And when Jesus came to the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, [Jesus] went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.
They say, “Familiarity breeds contempt.”
That is, there are some people that as you get to know them more, the less you like them, or the less you respect them, and the less you want to be around them.
This saying isn’t for all people – because there are people that the more you get to know, the more you like them and the more you respect them and the more want to be around them.
There is a crowd that is found in our reading for today that the text says was making a commotion with the flute players. It’s an interesting crowd. They were likely professional mourners and wailers. People hired, out of love and respect and honor for the family, to scream and cry and make a scene at the death of someone.
If that is who the crowd is, and there’s good cultural reason to think it is, as well as the quick turn of emotions they have from crying and wailing to mockingly laughing at Jesus, then as their profession dealt with acting sad around death, they were familiar with death. They knew death very well.
The ruler’s little girl had died. St.’s Mark and Luke gives us that rulers name – it’s Jairus. Jairus’s little girl, his only little girl, had died. She was only 12.
The little girl dies or is coming very close to death and out goes Jairus to find Jesus and in comes the professional mourners and flute players making a commotion.
And when in comes Jesus, He said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping.” And they laughed at him.
The commotion making crowd knew what death was. They knew that girl was not sleeping. You wake up after you’re done sleeping. You have some breakfast if you’re 12 you honor your father and mother and listen to your teachers throughout the day after you’re done sleeping,
you work and you play,
you learn and eat and you have fun,
and then you go back to sleep again – this little girl was not going to do any of that ever again.
The commotion making crown was familiar with death. Even if they were a little numb and callous to death because of their professional acting, they respected death as the ultimate end, the story is over, no one is coming back – something no one can avoid and something all will have to face without an answer.
Go away, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping.
They laugh at that.
Their familiarity with death bread a contempt for the One who has authority over death.
Don’t laugh at Jesus. Don’t let familiarity with anything or anyone breed contempt for your God – your Maker and Redeemer, your Lord who has ultimate authority over everything, even death.
Luther says this text teaches us again and again this one important thing: That God wants to be our God.
That is the First Commandment. I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods.
There is real temptation to look at death and see death defeat anyone and anything and think death has the ultimate authority. To laugh at anyone or anything that claims a higher fear than the fear of death.
The little girl is not dead, but sleeping – yah right!
There’s a different temptation to ignore death completely. To have what Luther calls “false security” – to live any way you want and doing anything you want without any thought to consequences here in time or there in eternity.
The crowd in our text seems so numb to death that they can go from acting as if they are wailing to a mocking laughing of Jesus in a matter of seconds.
God protect us from being numb to Him who is the Judge of the living and the dead.
And what else can we laugh at Jesus for saying? What else are we tempted to become so familiar with that we begin to despise the giver of those gifts and the One who has ultimate authority over those gifts.
Our hymn put in our mouths, not laughter at Jesus for claiming to be God of All, but words of faith that confesses Jesus is our all.
That Jesus is our treasure,
our life,
our health,
Our wealth,
our friend, our love, our pleasure,
our joy, our crown, our all, our bliss eternally – to the point we now declare, what is the world to me?
Believe those words. Let familiarity with Jesus and His Word and His body and His blood and
His love
and His mercy
and His power
and His promises
and His commands
and His wisdom
and His goodness
lead you to becoming closer to Him who wants to be your God. Who says, “You shall have no other gods,” because you don’t need any other Gods,
because let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, and our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier.
Don’t laugh at those words, believe them.
The little girl is not dead, but sleeping.
Don’t laugh at those words, believe them.
And don’t let a familiarity with your sicknesses, your families problems, or your failures to live a holy life lead you to a despairing laughter at who God is for you and your family, either.
The other story in our text is a woman who had suffered a discharge of blood for 12 years. St Mark reports that she had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. (Mark 5:26)
What would that familiarity breed in you?
Contempt and anger for the physicians – “Can you believe what they’ve done. They’ve taken all my money and made me worse.”
Despair – “There is no one who can help me.”
Jealousy – “How come I’m suffering with this while she’s fine and healthy over there and happy with her husband and children?”
For this woman, she desires just to touch the fringe of Jesus’ garment and she’ll be made well – the Greek is a little deeper, not just “made well,” but “she will be saved.”
She kept saying to herself, “If only I touch His garment, I will be made well.” (I will be saved.)
The familiarity she had with her issue of blood led her not to despair, but led her to want to touch even only the garment of the One who can make her well, who can save her.
Become a little more familiar with your sin, with your unbelief, with the times you aren’t even trying to live a holy life –
become a little more familiar with your heart that might be tempted to despise people in your life, even ones that you might be very close to –
become a little more familiar with the things and people that surround you that help you see your helplessness –
and bring the familiarity here where Jesus touches you with His Words and His body and His blood.
The woman who wanted to touch only the fringe of Jesus’ garment, Jesus’ would give His all for her. All so that she and you could be clothed, not only with a little Jesus, not with only a fringe of Jesus’ garment, but the whole Jesus, for all of you who have been baptized, have put on Christ.
The crowds who laughed at Jesus, Jesus would give His all for them. Soldiers twisted together a crown of thorn and put it on his head and put a reed in right hand, and kneeling before Him, mocked him [laughed at Him], saying, “Hail, King of the Jews.” (Matthew 27:29)
O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. (Psalm 95:6-7)
In Christ, our Shepherd, we can begin to laugh at the most serious things we know – death, sickness, loss of love and wealth.
What is this world to me?
With Jesus, my treasure,
my life, my health, my health,
my friend, my love, my pleasure,
my joy, my crown, my all,
my bliss eternally,
and He’s here, doling out familiar Word of comfort, forgiveness, healing and peace, distributing familiar food that strengthens body and soul here and eternally.