Healing of Jairus’ Daughter

 (Luke 8:41-56)

In today’s Holy Gospel we hear of the healing of Jairus’ daughter… and not just a healing from sickness, but a much more radical healing… her resurrection from the dead.

We are told that a man named Jairus, a respected ruler of the synagogue, came and fell at Jesus’ feet and begged Him to come to his house and heal his daughter, who was deathly ill. Jairus approached Christ with hope and faith that He could heal his only daughter and make her well. There was urgency in his voice as he knew that she might not have long to live. Christ heard his desperate request and agreed to come to his house, promising to make his daughter well again.

But before they were able to come to the house, the news reached them that Jairus’ daughter had died. There was no longer any need to trouble the Master, for all hope was lost.

But when Jesus heard the news of this death, He answered saying, ‘Do not be afraid; only believe, and she will be made well.’

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh wrote the following regarding this Gospel passage:

Today’s Gospel is not only about miracles and the mercy of God; to me, it is about hope beyond hope. In the story of the daughter of Jairus we see a child already dead; everyone knows about it; there is such certainty that when the Son of God, become the Son of Man, says, ‘No! This child has not died, she is fallen asleep’, everyone contradicts Him: ‘No, this child has died’ … And then Christ, with a word of power, but in an act of love calls the child to earthly life again.

Isn’t this, — apart from being a true event of our human history, — isn’t this also a parable, and an image of so many human situations? How often we would say, ‘There is, no point in doing anything about this person, this person is lost anyhow; there is nothing to do about redeeming a given situation, this situation is beyond redemption’… And we must remember the words which were spoken by Christ to Peter when he said, ‘Who then can be saved?’ and the Lord said to him, ‘What is impossible to man, is possible unto God’.

Metropolitan Anthony calls today’s Gospel a story of hope beyond hope. It is indeed that. And it is also an admonishment and an encouragement to us.

It is an admonishment to us as we see the all too familiar reactions of those gathered at the house of Jairus. Those who knew the child was dead and were already mourning her loss. When Christ entered the home and proclaimed that she was not dead, that she was only sleeping – the crowd mocked and ridiculed Him, knowing that she was dead and there was no hope.

We need to be careful of our own ‘knowing too much’, of our foregone conclusions about people, about situations where we see no hope, and perhaps even about ourselves. How often do we lose hope about people, about situations, or about ourselves? And sometimes our certainty of our own prideful assessments can make us bitter and cynical and hopeless, so that when we hear the words of hope, we smirk and mock that optimism, considering such hope naïve and preferring the dark assurance of our own calculations and the certainty of our misery.

How can we give birth to hope? What are the two virtues that the Holy Church ties so closely to hope? Faith and love. Faith and love are required if we are to have the humility and the courage to dare to hope. We must have faith in God’s ability to make possible the impossible. And we must have love, knowing first of all how much God has loved us, and with grateful hearts extending our love back to Him.  

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, there is so much depression these days… dragging people to very dark places. It is true that there are plenty of things going on in the world that can lead us to those dark places: we are bombarded with headlines of war, crime, natural disasters, economic doom, mental illness, and all kinds of hopelessness. These things are real, and they are greatly concerning. But, as Christians, what should be our response? Must we trudge like lemmings toward the cliff of despair? Absolutely not! Christ is in our midst, dear brothers and sisters! Never forget that! Our response as Christians, must be to pray… to call upon God to bring consolation where there is sorrow, to bring healing where there is pain, to bring peace where there is conflict.

For every headline of sorrow, we must recognize that there are stories of hope and of love. There is so much goodness to be found if we have the eyes to look for it… and we, among all people, must be cultivating that goodness – for that goodness is the antidote to the evil being unleashed in the world.

Let us lift up our voice of hope. Let us lift up our voice of faith. Let us show forth a heart of love - and let us lift up our thanksgiving to God, Who can transform what seems impossible to us into the possible – Who can heal that which is broken and Who can even restore life to the dead.