Luke 8:40-56 Talitha Cumi
Good morning! Please turn with me in your Bibles to Luke 8:40-56, page 866 in the pew Bibles.
It seems to me that the Lord has been driving home a message over the last few weeks. I don’t know if you’re hearing it, I don’t know if it’s even for you or if it’s just for me.
It’s the lesson of the gifts given to the disciples in the storm on the Sea of Galilee. A reminder of their powerlessness, and of Jesus’ almightiness.
When the disciples were on the Sea and tossed around by the waves and water started filling their boat they thought they were going to die and that there was nothing they could do about it so they went to Jesus. In Jesus’ almightiness he calmed the storm and calmed their hearts.
It’s a great reminder that in our pride we often think that we are in control of our lives but as soon as a storm whips up, reality is revealed to us that we are indeed powerless, but the eventual stopping of every storm is a reminder of Jesus’ almightiness, whether it’s immediate or over the course of time.
Our text for this morning is another reminder of the frailty and weakness of mankind and the great power of our Savior. It is the overlapping account of the raising of Jairus’ daughter and the healing of the woman with the issuance of blood. Last week we looked at the woman who was healed and today we’ll look at Jairus’ little daughter.
40 Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. 41 And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus’ feet, he implored him to come to his house, 42 for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying.
As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. 43 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. 44 She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. 45 And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” 46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” 47 And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. 48 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”
49 While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler’s house came and said, “Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the Teacher any more.” 50 But Jesus on hearing this answered him, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well.” 51 And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him, except Peter and John and James, and the father and mother of the child. 52 And all were weeping and mourning for her, but he said, “Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.” 53 And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. 54 But taking her by the hand he called, saying, “Child, arise.” 55 And her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given her to eat. 56 And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened.
Let’s pray.
I know that some of you here have been in Jairus’ shoes, I know that Karole-Ann and I have. We once watched a helicopter take off for the hospital with our baby boy, blue, and barely able to breathe. In that hour we were desperate for help, desperate to hear if Sammy was going to live. As evidenced today, praise God, he did!
But I can resonate with that feeling of desperation, of not knowing whether or not my child would live. But I can only imagine what this desperate father would have felt if help was finally on the way but got interrupted by somebody else’s problem and while delayed the word comes that it’s too late.
This was for me and for Jairus, powerlessness on display. I couldn’t help Sam and Jairus could no longer help his little girl. Sam got the help he needed in time and made it to the hospital and received the care he needed to get better but for Jairus’ daughter, the assumption was that it was too late. The assumption was that nobody had power over death. It is one of life’s two great constants: death and taxes.
I’d offer a third great constant: The almightiness of Jesus.
49 While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler’s house came and said, “Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the Teacher any more.” 50 But Jesus on hearing this answered him, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well.”
Only believe and she will be well. The word Jesus used is “pisteou,” to believe, to have faith, to trust, to have confidence.
This reminds of another time Jesus raised somebody from the dead, a friend named Lazarus in John 11.
Jesus was speaking to Lazarus’ sister just before raising him from the dead
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
Though this was a very real situation with very real people Jesus shows that He is in fact the resurrection and the life in the life of Lazarus, in the life of this little girl, and in the life of everyone who believes in Him.
51 And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him, except Peter and John and James, and the father and mother of the child. 52 And all were weeping and mourning for her, but he said, “Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.”
Jesus said that the little girl was only sleeping because her death was only temporary.
I shared at Anita’s service last weekend that we often think that this is the land of the living, and that when we die we go the land of the dead. The opposite is really true – this is the land of the dying, when our life here is over, we are transferred into the land of the living – either to a place of eternal joy or to a place of eternal destruction. There are only two possible destinations.
Warren Wiersbe wrote, “Sleep is a normal experience that we do not fear, and we should not fear death… At the resurrection, the body will be ‘awakened’ and glorified, and God’s people will share the image of Christ.”
When Jesus said that the little girl was only sleeping all those who had gathered to mourn laughed at Him. In First Century Israel you couldn’t wait a week to bury someone who had died. Mourners, sometimes hired, professional mourners, would gather immediately and the body would be anointed and prepared for burial right away, usually within one day.
I can’t imagine Jairus and his wife laughing at the words of Jesus that the little girl wasn’t dead but just sleeping, but professional mourners? Probably.
Jesus put everybody out of the room except the little girl’s parents, Peter, John, and James.
These three disciples were chosen to witness Jesus’ power over death here in this room, at the Mount of Transfiguration they would witness that He would be glorified in His own death, and in the Garden of Gethsemane they would witness His willing submission to death.
54 But taking her by the hand he called, saying, “Child, arise.” 55 And her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given her to eat. 56 And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened.
In both cases, both with this little girl and with the woman with the bleeding issue, human resources were at an end, they were utterly powerless to fix their problems, and it caused everybody involved considerable suffering. But as Ray Stedman said, “He is able to meet the suffering of the heart, whatever its cause, when the world’s resources are brought to an end.”
This man, Jairus, and his family were powerless to fix his little girl. He could not bring her back to life. His resources were at an end.
But this is exactly the meaning of Romans 8:28, I’m sure you’ve heard it, especially when everything is your life went sideways, “…in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Why did the woman bleed for twelve years, spend all her money on doctors, and reach out desperately for the hem of Jesus’ garment? Why did this little girl get sick and die only to be raised by Jesus?
For you. For you and for everybody else that needed to be reminded of our powerlessness and Jesus’ almightiness. Not just powerless in the face of the difficulties of this life but powerless in the face of sin and its consequences.
The physical reality of the death and resurrection of this little girl is a picture of the spiritual reality of our own being dead because of our sin.
Ephesians 2:1-10 says,
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, (Just like the little girl) 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh m and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
The Lord Jesus encouraged Jairus, “Do not fear; only believe, be confident, have faith, trust, and she will be well.”
The same is true for us, for you, “Do not fear; only believe, be confident, have faith, trust Jesus and you will be well.
Your sickness may not be cured, your earthly problems may not go away, but by trusting in Jesus our real problem, our sin and its eternal consequences is dealt with forever on the cross of Christ.
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4
Amen.
