Eternal Healing

While He was saying this, a synagogue leader 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 and touched the edge of His cloak. 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 at that moment.

When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, 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. (Matthew 9:18-26 NIV)

Mark's Gospel tells us the synagogue leader's name was Jairus. He comes to Jesus with desperate faith. My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” There is no grief in this life like the grief of the death of one of our children. And yet Jairus comes, believing Jesus can raise his daughter from death. There is perhaps no greater faith displayed in Scripture. I believe Jesus can raise the dead. I believe Jesus will raise the dead - someday. But asking Jesus to raise a dead person, today? That's a stretch for my faith.

One of the most striking sentences in this text that is easy to overlook is this one: Jesus got up and went with him. Jesus could have said to Jairus, "I'm so sorry for your loss. I will give you comfort and strength." But He got up and went with him. Jesus goes where He finds faith. Jesus enters into the lives of those who trust Him. Jesus does wondrous things in the life of one who comes to Him in faith.

As Jesus is on the way to Jairus' house, a woman works her way through the crowd and touches the hem of His garment, releasing healing power that stops her chronic bleeding. Jesus stops and encounters her, assuring her of her healing by the faith she displayed in reaching out to Him.

I wonder what Jairus thought about that? Perhaps he took it in stride, so confident that Jesus could raise his daughter that he simply rejoiced with the woman that she, too, was healed. Or perhaps he was frustrated and impatient with the interruption. Jesus was on the way to raise his daughter. There wasn't time for this. "Come on, Jesus. My daughter needs you now." What a difference it would make in our lives if we saw every interruption as an opportunity for God to do something eternal, either in us or through us.

After a brief encounter that might have seemed like an eternity, they resumed their journey and arrived at Jairus' house. When He arrived, it was chaos. The culturally accepted way to grieve the loss of a family member in that day was to have family and friends and neighbors gather and wail. They joined in the grief. And there is catharsis in that. But Jesus was having none of it. He said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” Jesus is about to end the mourning, turning it to joy. He is Life, and to Him, death is nothing more than a human being taking a nap. He is able to awaken us from the sleep of death.

But they laughed at Him. They knew death was final. They knew the difference between a sleeping girl and a dead girl. Their reality is our reality. Nothing fixes death. Except Jesus.

Mark's Gospel tells us that Jesus took only Peter, James, John, Jairus and the girl's mother with Him into the room after He put the crowd outside. The miracle that would follow was to be done in an atmosphere of faith, not skepticism and doubt. Then He simply took her by the hand and said, "Little girl, get up." And Jairus' daughter came back to life. Can you put yourself in that room with Jairus and his wife? What utter amazement and joy must have filled the house!

Whether it is here and now, as in the case of Jairus' daughter, or on the other side of physical death which awaits all of us, eternal healing is healing. Sometimes we pray for a loved one who is gravely ill, and they die, anyway. But with faith in Jesus Christ, death results in transformation. There we receive a new, glorified body that is completely healthy and will never taste illness or death again for all eternity.

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44 NIV)

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (1 John 3:2 NIV)

Jairus' daughter died again at some point. So did Lazarus, another man Jesus raised from death (see John 11).  But when we experience eternal healing in the Presence of the One who is Life itself, we will never taste death again.

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:1-4 NIV)

This is the hope of all who walk with Jesus Christ by faith, trusting Him for redemption from sin and death. And best of all, this eternal Life, this eternal healing, enters us here and now when we receive Jesus as Savior and Lord of our lives. Eternity does not begin for a believer the moment we die. It begins the moment we place our trust in Jesus! It begins the moment we place our trust in Jesus! We begin to live eternity here and now, and it continues on the other side of our physical death.

To God be the glory!