Two Miracles: Authority Over Disease… and Death (Luke 8:40-56)

However, the delay caused by the healing is devastatingly serious. Messengers from the Jewish leader’s house arrive to announce the daughter’s death. “Why trouble the teacher anymore?” In other words, hope is lost.

Jesus’s response is threefold. Do not fear! Only believe! She shall be saved! Hope is never lost with God on one’s side. Death is not the end. We need only have faith that He is able, that His plans will not go unfulfilled. Fear is in many ways the opposite of faith. Perhaps that is part of why the Bible speaks of the “Fear of the Lord” as being the faith that is required. We do not look to circumstances to dictate how we feel or what we think, but rather we look to God and trust that He is irresistibly powerful and sovereign. If He loves us, we can turst that things will go as they should.

When they arrive at the house, only Peter, Jon, and James are allowed to go in with Jesus and the parents. This is the first time we see this smaller group of disciples singled out. Jesus tells the mourners present that the daughter is only asleep, eliciting laughter and derision. This always strikes me as noteworthy. These (likely professional) mourners are numb in the reality and finality of death. Their mourning can hardly be that heartfelt if they are able to laugh and mock Jesus in this moment. This is the way we become calloused in this world dominated by sin and death.

Jesus, for the second time in as many paragraphs, risks uncleanliness by touching the dead girl. Taking her by the hand, He tells her to rise and she immediately gets up, restored. The parents are rightly amazed. Death is not normally overcome! However, Jesus commands them to not speak of what they have seen. Why? Perhaps it is because Jesus knows that He is not preparing to embark on a ministry of overcoming death in this way. The Gospel is not the good news that Jesus will raise people from the dead, but rather that He will die for us. Those who follow Jesus do not exercise faith in joy so much as in suffering. We await our ultimate hope while continuing in this world of sin and death.