Second part of Sermon LXXI. for the Twenty-fourth Sunday after
Trinity. Col. i. 3-11. St. Matthew ix. 18-26.
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease
to pray for you.—COL.
i. 9.(for the first part, on the Epistle.)
...We have this day a remarkable instance of our Lord’s readiness to
answer the intercessions of love, so as to raise even from the dead; and
also, at the same time, of the exceeding virtue going from Him on the touch
of faith to cleanse and to heal.
While Jesus spake these things unto John’s disciples. It was
on that memorable occasion in the house of St. Matthew, after his summons
to be a disciple, when he made “a great feast,” and had called together
his friends of every kind to witness the presence of Christ. Pharisees
and publicans, disciples of John and of Christ, were all there, a great
and mixed company. In the midst of the conversation, it is said, Behold,
there came a certain ruler, and worshipped Him, one named Jairus, who,
when he saw Him, says St. Mark, fell at His feet, and greatly besought
Him, saying, My daughter is even now dead; but come and lay Thy hand
upon her, and she shall Jive. And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so
did His disciples.
Now is not this manifestation of God in the flesh, even taken alone
and by itself, sufficient for all things, for every intercession, marking
the requisites and the acceptableness of it? Here is prayer, humble, earnest,
importunate; he fell at His feet worshipping earnestly beseeching Him.
And the answer is so marked that God at once is seen co-operating with
the father, and meeting his prayer. In the midst of the feast, and of these
divine discourses, He instantly rises up at the voice of prayer; and as
if to show His earnest readiness to aid and second his wishes He leaves
the assembled company at St. Matthew’s house and goes with him. Although
He might have done all by His word spoken, yet He would show us, by thus
condescending, and not shrinking from the trouble of the task enjoined
Him, how willing He is to meet us in our prayers, when we ask for each
other. That this father, the ruler of the synagogue, represents any father
who prays to God for his child, that he may be rescued from spiritual death,
is obvious, a child would so understand it. To consider it so is in no
way adding to the Scriptural account, but only applying it to ourselves;
and without such application to ourselves all Scripture is dead and unprofitable.
And the name father does in this case contain every other relationship,—natural
and spiritual. If of fathers in the flesh, so likewise of spiritual fathers
does it speak, who intercede like St. Paul for their flocks, that they
may be saved from death, or that they might grow -unto all perfection.
And of course wherever there is fatherly or brotherly love, that is anxious
for the good of others and their everlasting welfare, this incident supplies
all the encouragements and the confirmation that can be needed. The lesson
is so easy, so forcible, so impressive, that if we knew nothing more than
this single circumstance, it might, on reflection, quite startle and amaze
us to think how remiss we are in prayers for each other. The father besought
Him and He immediately arose and went with him; how much does this contain
? Why do you not thus pray for others, which are or should be dear to you?
Is it that you are less anxious for them than this father was for his daughter
or is it that your faith is less than his was ? or do you think that God
has changed,—that He is now afar off, but that then He was near ? Have
you any doubt at all but that a like prayer now, faithful, importunate,
and lowly, will have the same effect at any time? You cannot, you do not
doubt it, but you are not sufficiently in earnest.
But it is the custom of God in Scripture to combine the love and care
which we are to have for others, and for their spiritual profit, with that
which we are to have for ourselves, and our own condition in the sight
of God. For indeed the fountain itself of the heart must be cleansed for
any prayers that issue from thence to be accepted. But they are naturally
so combined together that the acceptance of our own prayers for pardon
and cleansing dispose us to seek for the same for others, and enlarge the
heart into active charities of intercession. Thus David, in the 51st Psalm,
after such importunate supplication for mercy and the cleansing of his
own heart, passes on to a prayer for the Church. After expressing hope
for himself, saying, “A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not
despise,” immediately he adds, “O be favourable and gracious unto Sion,
build Thou the walls of Jerusalem.” No sooner has he tasted one drop of
divine consolation than he thinks of the Church of God, and intercedes
for it. Ere his own tears for himself are yet dry, there falls upon them
a gleam of light from above, and that light is divine love.
