What Are You Holding On To?

The Things We Grasp and the Hand That Reaches Down to Save Us

In today's Gospel from St. Luke (8:41–56), we encounter two remarkable stories of faith, healing, and restoration. First, we hear of Jairus, a father desperately seeking the healing of his daughter. Any parent can appreciate the desperation and love behind his request. His daughter is dying, and he knows that Jesus is the one person who can help her.

Then, in the middle of this story, we encounter another person in need of healing: a woman who has suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve years. She, too, has come to Jesus with a desperate hope. She believes that if she can simply reach out and touch the fringe of His garment, she will be healed.

If we were reading the Gospel of Mark, we might recognize this as one of Mark's famous "sandwich" stories, where one event is placed inside another. The two stories are connected, and together they reveal something important.

Both Jairus and the woman come to Jesus with faith. They believe that He possesses the power to heal, and they approach Him with the confidence that He can do what no one else can.

Faith is central to both encounters.

But there is another detail in these stories that deserves our attention: the hands.

The woman reaches out her hand and touches the fringe of Jesus' garment. Immediately, she is healed. Jesus then takes the little girl by the hand and raises her from death.

One reaches out to take hold of Jesus. The other is taken by the hand of Jesus.

Both encounters reveal the healing power that comes forth from Him.

And this movement of reaching down and lifting up should remind us of something that runs throughout the entire story of salvation.

God is always reaching down to save His people.

Think back to the Exodus. The Israelites were living in the house of bondage in Egypt. They were under the oppression of Pharaoh, surrounded by the false gods and idols of Egypt, and trapped in a place from which they could not free themselves.

But God reached down.

With His mighty hand, He rescued His people from slavery and led them out of Egypt toward the Promised Land.

This image of God reaching down to rescue and lift up His people is woven throughout the Old Testament. The prophet Isaiah speaks of the Lord baring His holy arm, declaring that all the nations shall see the salvation of our God.

That same movement continues in the person of Jesus Christ.

In Jesus, God reaches down to humanity. He comes to rescue us from our own house of bondage: our sinfulness, our weaknesses, our addictions, and the things that separate us from Him.

Just as He reached down to Israel and led them out of Egypt, He reaches down to each of us and leads us toward the Promised Land of His Kingdom.

This is precisely what we celebrate in the incarnation. God does not remain distant from His people. He comes to us. He enters into our world and takes upon Himself our humanity so that He might restore us and bring us back to Himself.

We see this same message in today's Epistle from St. Paul to the Ephesians. Paul reminds us that those who were once far off have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

What was once distant has now been made near.

God's saving presence has come among us through Jesus Christ. And this work of reaching down and lifting us up continues through the life of the Church and the sacraments.

Consider what happens when we gather for the Divine Liturgy. We come before the holy altar of God, and Christ comes to us. We receive His presence and His grace.

There is a reason the priest calls out to the congregation, "Lift up your hearts!"

God is reaching down to us so that He might lift us up to Himself.

Just as Jesus took the little girl by the hand and raised her from death, He takes each of us by the hand through the power of His grace and raises us up. He draws us out of our old lives and brings us into communion with Him.

God reaches down so that we might be lifted up.

But this brings us to an important question. What do we do with this gift? How do we respond to the God who has reached down to save us?

We have to examine our own lives.

Each of us has something we are holding on to. Something we grasp in our hands, something of this world that we believe we need, something we think protects us or gives us security.

But sometimes the very things we hold on to are the things that prevent us from reaching out and taking hold of Jesus.

It might be sinfulness. It might be an addiction. It might be resentment, pride, or some worldly possession or desire. Whatever it is, we can become so attached to it that we refuse to let go.

We convince ourselves that these things have value, that they offer us something we need. But in reality, they are cheap substitutes for the one thing that truly matters: our relationship with Jesus Christ.

I once heard a story that illustrates this beautifully.

There was a family with a young daughter, and they had a collection of beautiful, priceless Ming vases. Unfortunately, the vases were kept on low shelves throughout the house. Perhaps it was their first child, and they hadn't yet learned that certain things needed to be moved out of reach!

One day, the father was home with his little girl. He noticed that she was acting strangely, hiding behind the couch where he couldn't see her.

When he went around to investigate, he discovered that her hand was stuck inside one of the vases.

He became concerned and immediately tried to help her. He worked with her for several minutes, trying to free her hand, but nothing worked. He even brought out some soap and tried to lubricate her hand so that it might slip free.

Still, it wouldn't come out.

Finally, realizing that he had no other choice, he decided he would have to break the vase. It was priceless and beautiful, but his daughter's safety was more important.

So he broke the vase.

And then he discovered something that left him both surprised and a little bewildered.

The little girl had been holding a penny in her hand.

She couldn't get her hand out of the narrow opening because she refused to let go of that penny. Had she simply opened her hand and released it, she could have slipped her hand out without any trouble.

Instead, her grasp on something practically worthless had cost the family something priceless.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, isn't that sometimes the story of our own lives?

What are we holding on to?

What are the cheap things of this world that we refuse to release? What are the things we grasp so tightly that they prevent us from reaching out and taking hold of Jesus?

We can spend so much of our lives holding on to things that ultimately have no lasting value. And in doing so, we risk losing sight of the one relationship that is truly priceless.

Jesus is reaching down to us. He is offering us healing, restoration, and new life. He is extending His hand and inviting us to take hold of Him.

But sometimes we have to open our hands first.

Don't allow something cheap that you are holding on to cost you the priceless gift of a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Amen.