p. 67-69:
Do you think it is odd that when Jesus arrives at Jarius’s house he says that the girl is just sleeping? The parallel accounts of this story in Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels make it clear that Jesus understands she’s dead. She’s not just mostly dead; she’s all dead. (Woo! Princess Bride reference!) Then why does he make that reference to sleep?
The answer is in what Jesus does next. Remember, Jesus sits down beside the girl, takes her by the hand, and says two things to her. The first is talitha. Literally, it means “little girls,” but that does not get across the sense of what he’s saying. This is a pet name, a diminutive term of endearment. Since this is a diminutive that a mother would use with a little girl, probably the best translation is “honey.” The second thing Jesus says to her is koum, which means “arise.” Not “be resurrected”; it just means “get up.” Jesus is doing exactly what this child’s parents might do on a sunny morning. He sits down, takes her hand, and says, “Honey, it’s time to get up.” And she does. Jesus is facing death, the most implacable, inexorable enemy of the human race and such is his power that he holds this child by the hand and gently lifts her right through it. “Honey, get up.” Jesus is saying by his actions, “If I have you by the hand, death itself is nothing but sleep.”
But Jesus’s words and actions are not just powerful, they are loving too. When you were little, if your parent had you by the hand you felt everything was okay. You were wrong, of course. There are bad parents, and even the best parents make wrong choices. But Jesus is the ultimate Parent who has you by the hand and will bring you through the darkest night. The Lord of the universe, the One who danced the stars into place, takes you by the hand and says, “Honey, it’s time to get up.”
Why would we want to hurry somebody this powerful and this loving, who treats us this tenderly? Why would we be impatient with somebody like this? Jesus holds us by the hand and brings us through the greatest darkness. What enables him to do that? In his letter to the church in Corinth, 2 Corinthians 13:4, the apostle Paul says Christ was crucified in weakness so that we can live in God’s power. Christ became weak so that we can be strong. There’s nothing more frightening for a little child than to lose the hand of the parent in a crowd or in the dark, but that is nothing compared with Jesus’s own loss. He lost his Father’s hand on the cross. He went into the tomb so we can be raised out of it. He lost hold of his Father’s hand so we could know that once he has us by the hand, he will never, ever forsake us.
I think this is such a beautiful glimpse at Jesus’s compassion and power. It made me wonder, what would it look like if every day, I woke up with the image of Jesus inviting me to greet the day— talitha koum? I painted the picture above to put next to my bed as a reminder that he is calling me each morning to “get up.” To leave death behind and live. To praise him for one more day, and to be bold and compassionate, because he’s got my hand.
“Wake up, O Sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
–Ephesians 5:14
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