“TRINITY 24”
Saint Matthew 9: 18-26
24st Sunday after Trinity: 5 November Anno Domini 2023
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
Whenever God comes to you, He is always taking care of you. He is a faithful Shepherd. Yes, He is always round and about you, but when He leads you hear by The Holy Ghost, here to His sheepfold The Holy Church, He specifically guards, feeds, clothes, and nourishes you. He does this Here because This is where The Word of God is. He is that very Word of God. You know all this. You believe, teach, and confess it.
To be sure, you cherish the doctrines of Law and Gospel which you have been taught. But Law and Gospel, (much likes The Scriptures themselves) never kept The Commandments perfectly, nor suffered and died on Calvary: Jesus did. He is the chief doctrine, i.e., teaching. It is always about His Person and work. These are the things He spoke to the crowds, large and small. As small as the “12.”
His Words converted souls and created faith in the ears, the souls, of those who heard Him. One such believer in Christ was Jairus “a certain ruler.”
You need to be like Jairus. He may have had others call him a “ruler” but he viewed himself vis-à-vis God as a poor miserable beggar. Luther would have approved. In the presence of Christ he genuflects, at the very least, and probably prostrates himself completely at the feet of His Lord. Be like Jairus. Though his little girl is dead he does not curse God or blacken his heart with hate and despair. Could we do the same?
He prays to Jesus and petitions Him to come and touch the corpse of the 12-year-old daughter [Luke].
Though Christ no longer resurrects our loved ones when they die, He does something infinitely better. He touches us all and gives us faith to believe in the GREAT resurrection of all flesh at the end of time.
Jesus literally touched you for the first time at the Holy + Font. That water comprehended in His Word (Himself) touched your head/heart/soul and gave you resurrected life. You were buried there with Him into death and lifted back up by His hands into eternity. Jairus believed that the visible Christ could do the same for his deceased little girl. You believe that the same Christ WILL DO SO for you and all of your deceased and beloved Saints.
Why the interesting interlude with the woman with a chronic (fatiguing at the best, debilitating at the worst) 12 year “issue of blood?”
Twelve is of course the number of Jesus’ Disciples. The 12 Apostles are the reconstitution of Jacob’s 12 Sons; for Christ is the true Israel. And in both the patriarchs and Apostolic band we see and have all of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. All of you and all of the Saints are the tender daughters of Zion—the poor suffering bleeding woman with her own blood, worthless and non-salvific, points to the Blood of Jesus which will heal her unto glory. She is a daughter of His heavenly Father. Jairus’ dead daughter is brought back to life showing the promise for all daughters of God—you all, the pure and regenerated Bride of Christ.
The core of this brief lection from The Gospel according to Saint Matthew, is again, both Jesus’ Person and Work. But it is not for the woman, Jairus, or his young resurrected daughter. It was written for The Church—for you. Yes, Jesus is God in the flesh. No one but God can speak the universe into being in 6 days; speak two young boys to life when they were dead (as The Lord did through Elias and Elisha); speak Lazarus and the Widow of Nain’s son back to life; and take “her by the hand, and the maid arose!” That is the God you have in your ears right now! That is the God you will have on your tongues in a moment! That is the very work of God.
The Savior can only save you by letting Himself be lost, to be temporarily encased in death and the prison of Satan. The Redeemer can only feed you, and clothe you, and give you home; home and Peace—by going without food, by having His robe gambled away, by suffering for you on the cross. The God/Man only can touch you with Baptismal Life then, Forgiven and Saving Life NOW, and everlasting Life in the world to come, by His act of dying for all your sins.
The Holy Ghost has brought you to Him. You have kneeled and worshipped Him. You have touched His garment, the robe laid upon + you. You have had faith—the Faith That Christ’s Spirit gave you through Grace.
You will sleep but you will never be truly dead. Arise O Daughter of Zion.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
Email the webmaster.Contact Augsburg Lutheran Church: (913) 403-6194