
See God’s answer in our text. See it in the power and compassion of the Christ—the object of God’s merciful salvation for sinners. He hears the cries of His people, and He responds in loving care—not like we deserve, but according to incomparable mercy. He can help you, and He wants to help you—this One Who chose death for Himself in this world, chose to die a criminal’s death—having taken your crimes and everyone else’s on Himself (having taken them away from you). Fix your eyes on this Savior, Jesus. As you watch and struggle, know that the outcome is set: you have the victory over anything that happens to you in this world, and over the guilt that burdens you. He has seen to it for you. He invites you to keep bringing your burdens to Him. He has paid every debt. You are forgiven in Him.
O sweet and blessed country,
The home of God's elect!
O sweet and blessed country
That eager hearts expect!
Jesus, in mercy bring us
To that dear land of rest,
Who art, with God the Father
And Spirit, ever blest. Amen.
Isaiah 51:9-16
Awake, awake, put on strength,
O arm of the Lord;
awake, as in days of old,
the generations of long ago.
Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces,
who pierced the dragon?
Was it not you who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep,
who made the depths of the sea a way
for the redeemed to pass over?
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
“I, I am he who comforts you;
who are you that you are afraid of man who dies,
of the son of man who is made like grass,
and have forgotten the Lord, your Maker,
who stretched out the heavens
and laid the foundations of the earth,
and you fear continually all the day
because of the wrath of the oppressor,
when he sets himself to destroy?
And where is the wrath of the oppressor?
He who is bowed down shall speedily be released;
he shall not die and go down to the pit,
neither shall his bread be lacking.
I am the Lord your God,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
the Lord of hosts is his name.
And I have put my words in your mouth
and covered you in the shadow of my hand,
establishing the heavens
and laying the foundations of the earth,
and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”
Colossians 1:9–14
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.