Jesus Confronting the Unimaginable

"Jesus took her by the hand and said to her,

'Talitha cum,' which means, 'Little girl, get up!'

And immediately the girl got up

and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age).

At this they were overcome with amazement."

(From Mark 5:21-43)

There’s a song in the musical “Hamilton” called “It’s Quiet Uptown” sung after Alexander and Eliza Hamilton’s firstborn son Philip is killed in a duel.

It begins like this:

There are moments that the words don’t reach
There is suffering too terrible to name

You hold your child as tight as you can
And push away the unimaginable.

 Unimaginable.

That had to be the parent’s feelings sitting by their son’s hospital bed.

He had attempted suicide, it failed, and now he was on life support, his parents facing the hardest, most heartrending decision possible.

I stayed with them, sometimes silently, sometimes in prayer, sometimes offering what felt like inadequate answers to difficult questions.

What do you say to parents with feelings of grief, loss and guilt?

The mother sat there finally saying “My son is dead. Unimaginable.”

There’s a story in Mark about Jairus’s 12-year-old daughter who just died.

Mourners are there expressing the intense grief they all feel.

Everyone hoped for a miracle, that Jesus might show up healing their daughter, but it is too late.

Along with grief, loss and guilt, comes disappointment because she is close the age of marriage.

If only Jesus had been there, she might not have died.

Everyone’s there, Jesus shows up saying, “Talitha, cum,” which means “Little girl, get up.”

Miracles recorded in the Gospels were signs of God’s hope for people facing unimaginable suffering.

The Gospel’s miracle stories plant seeds of hope for people wondering if they are condemned.

But most importantly, the miracle stories tell of hope in Jesus’ power to overcome the unimaginable with the indisputable healing in God’s kingdom.