12. Who is Jesus?
November 07th, 2010
Power over Sickness
The more we look at Jesus life the better we understand how amazing He really is. Jesus has had large crowds coming to Him. He has been traveling all around Galilee, He has been teaching, healing, and performing miracles. He is so exhausted they get on a boat to sail to the other side of the lake so Jesus can get a day of. Instead of getting rest in the boat He gets caught in a hurricane. The disciples wake Him up and Jesus calms the storm. They arrive at the other side of the lake but instead of a day off Jesus gets rushed by a demon possessed man. He casts out the demons then the people of Gerasa kick Him out of town. So they get back in the boat and sail to the other side of the lake. When they arrive He gets out of the boat only to end up in front of the very crowds He was trying to get away from. Jesus has jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. His life has become like an episode of 24: filled with relentless intensity and drama.
We are in Luke 8:40. Jesus has just arrived back in Capernaum and the crowds are waiting for Him. So there is no rest for the weary and now its time for Jesus to get back to work.
Lk 8:40 Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him. Lk 8:41 Then a man named Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house Lk 8:42 because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying. As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him.
As these crowds of people swarm around Jesus a man named Jairus managed to make it to the front of the line. Jairus is a synagogue ruler. His job was to direct the services and affairs of the synagogue so he is like a pastor. He gets to Jesus and he falls down on his knees and begs for help. His daughter is sick and he is willing to do pretty much anything to get her well. At this point opposition against Jesus from the religious leaders is on the rise. Jairus is taking a big risk in talking to Jesus at all.
This little girl is Jairus’s only child. They almost certainly would have tried to have more kids especially a boy who could carry on the family name. Big families were the social norm at this time but for whatever reason they have been unable to have any more children. Their only daughter now is twelve years old which is the age in which a Jewish girl became a woman but she is dying.
Can you just imagine for a moment what they are going through? Their daughter and only child is about to die. They have tried anything and everything they could but nothing has helped. Parents should not outlive their children; that is not the way it is supposed to work but that is the situation this family is in.
Children are one of God’s greatest gifts to us. Parents cherish and love their children. As parents you cant help but feel what your children feel. When they hurt you hurt. This guy’s daughter is dying which means he is dying from the inside out. All his dreams and hopes for the kind of woman he will get to watch his daughter become are falling apart and he doesn’t know what else to do.
So he comes to Jesus and begs for help and Jesus agrees to go. Jairus is not the only person in the crowd who needs Jesus attention. There are plenty of other people here who have sick loved ones. The crowds are pressing in on Jesus. They become personal space invaders as they are all trying to get Jesus attention. Poor Jesus, He is tired and needs a good day off but what He gets is a crowd people all up in His business.
Life can be like this sometimes. You find yourself with more demands on your time then you know what to do with and it can be a real challenge to determine which ones should be priorities and which ones should be ignored. Jairus has a legitimate need so Jesus agrees to help Him.
Lk 8:43 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. Lk 8:44 She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. Lk 8:45 “Who touched me?” Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”
Jesus is leading His entourage towards Jairus’s house when their journey is halted by a woman who touches Jesus. Seems like a hard thing to avoid in a crowd of people all fighting to get as close to Jesus as possible but this is different. This woman didn’t accidentally bump into Jesus as they were walking, she deliberately reached out and touched Him.
This woman has been bleeding for twelve years. She has tried everything. She has gone to doctors; looked at alternative medicine, done everything to get healed but nothing has worked. She has spent everything she has trying to get better and she has run out of options.
According to Old Testament law when a woman bleeds she is ceremonially unclean. During this time a woman would be prohibited from worshiping God in the temple, from being around crowds of people, or from having contact with anyone else. If she came in contact with another person that person would also become unclean. So her problem is not only medical but social.
She has been bleeding for twelve years which means in twelve years no one has touched her. No one has held her hand, no one has hugged her, no one has played with her hair, given her a kiss, rubbed her shoulders. She has not had physical contact with another human being for twelve years. She eats all of her meals by herself. She lives by herself. She cant get connected to a community of any kind. She couldn’t have a husband or if she had a husband he likely would have divorced her because of her condition. So not only is this woman suffering. She is suffering alone.
She desperately makes her way through this crowd, which she should not be around in the first place and as He is walking she reaches out and touches Jesus cloak. This woman is acting on a superstition. Greeks believed that a healer’s power would transfer to their clothing so she believes she could be healed if she just touched Jesus clothes. What she is doing is a huge act of faith in Jesus. God honors her faith even though it was rooted in superstition.
Lk 8:46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.” Lk 8:47 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. Lk 8:48 Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”
Luke, the doctor tells us that when this woman touched Jesus her bleeding immediately stopped. Jesus feels power leaving Him. So He stops and asks who touched me? This is an odd question since Jesus is packed in the middle of a crowd. Everyone is touching Him. This woman certainly did not want public attention. She tried to get a ninja healing and get away unnoticed. She has gynecological problems which is not the sort of thing you want to confess publicly. So why does Jesus call her out?