As our Lord was now going to the house of Jairus, ‘with a great crowd
following Him, Behold, it is said, a woman, which was diseased,
with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind Him, and touched the hem
of His garment; for she said within herself, if I may but touch His garment
I shall be whole. Suffering under legal uncleanness, she was afraid
openly to appear before Him, and in this may well represent the sinner
who would fain hide his sin and himself from the presence of God, and yet
knows that he has no help but in coming unto Him. Yet great was her faith
under the keeping of humility, and faith will render even the meanest things
full of healing and life, while it looks upon them as belonging to God.
We know how human love will invest everything that belongs to one beloved
with itself, any trifle, anything associated with it, even the edge of
a garment, will become filled with the object of its love. Faith will do
the same in things divine. And nothing can show the nobleness and excellence
of faith more than this, that it was so availing even where there was so
little knowledge. She had faith to be healed, but she had not at the same
time knowledge to consider that she could not be hid from the All-seeing
Eye. Her faith went before her knowledge, and was the first to receive
the blessing.
How wonderfully does the Divine goodness and power overflow; it sets
bounds to itself and appointed channels; yet again, as if impatient of
all limitation, it so passes over them as if knowing no bounds, wherever
there is human distress to need, and faith to receive the blessing. Thus
is it in our own day; the Church of God is often likened to the garment
of Christ, without seam, and many are astonished to see such effects of
Divine grace beyond the visible fold; but why should we marvel when such
virtue went forth from the hem of His garment, and humility with faith
received the abundant overflow of good? But we may add, if the hem of His
garment had such power to heal and cleanse when touched without, what shall
be His Body and Blood received within? Surely this is a subject on which
the penitent soul may dwell in adoring faith and wonder, at the greatness
of the gift.
But Jesus turned Him about, and when He saw her, He said, Daughter,
be of good comfort, thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made
whole from that hour. While the ruler of the synagogue still waited,
she who was shut out from Israel by the law came as it were behind, and
by her faith anticipated miraculous deliverance, and received with all
mildness, was comforted as the “daughter” and the child of God; and by
her faith led the way and strengthened the chief of the Jewish synagogue
in his weak and trembling faith.
Her example may do the same for us, in sustaining and raising our faith
towards this great duty of intercessions, of which we have been speaking.
The incident, moreover, is, it may be observed, peculiarly applicable to
us, and full of consolation on this Sunday; for as we now draw to the close
of our sacred year, in the Collect for this week we pray God to absolve
us of His bountiful goodness, and deliver us “from the bands of those sins
which by our frailty we have committed.” And as if in confirmation of this
hope, the Gospel gives us every reason for confidence that He will do so,
if nothing on our part be wanting, while the Epistle which our Church has
transferred to this Sunday, speaking of the inheritance of the saints,
ever increasing in spiritual strength and knowledge, and bound up in mutual
intercessions, may serve to carry on the same into aspirations and prayers
for both ourselves and others. And now another incident follows. For if
we believe, He will show us greater things than these.
And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels
and the people making a noise, those customary attendants who had come
to bewail the dead, He said unto them, Give place; for the maid is not
dead, but sleepeth. Holy Scripture is wont to speak of death as sleep;
thus our Lord says, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth,” meaning that he was
dead; and St. Paul speaks of the dead as “them that sleep,” “them that
sleep in Jesus.” What our Blessed Lord here means is, Death is but a short
sleep; and I will now show you in this instance of death that it is so.
And they, it is added, laughed Him to scorn, so little
were they impressed with the awful and mild majesty of God in Christ; like
those mockers at Athens, when St. Paul spoke of the resurrection of the
dead. But when the people were put forth He went in, and took her by
the hand, and the maid arose. And the fame hereof went abroad into all
that land. He took her by the hand, the living hand was laid on the
dead; the hand of Him Who was God and Man was laid on that of a sinful
child of Eve; it was life overcoming death. Thus is it when the power and
grace of God comes on the dead and slumbering will of man, it arises, and
in Christ can do all things. O marvellous Divine efficacy! As the
body of Elijah stretched on the dead child of the widow, and that of Elisha
on that child of the Shunammite woman, when his staff, the sign of the
Cross, had gone before; what were these things but the setting forth of
this great truth—that our dead bodies are made alive by His Body, and in
Him our dead souls are quickened? How is His presence full and surrounded
with the power of all cleansing, of healing, and of life?
