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Look at these two women, two daughters as Jesus calls them. One dead, one dying. One was cut short with her life all before her, the other was slowly dying, hemorrhaging, bleeding to death for twelve years. Although they were two daughters in different places, Jesus gives both of them what they need more than anything else in the world. He gives them life, He heals them and gives them salvation. What will He give to you this day?

The younger one’s father, a ruler of the Jews named Jairus,[1] comes to Jesus, kneels before him saying, ““My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” (Matthew 9:18 ESV) Jairus knew and understood that the presence of Jesus changed things in a big way. Jesus was the healer of the sick, the ruler over demons, and even the wind and the waves obeyed His will. But raising from the dead? That seems a stretch, to hope for that much. Yet that is what this father trusts. He trusts that Jesus even make his dead daughter live again. “Lay your hand on her” he said to Jesus.

Do we trust God that much? Do we believe that God can actually, really change things? So often we cut God short when it comes to our expectations of Him. We have become so cynical, so jaded and hardened to the realities of God’s mysterious presence in our lives. Listen again to the crazy things that Paul asks of God for the Colossians:

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. (Col 1:9–10 ESV)

Spiritual wisdom and understanding means going to the source, Christ Himself. Spiritual wisdom means asking for what only God can grant. Living as though God is actually the Lord of heaven and earth is much harder than it sounds, but that is what Jairus does here. So He asks, and Jesus is on HIs way with Jairus to heal his daughter. But this trip of healing life will be interrupted.

The older woman is in a very different place than the younger girl. She sneaks up behind Jesus. She is too ashamed to even ask for healing out loud. The life is in the blood (Lev 17:11–14; Deut 12:23), and for her to have a discharge of blood for twelve years meant that she had been unclean, unable to enter into God’s holy presence in the Temple. She is slowly dying. But she, like Jairus, knows that in Jesus is life. If only I can touch the hem of His garment, she thinks to herself. I don’t want much. I’m not asking to change the world here. I only want my life back. Jesus, though, is not satisfied with only this. He turns around and says to her, ““Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.”” (Matthew 9:22 ESV) She may be unclean and slowly dying, but she is God’s precious child, His daughter. There is no such thing as a little problem to God. Each of His children are His beloved, and that means you, just as it did for this older daughter in our text.

But we can certainly sympathize with Jairus here, can’t we? Sometimes God’s healing salvation for you and I is interrupted. Can you imagine walking along with Jesus to heal your dead daughter, and He gets sidetracked by someone grabbing at His clothes? Sometimes we want to cry out to God like Isaiah, WAKE UP GOD! Remember? You’re the one who does all things well? Remember that I’m your son, your daughter? One thing is for sure, our sense of timing is not God’s sense of timing. Faith is trusting not in your timing and schedule and view of the world. Faith is trusting that Jesus does all things well, and that even though it may not happen when and the way you want, the way that Jesus does all things is far, far better than anything you or I could ever come up with in the first place. Jesus does raise this younger daughter from the dead. He does heal her. And He will raise you, and your loved ones who have died in Christ. Whether you are young or old, it doesn’t matter. God is the God of hope, not of despair. Trust that when God promises to raise you up on the Last Day, that it is true. On that day, everything will change. Death will be defeated once and for all. On that day it will be like the Israelites when they returned from Egypt:

“When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” The LORD has done great things for us; we are glad.” (Psalms 126:1–3 ESV)

So come to the table. Christ bids you not only to touch his garment, or to reach out his hand to you. Christ gives Himself to you, wholly and completely. You are His daughter, His son. You are precious in His sight. He who does all things well is here for you. While it may seem as though His healing presence is interrupted, do not be afraid. It will all happen in God’s gracious time. And it will be better than you can even imagine. Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

 [1] (we know this from Luke)

Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Messiah Lutheran Church

Kenosha, Wisconsin

All Saints’ Day (transferred to Nov. 7, 2010)

Revelation 7:2-17

allsaints2010

TITLE: “Who are these?”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text for All Saints Day is from Revelation chapter seven.  We focus on St. John’s question to the angel:  Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?

Some years are more focused on death than others.  This past year here at Messiah, we’ve only had one member of our church family who died in Christ, namely, Sandra Russo.  There have been other years where there have been more, sometimes as many as half a dozen.  But whether we’re talking about one person or half a dozen, there is almost always going to be a fair amount of the congregation that are going to ask the question: who was that person?

