Luke #21: The Master's Touch (8:40-56)

Again, welcome to Family Worship with the church family of Eastern Hills. It’s a blessing to gather with such a wonderful church family this morning. I’d like to give a special shout out of thanks to those adults in our church family who serve with our Student Ministry. Several will be going to camp with the students next week, and many serve on Wednesday nights at Prime Time, as well as at other events, such as Big Thing this past Friday. Student ministry doesn’t work without caring adults, so thanks for all you do!

If you’re a guest or visiting with us this morning, we would really like to be able to thank you for being here today, and to be able to do that, we have to get a little information from you. Could you please just fill out one of the Welcome cards that you’ll find in the back of the pew in front of you? When you’ve done that, you can return it to us in one of two ways: you can drop it in the offering boxes by the doors as you leave when service is over, or I’d appreciate the opportunity to introduce myself, so after service, I’ll stay down here, and I invite you to come and say hello and give me your card personally. I have a small gift to give you to say thanks for being here today.

Opening

For those of you who are just starting out with the Eastern Hills family, we’re spending this year in the Gospel of Luke, taking it verse-by-verse each week. We’ve spent the last two weeks in the eighth chapter of Luke’s Gospel, and we will finish that chapter up this morning.

What we saw last week was Jesus’s mastery over nature in the form of a sudden storm on the Sea of Galilee, and His mastery over the supernatural in the form of a mob of demons who had possessed a man on the eastern shore of the lake. We considered that Jesus can also calm the storms that swirl around us, the foes that rise up against us, and wants to calm the chaos within us. If you want to go back and check that message out, you can do so on the website, the app, or on our YouTube and Facebook pages.

This morning, we will see the final two of a series of four miracles that Luke records in sequence here in chapter 8. So please take your Bibles or your Bible apps and turn to the end of chapter 8 of Luke’s Gospel, and stand as you are able to do so in honor of the reading of God’s holy Word as I read verses 40 through 56 of that chapter:

Luke 8:40–56 CSB

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.

PRAYER

Have you ever heard the saying that someone is “a jack of all trades, master of none?” It refers to someone who can do a lot of things, but isn’t really a true master of any of them. I tend to refer to myself in this way, especially when it comes to music. I can “play” lots of instruments: guitar, bass, piano, drums, keyboards, ukulele, electric guitar, harmonica, a little bit of saxophone, and I can play a pretty mean triangle, if I do say so myself.

And when you compare me to someone who can’t play one of those instruments, it seems as if I’m pretty good. However, I wouldn’t say that I have true mastery over any of those. If you compare me with someone who has a higher level of mastery than I do, you can quickly see the difference. Honestly, I’m a pretty average guitar player—Michael is way better at bar chords than I am, and Owen is better at both acoustic AND electric guitar than I. I am an incredibly simple bass player—Dave has way more groove than I do. On the piano, I really just play chords just like on the guitar… I can’t play sheet music. Kathy, Michelle, Donna, Lisa, Nancy...they all can play piano for real. And there are honestly times that I watch or listen to what Tony does on the drums, and I’m in awe. I can’t do those things.

When a master plays an instrument, it comes alive. It can do everything it was designed to do. The same goes for anything else that we might have mastery over: art, construction, writing, video games… whatever. The touch of the master changes things, because the master has the power to affect whatever they have mastered.

As I said, last week we saw Jesus’s mastery over the natural and the supernatural worlds. With just a word, He calmed the storm and drove out a demon horde. This week’s passage shows Jesus to be master over the human condition: specifically health and life itself.

But first, we see the Master, Jesus, being sought out by those in need:

1: Seeking the Master in faith.

When we are faced with a situation that we cannot hope to resolve on our own, we usually seek experienced or trained help in resolving those issues: someone who has mastery in that particular area. When we have a problem with our teeth, we see a dentist. Have a medical issue? Go to the doctor. In this morning’s passage, we find a father doing exactly this kind of thing with Jesus, because he needed a healer for his daughter:

Luke 8:40–42 CSB

Following Jesus’s rejection by the people of Gerasenes, He and His disciples sail back home across the Galilee to Capernaum, His “home base.” Jesus was warmly welcomed home by a large crowd of people, and shortly after His arrival, He was visited by a man named Jairus. Jairus was a leader of the local synagogue, which means that he was very likely wealthy, and had been made a leader because of his financial support for the local Jewish gathering place.

Probably this was not the first time that Jesus and Jairus have met. Jesus spent a lot of time in Capernaum, and spoke at the synagogue there and at other synagogues in the vicinity. Obviously, Jesus at this point was extremely well known, and decidedly popular in the area north of the Galilee because of His healing and preaching ministry.

