2013.10.27 Luke 8:41-56 – The Touch of Faith
Luke 8:41-56 41 And behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. And he fell down at Jesus’ feet and begged Him to come to his house, 42 for he had an only daughter about twelve years of age, and she was dying. But as He went, the multitudes thronged Him. 43 Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, 44 came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped. 45 And Jesus said, “Who touched Me?” When all denied it, Peter and those with himsaid, “Master, the multitudes throng and press You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’” 46 But Jesus said, “Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me.” 47 Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately. 48 And He said to her, “Daughter, be of good cheer;your faith has made you well. Go in peace.” 49 While He was still speaking, someone came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house, saying to him, “Your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the Teacher.” 50 But when Jesus heard it, He answered him, saying, “Do not be afraid; only believe, and she will be made well.” 51 When He came into the house, He permitted no one to go in except Peter, James, and John, and the father and mother of the girl. 52 Now all wept and mourned for her; but He said, “Do not weep; she is not dead, but sleeping.” 53 And they ridiculed Him, knowing that she was dead. 54 But He put them all outside, took her by the hand and called, saying, “Little girl, arise.” 55 Then her spirit returned, and she arose immediately. And He commanded that she be given something to eat. 56 And her parents were astonished, but He charged them to tell no one what had happened.
2 Corinthians 9:6-11 6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. 9 As it is written: “He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.” 10 Now mayHe who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, 11 while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.
Today in the Gospel we have two miracles of Jesus Christ and many important things that happened around them. But before I talk about this, I want to remind us all about what Apostle Paul talks about today: that Christians should not be stingy, should be good-hearted people.
You see what he says, give with good heart, don’t be stingy, be open, be good to the others. Because Christianity is not a set of beliefs; but it is a change of the human personality and the human ways. As God has the sun and the air and everything today for both the good and the bad, and He is so good, the Christian must be open-hearted, must have a good attitude, and must face everybody with a good attitude. And it is important that if somebody is stingy he will destroy his marriage, his social relationships, even his job. Things that we may think are small and not important can be very important.
Of course I do not say that you must give everything you have to the others; you must have wisdom also – but wisdom with love. And as we receive from God for free the gift of life, the ability to love, you have the ability to give to others, even if you think they want to take advantage of you. We believe in God, we try to have wisdom, but if we want to change the world, we must start with ourselves.
Now, in the Gospel today, Jesus was with somebody, a person who was a ruler, which means an official of a synagogue, came to Jesus and he kneeled before him, which was actually quite a humiliating thing for him. And also he had faith in Jesus. He had a daughter and the daughter was dying. So he begged Him to go to his house, and Jesus did.
But we see the attitude of the different people there. The people want to see a big thing, they have curiosity, they wanted to see if He will cure or not. It is different to have curiosity about Jesus and to love Jesus Himself. The people recognize power expressed as a miracle, but they don’t appreciate He who is doing the miracle. This is why so many people were pushing, because this happened in public and many people were wanting to go see. And the streets of Jerusalem are not so big like in Taiwan, they are very narrow.
So, from this point of view, only one woman, who had blood coming from her, had faith. This was a rare disease but it was a disease, and it was very serious, not only because she was losing blood, but this woman, according to the Jewish law was unclean while she was having her period, so she could not enter the Temple. And because of this, it was as if she was living outside the community. So this was terrible both because of her health and her social isolation. It is important that this woman was living in so much loneliness and despair. She had tried to be cured, had spent all her property on doctors, but nobody cured her.
And then very, let’s say, with too much shame and hiding, she touched Jesus Christ, believing that she would be cured. Why did she do it secretly? Of course, with a disease like this, for one thing, it is humiliating to speak about it in public. And secondly, it was not good since she was unclean and according the Jewish tradition touching Jesus would make him unclean. But she became well, and Jesus stopped and said, “Who touched me?” But Peter and the disciples said, “So many people are pushing you and you ask who’s touching you? Everybody’s touching you.”
But you know, for me, every time that I not only touch, but I receive the Holy Communion, which is much more than touching Jesus Christ, and I touch with my own hands, I am thinking, “Do I really touch Jesus Christ, in the same way as all these people who touch from curiosity, and they had no result.” We follow Jesus Christ; but why do we follow Him? Is it because it happened as part of our nationality or tradition that I happened to be Christian and felt that “having one religion was enough. Don’t ask more, it’s OK that another person is Buddhist and another is atheist, I have this religion and I will die with this.” If we do this it is like touching, but not really. From so many people who were touching him, there was only one who touched him with real faith, and the grace of God came to her.
And Jesus said something, “No, somebody touched my clothes, because power came out from me.” And this is a very important point in theology, that Jesus and even his clothes, everything has the power of God. This is why we kiss the holy relics and honor the icons and holy items, because God is present, even in objects, in different ways. For example, if I put my clothes in perfume and you touch my clothes, then your hands will have this smell of perfume. And this is the uncreated energy of God.
Why did Jesus say this? The woman was trembling because she was so embarrassed, having to say, “Oh, I did something bad, right?” And she came out and said in public that she was cured. But Jesus did this, not to praise himself, but to give her back to the society after twelve years of religious isolation and isolation of bad health, to give her in public as the gift of God and the Grace of God came to her.
And it was also to show to us something, to start to think not only from the past but from the future as well. From the past, this woman was suffering for twelve years and thinking, why my God don’t you cure me? She did not know that if she was looking from the future that God Himself would touch her and she would be cured. And I am asking you, is it worth it? I think it is. It is worth to suffer not twelve years more if I know that I know that one day God will come and touch me Himself. This cure is one billion times better than the cure of any doctor. So it is better to see things from the future and to see the plan of God for us that we don’t know, and to see that, yes sometimes there is a plan, and it is worth it to suffer till the Grace of God comes to you in a very special way. It is the greatest lesson and it is the best gift.