It is amazing sometimes how often we can sit together in church, receive Christ’s body and blood together, and look forward to an eternity in heaven with each other’s company, and yet barely know each other’s names.  Or perhaps you know a name, but barely anything beyond that.  Yet each one of you have a life, a history, a family, you have a sense of belonging and place here in Christ’s Church.  It’s just that we sometimes don’t know each others stories.

But there is something about death which raises the question, who are you?  What makes you who you are?  What is important to you and defines you day in, day out?  On a day like today, when we look back at the saints who have gone before, this is an important question.  How are you different from everyone else in the world?  What shapes your very life?

Now when you get right down to it, this is the question which St. John is asking in our text.  St. John is having a vision of heaven.  He sees the host arrayed in white, as we sang about it a few minutes ago in our hymn (TLH 656).  This host, this army dressed in white, come from every tribe and language, every people on earth.  They carry palm branches in their hand, the symbol of victory in the ancient world, and the sign of royalty.  You would put palm branches down on the road to hail the victorious king, just like we do on Palm Sunday right before Jesus’ death.  This army thing sings the song Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!  John, who is amazed at their number, asks the angel who are they and where did they come from.

I think St. John’s question to the elder that is there is a great one.  Who is the church?  What makes them who they are?  Or to ask it another way, what makes a saint a saint?  When the world says someone is a saint, they mean that the person is or was loving and thoughtful, generous and caring toward others.  They might even mean someone who led a life described in the beatitudes from our Gospel reading this morning.

But when the Scriptures talk about what it means to be a saint, they do not mean what the the world means by a saint.  The elder in our Revelation text describes it perfectly: “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.”  In other words, dear friends, a saint is someone who is washed and made clean by the blood of Christ.  A saint is someone who died in the faith of Jesus Christ.

There is great comfort in this for sinners like you and me.  There are no classes of Christians in God’s sight.  You, dear friends, are in the great tribulation, just like the ones in our text.  We look at the beginning or the middle of the journey; they look back upon the journey.  But you, dear Christian, you are washed in the waters of Holy Baptism.  Your baptism is your robe of righteousness, and you have been made clean and white in the blood of the lamb.

He who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence.  As we stand before the judgment seat of God, there is only one thing that will save us: the presence of Jesus Christ.  In other words, you are not alone!  The thousands upon thousands of white-robed martyrs are safe.  Why?  Because the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd.  Now that’s a switch.  The helpless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, He is the one who will shepherd them.  Jesus doesn’t let anyone else take His place in your life.  Only He can guard you and protect you.  Only He can guard and protect our loved ones who died in the faith.  As Solomon once wrote, the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them. (Wisdom 3:1)

Jesus will be their shepherd.  But like the life of Jesus itself, the life of the Christian on earth may not look so pretty.  As the hymn said, “On earth their work was not thought wise, But see them now in heaven’s eyes.”  When we look at the life of the Christian on earth, it is a life that is despised and scorned.  The Christian is mocked as old-fashioned and out of step with the world.  I’ve heard Christians derided because we don’t look at money the same way as the world, or raising children, or countless other things that make the world hate us.  In the early Church, the pagans thought that Christians ate their God in a horrific meal.  Today, Christians are harsh and judgmental because we believe that the life of an unborn child is precious, and that life is more important than the so-called “right to choose”.  Christians are seen as dumb and foolish, or as just plain weird.  And looking through the eyes of the world, that’s all true.

But we don’t look through the eyes of the world.  We look through the eyes of Jesus.  And what does He see?  Jesus sees His beloved children; He sees His little lambs that He bought with His own blood.  Jesus sees you and me as His brothers and sisters.  He looks at you and says, blessed.  Remember that word.  The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace.  You are blessed by God.

So it is that we remember God’s family in heaven and on earth.  We remember them in the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Communion.  For it is here, at this altar, that heaven and earth come together.  In old Norweigan churches the communion rails were in the shape of a half-circle.  The idea was that the communion continues around into heaven.  That is the whole Church, my friends.  When we commune at this altar, we join with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.  We commune with Christ, and so we join with all the saints of heaven in singing his praises.  Sing His praises, for He is the one who died and rose again for you, and for all the saints who have gone before us!

Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?  These are the saints of God who have gone before us in the faith.  And one day, O Christian, one day, O Baptized, one day you will join them.  Believe it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting.  Amen.