Galatians 6.11-18

Luke 8.41-56

To the woman He heals from a flow of blood that would not stop, the LORD says: ‘Your faith has saved you.’ And to the parents of the young girl who was now dead, He says: ‘Only believe, and your daughter will be saved.’ See how the salvation of the LORD is to give life to those who are dying and to raise those who are dead to life. For not only the 12 year old girl, but also the woman with a flow of blood for 12 years was dying because, obviously, if the life is in the blood, and if she is losing her blood, then she is losing her life.

And note that this salvation – this being raised from death to life – is the substance of faith: The parents believe, and their daughter is raised to life.’ The woman’s flow of blood was stopped, and she was restored to life by her faith. Is not this life the substance of what faith hopes for (Heb 11.1)?

At the tomb of Lazarus, the LORD says to Martha: ‘I am the Resurrection and the Life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die (Jn 11:25-26).

The life that faith hopes for is Christ Himself. He is the uncreated Light of God in whom is the Life of men, and the darkness of death has no power over Him. And if faith is the substance of what’s hoped for, and if Christ is the Life that faith hopes for, then is not Jesus Christ Himself the substance that faith hopes for?

And, if Jesus Christ became flesh so that the substance of faith, the Son of God, is now incarnate, then faith in its substance is not wishful thinking or groundless opinion or stubbornly held speculation. Faith is substantive; indeed, it is the most substantive thing there is. Faith is the really real philosophers are looking for. For in the mystery of faith, God, in whom all things were created, by His own voluntary death in the flesh has destroyed death and has given life to those in the tombs. Christ in His Resurrection is therefore the Hope that is the substance of faith.

This vision of faith is not a new revelation of the NT. It is the heart of the prophetic vision. We could draw from many passages, but we’ll draw only from this one in Jeremiah: ‘Jacob’s portion is not [the vain words and objects of scorn that are of the idols that perish]. No, Jacob’s inheritance is He who formed all things. The LORD is His Name.’ (Jer 28.19 LXX)

That is to say, the Land of Israel’s inheritance, the Land that was the destination of her earthly sojourn was not Canaan. It was Christ Jesus Our LORD and Savior. That is, it was the beautiful mystery of the Son of God becoming incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary in His body that He received from His Virgin Mother. This is the mystery of God hidden from the ages. And precisely because the Son of God was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Virgin Mary and became man and was obedient to God His Father even to the point of death on the Cross (Phil 2.5-11), this mystery of God is found within us, and it is our hope of glory! (Col 1.27)

The substance of faith, then, which is the hope of Resurrection and Life, is found within us not as an opinion or as wishful thinking but as the Son of God incarnate in our flesh. Consider carefully: the LORD was conceived and became a human zygote; He began to be as Son of Man in the womb of the Virgin Mary. The Son of God who is the Beginning in whom all things were created entered the womb of the Most Holy Virgin and our human nature that began in God itself became the beginning of God in the flesh. Our human nature became the root of the divine Root.

And, having rooted Himself in our nature, the Son of God voluntarily ascended the Cross and rooted Himself in our death, in our end. Understand, our end, death, is unnatural to us. Our natural end, as is also our natural beginning is the very Son of God who became flesh in us, and who rooted Himself in us so that we have become the beginning of Him who is our Beginning; we have become the root of Him who is our Root. When, therefore He became Son of Man in us, in our human nature, He who is our natural beginning and our natural end, was found inside our beginning and inside our unnatural end.

Dear faithful, this reveals that the substance of faith – the substance of the glory we hope for – is not a concept, it is not wishful thinking, it is not a stubbornly held opinion that has no grounding except in the wisdom of our own opinions. The substance of faith is Jesus Christ Himself; and He is the mystery of God who is within you; He is our hope of glory, our hope of resurrection and life eternal. The substance of this faith is found inside our beginning and inside our end, inside our unnatural end, inside our death! Christ in you, He Who is the Resurrection and the Life, is found hidden in the tomb of our own heart.

The faith that saved this dear woman with the flow of blood, restoring her to life, and the faith of Jairus and his wife that raised their daughter from death to life is precisely this faith whose substance is Christ Himself, the hope of glory, the hope of resurrection to life eternal. When we turn and draw near to the LORD Jesus Christ in the unseen inner movement of our soul, we are drawing this faith around us like a garment so that we are now walking clothed in this faith; we are walking in the Light as Christ is in the Light.

We can see this invisible movement of faith acted out visibly in Jairus and the woman with the flow of blood drawing near the LORD Jesus Christ. And we are acting out this faith this morning in our drawing near to the Church, for the Church is the Body of Christ, the Body of the same Christ we are reading about in this morning’s Gospel. In coming to Church this morning, we are drawing near the same Christ to whom Jairus and the woman with the flow of blood drew near.

We become Jairus when we draw near the Savior in faith and love. For the name, Jairus, means ‘Illumined by the LORD.’ And in drawing near the Church in faith and in love, we are stepping into the presence of the Light of the world, Jesus Christ, and the Light of His Face is shining on our face, invisibly illumining us.

We become the woman with the flow of blood when we draw near to Him in faith as our only hope, as did she. And, the LORD Jesus Christ is sending forth His power into us, as He sent it forth into her body to stop her flow of blood and restore her to life. It is the power of His Holy Resurrection. We can discern His power touching us even here and now if we have opened our hearts to receive the sacred beauty of Christ carried to us in the prayers and hymns of the Church, in the vision of the icons, the fragrance of the incense, and in the noble and gracious movements of the Divine Liturgy. The healing power of the LORD’s Holy Spirit is discerned in our desire to fall down and worship the LORD Jesus Christ. For He is our beginning and our end; yet, in His gracious goodness and mercy, He has made us to be His beginning and His end. We have been united to Him at the root of our being. He has become bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh so that we can become Spirit of His Spirit, restored to life in the joy of His own divine life that alone satisfies the soul’s every desire. Amen!