Actually, the tradition of the Church says that the name of this woman was Veronica and she made a statue with Jesus in front of her, curing her. And we see again how the plot is like a scenario of a story, that when one miracle happens, again comes unbelief. The servants of this master came and said, don’t bother the teacher now because your daughter is dead. So hope was loss because no one expected Jesus to resurrect her. And we see again that even after the people had seen a big miracle, their faith was gone because they did not expect to see anything else.
But Jesus continued and went to the house, but into the house he took only the parents, of course, and the three disciples, Peter, James and John. And why? Because these other people were going only for curiosity, only to see something strange, to see a magician. And then everybody was crying, but Jesus said, “Don’t cry, she is not dead, but only sleeping.” Everybody was laughing, saying, “What sleeping? She is dead. We know.”
But we must understand Jesus is the real life. He said, “I am the life.” And in front of the life, there is no death. Jesus changed our death to a sleep. If it is death, and only death, then what is the point and the meaning of our life, Why should we love if what we love will die. So any time Jesus met death, he resurrected the person and said it was sleep. And this is why burial grounds are still formally called cemeteries, since in Greek this word means place of sleeping; and even the place where soldiers sleep can be called a cemetery.
So, this is very important, and Jesus touched her hand and said, “Girl, rise.” And then the Bible says her spirit came back. This is very important because in Taiwan people misunderstand and they have the heretical idea of the trichotomy, that the human being is soul, spirit and body. But we see in the Bible – and this is why it is very important to understand the original Greek – that the Bible interchanges these words, the soul and the spirit, only the spirit may be the most logical and intellectual part of the soul. This is why the Bible says that the spirit came back. Where was her soul, in the body? And in other places, He also says also about the soul.
Then He gave her to her parents. And Jesus cares for the body as well, because he says to her parents to give her something to eat because she is exhausted from her illness. So, remember that in front of Jesus and because of Jesus, we can love forever. Our beloved people are not gone, they are only sleeping. We can see this especially in the Liturgy because I put in the little pieces of bread for them, and receive God in the special way that He arranges. Jesus is the love of life. He unites all us, and in front of Jesus there is no death, so nothing in life or death can separate us from the love of Jesus Christ.
May the Holy Trinity protect all of us. Amen.
精靈，而是在經歷了十二年的宗教隔離和健康狀況不佳的隔離後，將她送回社會，將她作為上帝的禮物和上帝的恩典降臨在她身上。
它也向我們展示了一些東西，不僅開始思考過去，而且開始思考未來。從過去，這個女人受了十二年的痛苦，心想，我的上帝為什麼不治好我？她不知道，如果她從未來來看，上帝會親自觸摸她，她就會被治癒。我問你，值得嗎？我認為是的。如果我知道有一天神會親自來觸摸我，那麼再受苦十二年也是值得的。這種療法比任何醫生的療法都要好十億倍。因此，最好從未來來看事情，看到上帝為我們制定的我們不知道的計劃，並且看到這一點，是的，有時有一個計劃，並且在上帝的恩典之前受苦是值得的以一種非常特別的方式來到你身邊。這是最偉大的教訓，也是最好的禮物。
事實上，教會的傳統說，這個女人的名字叫維羅妮卡，她在她面前製作了一尊耶穌雕像，治癒了她。我們再次看到情節就像一個故事的場景，當一個奇蹟發生時，再次出現難以置信。這位主人的僕人來了，說，現在不要打擾老師，因為你的女兒已經死了。因此，希望變成了損失，因為沒有人指望耶穌會讓她復活。我們再次看到，即使人們看到了一個大奇蹟之後，他們的信心也消失了，因為他們沒有想到會看到其他任何東西。
但耶穌繼續往房子裡走，但他只帶了父母，當然，還有三個門徒，彼得、雅各和約翰。為什麼？因為其他人只是為了好奇而去，只是為了看一些奇怪的東西，去看魔術師。然後每個人都在哭，但耶穌說：“別哭，她沒有死，只是睡著了。”大家都笑著說：「睡什麼？她死了。我們知道。
但我們必須明白耶穌是真正的生命。他說：“我就是生命。”而在生命面前，沒有死亡。耶穌將我們的死亡變成了睡眠。如果是死亡，而且只是死亡，那我們活著還有什麼意義？因此，每當耶穌遇到死亡時，他都會使人復活並說這是睡眠。這就是為什麼墓地仍然被正式稱為墓地，因為在希臘語中這個詞的意思是睡覺的地方；甚至連士兵睡覺的地方都可以稱為墓地。
所以，這非常重要，耶穌摸著她的手說：“女孩，起來。”然後聖經說她的靈魂回來了。這點非常重要，因為在台灣，人們有誤解，有三分法的異端觀念，認為人是靈魂、精神和身體。但我們在聖經中看到——這就是為什麼理解希臘原文非常重要——聖經互換了靈魂和精神這兩個詞，只有精神可能是靈魂中最邏輯和理智的部分。這就是為什麼聖經說靈回來了。她的靈魂在哪裡？在其他地方，他也談到靈魂。
然後他把她交給了她的父母。耶穌也關心她的身體，因為他對她的父母說要給她一些東西吃，因為她因病而疲憊不堪。所以，請記住，在耶穌面前並因為耶穌，我們可以永遠相愛。我們所愛的人並沒有離開，他們只是在睡覺。我們特別可以在禮儀中看到這一點，因為我為他們放了小片麵包，並以上帝安排的特殊方式接受上帝。耶穌是生命的摯愛。祂將我們所有人團結在一起，在耶穌面前沒有死亡，因此生或死都不能將我們與耶穌基督的愛分開。
願聖三一神保護我們眾人。阿門。
