Luke #22: Healing of Two Daughters

Irritate by interruptions… only to realize that my offense was the same as their impulse to interrupt… I’m more important… I want to be heard… When I realized that, I took it to the Lord and you know what… I still get irritated when people interrupt or talk over others… but what I have found is that He helps me to listen harder when I notice the interruption.

We find ourselves in

Ch 8: Three stories showing the authority of Jesus…

Power over nature in calming the storm.

Power over spiritual realm in casting out demons.

Power over life and death in healing and raising.

This comes at after a longer look at the significance of faith, where it is and where it’s not.

But these were just part of Luke showing us what faith looks like.

When it comes to faith, so far we have seen...

A Faithful Reminder:

Luke 4:14-30 = It wasn’t in Galilee

Faith is more than a church experience.

Luke 5:17-26 = the 4 friends had it

Faith is more than a matter of belief.

Luke 7:1-10 = The Centurion had it,

Luke 7:36-50 = the prostitute had it,

Luke 8:1-21 = the good soil had it.

Faith is an action, or it isn’t.

Luke 8:22-25 = In the boat the disciples lost it, but

Luke 8:26-39 = the wild man in the tombs had it

Faith is the key to freedom and forgiveness.

That brings us to today’s two stories of healing.

Luke 8:40 NIV

40 Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him.

Just left the Garesines… where only a wild man met them but the whole town ran them off… and here a large crowd gathers to receive him… but everyone isn’t the same

Luke 8:41–42 NIV

41 Then a man named Jairus, a synagogue leader, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house 42 because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying. As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him.

The synagogue where Jesus had healed the man already… Jairus knew the power Jesus had. This wasn’t a time to worry about how others would think… this was about how he could save his daughter.

Luke 8:43–44 NIV

43 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. 44 She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.

Coincidence that this lady’s problem is as old as the little girl? I don’t. These stories are connected… they are telling one story.

But the difference was that while Jairus came right up.. this lady tries to play it cool to not draw attention to herself.

Just to touch the tassels Jesus wore… Jewish men would wear them as a reminder of the law… around their neck, on their shoulders...

But that doesn’t work.

Luke 8:45–46 NIV

45 “Who touched me?” Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.” 46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”

On their way and Jesus is interrupted… at least that’s how Jairus saw it… he wanted lights and sirens, not let’s stop and chat. But Jesus did things his own way.

You think Jesus knew who touched him? I do.

So what is Jesus doing here? Luke points us towards it.

Luke 8:47–48 NIV

47 Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. 48 Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

Mark’s gospel tells us that this lady had spent all she had with doctors and potion mixers to find healing… nothing worked. She had resolved to living in the shadows… hoping that people wouldn’t know she was sick, not drawing attention to herself.

I’m not well educated on gynecological issues, but apparently this was a hemorrhage that couldn't be healed.

According to Jewish law, she was unclean because of her illness. Anyone she touched or who touched her was made unclean.

12 years she had been in isolation… an untouchable.

Now healed… let’s come back to this.

But we don’t get to celebrate with her because someone else interrupts the moment.

Luke 8:49–50 NIV

49 While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher anymore.” 50 Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.”

You can imagine Jairus… overcome with grief - wishing they had been there a few minutes earlier.

Jesus’s words to not be afraid are hollow encouragement against this news. It’s not that he doesn’t believe Jesus, it’s just that the news of his daughters death is too much.

We’ve all been there right. When the bad news seems to override our faith in Jesus. It’s not that we doubt, but just fail to have believe in the moment. We are overwhelmed.

Jesus didn’t let him get stuck in the moment of hopelessness though, they continued.

Luke 8:51–53 NIV

51 When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother. 52 Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,” Jesus said. “She is not dead but asleep.” 53 They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead.

Now it’s said that these may have been paid mourners. That was a thing back then, especially upon the death of influential people as Jairus’s family.

Think what you want, but Jesus had work to do.

Luke 8:54–56 NIV

54 But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!” 55 Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. 56 Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.

This is a story of true healing.

