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Grace, mercy and
peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
The
girl is not dead but sleeping.
Prayer: Dear Lord
Jesus, breathe out upon us all your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well,
and to all of us that we may hear well. May the words of my mouth and the
meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our
Redeemer. Amen.
If it weren’t for
the devil, there would never have been any death in the world at all. In the
bible, we read at the end of the first chapter of the first book of the bible,
Genesis chapter 1: God saw everything
that he had made, and behold, it was very good.
At this point in
the bible, there was no death, no suffering, no tragedies, no accidents, no
crying, no grief, no mourning. God did not create any of these things in his
beautiful world. All of these things come from the devil.
We read in the bible
that the devil was a wonderful angel like so many other wonderful creatures
that God had created. And like human beings, God had created the angels with a
free will. Love is never forced, worship is never forced, and service of God is
never forced, and so angels and humans must have had free will to love God
freely. And yet, the devil, we read, did not want to love God, or serve God, or
worship him, but was hungry for power, and wanted to be like God and to replace
God with himself. This greed, this lust for power meant that instead of
praising God with all the other angels, the devil fell into sin and corruption.
Then the devil dragged human beings into sin and corruption with him. And so,
even though God had created this wonderful world, this beautiful world, the
devil wanted nothing else but to stuff it up.
Death is not a
creation of God, and death is not a beautiful thing. It is a terrible thing,
and it is has come about because of the devil.
This is so
important for us to understand. In our culture, and our society here in
Australia, many people don’t think that the devil exists. Yes, he exists—and he
hungers after one thing: to destroy our lives and to mess them up, just as he
tries to destroy God’s beautiful world and to mess it up.
And so, what’s the
reason why it can happen that a beautiful 17 year old girl with her whole life
before her could be taken from us in this tragic way? The reason why these
kinds of things happen is because the devil is a pig and a scumbag.
We read in the
Gospels that even Jesus was pestered by Satan – now if the devil doesn’t hold
back from trying to attack the Son of God, do you think then he would hold back
from attacking us? If he doesn’t hold back from trying to attack the general of
the army, do you think then that he would hold back from the little soldiers
under him?
And yet, there is
something else to be said about all of this—and that is this: that Jesus is
God, and the devil is not. And Jesus has crushed Satan under his feet.
We read in the
first letter of the apostle John in the bible: The
reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. We read in the book of Hebrews: Through
death Jesus destroyed the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.
Everything that the
devil does and wants to do, Jesus has destroyed. He has taken all the devil’s
power out of it. He has knocked the devil’s teeth out, so that when we
Christians look into the face of death, there is nothing to be afraid of,
because Jesus has been there first, and he has risen from the dead. And Jesus
says: I am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who
lives and believes in me shall never die.
Anything that we
might say about God’s hand at work or his gracious plan in the midst of this
tragic event of Eleanor’s death is possible only because Jesus has destroyed
death. The devil has not won the victory over us. Jesus has died, and he has
risen from the dead, and he has won the victory over death. He has turned
everything bad, everything evil in the world completely on its head, and he has
destroyed it. With Jesus, death is nothing but the gate to heaven. With Jesus,
suffering is nothing but him drawing people closer to him. With Jesus, crying
and grief and mourning is nothing except a wonderful place for Jesus to come
and enter and bring his healing, his comfort and his peace. All this is
possible because Jesus has died, and he has risen from dead, and he has
destroyed the works of the devil.
+++
Now in the Gospel
reading we read today from the book of Matthew, we read about an event where a
man went to Jesus. This man had heard about all kinds of things that Jesus was
doing. He was a rich, wealthy, and respectable man. And we read that he came to
Jesus and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter
has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.”
What wonderful
faith we see from this man! This man has a heavy heart, and tragedy and death
have struck his home. He says: My daughter has just
died. But he also has a sense that Jesus is more powerful
that death. Jesus had created this beautiful daughter of his, just as he had
created this beautiful world right at the beginning of time. And yet, this
father has now experienced the cruelty of the devil, he has felt the oppression
and the hunger of an evil power that wants to destroy the happiness of a home
and to cause grief to a family and to a man and woman that they should outlive
their daughter.
