pressed into sleeping…

“Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.” –Jesus

Luke 8:52 ESV

The story of the desperate woman who pressed into Jesus for healing… is found in the middle of another story…

A synagogue leader… Jairus… father of a twelve year old daughter who was deathly ill… also made his way through the crowd… came near and begged Jesus to come to his house to heal her…

Jesus was on the way to the church leader’s house… when the dis-eased woman… pressed in and reached out… touched Him…

Her faith delayed the going to the dying daughter’s bedside…

During the delay… someone came to Jairus with the news…

Your daughter is dead… 

Read the whole story in Luke 8:40-56…

Jesus told the father… Do not fear… only believe.. she will be well…

And they moved on to his house…

Once there Jesus found the household weeping… that’s when He said…

“Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.”

They laughed at Him… because they thought they knew what they knew…

she… was… dead…

But Jesus REALLY knew…

Jesus led a select few into her room… and with a word…

Child… arise…

she did…

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Stay with me here… you may be wondering where I’m going about this time…

What I see in this story… in the wake of the dream on Sunday… the one with the message of pressed… and the need to be pressed to prepare for Communion… is the church…

The father of the daughter… is a church leader… and when we look from a spiritual perspective… his congregation is his only daughter… deathly… ill…

A leader in the church recognizes the illness of his congregation…

she… is… dying…

He ran to Jesus… fell at His feet… implored Him… to heal her…

And I wonder… Do we have such church leaders today…? 

Those willing to get on their faces…? beg Him…? to heal their congregation…?

Is there a crying out…? or have many…? already deemed her dead…?

[Photo by Tom Skarbek-Wazynski on Unsplash]

What I love about this picture… is Jesus’s perspective…

She’s not dead… she’s sleeping…

And with a word from Him… she rises up…

But only because the church leader… the one who loved his church like a daughter… begged… earnestly… in prayer… for her healing…

and… he… believed…

When she wakes… when she rises… she needs to be fed…

she needs spiritual nourishment…

I hear the word “dying” a lot when people talk about church these day…

Because we only see what we see…

But Jesus… He REALLY knows… because He REALLY sees…

Pressed into sleeping by the world…

It’s time… to be pressed awake…

It’s time  to start praying for Jesus to wake her…

Because she is not dead… His true church never will be…

But can you imagine what would happen…? if she woke up…? today…?

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of  command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

1Thessalonians 4:16-18 ESV

She isn’t dead… she is sleeping…

Let’s press her awake…

Seek His healing…

Let’s each begin with ourselves…

Ask Him where you have become complacent… allowed the world to lull you to sleep…

I’ll do the same…

Amen…!

[Photo by Julian Hochgesang on Unsplash]