We pick up today’s Gospel right where we left off last week. Jesus has just raised a 12-year-old girl from death to life and healed a woman with a hemorrhage in Capernaum. In each case, faith led to healing.

Now he has made the trek to his home town of Nazareth, about 26 miles to the west and up 1900 feet into the hill country of Galilee. Although today Nazareth is a bustling city of over 83,000 people, back then it was a village of about 500. That’s 1/10th the size of Fort Meade. And it’s about the size of Church of the Good Shepherd.

I don’t expect you all know each other, but imagine if the whole town was this church, and this church was the only church and the only gathering place in town, besides the well. You’d know everyone and they’d know you. And not just who you were. They’d know your personality and character. Many would have watched you grow up. They’d know your stories as well as you do - maybe before you do.

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Life is a story, and within that story are many stories, and often within those stories are embedded further stories. Today’s Gospel has a story within a story, within the great story of Jesus, and there are many stories layered within these stories.

Jesus has come back across Galilee to its western shore, probably Capernaum. Jairus, whose name means literally “he will awaken” is a leader of the synagogue. He approaches Jesus and falls at his feet. This moment passes very quickly as written, but we should take a moment to soak it in.

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In The Princess Bride, the Dread Pirate Roberts says to Princess Buttercup, “Life is pain, your highness. Anyone that says differently is selling something.”

Among the most difficult questions, perhaps the most difficult question, of faith is the problem of pain. The basic question goes something like this:  We know that God is good. We know that God is perfect. We know that God is all loving. We know that God created us in his image. So, if God is perfectly good and perfectly loving, why does he permit such awful and constant pain, suffering and evil in the world?

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