"I'm Not Dead. I Think I'll Go For A Walk" - October 12, 2010

Daily Lectionary for October 12, 2010
Psalm 119:1-24
Hosea 12:2-14
Acts 26:24-27:8
Luke 8:40-56

Luke 8:40-56
Jairus' daughter dies while Jesus is en route to save her.  He arrives to anguished folks "weeping and wailing for her".  Jesus says, "'Do not weep; for she is not dead but sleeping.'  And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead."(vs.52 and 53)  Jesus calls the girl to life and the parents are astounded and all seems to end well.  The place I want to focus is on the awareness of the people that the girl is dead.  There are several instances, including Jesus death and resurrection, where folks in the Bible are dead and then return to life.  One of the outs which some want to apply to the text is that these were ancient people who weren't really as adept as we are at telling when someone was dead.  As though these were backwards folks who went about handing out death certificates to people with a slight cold.  These stories are not told so we can figure out how it was that lightly sick people were mistakenly declared dead.  Scripture tells these stories to impart to us the power of Christ who can call people from death to life.  I think folks in Bible times saw death enough that they knew what it was.  And I believe that when Jesus chose to (and when he chooses to) he can indeed call people from death to life.