His goal is not to embarrass her but to truly bring her faith to life. In order for her faith to truly develop as well as the faith of the crowd she needs to make a public statement. If she hides the fact that she was sick then the healing looses its significance. In forcing this woman to address her problem Jesus not only gives her a physical healing but a social one as well. Her culture would have viewed her as unclean because of her condition. Jesus didn’t just heal her He restored her.
Sometimes the only way for us to get true healing in our lives is for us to confess what makes us unclean. Jesus heals this woman but it is not until she admits she was dirty that He was able to truly restore her. A lot of times we are like this woman. We try to sneak in get our healing from Jesus and get out before anyone notices. If we try to hide the fact that we have sin in our lives, if we try to hide the past we are ashamed of then we cannot receive the full restoration that Jesus offers. So if you have things in your life that you are trying to hide what you need is restoration. You get it by coming to Jesus in faith and confessing why you need His healing.
Lk 8:49 While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher any more.” Lk 8:50 Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.” Lk 8:51 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.
You can imagine this delay was a bit frustrating for Jairus. His only daughter is very ill, her health has recently taken a turn for the worse and every moment counts. If Jesus doesn’t hurry it might be too late. Word came from Jairus’s house that his daughter was dead. It is over. All his efforts to save her have failed. Death is the ultimate penalty for sin. It is merciless and cruel. It robs parents of their beloved children, steals away aging spouses leaving senior citizens without their lifelong companion. It robs children of their protectors, wives of their providers, husbands of their partners. Nothing in this life, not wealth or power will enable us to overcome it. Death is the great equalizer. It haunts rich and poor, wise and foolish alike. Death is relentless and inescapable. It is the accompaniment of sin and the penalty for our disobedience. Nothing we can do or say can deliver us from the power of death.
Jesus says not to worry. He is not deterred by this unfortunate turn of events. A little thing like death is not going to stop Jesus from doing what He said He would do. For He alone has the ability to override death’s authority. When they arrive at Jairus’s house Jesus allows only Peter, James, John, and the girl’s parents to come inside.
Lk 8:52 Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,” Jesus said. “She is not dead but asleep.” Lk 8:53 They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. Lk 8:54 But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!” Lk 8:55 Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. Lk 8:56 Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.
It took Jesus so long to arrive that a funeral crowd has already gathered. According to Jewish burial rites after a person died a crowd would gather and make a lot of noise. Jesus tells the mourners to knock it off because she is not dead only asleep.
Death is not just a physical thing it is a spiritual thing. For Jesus to raise the dead is no more difficult then for us to wake a sleeping child. The Bible refers to believers who die as having fallen asleep. For those who have a relationship with God death is not the end. When we live for Jesus and love Jesus death is just the beginning of a new and greater life: a life without pain and suffering, a life without hardship, a life without sin or separation from God.
Death, the end, the final word, the inescapable, unavoidable death is overcome by Jesus words. He tells this girl to get up and she comes back to life. She wakes up, gets up, and is right as rain with no recovery period. The first thing that Jesus instructs them to do: get this girl something to eat. Dying is a lot of work and this girl is hungry.
Jesus has conquered His final enemy: death. Jesus restores the sick. He rescues the enslaved. In Jesus there is life. If we believe in Him then we can have a life without death, without sickness, and without pain. He is the savior. He is the healer. He is the source of life. That is our God. He gave His own life to heal us from our sickness; to deliver us from our sin and to give us eternal life with Him. Jesus is the greatest healer, whose power can even heal the pain of death. Whatever you have in your life, whatever pain, or sickness, suffering, or loss Jesus has the power to heal it if you will come to Him.
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Healer was written by Michael Guglielmucci. His song traveled worldwide and has touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. He went to the doctor and said he found out he had terminal cancer. So he wrote this song Healer proclaiming his faith that God would heal him. For two years he convinced the world and even his family that he was dying of cancer. But he isn’t. It was a lie. Guglielmuci never had cancer but he went to great lengths to convince people that he did. He sent fake emails from fake doctors to his family. He had people drop him off at the hospital but wouldn’t let them go in with him. He shaved his head and beard, he performed with oxygen tank and mask. All of this charade was done to cover up his addiction to pornography.
When I first heard the story I was sad but then I started thinking. How amazing it is that God would use a sinner do touch the lives of so many people. His song is powerful and inspiring and despite the fact that he was living in sin God was gracious enough to do great things through him. How do you not love a God like that? Who is willing to use us even when we fail to be perfect. Pretty awesome that God still uses sinners for great things. Sometimes we think we cant do anything for God because we have sin in our lives or because we are not perfect. The truth is God can use us even when we sin to do great things for His kingdom. God is a healer and He can use you even when you sin. This is not a license to sin but a reminder that sin should not stop us from trying to show the love of Jesus to the world. Because healing is found in no one else then Christ Jesus our Lord, let’s make this the cry of our hearts this morning.