But it appears that not only did Jairus know who Jesus was: he also knew that Jesus was the only hope for his twelve-year-old daughter, his only daughter, back home. She was dying of some malady unknown to us, and Jairus desperately asked Jesus to come to his house to heal her.

Thankfully, I can’t imagine being this dad. Some of you parents have experienced this kind of fear, this kind of pain. I cannot empathize, only sympathize with you. Jairus’s daughter was dying, and there was nothing that he could do to rescue her. He needed a miracle, and he needed it right then. He needed Jesus. Only He could solve the problem, and Jairus sought Him in faith, believing that that was true. He had probably seen Jesus’s mastery over illness first hand, given all of the healings that are referenced in Luke up to this point.

Jairus came and sought Jesus, falling at His feet in humility and reverence, inviting Jesus to step into his home, into his pain, likely into the most difficult moment of his life to that point, because he believed that Jesus could bring light to the darkness he was in.

We can’t say whether Jesus was Jairus’s first resort or last resort. We don’t know if doctors had been called in, or if he had been trying to find Jesus while He was off rescuing the demoniac as we saw in last week’s focal passage. What we can say is that at this point, Jesus was all the hope he had.

And Jesus is all the hope that we have as well. Like we saw last week with the storms and the foes, our ultimate hope is wrapped up in Jesus. If we are Christians—His followers—our hope is rests on His power, His presence, His very Person. He is the Lord Almighty, the Word, the One by Whom and through Whom and for Whom all things exist, the Maker of the heavens and the earth, and the maker of each of us. According to Scripture, there is no limit to His understanding, and with Him nothing is impossible.

So it makes sense that He is who we should turn to when trials come our way—when the brokenness of this life and the frailty of our bodies is put on display. But the point isn’t simply to escape our troubles (though that’s not a bad thing, to be sure): it’s to know Jesus better—to grow closer to Him and to bring Him glory.

The psalms sometimes really capture this heart:

Psalm 27:4 CSB

4 I have asked one thing from the Lord; it is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, gazing on the beauty of the Lord and seeking him in his temple.

Psalm 27:7–8 CSB

7 Lord, hear my voice when I call; be gracious to me and answer me. 8 My heart says this about you: “Seek his face.” Lord, I will seek your face.

Psalm 63:1–3 CSB

1 God, you are my God; I eagerly seek you. I thirst for you; my body faints for you in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water. 2 So I gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory. 3 My lips will glorify you because your faithful love is better than life.

Jesus is so much more than some kind of superhero or cosmic vending machine. He calls us into a relationship with Him, where He Himself is what we want and need. This is what Christianity is truly about: a personal relationship with Jesus based on faith. Paul wrote about his perspective on this to the church at Philippi:

Philippians 3:8–10 CSB

8 More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death,

Now, we don’t know if this is what Jairus was getting at when he went looking for Jesus, but it’s what he found. And once Jairus found Jesus, I’m certain that he had hope. This great healer was going to go to his house, and all would be well with his daughter.

Jesus is our only hope for what ails us. There is another daughter in this passage who discovered this when she touched the Master in faith.

2: Touching the Master in faith.

As we mentioned earlier, Jesus was extremely popular at this point in His ministry. He set off toward Jairus’s house, but His popularity was actually a bit of a hindrance to Him getting there. A crowd was following Him (which we already saw in verse 40), and they were excited to be in His presence, even if they didn’t understand who His was. But one woman, a woman who had a serious problem, did understand:

Luke 8:42–44 CSB

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.

Luke here uses a literary technique called a intercalation, or a nested narrative. These narratives of Jairus’s request and the interruption of the bleeding woman certainly happened this way, but we also can see how these two descriptions are somewhat separate… the place where they touch is the fact that Jesus was moving to heal Jairus’s daughter, and this woman delayed that from happening.

Luke provides us with a little more information about the woman. She had been suffering from bleeding for about as long as Jairus’s daughter had been alive: 12 years. I’m just going to call it what it almost certainly was: essentially menstrual bleeding. But 12 years? Yikes.

This would have brought with it a host of complications, and not just the physical ones like cramping and weakness: Leviticus had a special section for this type of issue (Leviticus 15:25-30), and it was clear: women were considered to be ceremonially unclean during a time of bleeding such as this, and anything she touched or anyone who touched her would have been considered to be unclean for the rest of the day. Every day. She didn’t have to walk around yelling, “unclean!” like lepers did, but it was nearly that bad for her. And according to Luke, she had spent all the money that she had on doctors to cure her, and nothing had helped. She had been reduced to the life of a beggar, in this sense.