And now let us reflect a little on this incident. What is the dread
heavy weight that ever lies upon us all? It is the consideration of death.
How does it close up the view, so that we cannot look forward? How does
it seem to reproach every enjoyment, however innocent? How does its unavoidable
approach seem to scatter to the winds every earthly prospect of gain, of
reputation, of the well-being of children? How does it seem to lie under
all things, as if to suggest how hollow they are? How does it seem to cover
all as with a cloud, and to surround us on this side and on that, and in
the way that we should go?—I was going to say with its awful shadow, but
it is not a shadow, no, far otherwise, that is the point of consideration,
it is not a shadow, it is truthfulness itself. It Strikes off all disguises,
it scatters all shadows; it makes everything else to be shadows in comparison
with it, showing us that nothing else hath anything substantial, any reality
except death,—death the great certainty, death the great reality, death
the great test and proof of all truth, death the universal rule which hath
no exception, death the only thing unavoidable, unalienable. The inseparable
adjunct of life, in all time and in all place, always near, and often most
near when least known to be so. Its approach the most certain of all things,
the nearness of that approach of all things the most uncertain.
Now it is from this that we are relieved by this most gracious incident
of mercy. It is this that exists not in Christ’s presence; He will not
know of such a thing as death when He is near; He will not allow the name.
It is not death, He says, as if suggesting, death is quite another matter—it
is only sleep. Death is terrible, because it is man meeting his God; but
it is no longer terrible to a sincere Christian, because it is man meeting
his God in Christ.
Another point to be observed on these occasions is the apparent accident
that brings Christ. Most persons in looking back on the history of their
own lives, will observe that the most important points on which it has
turned have depended on what are by men esteemed accidents. By this remarkable
circumstance God would draw attention to the fact, that whatever it is,
He is the doer of it; that while our conduct depends on ourselves, He is
the Disposer of all events. The same may be shown on the occasion of these
incidents in the Gospel narrative. Had not our Lord just crossed the lake,
come to Capernaum, and been present at that feast; and when He was there,
had not Jairus come when he did, his daughter would not have been restored.
It was the father’s faith that met the opportunity. And again, if the ruler
had not come and induced our Lord to go with him, the woman with the issue
of blood would not have had her opportunity also of obtaining that miraculous
recovery.
We know not any day what great opportunities may be waiting for us,
what this or that may give rise to, what accident, as we say, may be even
now waiting at the door, and have in it the occasion of life or death.
Therefore faith and prayer should never cease, lest they be wanting
when the occasion would meet them. No opportunity is to be lost in which
we can intercede for the life of others. We know not what is going on in
places unseen; what conversations of God and His good angels, and intentions
of good, may at any time be dependent on the opportunities which we have.
The prayers of a father at no moment can be unavailing; at all seasons
they have access to Christ, and they, we see and doubt not, can turn death
into life.
Most men are too busy to pray either for themselves or others, and therefore
the opportunities of life pass them by unheeded; they feel they have no
time for prayer, but they wish they had, yet all the while they have time
for everything else. What they mean is, that they have no leisure of mind
for it. Yet it may seem strange to say that if they were to pray ten times
as much as they do, it would probably leave them quite as much time and
as much leisure for other things as they now have. But even if it did not,
the matters they think of more consequence are in fact but trifles, whereas
this is most important. All that they need is to make prayer and intercession
go before everything else, to be the one great thing at heart, then everything
else falls into its place and is sanctified.
It is said of our Blessed Lord, as He went about, that virtue went out
of Him and heated them all, and as many as touched Him were made immediately
whole. We, as Christians, are brought into this presence of Christ full
of healing virtue, and all our life is full of opportunities; opportunities
of Sacraments, opportunities of prayer, of promoting the salvation of ourselves
and others; opportunities of some active charity, whereby we may touch
Christ. Our time is replete with these, and Christ is going about and meeting
us, now in one way, now in another. One year of such probation is now fast
coming to a close; “lift up your eyes,” the fields are “already white unto
the harvest,” nay, the sheaves are already standing in the fields, and
the harvest is commencing; the summer of another sacred year is just gone,
another year of golden opportunities.
