Jesus is a ‘joke’…?
by Rev Dr Noel Due
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[Jesus] said, ‘Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping’. And they laughed at him (Matthew 9:24).
Read Matthew 9:18–26
Jesus suffered many forms of rejection. He was betrayed, denied, misrepresented, ignored, and tortured to death, to name just a few. And sometimes he was treated as a joke.
While most of the narrative in this section of Matthew’s Gospel describes Jesus’ deeds and words, there are also some references to the responses they provoked. Those responses were essentially two: belief and unbelief. And of those two, belief is the rarer.
Here, the unbelief is expressed in derision. Jesus is treated as an ignorant fool, who cannot tell the difference between death and sleep.
But in Jesus’ kingdom, there is no difference. It is notable that elsewhere in the New Testament, the death of believers is also spoken as ‘sleep’ (for example, John 11:13, 1 Corinthians 15:51 and 1 Thessalonians 4:15).
On the one hand, death is indeed ‘the last enemy’ (1 Corinthians 15:26) and, in the end, death itself will be done away with (Revelation 20:14). We live in a world that is not yet heaven, so we experience death in the midst of life.
On the other hand, we also experience life in the midst of death! Death does not have the last word – Jesus does. He has conquered death through his resurrection. He has joined us to himself through baptism. And he lives in us through the Spirit. That’s why death, though inevitable, is not final. That’s why our hope is rooted in Jesus’ power and promise to bring us through death to life.
Thank you, dear Father, that you have brought all things into being, even me. Thank you that you sustain all things by the word of your power, even me this day. Thank you that you are the Lord of both life and death, even my life and my death. Thank you that no-one and nothing can snatch me out of your hand. Amen.
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