Reading Luke 8: 40 – 53:
40Now when
Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him. 41Then a
man named Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, came and fell at Jesus’ feet,
pleading with him to come to his house 42because his only daughter, a girl of
about twelve, was dying.
(…)
49While
Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue
ruler. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher any more.” 50Hearing
this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be
healed.” 51When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in
with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother.
52Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,”
Jesus said. “She is not dead but asleep.” 53They laughed at him, knowing that
she was dead. 54But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!” 55Her
spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her
something to eat. 56Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to
tell anyone what had happened.
Reading the Writer's eyes:
I once heard this phrase in a song of Jonathan Helser ("earth like heaven'): ♫ She’s not dead,
she’s just sleeping, she is waking up. ♫
I received a revelation about the story of the daughter of Jairus.
This is (also) speaking of the Bride! How often does it look like the Bride has died? We are
mourning over our church, we are crying over her, we are complaining about the
fact that she has lost all the life and strength she once had. With our natural
eyes the only thing we can see is a dying Church and all we can do about it is
mourn over it.
But then a leader is standing up, a religious
leader. He sees his only daughter is dying. The leader sees the only real thing, the real Bride
in the midst of all the religious traditions, is dying. He realizes that
nothing can help his daughter but Jesus Himself. So he falls at the feet of
Jesus, he surrenders himself to Him. The leader humbles himself before the multitude. Although
he is a religious leader, he is wise enough to go to Jesus. He pleads for his
daughter. He prays for the Bride on his knees before the feet of Jesus, because
he knows He is the only one who can save her. Jesus is moved by his pleads, He
comes with Jairus.
Jairus means “God enlightens”. The only reason
why the spiritual leaders can realize
Jesus is the only one who can give the church her life back, is because God
enlightens their heart. God wants to shine with His understanding in their
hearts, so they will go to Jesus.
We are meant to be a
Jairus, we are meant to plead for the
bride and to personally see how Jesus resurrects the church.
While Jesus
is coming to his church, there’s coming someone from the very house of Jairus to
stop them. He says: “The church is already dead. You can ask the Master as many
times as you want, but it won’t have any effect. Just don’t bother the Teacher
anymore.” The fact that the accuser comes from his own house and just pretends
to have the Teacher’s good in mind, makes this a very plausible argument. But
Jesus’ plans aren’t changed by the words of the accuser. He encourages the man
who walks beside Him: “Don’t be afraid, just believe. She will be healed.”
It’s
crucial that Jairus has faith, because only when he believes Jesus still can
save his daughter, Jesus is welcomed into his home. Notice that Jesus says “She
will be healed”, instead of “She will be resurrected.” Jesus sees His church
not as dead and without life, but as wounded in her identity and in a lack of
strength. He knows that she isn’t who she’s supposed to be, but Jesus also
knows that her story isn’t over and her story will have a happy-ending.
When Jesus
enter the house of Jairus, there are only a few people who can come with Him.
Only His closest friends and the ones
who took care of the daughter for all her life can come with Jesus.
I don’t
care about anything else in this world, as long as I can be one of the few ones
who lives close enough to Jesus to see with my own eyes how His Bride is
resurrected by His power.
I don’t want to be one of the many ones who were
crying and mourning outside the house. Perhaps it looks like they care about
the church, but their grief isn’t real. They are being paid for mourning over
the daughter, they are just pretending they care about the church so they will
receive what they want (acceptance, power, money, love, admiration). I don’t
want to be mourning outside the house with fake feelings, I want to live so
close to Jesus that I can actually come with Him inside the house to see His
resurrecting power. I want to be one of the few who are willing to give their
lives in order to give the Bride her life back.
And then
Jesus says something beautifully powerful. He tells the people to stop mourning
over the daughter of Jairus. He says: “She’s not dead. She’s just sleeping.” What
a statement! What if all the people who are complaining over the lack of life
in the church would hear Jesus saying today: “Stop mourning over the church. She’s
not dead. She’s just sleeping.” What a different perspective! The church still
can live, but she needs to be waken up! And that’s exactly what Jesus is about
to do, but He first wants all the mourning to stop, so faith can grow in the
hearts of people. But the people are laughing at Him, they don’t believe Him.
The world doesn’t believe the church is still alive today, nor that Jesus can
wake her up.
But Jesus
goes to His bride, He takes her by the hand and He commands her: “My child,
wake up!” I believe this is the time when Jesus takes the church by her hand to
lead her and tells her who she is, His
child, and by proclaiming her identity, she will be able to fulfill His
command, to wake up. It’s like a fairy tale, the Prince of Peace wakes His
bride with the kisses of His word (song of songs: 1:2).
The Bride
wakes up, she isn’t sleeping anymore. The Spirit returns and fills the Bride
again, she regains her strength by His Spirit. The Bride stands up, and takes
her place as a mighty princess-warrior, fighting for love. Jesus gives the command to feed her. Once the
Bride is resurrected, she needs to be fed by His word, because she’s still
weak. When she will eat the Living Bread of His Word and she’s filled with the
Spirit, she will be great testimony. Everywhere she goes, people will tell
about Jesus and His resurrecting power. Not only the things she does, but who
she is will make a major impact on many lives.
