Does God care about us? It seems like a question that is unanswerable. But God has already answered it. God answered it by coming into our in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus came not only into our world, to rub shoulders with us, but also int the lives of individual human beings, to show His loving concern for them. There’s the unhappy woman who for 12 long years has suffered from a haemorrhage. Perhaps it’s nature of her condition that leads her to approach Jesus unobtrusively from behind. She stretches out and touches His cloak. Immediately she feels power coursing through her body and knows that her complaint is no more. It is her faith, He explains, that has won the cure and now she can go forth “in peace”. Then there’s the little girl. She’s just 12 years old when she become grievously sick. Her distraught father seeks Jesus’ help. He casts himself down before Jesus and begs for His help. Jesus promises to come to the child. But He delays, diverted by the healing of the woman; then it’s reported to him that the child is already dead. The official patiently waits for Jesus. And he is wonderfully rewarded. Taking the child by the hand, Jesus says – the very words He speaks in His native tongue are recorded – “Talitha, kum!”, “Little girl, get up.” He restores the youngster alive to her rejoicing parents. In each case Jesus knows that His actions – His touching of an outcast woman, His touching of a corpse, even that of a child make Him ritually unclean in other people’s eyes, yet it does not deter Hims from His mission of mercy. Jesus in conqueror not only of sickness but even of death itself.
There are times when we all feel that God is far away, hardly interested in the likes of us. Today’s Gospel shows how mistaken we are. The Lord touches, and is touched by, a woman who is regarded as untouchable. The Lord approaches a little girl when people are saying, “She’s already dead, don’t trouble Jesus any further” and, by implication, “there’s nothing he can do now”. Each time He works a miracle, it’s a sign of His mighty power. It is a demonstration of His deep love for ordinary people, little people like ourselves. Miracles are of their nature rare events, but what they reveal is something permanent and unconditional – God’s loving concern for each of us. So important that we are deeply loved and cared for by our great heavenly Father. His care is not merely for a day or a year, not even for a lifetime. It’s forever.