Tuesday, February 1, 2022                                        (today’s lectionary)
Let the little children come
Is young Absalom safe?
May the enemies of my lord the king be as that young man! And King David was shaken. He wept, “Oh my son Absalom, Absalom my son, my son! Would God that I had died for thee.
When my child dies, no matter how we were with each other before he died, I am heartsick and broken like an old pane of glass, burst into a thousand pieces. Oh my son, my son!
Would God that I had died for thee.
When my child is sick, and Jesus is on the way to her bedside, and then she dies while he’s on the way, my heart breaks. Oh my Lord, Lord Jesus! Would God that I could have died for my daughter! Perhaps if you had come just a few moments sooner …
Incline your ear to your servant, O Lord, and answer me, for I am afflicted and poor.
This child is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. I don’t know what I’ll do without her. And David saw so many moments when he failed to be a good parent to my son. Does it matter, anymore, what I have accomplished in my life, how I have followed you all the days in all the ways you call in me? Can I not die too, my Lord Jesus, my Father? What is there to live for now?
Jesus is a busy man, and he does not answer those questions directly. A sick woman touched him and she was healed immediately after twelve years of bleeding.
She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Jesus was aware at once that power had gone out of him. The woman fell down before Jesus, and he said, “Daughter your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”
This woman had been a young girl once. Her parents doted on their daughter, and she grew up worshipping God. Still, she was ravaged by her hemorrhages. And now, she touched Jesus and the bleeding stopped, she could feel it instantly. She couldn’t wait to tell her mother when she got back home.
Jesus saw the fear in Jairus’ eyes and perhaps he thought of David and Absalom. In his war with Absalom, David could only be half-hearted because he loved his son so much. Oh Absalom, my son, my son!
Jesus knew he could raise up Jairus’ daughter. Perhaps he would have raised up Absalom as well. David had been a little boy, he had grown up strong like Absalom. Jairus had been a little boy and grown up to become his daughter’s father.
Let the little children come unto me, Jesus said.
And who among us was not then, or is not still, a little child?
Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; just have faith. The child is not dead, but asleep.”
Could this be? Jairus couldn’t believe his ears, and he could barely catch his breath. Jesus was so sure of himself. He and his wife looked at each other, held each other’s hand, and followed Jesus into their daughter’s room.
Jesus took the child by the hand and said, “Tailitha koum,” which means “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” She stood up immediately and walked around.
Joab did the killing, David did the bitter grieving, and Jesus did the resurrecting. Jairus and his wife did the celebrating, along with the woman on the highway and her mother. And in all those days of life and death, and our days too, the sun rises and the sun sets, and we follow our Father through one moment and then into the next. So thus we live our lives.
Jesus told her parents to give their daughter something to eat.
(Painting “The Raising of Jairus’ Daughter,” 1871 by Vasily Polenov)
 (2 Samuel 18, Psalm 86, Matthew 8, Mark 5)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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