Talitha Cumi

"Talitha Cumi"

A while ago, one of my friends at Virginia Tech got this tattooed on her wrist. “Cool,” I thought. Another cheeky, little Christian tat.

 But, today, I read through Mark 5 and my soul was shaking. Those two little Aramaic words made me shut my bible and walk in circles around the kitchen. ‘What? WHAT?!’

“Taking her by the hand, he said to her, ‘Talitha cumi,’ which means, ‘Little girl, I say to you, arise.’”

And she arose. There are so many things I love about the Healing of Jairus’s Daughter. The intimacy of Jesus and the girl he raises, the display of his complete sovereignty-obviously, in bringing someone back to life, but also being more powerful the “ceremonially unclean.” I think the thing I like the most about this is that Jesus knows that she is “not dead but sleeping.” “Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem…Arise, shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you” [Isaiah 51:17…60:1]. I mean COME ON, seriously?! Jesus “put them all outside;”-the distraction of an unbelieving crowd and the professional mourners- he took her “by the hand and said to her, ‘talitha cumi’…and immediately the girl got up and began walking… and [he] told them to give her something to eat.”

 Jesus individually comes beside us and tells us to “wake up… and arise from the dead” [Ephesians 5:14], the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies long forgotten in my mind. The prophecy is here and now. Jesus walks among us and he is constantly prodding, “Wake up, you sleeper! What are you doing with the life I gave you?’ I cannot believe I get to wake up to “the sunrise [that has visited us from on high] to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide [my] feet into the way of peace” [Luke 1:78b-79]. TO EXPERIENCE THE REFULGENT IMAGE OF “THE INVISIBLE GOD, THE FIRSTBORN OF ALL CREATION… [IN WHOM] THE FULLNESS OF GOD WAS PLEASED TO DWELL…MAKING PEACE BY THE BLOOD OF HIS CROSS” [Colossians 1:15;19;20]. That’s the light we get to wake up to; we just have to wake up.

"Awake, O sleeper and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." [Ephesians 5:14]

"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" -Marvin Gaye

"Let It Be" -Bill Withers