Greetings in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8)
Wherever Jesus was, comfort, peace and healings were with the people around Him. In fact, Jesus came to serve, not to be served especially for those who were suffering and yearning for peace. Through Him, those who were sick were healed, and those who were hopeless found hope. Jesus went, and people followed. They saw God’s grace, mercy and peace, and also miracles with Jesus. Jesus also never stopped teaching the kingdom of God wherever He went, which was the eternal hope and salvation.
One day, Jesus got into the boat again and went back to the other side of the lake, where a large crowd gathered around him on the shore as usual. Jesus looked around the people flocking. Then He gave God’s message of comfort, grace, peace and hope to the people.
In the town, there was a leader of the local synagogue, whose name was Jairus. He was a good man, and well respected among the people. On the day of Jesus’ arrival, the leader of the local synagogue ran into Jesus plowing through the crowd. People looked at him and found his face was quite different. His face was full of sorrows and pains. He seemed completely distressed because of something truly sorrowful. People wondered about the reason and opened up a way to Jesus standing in the middle of the crowd. So far, they were enjoying of hearing Jesus’ comforting message, which was in their ears sweeter than honey. Only could Jesus give such a comforting and sweet message. As soon as the synagogue leader reached to the center where Jesus was, he immediately fell down before Jesus’ feet. It was a truly shocking scene that they had never seen before. Their synagogue leader was kneeling down at Jesus’s feet. Suddenly, silence was there. All of them were watching their synagogue leader kneeling before Jesus.
Without caring about all the town people around him, the synagogue leader pleaded fervently with Jesus. Not only his voice, but also all of his body and spirit were clearly communicating the synagogue’s desperate needs before Jesus. “My little daughter is dying,” he said. “Please come and lay your hands on her; heal her so she can live.”
For the synagogue leader, it was the last hope. He tried everything that he could. He hired doctors, not just one, but all doctors that he knew. He did hope for cure of his daughter, but none of them could. Instead his daughter was getting worse. Finally, his daughter could not get out of her own bed, and was dying. It was his biggest fear that he could lose his daughter forever. He had everything as the leader of the synagogue, but he was helpless. When he realized Jesus’ arrival to his town, it was the greatest news to him. He heard many times that Jesus healed the blind, the deaf, the leprosy, and those who could not be cured by doctors. Thus, he ran to Jesus and kneel down before him before the town people watching him. Jesus, who was merciful, carefully heard the plea of the local synagogue leader. All town people could see Jesus’ face with mercy and compassion, which was stark contrast to the synagogue leader’s desperate face. It was such a blessed scene to watch the merciful and compassionate face of Jesus for the desperate father for his dying daughter.
Jesus took him up by His merciful hand, and He went with him. All the people followed, crowding around Jesus. Suddenly, a woman in the crowd approached Jesus and touched Jesus. Nobody saw. She had been suffering for twelve years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. For she believed and told to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” As soon as she touched the robe of Jesus, the bleeding stopped. It was a miracle. She could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition. She was also terrified in joy of healing. She tried to slip out quietly of the crowd from Jesus before anybody noticed it.
Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?”
His disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’”
But Jesus stopped and kept on looking around to see who had done it. Suddenly a silence fell on the entire crowd. All were looking at Jesus, who stopped walking and was looking around the crowd. Most of them were wondering why Jesus suddenly stopped. Only few near Jesus knew including His disciples that Jesus was searching for one who touched Jesus. Most of them had no idea at all. This made the woman healed even more terrified. She did secretly, but Jesus knew what she did. The woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of Jesus and told Him what she had done. The whole crowd overheard what was told by the woman healed. She was healed from her bleeding and suffering for the last twelve years. Awe stuck all because of the miracle just happened right before their own eyes. Jesus healed her sickness that no doctors could heal.
And Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.” (Mark 5:34)
Yes, her suffering was over because of Jesus and her faith. She believed, and she received! Something impossible had happened to her because she believed without any doubts. She was blessed by her faith and experienced healing of her twelve years old bleeding. Surely, nothing is impossible before Jesus.