Picture the scene here in your mind: Jesus was walking to Jairus’s house, and a mob of people is crowded around Him. They are all clamoring for Jesus to touch them, to heal them, to bless them. They are pressing up against Him from every side. And in the crowd is this one woman with this problem, and she knows that everyone she touches in this crowd will be considered unclean if she’s found out, but she’s got to get to Jesus. Just like Jairus, she’s desperate. So she meekly approaches Him in the midst of the massive crowd, reaches out, and just gets the corner, or perhaps the tassel, of Jesus’s clothes. She reaches out in faith and touches the Master.

And immediately she is made well. She feels it. She’s cured. Just like that. And probably at that point, she’d just like to slip away into the crowd. But Jesus stops:

Luke 8:45–48 CSB

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.”

Jesus asks who touched Him, even though (as Peter points out) there are a bunch of people touching Him all the time because of the crowd pressed against Him. Now, I don’t for one second think that Jesus didn’t know who had touched Him and been healed. I think that He wanted her to step out and declare what had happened, for several reasons: First, because she hadn’t needed to hide from Jesus in the first place. Jesus would have healed her either way. Second, she needed to be a witness, testifying to what had happened to her. Like the demon-possessed man last week, she would declare to her people all that God had done for her (8:39). And finally, Jesus wasn’t only interested in her physical healing. He also cared about her spiritual state. Speaking to her allowed Him to address that as well.

So He calls her out, and she comes forth, interestingly enough in a way very similar to Jairus—falling down at Jesus’s feet, and again like the demoniac, she gives public testimony of what God had done for her. Jesus’s response is dramatic: “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”

This statement of Jesus to this woman is powerful. First, he refers to her as “daughter,” which references a different kind of relationship. Through faith, she has entered into a family relationship with Jesus. She is now a part of God’s family.

Then, Jesus says, “your faith has SAVED you.” The Greek word for “saved” here can mean “saved” AND “healed.” She came for physical healing, which she received, but she’s also leaving spiritually restored through her faith.

And finally, she is told by Jesus to, “go in peace.” She has been brought to a state of peace with God, peace with herself and her body, and peace with everyone else because her shame has been removed through her faith.

In his commentary on this passage, Grant Osborne writes:

Her faith is not the basis of the miracle; that would be salvation by works. Her faith allowed her to participate in the miracle and experience physical and spiritual salvation.

— Grant R. Osborne, Luke: Verse by Verse

Without faith, she would not have approached the crowd. Without faith, she would not have reached out to touch Jesus. Without faith, she would not have experienced the healing that Jesus gave her, both physically and spiritually. She would not have experienced getting to participate in a miracle that would still be talked about two thousand years later.

The Scripture is clear that salvation is only by grace through faith:

Ephesians 2:8–9 CSB

8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—9 not from works, so that no one can boast.

God, by His grace, through the work of His Holy Spirit, calls us to place our faith in Jesus for salvation: to believe that He is the Son of God, that He died for our sins, and that He rose from the grave. He died even though He didn’t deserve to so that we can be forgiven, even though we don’t deserve to be. And He rose from the grave victorious over death so that we who deserve death will overcome death as well, living forever as He does, since death no longer has any mastery over Him:

Romans 6:8–9 CSB

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, 9 because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him.

This “dying with Christ” is us giving up—surrendering our very lives to Jesus as Savior and Lord, trusting in what He has done to save us, instead of trusting in ourselves. In her desperation, the woman in this passage put everything on the line just to get to Jesus, because she had faith that if she could just touch the corner of his robe, she would be healed. If you’ve never believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I call on you this morning to hear the Word of the Lord, to believe the Gospel, and to place your faith in Jesus to save you, just like this woman did.

Or perhaps you’re already a believer, and you’ve got some issues going on in your life. Just because you already have Jesus doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be desperate for Him. Notice how the psalmist says it in Psalm 84:

Psalm 84:1–2 CSB

1 How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord of Armies. 2 I long and yearn for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh cry out for the living God.

We should always be desperate for the presence of the Lord in our lives, because only He can bring the healing that we so desperately need, by His grace through faith.

This woman was saved by God’s grace working through her faith. And while in her case it meant that she needed to touch Jesus, in the conclusion of the narrative about Jairus’s daughter, she needed the touch of the Master instead.

3: The Master’s touch.

The woman was saved not because she touched Jesus, but because of God’s grace working through her faith in Jesus. Her reaching out and touching Him simply displayed her faith. But her interaction with Jesus had cost Him time. And now in Jairus’s situation, things go from hopeless to impossible. Jesus being master over illness was no longer going to be enough:

Luke 8:49–53 CSB

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.

Jesus was still talking to the woman He had healed when a message arrived from Jairus’s house that his daughter had died. Certainly Jesus could not do anything about death, so the message recommends that Jairus not bother Him anymore. In all of Jesus’s popularity, they apparently hadn’t heard about what happened with the widow’s son in Nain, which we looked at back in chapter 7.

