The Resurrection at Galilee - Conclusion

When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered round him while he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. He 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 round 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 realised that power had gone out from him. He turned round 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 people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. ‘Your daughter is dead,’ they said. ‘Why bother the teacher anymore?’ Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, ‘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 leader, 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. 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 began to walk 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. https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/113/MRK.5.21-43 A good number of years ago, in 1995, I was staffing a boys camp for children from a deprived area of the north east of Scotland. I was there because my intended trip to Romania had fallen through due to the leader's wife having a cancerous tumour removed from her ovaries which apparently was the size of a golf ball. But despite this dramatic surgical intervention, I felt sorry for me. This camp was a replacement for where I felt I should be. Evidently God had other ideas. The camp was tough. The dialect spoken by these boys was almost impenetrable. Romanian would have been easier - and I couldn't speak the language then. Three days in and I was gradually getting the hang of it. Then suddenly I realised something: these boys came from a similar place to me. I knew how it felt to be them. I knew the sense of hopelessness, the sense of despair, the sense that nothing could ever change and that you should just make the best of things. I knew the thought that survival was the most important thing you could do. I had moved out of my bad neighbourhood two years prior to this camp, but the memories were pretty raw. So I began to connect with these lads. An invitation went out to give testimonies. I volunteered. On the second to last night, I stood in front of these boys as they feigned boredom and distraction and I told them what God had done for me and my family. I told them how we felt trapped. Yet two years previously God had rescued us, quite dramatically, from that neighbourhood. I told them how there was hope. I told them how I was now at university. I told them that they didn't need to stay trapped in poverty, and how God could open a door for them to leave and make something of their lives. Two of them listened. I sat at a table as they gave their lives to Christ. I don't know what happened next. I live over a hundred miles away and left the follow-up to Christians nearby. But what I can say is this: everything I told them was real. We see three people here who seem to be trapped in negative situations, the way we often feel. We see the man who touched Jesus, stressed and worried about his sick daughter, to the extent that he will do whatever it takes to make her well. We see the woman who touched Jesus, whose health situation has defied medical wisdom and kept her isolated from others. We see the girl Jesus touched, who was stone cold dead. In each of these situations, Jesus being there made all the difference. He heeded the call to save the girl. He healed the desperately sick woman. He healed the dead daughter. There is no situation that is too far gone for Jesus. He can save us too. He is here. He can change everything for you. All you have to do is seek Him out and listen to Him when He calls. He is calling now. He is calling you to not give in. To not surrender. To rise up and live a new life. Do you hear His call, friend? Will you obey?