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INJ
St Matthew 9:18-26
'Sleeping Through the Sermon'
Divine Service
24th Sunday after Trinity | November19, 2006
Dear Saints,
'Sleeping through the sermon,' did you see that in the bulleting and think it was liturgical instructions to follow? No, the sleeping that I would like to talk about isn't you all sleeping, at least not yet. I want to talk about the much beloved daughter of Jairus. We heard about her sleeping in the Gospel text.
Mark and Luke tell us more of the details than Matthew, so when know this. The man who comes to beg for Jesus' mercy on behalf of his daughter is named Jairus, and he is a ruler in the synagogue. His daughter is alive when he leave to find Jesus, barely alive. When they are returning servants come from the house to report the girls death. “Why trouble the Teacher any further.”
But Jesus is meant to be troubled, He loves to be troubled, to be troubled with all our troubles. Jesus says to Jairus, “Don't be afraid, just believe,” [Mark 5:36] and they continue on to the house. When they arrive the mourners are all in full swing, the flute is playing, women (these are probably friends and family as well as professional mourners who are hired to wail and beat their chests) are crying and making a mournful tumult.
But Jesus comes and now their must be an end to crying. Listen to what He says, “Make room, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping.” “Jairus, your daughter is sleeping, and I've come to wake her up.”
“Not dead... sleeping.” What words, words that seem a mockery to unbelief, like a cruel joke. Look at how unbelief reacts to the promises of Jesus, the text says: “They laughed Him to scorn.” Silly, foolish little Jesus, He just doesn't know how dead the little girls is. The promises of Jesus always seem out of touch to unbelief. “Forgiven, ha! Jesus doesn't know what I've done, He doesn't know how dead I really am.” But all of your really deadness, all of our being dead in trespasses and sins is nothing for Jesus, or better, it is everything for Him, for He has taken everything, all of our sinning and all of our dying, He's done it already, suffered for it, died for it, been in the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth for us.
That's why Jesus knows that death is but a sleep, because He has destroyed death. Death looks so terrible to us, so dark, so final, so cold, like the last page of a book that we don't want to end. But Jesus reads on, with no pages, He's writing the book, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. The tomb is empty, Jesus is risen, the first-born from the dead, and He is writing the chapter titled, “I am the Resurrection and the Life, all who believe in Me, though they die, yet they shall live.” And we are reading His wonderful words today.
Because of Jesus' death and resurrection, death has lost its sting. Imagine a bee or a wasp with no stinger, what is there to be afraid of? Imagine fire that is not hot, what is there to be afraid of? Death is like a lion with no teeth, a bear with no claws, an arrow with no head, a sword with no blade, a gun with no bullet, what is there to be afraid of?
It is as St Paul preaches to us as his ode to the resurrection reaches its climax, “Death is swallowed up in victory. 'O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?' The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” [1 Corinthians 15:54-57]
This is why the death of the believer is spoken of in such lovely ways in the Scriptures. Mortis dulcia nomina, “the Sweet Names of Death” is what the old teachers in the church called them.
“Depart and be with Christ”
Philippians 1:23- I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
“Departure in peace”
St Luke 2:29- "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word.”
“Taken from evil”
Isaiah 57:1- The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from calamity [evil].
“Passing from death to life”
St John 5:24- Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
“Gain”
Philippians 1:21- For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
These, dear saints, are the names which the Scriptures give to our death. It doesn't sound too bad. There's certainly no sting in these names. But perhaps the sweetest name of all is the name Jesus gives to death on His visit to Jairus' house, “Sleep.” It is a word with no terror or fear, like a baby in its mothers arms, and a smile on its face as it breaths deeply. “The girl is not dead, but sleeping.” Jesus will speak like this again, of His beloved Lazarus: "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him." [St John 11:11]
St Paul also loves to call death by this name. “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.” [1 Thessalonians 4:13] And again, “Now Christ is risen from the dead and become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” [1 Corinthians 15:20]
Dear Saints, Your are bound to Jesus, by His name written on you in your baptism you are connected to Him, you have died with Him [Romans 6:4], and have been raised with Him. Your death has nothing to fear; it is simply falling asleep in the arms of your Jesus.
One of the dangers of hearing this story it that we are so used to hearing stories that are not true. 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears,' 'Cinderella,' 'The Night Before Christmas.' These are all fiction, that's what we are used to hearing and listening to. We know that the stories in the Scriptures are true, that they are history, that they actually happened, that there was, two-thousand years ago a man named Jairus who was a ruler in the synagogue and who fretted over his sick daughter. We know that these events that we have heard really did unfold, and that Jesus really did touch this girl and she really did wake up from death.
But still, it seems far away, doesn't it. Like a fairy tale. We don't know what the weather was like or what color the girl's hair was, but there was weather, and there was hair, and there was death and crying and promising and laughing and joy and rejoicing and marvel over this man Jesus. How must have Jairus felt when Jesus gave his daughter back into his arms!
I know that heaven often seems far away from us, that our eyes cannot see past the grave, and that all of this talk of the resurrection and the new heaven and the new earth often sounds like a fairy tale. But dear saints, beloved of the Lord, the very same Jesus who walked with Jairus to raise his daughter will one day stand upon the earth, and He will call out of the grave all who are dead, and He will give to all those who believe in Him everlasting bliss and life and fullness of joy and the blessed vision of God.
Hear is what Jesus says about it, “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth- those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” [St John 5:28,29] Jesus will return as He promised, He will stand on the earth and with a shout He will wake our bodies from sleep. That will be a sermon that no one will sleep through!
May the same Lord Jesus send us His Holy Spirit, that trusting in His death for us we would fear the grave as little as our bed, and that on the last day we would awaken to the resurrection of life.
Pax
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO
