It's All in the Timing (Part two)

Of course, there is another who is waiting as fast as he can.  Jairus is sick with panic, fainting with fear.  Then the nightmare comes true.  “Your daughter is dead,” the people from home report.  “There’s no point in annoying the Teacher any further.”  Jairus has waited as fast as he can.  And all his patience gets him is more pain.

If only that woman had stayed in her place.  If only she had waited her turn, he might have thought.  A few minutes might have made all the difference.  Now it’s too late. 

And what about Jesus?  Doesn’t he know that I, Jairus, am entitled to respect?  Doesn’t he know that I am president of the synagogue?  Doesn’t Jesus know that I’m always first in line at the potlucks?  Does Jesus know that you are supposed to give priority to the power and the privileged and the pure?

No, Jairus, Jesus doesn’t know that.  There is a triage system in the Kingdom of God.  It’s different from the way the world sorts the wounded.  In the Kingdom of God, the last shall be first.  The first shall be last.  The Gentile rulers may throw their weight around to get their way.  But it shall not be so among you.  The greatest in the Kingdom of God shall be servants of all.  Unless you become like a little child, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God.  If the powerful demand privileges and priority, then Jesus can raise up new children of Abraham from the very stones of the street.

Trusting God means trusting God’s timing.

The first shall indeed be last.  But they shall not be left out altogether.  Jairus still has a place in line even if that place is at the tail instead of the head.  A dead daughter?  Well, we’ll just see about that!  “Little girl,” Jesus says as he takes her by the hand, “Arise!”  If you hear the tremors of an empty tomb in those words, you hear correctly.  Jesus comes to launch the death of death itself.

The bleeding woman entered her prison of pain the year that little girl was born.  Now they are reborn on the same day.  The old woman may live to see her grandchildren.  The little girl may live to have grandchildren of her own.  Waiting as fast as you can is part of trusting God in all things at all times.

Trusting God means trusting God’s timing.

Psalm one hundred thirty is a prayer for personal rescue.  Verse five is about waiting as fast as we can.  “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits and in his word I hope.”  The words for “waiting” and “hoping” in that verse are very specific.  They contain the ideas of determination and endurance.  These are words that invite us to lean into our waiting.  We lean into that waiting with confidence and strength that come from Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.

God is, after all, waiting for us as fast as God can.  In Second Peter three, verse nine, you can read these words: “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some would think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.”  That is the real purpose of God’s timing.  God wants you and me to have life and joy and love for now and for all time.  God will wait for as long as that takes.

Trusting God means trusting God’s timing.

How do we wait as fast as we can?  How do we endure in times of trouble?  Let me tell you a story.

A farmer found a magical flute.  Hoping to charm his hens into laying extra eggs, he played the flute to them all day.  But at nightfall he had no more eggs than usual.  Later, when asked if he’d had any success, the farmer replied, “I sure did!  It wasn’t much of a day for egg-laying, but it was a great day for flute-playing!”

Sometimes in our lives, it’s a great day for egg-laying.  We make plans, set goals, design programs, and hit all our marks.  Sometimes things happen when we want and how we want.  It’s a blessing to have a few of those days.

Most days, however, it’s a great day for flute playing.  Things don’t go according to schedule or plan or specifications.  Sometimes we have to just sit and wait.  And sometimes that waiting feels like pure agony.

I think about that family in my opening story.  They waited as fast as they could.  But waiting for God to act is not the same as doing nothing.  Trust is not a code word for despair.  Patience is not just a nice word for resignation.  Waiting is not a formula for futility.

That family did everything within their power to reach the woman in her coma.  They squeezed love and meaning and joy out of every second in that ICU.  They did everything possible to will her back to consciousness.  They painted her toenails red for the Husker game.  They told family stories and jokes.  They sang hymns and prayed.  Those wonders of waiting packed more life into that intensive care room than some people put into their whole existence.

The woman still died, even after those heroic efforts.  It was sad and sorrowful.  But it wasn’t the end of all things.  In our reading as well, that healed woman died at some point.  So did the little girl.

So did Jesus.

Of course, Jesus didn’t stay dead.  And because we are baptized into his death and resurrection, neither shall we.  That makes all the difference.  That’s why we wait.  That’s why we wait with hope as fast as we can too.

Trusting God means trusting God’s timing.  Amen.