Matthew 9:18-19, 23-26 ESV While He was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before Him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live. And Jesus rose and followed him, with His disciples. And when Jesus came to the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, He said, “Go way for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at Him. But when the crowd had been put outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. And the report of this went through all that district.
Who are you going to believe, God or your senses? It is a question that most Christians have to answer many times in their walk with God. It all comes down to how much a person trusts God.
In the passage above Jesus claims that the girl is just sleeping, but everybody else knows that she is dead. In fact, she has probably been dead for a period of time. When her father came to Jesus she was already dead. She had stopped breathing. Her heart had stopped beating. By all clinical understanding, the girl was dead.
So when Jesus says she is sleeping, they laughed at Him. Hard to blame them really. Some in the crowd were probably professional mourners. They had seen lots of dead people. They knew when a person was dead. They could see the way she looked. They could feel her cooling skin.
Of course Jesus knew she was physically dead too. He also knew He had authority over life and death. God is sovereign and always has final say in every situation. Natural and physical laws may be universal constants for us, but God has authority over them. When He chooses He can overrule the laws of physics. We call those events miracles.
There are times when God tells us something and we know it just isn’t true. It may not be true without God, but if God says it, He can and will make it true. Let’s look at two women who knew they couldn’t be pregnant – Abraham’s wife Sarah and Mary, the mother of Jesus.
In Genesis chapter 17 God tells Abraham that Sarah would give birth within in a year. Sarah laughed at God because she was 99 years old. In the Luke chapter one, an angel tells Mary she will have a baby. Mary at first questions but when the angel explains God will do a miracle, Mary accepts the truth of it. Neither a woman whose reproductive cycle has ended nor a virgin can get pregnant. Mary trusted God more than she did her circumstances. Sarah did not. God was proven right in both cases.
While most of us do not have such dramatic events in our lives, God often tells us things that we struggle to believe due to our circumstances. God may tell us to do something we do not believe we can do. God may tell us to trust someone that history has proven untrustworthy or to forgive someone who has done the unforgivable. God may tell us everything will be fine when our world is falling apart.
Who do we trust? Do we trust what we can see, touch, and perceive or do we trust the One who is Lord of all.
The girl in the passage above may have been clinically dead, but Jesus woke her up as if she were sleeping. We may be struggling but God can make it right. If we trust Him, we can witness and experience the miraculous.
Heavenly Father, I know You are trustworthy. Sometimes though, it is hard to believe You over the “evidence” that seems to say differently. Lord, I do believe! Help my unbelief!