Matthew 9:18-26 “While he was saying this, a ruler came and knelt before him and said, ‘My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.’ Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.
            Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him. She said to herself, ‘If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.’ Jesus turned and saw her. ‘Take heart daughter,’ he said, ‘your faith has healed you.’ And the woman was healed from that moment.
            When Jesus entered the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd, he said, ‘Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.’ But they laughed at him. After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. News of this spread through all that region.”

In today’s society there is a lot of talk about how we have the power within us to lead God pleasing lives, to find our own truth, to always do what is right. One music star put this belief into a song called, “Let your soul be your pilot.” In certain areas of life, we do have some ability to pilot ourselves. We can increase our knowledge by hard study. We can become better athletes by practice. We can earn promotions by putting our skills to good use. But our soul can only guide us so far.

Do you think the ability to pilot oneself really mattered to those who had died recently in that airline crash? Sayings like, “Let your soul be your pilot!” lose meaning when trapped in a situation beyond our control. When it comes to saving ourselves eternally, this is the situation. Our sins against God have helplessly trapped us all on a plunging airliner about to slam into a sea of eternal death! Who is going to help us, we who can’t help ourselves?

To be sure, no one likes to think they’re helpless. We Americans are known throughout the world as having the opposite problem: We think too much of ourselves. We believe that we have the ability to get ourselves out of any situation. We are convinced we can pilot ourselves to be anything or do anything that we want. No, we don’t like to think we’re helpless in any way.

But when it comes to saving ourselves from eternal punishment, we are just that …helpless. Our helplessness comes from Adam and Eve, the parents of the human race, who fell into sin and completely changed the face of humanity in this world. God created humanity perfect and good. Yet, since the fall, each of us is conceived and born into this world with two serious problems, sin and death. Romans 5:12 teaches this clearly: “Sin entered the world through one man (Adam), and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men because all sinned.” Sin and death, we are helplessly enslaved to these enemies. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). We sin; we die! How helpless we are!

“Let your soul be your pilot?” It all depends on what you want your destination to be! If it’s heaven, we can’t pilot ourselves there on our own! We need someone to help those who cannot help themselves. Jesus is, of course, the one! This morning we have a wonderful picture of Jesus’ love in action. He helps not one but two people who were facing helpless situations.

The first one to come to him was a ruler whose daughter had just died. As Matthew writes, “While he was saying this, a synagogue ruler came and knelt before him and said, ‘My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live’” (Mt 9:18). As Jesus got up to go with the man, the second person in need of immediate help came up to him, a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed,” she said to herself (Mt 9:20,21).

This woman was suffering from bleeding for twelve years. We know from Mark’s account of this situation, that under the care of many doctors she had spent all she had, and was still getting worse. Truly, she was helpless! Not only that, her bleeding caused her to be ceremonially unclean. This meant that according to Jewish ceremonial law, she could not worship at the temple, until the bleeding stopped. Jesus was her last, and only hope. She knew this! She saw Jesus was none other than God himself who possessed the power to heal her. But because of her uncleanness, she didn’t want to call attention to herself. So with a confident faith in his power as God, she crept up behind Jesus, saying, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”

We should see our sin problem in this woman's bleeding problem. In our pride, we don’t want see ourselves this way! This is sure. Yet, as sinners, we are in same situation as this woman with the bleeding problem. She is a picture of the sinner before God. She is a picture of all, including Christian laity and pastors alike. We all stand before God completely unable to approach him because of our sins, yet still completely dependent on him for salvation.

So does God want to leave you there begging and tugging on his cloak without giving us help? Not at all. God has provided immediate help for sinners! God has wonderful news for you in Jesus' response to the helpless woman. After the woman pushed through the crowd to touch Jesus’ cloak, he simply turns to her and gives her the message she was dying to hear. “‘Take heart, daughter, your faith has healed you.’ And the woman was healed at that very moment” (Mt 9:22).

