For Sunday
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Collect

Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

Reading

From Mark 5:21-43

“Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.”

Reflection

Jesus tells a crowd of people that a girl, who many of them saw die with their own eyes, is not actually dead. Just sleeping.

People who were grieving moments before, begin to laugh at this most absurd suggestion. Like Jesus is a doctor diagnosing a patient he hasn’t even seen.

That the story proceeds in secret (only five other people know what happens next) is no accident.

Yes the girl was dead. And Jesus brought her back to life. For the reader, that difference is everything.

Raising from the dead is not healing. It is something else. And far more powerful than healers can do. Like stilling the storm and casting out a legion of demons, Jesus is displaying incomprehensible power. Power that inspires fear.

I suspect that Jesus’s words to the father, who was the leader of a synagogue, are imperative: “Do not fear, only believe.” Because what he would witness would no doubt frighten him. He has already frightened his closest followers.

So Jesus sets it all up so the crowds would think it was a regular healing. To hide the true miracle. She was just sleeping. All she needed was a waking.

I suspect he does this to protect them. And him. From those who are driven most by fear.

Let us, instead, believe.