Daily Lesson for October 14, 2014

Today's daily lesson comes from Luke chapter 8 verses 40 through 48:

40 Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. 41 And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus' feet, he implored him to come to his house, 42 for he had ran only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying. As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. 43 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. 44 She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. . .Someone from the ruler's house came and said, “Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the Teacher any more.” 50 But Jesus on hearing this answered him, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well.” 51 And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him, except Peter and John and James, and the father and mother of the child. 52 And all were weeping and mourning for her, but he said, “Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.” 53 And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. 54 But taking her by the hand he called, saying, “Child, arise.” 

A while back a friend of mine told me the story of her sister's death. The girls' father was a physician in their small town and they grew up in a kind of idyllic small-town world. It was Mayberry on the Plains. If somewhat sheltered and privileged, the girls were also deeply loved and cared for and prepared to pass on the blessings of their own generation to the next.

But then, suddenly in the youthful prime of her life, my friend's sister was diagnosed with cancer. She fought valiantly against the disease; but it ultimately took her life. On the day of her sister's death my friend's father said, "Now we have joined the community of the suffering."

In today's scripture two women. One is from the margins of society, a woman afflicted with a blood issue which has made her ritually and socially unclean for 12 years. The other is has just become a woman, being the same age as the number of years the other has been afflicted. As the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, she is no doubt the daughter of social standing and privilege. During the twelve years of the other woman's affliction, this younger woman has lived a very different and far more tranquil life. But now she too has entered into the community of the suffering, and her father with her.

At some point all of us will enter into this community.  No family, no matter how rich or how wretched, is immune. And at this point each is driven to the point of desperation, to the point of reaching out toward the healing which only God can bring. And as the people of the earth reach out, God sends His Son to reach back.

The community of the suffering is universal; so too is the healing presence of God's incarnate love and embrace. 

We all enter into the community of the suffering; and God does also.