And yet, this man has
something more to say about his daughter. He says that she had just died, but
he’s not finished. He has something more to say: Jesus, come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.
What is it about
this Jesus that he has even the power to make her live simply by applying his
touch and putting his hand on her? The man asks Jesus to come: He wants him to
come to the scene of the tragedy, to come to his home. And the father wants
Jesus to lay his hand on this girl—he wants Jesus to touch his daughter with
his own hand. And the father trusts that simply by Jesus doing this, that
something incredible will happen: he believes that she
will live.
And so we read: And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disiciples. Jesus knows what to do—he doesn’t argue with the man. He knows that what
the man asks for is possible and that it can be done.
And so we read that
when Jesus came to the ruler’s house he saw flute players and the crowd making
a commotion. In those days, when someone had died, there were
professional musicians who came to play sad music on the flute. And we read
that the crowd was making a commotion. In those days, as
it is still in some cultures around the world, there were professional mourners
who made it their business to come to house and make lots of noise: weeping and
wailing and carrying on. They come and feed off the tragedy like a bunch of
vultures.
And so when Jesus
arrives, he says: Go away, for the girl
is not dead but sleeping. Jesus gets rid of all the
rubbish that’s going on. But he makes a very strange statement. He says: The girl is not dead but sleeping. Why does he say this? It was obvious to everyone there that she was dead.
It was obvious to her father that she was dead, otherwise he wouldn’t have gone
in his desperation to Jesus. And so we read: They
laughed at him.
Death is a powerful
thing. But Jesus is more powerful still. And so with Jesus, because he is more
powerful than death and has power over death, in his eyes all death is nothing
but a peaceful sleep. And Jesus says that this girl is sleeping, for one
reason. When a person goes to sleep, they also wake up again. So Jesus says
this girl is sleeping because he knows how to wake her up.
And so we read: When the crowd had been put outside, Jesus went in and
took her by the hand, and the girl arose.
The father’s prayer
is answered. It happened to his daughter just as he asked. And Jesus simply
took her by the hand and girl arose. She simply sat up. What a wonderful
occasion it must have been to be there with Jesus on that day with that family
in that home! What a wonderful thing Jesus did for them to raise this girl from
the dead and to give her back to her parents, and return her to her friends!
+++
We might say, why
doesn’t Jesus perform a miracle like this today? But hang on a minute—we have
to remember something here. What happened to this young girl after she was
raised from the dead? Well, we assume that sometime later, when she was older,
maybe when she was an old lady, she died again. Otherwise, we would probably be
able to go to some village in Palestine or Israel and visit her and talk to
her. But it’s not the case—this young girl in our bible reading also died again
sometime.
So what’s the point
of this reading then? Does Jesus just come to give a happy ending for a little
while, but then comes later to give another sad ending? What’s the point of
that?
No—he wants to
point to something even better.
You see, on the
night before Jesus suffered and died for the world on the cross on Good Friday,
he said something to his twelve disciples who were together with him
celebrating his last supper. He said: Truly,
truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do;
and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
Now, what’s this? What’s
this that Jesus says that his disciples will do things that are even greater
works, even greater miracles than what Jesus did? How is that possible? Jesus
rose a girl from the dead. How can Jesus’ disciples do greater miracles than
that?
Well, Jesus sends
the disciples out all throughout the world to preach the gospel. Jesus sends
the disciples out to preach to the world that he has died and has made full
payment for all the sin of the whole world, and that he has taken every single
suffering, every single tear into his hands, and he has died for it. And yet
all that would be useless to us, if Jesus’ bones were still in a tomb
somewhere. And so, Jesus sends the disciples out to preach also that he is
risen from the dead and has completely destroyed the power of death. Even in
the church today, this work continues.