While Jesus was still speaking to her, messengers arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. They told him, “Your daughter is dead. There’s no use troubling the Teacher now.”
How many times have we given up because we see clearly it is impossible because it has already happened in the way that we really wanted? The household of the synagogue repeated exactly the same thing. They saw healing of the daughter was impossible because the daughter was already dead. What would Jesus do for the daughter already dead?
Indeed, it was a huge faith for the synagogue leader to believe Jesus’ healing of the dying daughter after going through all the famous doctors, but nobody could heal her. However, it was the last hope on Jesus so that Jesus might heal her while she was still alive. Now, she was dead, and the hope was quickly evaporated. Her death took away the hope. No more living daughter, no more hope to heal her because she was no longer with them. Then what’s the reason to bring Jesus to home? Thus, they did not want to bother Jesus anymore. Is it familiar, isn’t it? We already know the answer because it has already happened in the way that we did not want and pray for. Then why do we bother to pray to Him anymore?
In Bible, here is the answer. Jesus told to the family who completely gave up on her by ripping off all hope that they had while she was still alive although she was dying.
But Jesus overheard them and said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.” (Mark 6:36)
What was Jesus’ answer? Give up and have no more prayer in hope? Or have faith? The Jesus’s answer was “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.” How about us, when we see no more hope at anymore? Bible continued.
Then Jesus stopped the crowd and wouldn’t let anyone go with him except Peter, James, and John (the brother of James). When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw much commotion and weeping and wailing.
Yes, all of the family were weeping over the daughter’s death. Why? Their daughter was already dead. Then what else could they do except weeping and wailing? How about us? If we see something that does not come out as we have been praying for, what do we do? Weeping and wailing or even mad at God as they did for the dead daughter while abandoning our hope and prayers in Him? Let’s hear what Jesus told to the family.He went inside and asked, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.” (Mark 5:39)
Do we hear this Jesus’ voice? Or just looking at the dead daughter, and weeping and wailing?
Hearing the Jesus’ answer, the crowd laughed at Jesus.
Surely the crowd’s response was absolutely right and logically correct. Wasn’t it completely absurd that talking that the dead daughter was not dead, but only asleep? How many times that we saw that our prayers did not happen, and we stopped our prayers also? Why? We already saw with our own eyes what we prayed did not happen. Our hope literally became dead before what we saw. In this situation, how should we say? Our hope is dead, or just asleep? Let’s continue following the Bible.
Jesus made them all leave, and Jesus took the girl’s father and mother and His three disciples into the room where the girl was lying. Holding her hand, Jesus said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means “Little girl, get up!” And the girl, who was twelve years old, immediately stood up and walked around! They were overwhelmed and totally amazed. Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone what had happened, and then he told them to give her something to eat.
Against the all odds and all expectations of the entire crowd, Jesus took her up by His merciful hand. She woke up from her sleep, and was joyfully hopping and walking in the room because of the joy of the precious touch of Jesus’s merciful hand. Surely, for the point of all the family and the crowd, she was dead, but for the Jesus point of view, she was just asleep.
Yes, it is really painful to see what we had prayed did not happen. Instead a completely opposite has happened. It is hard enough to shallow, but all family and the people around us are not silent. In unison, they say, “Your hope is dead. There is nothing that you can do because it is dead. Can you see with your own eyes that it is dead?” Then what can we do? Should we give in, stop praying and agree with the people around us?
No. Absolutely not! We must continue praying. For Jesus, it is not dead, but it is just asleep. Yes, people will laugh at us if we continue praying, hoping and believing. What did Jesus tell the synagogue leader and the family? Isn’t it Jesus’s answer: “What all this commotion and weeping? The child isn’t dead: she’s only asleep.”
What we pray (even one single word from our mouth in prayer) has not been dead, but just asleep. We must continue praying to God without giving up in faith. Surely, we will hear His voice in our fervent prayers and in our prayerful life before Him (that is, kneeling down before Him and absolutely surrendering to His Will). Without exception, He will guide us through His righteousness, because God, our Father, dearly loves us. This is our hope and faith in Him in our prayers.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)