God speaks these comforting words to each of you today as well. “Take heart, daughter and son, your faith has healed YOU.” By saying, “Take heart!” Jesus pointed that woman, and points each of us to the very reason we can “take heart.” Each of us can take heart because we know that Jesus came to help those who can’t help themselves. We sinners were trapped on a plane of no escape. This plane is hurtling toward an unforgiving sea of eternal death. Yet Jesus, true God and true man, rescued us from that plane. He pulled each of us from the seats we had purchased by our sins, and he took our place in those seats! The plane crashed, and he died. But we were saved!

This is what Jesus did on the cross. He took us down from the cross, and put himself up there in our place. There, on the cross, he suffered the eternal death of hell so we would not have to. Yet he didn’t stay dead. He defeated death by rising again! This new life is now brought to us in the waters of Baptism.  In baptism, God raises us up to live victoriously over our two great enemies, sin and death. As St. Paul says in Romans 6:3,4: “All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. We were buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may lead a new life.”

This is the reason why Jesus said to the woman, “Take heart, daughter, your faith has healed you.” This is why he says this to you right now as well. Life giving baptism  has created faith to receive Christ’s life and forgiveness of sins into our hearts! Through faith we too are healed!

This powerful love of God which rescues us as we stand helpless before death, is our greatest comfort. This is what brought comfort to the other helpless person in our reading, the synagogue ruler whose daughter had just died.

Death of a loved one always brings sorrow into our lives, even for the Christian. It brings sadness because we can no longer share our lives with that the person here anymore. Here we have a parent who just lost a child! Surely this death punched a hole in his heart.

So the ruler comes to Jesus like this--with a hole punched in his heart by his daughter’s death. In his helplessness, he turns in faith to the only one with the power to rescue him from this loss. “My daughter has just died,” the ruler said to Jesus. “But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.”

Jesus and his disciples go to the man’s house where his daughter lay. As Jesus entered, Matthew tells us that flutes were playing. Obviously, this was funeral music according to the custom of Jesus’ time. Mourners were also there, so that the house was very noisy. Confronted with this scene, Jesus simply directs them, “Go away. The girl is not dead, but asleep” (Mt 9:24).

Just imagine if you had been one of the mourners who had come to be with father in his loss. Not only would you have heard Jesus tell you to get out, but that the girl wasn’t even dead! What would your reaction be? For those who do not recognize Jesus as the Savior who defeated death by his resurrection, the reaction would be very similar to the reaction of the crowd. Matthew records that “the crowd laughed at him.” They made Jesus out to be a fool. “What is this guy talking about!? We saw her dead. Certainly we know the difference between sleep and death. This guy is not only rude, but out of his mind!”

Despite the ridicule Jesus faced, the mourners were removed from the house. Jesus quietly went into the dead girl’s room, took her by her cold, lifeless hand and said, “Talitha koum!” This means “Little girl, get up!” By his power, Jesus defeated the little girl’s death and brought her back to life.

This is something Jesus does for all who believe in him! Will you Christian face death, a loved ones or even your own. Yes, you probably will. Death still comes into our lives, a parent’s death, a spouse, a child’s. It still causes separation. Yet, in Jesus, death has lost its sting!  We know that Jesus carries the souls of believers into God’s kingdom when they die.  Just as Jesus called the girl back to life by his voice—“Talitha koum!” he said—He will do the same for us on the Last Day. He will take our cold lifeless hand and call our bodies to immortality by His voice!

All this happens in the place of the death we deserved. We have let our souls pilot us into pride and arrogance against God. We deserved to slam into a sea of eternal judgment. It was beyond our ability to escape. But Jesus helps those who can’t help themselves! He saved us through faith! “I tell you the truth, whoever believes my word, and believes him who sent me has life and will not be condemned. He has crossed over from death to life” (Jn 5:24). Jesus is life, and we believers shall live with him forever! Amen.

May the Peace of God which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

In His Service,

Pastor Matthew W. Crick
The Eighth Sunday of Trinity
13 August 2000