Sermon on Luke 8:40-56, Risky Faith

^{Luke 8:40} When Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him. ⁴¹ Just then, a man named Jairus came. He was a leader of the synagogue. He fell down at Jesus’s feet and pleaded with him to come to his house, ⁴² because he had an only daughter about twelve years old, and she was dying.

While he was going, the crowds were nearly crushing him. ⁴³ A woman suffering from bleeding for twelve years, who had spent all she had on doctors and yet could not be healed by any, ⁴⁴ approached from behind and touched the end of his robe. Instantly her bleeding stopped.

⁴⁵ “Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds are hemming you in and pressing against you.”

⁴⁶ “Someone did touch me,” said Jesus. “I know that power has gone out from me.” ⁴⁷ When the woman saw that she was discovered, she came trembling and fell down before him. In the presence of all the people, she declared the reason she had touched him and how she was instantly healed. ⁴⁸ “Daughter,” he said to her, “your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”

⁴⁹ While he was still speaking, someone came from the synagogue leader’s house and said, “Your daughter is dead. Don’t bother the teacher anymore.”

⁵⁰ When Jesus heard it, he answered him, “Don’t be afraid. Only believe, and she will be saved.” ⁵¹ After he came to the house, he let no one enter with him except Peter, John, James, and the child’s father and mother. ⁵² Everyone was crying and mourning for her. But he said, “Stop crying, because she is not dead but asleep.”

⁵³ They laughed at him, because they knew she was dead. ⁵⁴ So he took her by the hand and called out, “Child, get up!” ⁵⁵ Her spirit returned, and she got up at once. Then he gave orders that she be given something to eat. ⁵⁶ Her parents were astounded, but he instructed them to tell no one what had happened. [CSB]

In November-December of last year I suffered a series of medical crises.  I went in to the hospital for the removal of painful gallstones, the removal of those stones triggered even more painful pancreatitis, then something kicked my immune system into an all-out attack on my kidneys causing me to swell up in all my joints from the impurities that were not being filtered out, and then, after all these were cured, it seems my heart took a turn for the less than best.  I’m still waiting for that last one to be set back to normal.  Like Paul, I, at one point, despaired of life, thinking perhaps that I had received the sentence of death.  But God was not through with me, and here I am.

It is astonishing how much a medical crisis can bring you to the point of hopelessness.  When nothing seems to work to cure your illness, you can be left despairing of any healthy, normal living, and instead, having to put up with a diminished body, diminished strength, maybe a diminished mind, and the subsequent low quality of life that comes from it.  All the color seems to fade out of life.  All the joy you once had is gone.  Unhealthiness nags at you like a dreary taskmaster.  You get depressed.  Depression springs from hopelessness.  There is nothing you can do, no bargain you can make, to get yourself back to real living.

And just as devastating, or perhaps more so, is when your child is on a course for destruction, and you feel totally unable to do anything to stop it.  You would gladly take your child’s place, but you cannot.  How can you have joy in life if your child is suffering, or so you tell yourself.  Nothing else seems important compared to helping your child, but helplessness grabs you by the throat and you are choking in hopelessness.

And you know the answer is Jesus, but you wonder if even Jesus can heal this?  Some problems are too big, it feels, to expect Him to save the day.  And it’s not like you haven’t asked.  You’ve asked over and over, and when no answer comes your desperation seems to kill the faith you had, and you resign yourself to suffering.

Yet our Scripture today tells us of two people who did not resign themselves to suffering and who found healing from Jesus of the most difficult forms of uncleanness, a twelve-year issue of blood and death.  Is this Scripture telling us that in Jesus we can have healing from every ailment?  Is it telling us that we can always go from the grave of hopelessness to the garden of new life?

1. Healing from the Hopelessness of Impurity (Luke 8:40-48)

Jesus had just returned from the other side of the Sea of Galilee, not really a sea but a very large lake, where he had cast out a legion of demons out of a man from the Gerasene region.  Capernaum was his home-base, the home of Peter his disciple and where he himself also likely stayed when he was in Galilee and not preaching in one of the Galilean villages or towns.  And the people were excited to see him.  One woman, in particular, was extremely glad to see him because she was convinced that he could heal her of her impurity and ailment.  She had had a steady menstrual flow of blood for twelve years now.  She had used all her resources on doctors, seeking a cure, but not finding one.  And it wasn’t just that she was weak and terribly inconvenienced by her illness, it also kept her from going to the Temple at festivals and even limited her ability to socialize with many people, because her condition made her ceremonially unclean or impure.  Any time she went out there was a chance she would make someone else unclean by them touching where she sat or touching her.  Then they would have to go through bathing and offering sacrifice for their cleansing before they could go to Temple.

