Just a Nap

Matthew 9:18,23-26, Mark 5:41

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Our devotion today comes from Matthew chapter nine. Jesus has a man named Jairus, a ruler who approaches him and says to him,

“My daughter has just died. But come, place your hand on her, and she will live.” (Matthew 9:18 EHV)

And then later it says,

When Jesus came into the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd, he said to them, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but is sleeping.” But they laughed at him. When the crowd was sent out of the house, Jesus went in, took the girl by the hand, and she was raised. News of this went out through the entire region. (Matthew 9:23-26 EHV)

I remember years ago when I was a young pastor, an elderly man came to me to talk to me about something and began telling me about his son, a little boy, who had drowned on his property back when the boy was probably about seven years old. This older man just suddenly began to cry. It showed how the death of a child can really stay with somebody. It hits you differently than like, a grandparent or an adult. It’s one of the pains that we can feel in the sadness of this fallen world. And pastors will tell you that trying to help people through the loss of a child can be one of the most agonizing, difficult things.

And there are certain times in life when the troubles and pain of this world can really land on one individual. And this Jairus coming to Jesus is one who’s experiencing that. But he’s also going to the right place. He’s bringing his petition, his prayer to Jesus. And we’re told in the rest of the Bible that he came and worshiped Jesus and made this request known to him.

And so Jesus now goes to this man’s house, and he passes through this crowd of professional mourners, people that would actually be paid to come and express the sadness in your house. And one of the translations says that Jesus said to them, make room. Kind of like, get out of the way because I need to go to this girl’s side. It’s almost like a rescue of a paramedic. And when a child has been drowning and has to tell everybody going through the crowd to get out of their way so they can go and rescue the child.

And this wonderful declaration, and God’s analysis of this girl’s situation. Listen, Jesus says she is not dead, but sleeping. That’s a great way for the Christian to look at death. She is not dead, but sleeping. Now, of course, the crowd reacted like, well, that’s ridiculous. And they even laughed at him and they mocked him for this. But notice how different our human minds are when they look at things compared to the power of God, who controls all things and has his hand over all the laws of nature.

And the Bible records many of these resurrections to give us comfort with our own future death and the resurrection that we can have by faith in Christ. Jesus, because of his power and because of his invitation for us to believe in him, he invites you and me now to stare at your future death, just like a nap or like a sleep that you will awake from. And to look at it with defiance. Martin Luther once said that if the devil comes to make you afraid of being in your grave, say to him, I have Christ, Satan, even if you should explode on me with all of hell.

And I want you to notice one last thing. Notice what Jesus uses to bring this little girl back to life. The gospel of Mark tells us he spoke two little words. “Talitha, koum!” (Mark 5:41) “Little one, get up” is how it’s translated. “Little one, get up.” God opens these graves and raises these people, as we see in the Bible, as kind of a little foretaste for us of the coming resurrection that we will get to enjoy.

And that’s why Easter and the resurrection has been such a wonderful, important part of Christians in their lives. In fact, that’s why they pick Sunday mornings as the day to worship, because that was the day our Lord was raised as well. Amen.