God keeps His promises

When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his fee and pleaded earnestly with him, "My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live." So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

"You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, `Who touched me?' "

But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. "Your daughter is dead," they said. "Why bother the teacher any more?"

Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, "Don't be afraid; just believe."

He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue ruler, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, "Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep." But they laughed at him.

After he put them all out, he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum!" (which means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!"). Immediately the girl stood up and walked around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat (Matthew 5:21-43).

The prophet Jeremiah lived in a time of chaos and despair. All around him, society was collapsing. The country of Judah had been ruled by a series of evil kings. The nation was threatened by hostile foreign nations. More and more, people ignored God and lavished their affection on the things He had created. Justice in the courts was hard to find. Sexual immorality was widespread. Time and again, God had sent His prophets to tell the people to repent of their sins and turn back to their Creator. By the time that God called Jeremiah to be His prophet, He was ready to take drastic action to purify His people from their corruptness. God allowed the nation of Babylon to conquer Judah, destroy Jerusalem and deport her leading citizens. Jeremiah, seeing his homeland utterly corrupted by sin and laid waste by God’s righteous wrath, wrote the Book of Lamentations to express the sorrows of a chastened people.

Our world of today is not so very different—indeed, in some ways it is worse than in Jeremiah’s day. Although the kings of Judah were evil, they could not be removed from office; in America, a president was impeached for lying in a court of law and yet the people did not demand that he be removed from office. In Jeremiah’s time, sexual immorality was common; in America, some states are giving legal recognition to same-sex marriages; some schools distribute condoms to their students instead of teaching abstinence until marriage. In Jeremiah’s day, people worshipped idols instead of God; today, Americans not only credit evolution for the creation of life, but they forbid schools from teaching creation by God as an alternative. Will God chasten America as He did Judah? Considering the school shootings at Columbine High School, the terrorist attack on 9/11 and the destructive hurricane season just ending, some think He has already begun to abandon our nation to the weight of its sin.

Our fellow Americans are looking for solutions to their problems, relief from the distress that surrounds them. A huge portion of our paychecks goes to fund government agencies that are supposed to protect us. Our nation puts policemen on the beat to stop crime, yet our courts and prisons keep returning criminals to the streets. Our government hires social workers to protect families from disintegration, yet children and spouses are killed by abuse daily. Our teachers get better training and higher wages than ever before, yet parents forbid their children to be disciplined in the classroom and many graduate from high school functionally illiterate. Leprosy, the dread disease of Bible times, has been largely brought under control by medical science, only to be superceded by AIDS. In Jeremiah’s day, people put their trust in idols and foreign alliances instead of God. Today, Americans put their trust in science, education and our military might instead of God. Without God, the decay of sin overran Judah; without God, the decay of sin is overrunning America.

From time to time, every Christian shakes his head in wonder that God hasn’t given up on mankind long ago. It’s inconceivable to us that anyone could be as patient as God is with us. The reason we cannot comprehend God’s patience is that we cannot comprehend the true nature of His perfect, eternal, infinite love for us. The apostle John tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8); God alone is the source of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Because God is good and kind, He is grieved to see His once-perfect creation groaning under the rot of sin; because God is love, He sent His Son to free us from the guilt and pain of sin. Because God is faithful, He always keeps His promises—and God promises us deliverance from bondage to sin and the guilt that it brings.

Jeremiah knew that God is faithful. That is how, in the midst of devastation and despair, he was able to say these words in Lamentations chapter 3:
Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him."
The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.
It is good for a man to bear the yoke
while he is young.
Let him sit alone in silence,
for the LORD has laid it on him.
Let him bury his face in the dust--
there may yet be hope.
Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,
and let him be filled with disgrace.
For men are not cast off
by the Lord forever.
Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
so great is his unfailing love.
For he does not willingly bring affliction
or grief to the children of men.

What hope! What trust! In spite of all that had happened, Jeremiah did not turn away from the Lord in bitterness. No, he reminds us that if God punished us, as we truly deserve, there would be nothing left! The fact that we have the opportunity to see our sins and repent before judgement demonstrates God’s mercy to us.

Jeremiah was no false prophet; God did indeed restore His people to the land He had promised them. 70 years after the Exile began, God moved Cyrus, king of Persia to allow the captive Jews to return to Judah. The Jews knew that God would keep His promise to free them from their suffering; as soon as they had returned home they rebuilt the temple altar and offered thanks to God for His mercy.

God does not always make us wait such a long time for deliverance. In today’s Gospel lesson, when Jairus came to Jesus to plead for his daughter’s life, Jesus went with him immediately. Then, while they were on the way, they received word that the little girl had already died. Jairus may have been tempted to believe that the situation had become hopeless. He may have thought: "It’s all my fault! If only I had found Jesus sooner. If only we had walked faster. What can be done now?" But it wasn’t too late for Jesus. Jesus knew what Jairus needed to end his suffering, and Jesus knew when it was time for the miracle to occur. Jesus told Jairus "Don't be afraid, just believe" and He then restored Jairus’ precious daughter to life! Just when things seemed utterly hopeless, Jesus granted the sweetest relief.

The restoration of the Jews to their homeland and the restoration of life to Jairus’ daughter were wonderful testimonies to God’s faithfulness. But the greatest testimony of God’s love to each and every sinner was the sacrifice and resurrection of God’s only Son to fulfill His promise of restoration to God’s favor. When Adam and Eve sinned that very first time, the gates to God’s throne in heaven were slammed shut and no man or woman ever again could truly know God or please Him in any way. God is holy, and unclean things cannot stand in His presence. As descendents of Adam and Eve, we have all inherited the taint of their rebellion against God. But as soon as God confronted our first parents with their sin, He also promised them that He would restore the relationship with Him that they had broken. God sent His Son Jesus to live among us, to fulfill God’s demand for holiness on our behalf, and to die a criminal’s death in our place. On the cross, Jesus bore in His broken body the punishment for our broken relationship with God; when Jesus died, so also died our guilt. Now Jesus stands in the presence of His Father, alive forevermore, and re-opens heaven to those who rely on Him alone for release from sin, sorrow and death. God has kept His promise.

While we know that God loves us and will deliver us from suffering, we still have times of doubt. Sometimes God makes us wait for release, as the Jews were made to wait in Babylon for 70 years. Sometimes God grants release at the point where all hope seems lost, as He did with Jairus. God’s timetable is not our timetable. And when we are waiting for release, Satan whispers in our ears vicious lies to make us doubt: "God is far off and does not hear" Satan says. Or "God is displeased with you—you are not worthy of His attention." Worst of all, Satan tries to make us believe that God does not exist at all, and that our faith is a delusion. When Satan begins to whisper words of doubt and unbelief, read again Jeremiah’s words of confident hope, read again of Jesus’ miraculous gift of life restored. Remember that God is faithful to His promises. God takes His promises so seriously that He allowed His only Son to be murdered in order that the promise of salvation would be valid for you and for me.

God has promised release from suffering. We know that release will come at a time of God’s choosing, not ours. God provides us with patient strength to bear the trials of waiting. He has given us the Holy Bible to read at home and to hear in church. He has given us Communion at His table to strengthen our faltering faith. He has put Christians in your life to help share your burden until the hour of release comes. Thank the Lord that He is faithful! Praise the Lord for His mercy! Pray that the Lord will give you patience as you wait in joyful hope of the peace that only God can give. "The LORD is my light and my salvation--whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life--of whom shall I be afraid?" (Psalm 27:1).