But Jesus held the hope of a cure, because it seemed wherever he went he was curing people of any and every disease.  She supposed that she couldn’t come right up to him or expect him to lay healing hands on her, because surely, he would not want to have to go through the inconvenience of dealing with ritual impurity if he became unclean because of her.  She probably did not anticipate just how many other people had the same idea.  The crowd was immense.  And then someone of great importance approached Jesus with a need.  Jairus, the ruler or manager of the synagogue, came to Jesus to ask him to heal his dying daughter.  And when Jesus agreed they headed out for Jairus’ house.  What was she going to do now?  Would Jesus come back or was this her last opportunity?

So, she joined in the surging crowd.  She couldn’t help brushing up against others and likely making them unclean, though they wouldn’t probably know it unless they knew and recognized her in the crowd.  Her strategy was to touch the fringe of Jesus’ garment, the holy tassels men were instructed to put on the four corners of their robes.  Surely that proximity to Jesus’ holiness would be enough to cure her.  And sure enough, when she pushed her way through the crowd and was dangerously able to stoop down and touch the hem of his garment, she felt the bleeding dry up and could tell in her body that she had been healed after twelve hopeless years of misery.  Oh, the joy!

But then something she did not anticipate.  Jesus stopped and was looking for her.  His disciples were a little put out.  How were they supposed to find someone who touched him?  Everyone was touching him.  But he said he had felt power go out of him.  What an odd thing to say.  It was if it had not happened by Jesus’ own choice.  Healing energy left him without him doing anything to make that happen.  The woman heard all this discussion and knew Jesus was talking about and looking for her, and she was scared.  Was he going to rebuke her for what she did?  Was the crowd going to berate her for making them unclean?  Would Jesus take back the healing?  But what choice did she have?  She could run away, but wouldn’t a prophet like Jesus know it?  So, she came forward and confessed.

But instead of all the things she feared happening, Jesus surprised her by saying, “Daughter, your faith has saved you.  Go in peace.”  Daughter!  Daughter!  She had become a no-one in Israel, a forgotten victim, a social recluse, a pariah.  But Jesus called her daughter.  What a lovely and affectionate moniker.  She was special, not a nobody.  And it wasn’t the tassel on the bottom of Jesus garment that had healed her.  It was her faith that had healed her.  That’s what the healer said.  She didn’t think of her faith as that extraordinary, rather it was desperate.  But he thought of it that way and released her in peace.

1. Healing from the Hopelessness of Death (Luke 8:49-56)

Someone who was not experiencing peace was Jairus.  His daughter was dying, and Jesus had been on his way to heal her before being so rudely interrupted.  Why did Jesus have to stop to talk to this woman?  She said she was healed.  Why did he have to speak to her about it?  His little girl was needing Jesus, his daughter, this young daughter of Israel had only been alive for twelve years, the same length of time this woman had been ill.  Then he recognized someone from his household pushing their way through the crowd toward him.  And it was the worst news possible, “Your daughter is dead. Don’t bother the teacher anymore.”

Ah!  No, no!  His precious baby, the joy of his life.  This woman killed his daughter.  Now there’s no way he’d ever get her back.  But wait, what was Jesus saying?  “Don’t be afraid. Only believe, and she will be saved.”  Only believe!?  He had believed, but that was when she was still living.  Could he believe now, when his daughter was dead?  Jesus turned and headed toward his house and the crowd followed.  Jairus had to follow.

When they got to his home someone had already reported his daughter’s death and the mourners had come to help them grieve.  But Jesus pushed everybody back, even sent those not of the family back outside and said, “Stop crying, because she is not dead but asleep.”  For one second Jairus thought maybe someone had made a mistake and his daughter wasn’t dead.  But then he knew that wasn’t true.  They knew what death looked like.  What could Jesus mean?

