Mark 5:41

“Taking the child by the hand, He said to her, ‘Talitha Kum’!  (Which translated means, “Little girl I say to you, get up!”)

So much of this life is based on timing.  If you don’t time it just right, you will burn your meal.  If you don’t make the play before time runs out you will lose the game.  Relationships are formed and destroyed because of timing.  Jobs are lost and plans fall through, billions are made and wars are too all because of timing.  Or as in the case of Mark chapter 5, if you don’t get help in time, you will die.

Jesus had just come off the boat after rescuing a man from many demons on the other side of the sea.  As soon as He landed, people surrounded Him including a synagogue official named Jairus who in verse 23, fell to Jesus’ feet with a desperate plea, “My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live.”  So He went with him, however in verse 27, a woman with her own problem intercepted Jesus.  She reached out and touched the hem of His robe for she thought, verse 28, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.”   Immediately, it says, she felt in her body that she was healed.  Jesus felt that healing power had gone out from Him; He turned and asked who had touched Him.  The woman came forward and though she was scared, told Him her whole story.  And Jesus said to her in verse 34, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.”

Things had finally worked out for this woman who had spent 12 years and all she had going from doctor to doctor with no cure in sight, but as Jesus was speaking to her, someone came from Jairus’ house with the sad news that his daughter was dead.  We understand why, she died because help didn’t come in time.  Even if you don’t believe Jesus is who He says He is, you can feel the pressure in this story.  We become caught in the same place as Lazarus’ sisters, saying “If only…”, and we feel the weight of our common slavery to Time, that faceless oppressor.  But as in Lazarus’ story, it doesn’t end there, for like Mary and Martha, God had more in mind than letting us suffer as slaves to anyone, even to Time itself.

Jesus said to Jairus in verse 36, “Do not be afraid any longer, only believe.”  Jesus then said to those who were mourning Jairus’ daughter’s death, “Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep.”  When they heard Jesus say that, they laughed at Him.  We all know time shows no mercy; there is no forgiveness in the tick of the clock.  What’s gone is gone, and this girl’s time had come.  To all those that were present, they knew there was no way to get her back.  But Jesus went in to see her; He told the girl to get up, and she did.

There is freedom from time, freedom from the wages of sin, but it can only be found in the One who conquered it for us.  It is because of Jesus and His death and resurrection that we can say:

“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
1 Corinthians 15:55

For as it says in Romans 6:23, its through Jesus that we’ve been given the free gift of God, eternal life.  And this eternal life begins now for all those who will “not be afraid any longer, only believe.”  Believe in Jesus the Son of God, believe in the mission for which He was sent as in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Talitha Kum, such a short phrase, but said by the One with the power to change everything.  With it, He broke the bonds of death, bonds so strong they inspired laughter at the very idea that it could be done.  Jesus says it to you, do you laugh because of your fear or do you wake up and believe?