True Healing

Real healing… but not Truely healed… but not permanent.... not thorough.

What do I mean?

I mean that where this woman had suffered for 12 years she was now healed of this disease. Where this little girls was dead, she was not alive… yet both of them would one day die. this was a healing of their immediate crisis, but it wasn’t thorough… but not permanent.

Hiding a secret… secret of unclean… 12 years of a condition that no one had to know.. but she knew… she was burdened… no one knows… it’s not really a problem unless people know...

Other Gospels record that she had spent all she had and suffered all she could on doctors to find healing.... had tried everything else… might as well try Jesus… not because she had a remarkable faith… but enough to go to Jesus.

We see it in her desperation for something she could find no where else

Then there’s Jairus and his daughter… we know very little about her, but Jairus we know a little. He too had been hiding something - his faith in Jesus. Maybe we could say he was living with a casual faith in Jesus.

Secret of casual faith in Jesus - Jairus had seen Jesus heal before… the spirit declared Jesus as the Holy One of God right in the synagogue he taught in every week. He had seen it with his own eyes, heard it with his own ears, he was amazed, but his amazement had never become the sort of faith that drove him… until his daughter was ill.

He knew Jesus could heal, but until this moment, he hadn’t been able to make the break with his life as synagogue leader.

What would the pharisee’s say?

What would the other leaders say about him following Jesus?

What would his members think when they saw him go to Jesus?

Would anyone listen to anything he had to say after this?

None of those questions mattered now that his daughter was sick.

There was only one person to go to and in that moment, he and the woman found more than they were looking for.

They were looking for real healing and what they found was a true healer.

The same person who came upon a Samaritan woman at a well one day.

John chapter 4 tells a story of a woman who was an outcast in her community, yet what she found in Jesus was acceptance and forgiveness.

Jesus didn’t pretend there wasn’t a problem, he walked right in. But what he didn’t bring was judgement… at least not the way we tend to judge one another.

That’s what is so special about today’s text. The people were facing circumstances that brought everything they thought they had hidden right out into the open.

One her condition that made her unclean… another his secret faith.

They feared judgement, but what hey found was grace and healing.

This made an impression on Jesus’s disciples, especially those who went into the room with Jesus and the little girl’s parents. John would later write:

1 John 1:9 NIV

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

This is the source of true healing.

Letting our weaknesses become known to God… not because he doesn’t know already, but it’s a matter of surrendering where we miss the mark to him.

That’s what sin is really, it’s the places we fail to measure up. It’s the places we start out with excitement only to fade out. But when we stop pretending, stop hiding, stop keeping the truth a secret… that’s really not a secret anyway… there we find freedom, and true healing.

But, but, how can I do that?

How can I just admit I have problems? No one wants to hear my problems. You are probably right there - except God.. he wants us to bring our problems to him, our struggles to him.

Romans 8:1–2 NIV

1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.

Where did we ever get the idea that followers of Jesus are perfect people.

Probably where in the Bible it calls us to be holy. But holy doesn’t just mean free from sin… it also means set apart for a special divine purpose.

We see in Jesus that God doesn’t want to tear us down because of our mistakes, our failures, our sin… but he wants to build us up.

Romans 8:31–39 NIV

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing can separate you from God’s love in Christ. That includes you.

Our world tells us that if people really know you then you won’t be accepted…

but Jesus came to show us that actually we can’t be accepted until we are fully known… until we stop playing games with God.

We can't be truly accepted unless we can be fully known.

He’s ok with accepting us right where are, with the issues you have that make you unclean… with your casual faith… with whatever. He loves you just like you are.

But know this, when you respond to his love, things change.. particularly how we see ourselves.

Just like the revelation I had about interruptions

Keeping our past in perspective: It is TRUE.

Phil 3 “13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,”

Keeping our past in perspective: It will be used AGAINST US.

2 Cor 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Keeping our past in perspective: It can rob us of OUR HOPE.

PHil 3 “14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Keeping our past in perspective: It can be God’s GREATEST PURPOSE.

2 Corinthians 5:17–18 NIV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: