Issue 20 The words we useBlog | The Power of Love: Life on the edge (Luke 8:40-56) Sermon of the Year 2019 winner
The Power of Love: Life on the edge (Luke 8:40-56) Sermon of the Year 2019 winner
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 06.09.19
If this was a television episode of Casualty, the scene would have opened with a 999 call handler: ‘Nearest unit, divert to Church Lane, paediatric emergency at the Vicarage. Twelve-year-old girl, unconscious, breathing irregular. Hello, you still there Mr Jairus? Stay on the line please, there’s an ambulance on the way to your daughter.’ And we’d watch the anguished father wait, frantic at the end of his driveway, only to see the approaching blue lights being flagged down further back along the road at a bus stop – by some pale, unkempt woman who often sleeps in the bus shelter.
But it’s not Casualty, and there are no blue-light ambulances in first century Palestine. Jairus is a leader at the synagogue in a small Galilean town. His only daughter, the apple of his eye, just 12 years old, is critically ill – her survival on a knife edge. As his precious girl deteriorates, Jairus blunders out of his house, gazes briefly at the synagogue next door, then hurries into town. He’s looking for a maverick travelling preacher, named Jesus, who seems to know God rather better than the religious elite do. It’s not hard to find him, surrounded by the usual large entourage. Jairus takes one shuddering glance at the crowd, wishing this wasn’t all so public, and throws himself at Jesus’ feet. ‘Come, please, my daughter, I think she’s dying, we need your help…’ ‘Yes, of course,’ responds Jesus. ‘Thank you, this way,’ gabbles Jairus, hurrying Jesus along. In the heaving crowd, just a few pieces of humanity away from Jairus, is a woman. According to Jewish law, her ailment makes her tainted, an outcast.