And then Jesus also
sends out his disciples to baptise people, using simple water, and also simple
words: In the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit. And when this
happens, then all the gifts that Jesus won on the cross all those many years
ago are now transported into the future and applied to each person simply by
baptising with water and God’s word. Each person who is baptised is given a
wonderful heavenly gift of a completely new birth, so that this person now
belongs to Jesus and will live not just in this life together with him, but
also in the next life together with him. And even in the church today, this
work continues, and it also continued when at some point Jesus spoke the words:
Eleanor Rose Stevenson, I baptise you in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
So why is the
preaching of the gospel and baptising people an even greater work than Jesus
raising a girl from the dead? Because in the reading, Jesus only raised this
girl for this life. When a person is baptised and when we preach the words of
the Holy Spirit of the free forgiveness of all your sins, then we know that we
are raising a person from the dead, not just for this life, but for the next
life, for eternity, so that in eternity every weakness of our human bodies will
be completely healed, every sin and disappointment will be completely done away
with, and every tear will be completely wiped away. Sure, we don’t actually
physically raise the person for eternity—Jesus does that. But this work is
begun here on this earth and is completed by Jesus in eternity.
And so back to our
reading: The father says to Jesus: My daughter has just
died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.
Yes, Jesus, we know
that Eleanor has died. But we also know that even though you looked after her
all throughout her life, you are still looking after her, and are still with
her. And Jesus still now comes to her, and he lays his loving hand on her, so
that she lives, and she still lives with him.
And we read in the
reading that Jesus says: Go away, for the girl
is not dead but sleeping.
Yes, Jesus, we know
that with you, Eleanor is not dead, but is simply sleeping until the time when
you will wake her up. She is waiting to have her body completely raised up and
reassembled and transfigured in a glorious way. St Paul writes: Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but
we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last
trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable,
and we shall be changed.
Eleanor was
beautiful. And yet, the best is still yet to come. She is just sleeping, but
when she is woken up by Jesus at the resurrection of the dead, she will be even
more beautiful than she has ever been before.
And we read at the
end of the reading: Jesus went in and took her
by the hand, and the girl arose. Jesus has taken her
by the hand all throughout her life, he has taken her by the hand in death, and
he will still take her by the hand all throughout eternity. You see, Jesus has
not taken a daughter away from her parents—she is still in the safe-keeping of
our Lord Jesus, so that when Danny and Julie also arrive in heaven and see
Jesus face to face, she will be presented back to them in a wonderful reunion,
not just for this family, but together with the whole family of the church all
throughout the world and all throughout time.
The story of
Eleanor Stevenson is not finished, because she has a Good Shepherd, Jesus
Christ, who has died for her, and has risen from the dead for her. And nothing
will snatch her out of his hands.
+++
Just in closing: I
remember a few years ago, I was in the Barossa Valley at a favourite little
country church of mine, and I went for a walk through the graveyard. And there
was a little row of children’s graves, and of course, we know that in a time
gone by, it was much more common for children to die.
But there was one
grave that had a little poem on it in German. The poem was a conversation
between two people. The first person said: You flower of God, the gardener’s
hand has picked you far too soon. And the second person responds by saying:
He didn’t pick her, he just planted her in a better country.
God bless you all
today as you come here to grieve this tragic death of a life so young. And yet,
don’t despair—we have a Jesus who has died and risen again. And he says: Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. May God bless you and strengthen you as together we look forward to that
better country where the gardener will allow us to see this beautiful flower
once again.
Amen.
Dear Lord Jesus,
our Good Shepherd, we place our tears and our grief into your hands, and we ask
that you would be gracious to us, and that you would place your hands upon us,
and bless us, and add your strength to our weak faith. Breathe out your Holy Spirit,
that we may be comforted with your word and your promises in the forgiveness of
sins, the resurrection of the dead, and the promise of everlasting life. Amen.
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