Everyone outside was mocking Jesus now.  But Jairus and three of Jesus disciples went in the house.  Jairus clasped his wife and they wept together.  Jesus moved over to their daughter’s bed and taking her hand said, “Child, get up.”  And she did!  She did!  Jesus told them to get her something to eat and then not to tell anyone what had happened.  How could they not tell, especially the ones who thought she had died?  But he understood.  Jesus would be so mobbed by people if this were broadcast, it would hinder his work, his preaching.  And who could deny that there was no more important work, no more important servant of God, than Jesus.

Will Jesus heal every illness, even bring our loved ones back from premature death, if we believe?  No.  Do you think the apostle Paul had adequate faith in Jesus to be healed?  Of course he did.  And he tells us in 2 Corinthians 12 that God sent him a thorn in the flesh, an ailment in his body, and that he asked the Lord three times to remove it, but God told him no, that His grace was sufficient to carry Paul while he had this ailment.  God also told him that God’s strength was made perfect in Paul’s weakness.  He had a purpose for Paul’s suffering that was higher than Paul being healed.

Paraphrasing Kimberly Henderson,

If I had my way, I would have pulled Joseph out of the pit and prison, David out of the presence of spear-throwing Saul, Esther out of being in a position to have to risk talking to the king without permission, and I would have pulled Jesus off the cross.  But God didn’t because He knew the good it would produce, the beauty such hardship would grow.

But Paul believed God could and would heal people.  He had been an instrument in the healing of many.  And as we have sung, He still works that way today.  He can and will heal us.  And our faith is often a crucial component of our healing.  The faith of the woman with the issue of blood was, Jesus said, what had healed her.  She had a bold faith that took a risk.  It is a risk to come to Jesus for healing.  I have to ask him.  I may need to take a public stance of asking.  Sometimes Jason asks us to stand if we need help from God, and people come around us and pray.  We have someone standing at our prayer banner every Sunday for those who need prayer.  We have to ask.  It is a bold step.  We risk disappointment if Jesus doesn’t answer us with healing.  Maybe we risk embarrassment for acknowledging we have a need.

Some of our risky faith may be unbiblical.  Some have refused medical treatment thinking, “This will show the Lord that I have real faith.”  But recall what happened to Hezekiah, the king of Judah.  He was suffering from boils, infections under the skin that erupted through the skin, a horrible and possibly fatal infection.  He no doubt was going to the doctors and receiving the treatment of poultices, material soaked in some compound meant to draw out the infection.  But it wasn’t working.  God sent the prophet Isaiah to tell Hezekiah he was going to die.  Hezekiah wept before the Lord and begged for his life and God granted it.  But God sent the prophet Isaiah to Hezekiah and told him to get a poultice and he would be healed.  God could have healed him without the poultice but chose to use the treatment Hezekiah had been getting before, making it work this time to heal him.  We even trust God to use the medical treatment we receive to effectively heal us.

The woman with the issue of blood had to have a bold faith.  Jairus, on the other hand, had come boldly to Jesus.  That may have been embarrassing to him.  He was an important man in the community, a well-to-do man, and he was coming to this itinerant preacher.  But then it seemed his faith was interrupted.  The timing he had expected God to work on had gone bust.  Jesus wasn’t acting in a timely fashion in Jairus’ mind.  How often have you asked God for something and it didn’t come when you thought you needed it, but much later?  That’s what Paul thought was happening, and why he asked three times.  His healing didn’t ever come, as far as we know.  But I have a friend who recently publicly testified that something he had asked God for was delayed and when it was later delivered he knew that timing was the best.

My classmate in seminary, whom I didn’t really know all that well, but boy has he become well-known now, Darrell Bock, says this:

The most fundamental lesson in this passage is the combination of characteristics tied to faith. Faith should seize the initiative to act in dependence on God and speak about him, yet sometimes it must be patient. In one sense faith is full speed ahead, while in another it is waiting on the Lord. Our lives require a vibrant faith applied to the affairs of life, but it also requires a patient waiting on the Lord, for the Father does know best.

What are you feeling hopeless about?  Where does your faith need to seize the initiative to come in dependence on God?  How do you need to be reckless in your faith with regard to this hopeless situation?  Or have you asked in reckless faith but need to wait on God’s timing?  Take the risk.