There’s a contrast here between the faith of the woman who had been healed and the faith of this emissary to Jairus, and possibly with Jairus himself. When Jesus heard about his daughter’s death, He encourages Jairus: “Don’t be afraid. Only believe, and she will be saved.” Again, the Greek here is the same word as before, meaning “saved” and “healed.” I believe that the double meaning is in play in this case also.

This passage is the first time in Luke’s Gospel that we see Jesus focus on the three who are His “inner circle” of disciples: Peter, John, and James. He allows only those three to go inside with Him, Jairus, and his wife.

In Hebrew culture, mourning was and still is a big deal. Then, when someone died, there were professional “mourners” who could be hired to come and weep and wail in order to reflect the proper tone and impact of the loss. Before going into the house, Jesus tells them to stop mourning, because the girl was not dead, but asleep. Did Jesus get this wrong? No. “Sleeping” was a common Jewish idiom for death:

John 11:11 CSB

11 He said this, and then he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I’m on my way to wake him up.”

1 Thessalonians 4:13 CSB

13 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.

(There are several more references).

But Jesus specifically said, “she is not dead...” Because Jesus knew what was about to happen, He also knew that her “death” was as temporary as sleep. Not only that, but He also could declare the end from the beginning, as God says in Isaiah 46:10

Isaiah 46:10 CSB

10 I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago what is not yet done, saying: my plan will take place, and I will do all my will.

When Jesus said, “she is not dead,” He was absolutely correct, because He is master over death. And so Jesus and His three disciples, along with this little girl’s parents, go to her bedside. And the touch of the Master changes everything:

Luke 8:54–56 CSB

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.

Jesus commands her to get up, and she does. There’s more to us than just our physical bodies, and at death, the spiritual is separated from the physical. “Her spirit returned,” and “at once” the little girl got up, just as the woman had been healed “immediately.” As evidence that she was, in fact, alive, Jesus instructs that she be given something to eat, an act that He later will take following His own resurrection in order to convince His disciples that He truly had been raised:

Luke 24:39–43 CSB

39 Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself! Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.” 40 Having said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 But while they still were amazed and in disbelief because of their joy, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 So they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate in their presence.

In our focal passage, Jesus then tells her astounded parents not to tell anyone about what had happened. Certainly here, He doesn’t mean not to tell anyone that the little girl was alive. That fact was self-evident. The instruction is not to tell anyone about how the girl was alive again. Commentators vary in their guesses as to why He gave this instruction to parents. My take on this is that Jesus’s ministry was already to the point where walking through town was difficult. Being able to raise someone from the dead was next-level stuff, and it was going to attract even more attention. There was no way to keep the mourners from knowing, but they had been primed with “she’s not dead, but asleep.” If people were to start bringing their dead to Jesus, things could get messy quickly in His earthly ministry.

So in this case, what about the double meaning of “saved” in verse 50? How could this girl place her faith in Jesus if she was dead? And how could her father placing his faith in Jesus mean salvation for her? Well, there’s an old saying: “As goes the father, so goes the family.” And for Jairus to place his faith in Jesus for salvation would likely bring salvation to his whole household. A similar thing was said to the Philippian jailer by Paul in Acts 16:

Acts 16:29–34 CSB

29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He escorted them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him along with everyone in his house. 33 He took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds. Right away he and all his family were baptized. 34 He brought them into his house, set a meal before them, and rejoiced because he had come to believe in God with his entire household.

The faith of the jailer didn’t save his family, but his faith was the catalyst for them hearing and then believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The same is true for Jairus back in our focal passage in Luke 8. His daughter would be healed. His household would be saved.

I know it’s not Father’s Day, but let me just say to you dads: studies show that dads who believe and live out their faith are WAY more likely to have families that believe and live out their faith. Has your household experienced the Master’s touch? For all men: Have you personally experienced the saving touch of Jesus? How are you drawing near to the unexpected love of Jesus today? How are you growing Christian friends who are in turn growing you? How are you sharing your faith journey with your neighbors wherever you live, work, and play?

Closing

The touch of the Master changes things. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, according to Luke 19:10. Are you one of those lost, who have never believed in Jesus for your salvation? This moment, right now, might be your moment—the moment that God is calling you to faith in Jesus for your salvation. Will you believe the message of the Gospel, surrender to Jesus , and be saved?

Repentance for the believer, especially the men

Baptism like Andrea

Church membership

Prayer

Giving EHBCGIVE to 888-364-GIVE

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Bible reading (Matt 27, Ps 145)

Pastor’s Study tonight: Apologetics with Mark Yee

Prayer Meeting this week. Joe leading it.

Instructions for guests

Benediction

Revelation 3:20 CSB

20 See! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

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