The first person I ever saw die passed away in a hospital bed after a long battle with cancer. I worked a summer job at a hospital, and the nursing director needed a member of the staff present in the room when the patient expired. I stayed in the background during this intimate family moment, watching for the final breath.
When the man died I knew it and the family knew it. I passed the word to the nurse who checked to be sure, and a doctor entered in a few minutes and confirmed the death. Me, the family members, and the medical professionals all clearly recognized that this body once animated by life now lay sunken in death.
When Jesus walked into a house to heal a little girl who clearly died, he scolded the mourners—stop wailing, she is not dead but asleep. These people knew a dead body when they saw one. Their response to this clueless stranger? They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead.
They were right—she was dead. Until Jesus took the hand of the little girl and said, My child, get up! And amazingly, astoundingly, unbelievably, her spirit returned and she stood up. Jesus ordered the astonished parents to tell no one. But those loud mourners in the other room told everyone. No one could have shut me up had I seen that once-dead-now-alive little girl skip from that room.
Jesus says the same words to us—My child, get up! Have you heard them lately? He repeats them over and over. First when we were dead in sin, and again when life beats our spirits out of us. Jesus offers to take our hand and lift us from beds of death. New life awaits.
It doesn’t matter if those around us laugh at Jesus or don’t believe in Jesus. That little girl believes, and her parents believe, and their obnoxious neighbors believe. Billions more do so as well. Let their stories encourage us to turn to Jesus with the simple prayer—Jesus, help me get up.
Luke 8 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022
Photo by Frederic Köberl
Powerful words.