Desperate Faith

Luke 8:40 – 56

 

On April 15^th, 1912, the RMS Titanic settled into its final resting place at the bottom of the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg on its maiden voyage. The tragic story has remained alive in the over 100 years since because folks are enthralled by that whole event.

 

Some of you might remember the blockbuster movie about the Titanic from the 90’s. Despite the made up love story, there were many historical accuracies that went into making that movie, including how the band on the Titanic kept on playing music as the ship sank.

 

Led by bandmaster Wallace Hartley, the musicians gathered up on deck to play upbeat music, ragtime tunes and waltzes to help keep passengers calm, prevent panic, and help maintain order while lifeboats were loaded.

 

They chose to stay and go down with the ship, with survivors reporting that the band kept playing in the frigid night air for almost two hours, right up until the final moments before the ship went under.

 

What the 1997 movie captured hauntingly well was the last tune they played.

 

Several survivors said that the band’s final hymn was, “Nearer, My God, to Thee.” The men in this band sang a hymn about being brought closer to God as they were moments away from meeting God face to face.

 

That reality makes me think about how we often tend to seek God more earnestly in our darkest hours, in our moments of desperation. We go through our day to day lives, doing what we call our best to prioritize spending dedicated time with God in personal worship, Scripture reading, and prayer.

 

But the truth is we often fail at consistently prioritizing time with God. God often becomes an afterthought in our chaotic lives, and we justify it until suddenly the sky starts falling and we feel like chicken little and our whole world is falling apart.

Then, in those moments, we run to God in desperation and brokenness, looking for Him to comfort us and help us. But what if I told you that while God wants you to come to Him daily with anything, He also wants you to come to Him in faith in your most desperate moments, even if you’ve failed to come to Him regularly.

 

As we wrap up chapter 8 in the Gospel of Luke, these last two of four miracles highlighting Christ’s power come in response to some pretty desperate situations. Let’s read God’s Word together, beginning with Luke 8:40.

 

On His return to Galilee, likely Capernaum, Jesus has quite the homecoming. Our passage says that all were waiting for him. Quite the opposite experience on this side of the lake.

 

In the region of the Gerasenes, they all (except the healed man) wanted Jesus gone, they were afraid and asked Him to leave. Back in Galilee the crowd waited a long while for Him and welcomed Him.

 

No sooner does He arrive that a synagogue leader named Jairus, comes to find Jesus with the desperate plea to heal his dying 12 year old daughter.

 

In a powerful act of humility for a man of high standing in the Jewish community, Jairus falls down at Jesus’ feet (there’s a lot of falling at Jesus’ feet in these passages) just like the demon possessed man did.

 

Jairus’ action shows his desperation as well as his faith. While the religious elite in Jerusalem deny and reject Christ’s power, by coming to Jesus like he did Jairus shows that He recognizes Christ’s power.

 

What we have here is a father’s desperation on public display, and without saying it, Jairus reveals his faith by coming to Jesus in the first place.

 

Look at how Jairus implored Jesus to come to his house to heal his dying daughter, his only daughter. The loss of a child is tragic. Mark, Julie, and Manuel. As this girl in their day is nearing the age of giving life to others, she’s instead facing losing her life.

Implored is the same Greek word used to describe the demon’s request not to be tossed into the abyss and to be allowed to enter the pigs. This is desperate begging at the feet of Jesus when a person doesn’t see any other way.

 

Jesus doesn’t turn him away. He doesn’t ask Him about his faith, he doesn’t ask Jairus about his theology, his familiarity with the doctrine of Christ, his view on Christology. In fact, Jesus doesn’t even utter a word. He hears a father’s desperate plea of faith, and He just goes.

 

Faith brings us to Christ because He is faithful to act.

 

But on the way, the massive crowd that waited for and welcomed Jesus ends up slowing Him down, leading to a delay that doesn’t just allow the girl to die but gives us a story within the story, the woman who has suffered from menstrual bleeding for 12 years.

 

Since she was bleeding, she would’ve been dealing with infertility, with being ostracized, cast out of the town, considered unclean and so she would’ve lived isolated away from everything and everyone she knew and loved and would’ve been unable to worship her God in the synagogue or temple.

 

She had suffered from her bleeding for as long as Jarius’ daughter had been alive. In those twelve years, she poured out every last cent she had on doctors searching for a cure. But she found that all of them were powerless to help her, not one could heal her.

 

Her desperate need is highlighted by the length and hopelessness of her situation. Clearly desperate, she thought that if she just touched Jesus’ garment that something would happen (Mark 5:28) saved.

 

Sure enough, when she touched the fringe of His garment, immediately she stopped bleeding. Jesus’ power and might is such that a serious twelve-year sickness, which no one else could heal, was instantly healed.

 

But she didn’t escape unnoticed. After she touched the hem of His robe and was healed, Jesus asked, “Who touched me?” Everyone denies touching Him. Peter borders on gaslighting Jesus by pointing out that anyone could have bumped into Him.

But even though He was pressed in on by the crowd, literally almost to the point of crushing Him, Jesus noticed that the woman had touched Him and that power went out of Him.

 

There is a very close connection between spirit and power. When power is mentioned in Luke, you can usually assume that it is the Spirit who is doing the empowering. It is by the Spirit and it was intentional that power flowed out of Jesus and to the woman with the unstoppable flow of blood.

 

When the woman saw she wasn’t hidden, that she was found out, she came trembling and also fell at Jesus’ feet. We don’t know why she was afraid; could be because by touching Jesus, she made Him ceremonial unclean (which we know that doesn’t stop Jesus. The unclean doesn’t make Him unclean, as we’ve seen He makes the unclean clean).

 

It could have been because experiencing God’s power and might in her healing led to her having a reverent fear—a holy awe—a worshipful response. Or maybe she feared rebuke for presuming to touch Jesus.

 

Regardless of why, as we’ve also seen through the storm and from the Gentiles of the Gerasenes, fear, holy or otherwise, is the appropriate response to experiencing God’s presence.

 

The woman then declared in the presence of God and everyone there why she had touched Him. She publicly answered Jesus and told Him about her twelve years of bleeding, and how when she touched His garment, she was immediately healed.

 

Rather than rebuke her, Jesus commends her. He compassionately calls her daughter, easing her fears and reassuring her that it’s ok that she reached for the hem of His garment.

 

He tells her that her faith made her well, that it literally saved her. It wasn’t the physical touching of Jesus, since others were pressing against Him too and they received no power. It was her faith, the faith that caused her to reach out and touch Jesus that led to her healing.

 

But this is more than just physical healing. Christ’s power saving power points beyond just saving the body. This is spiritual healing too.

Jesus sends her off in peace, fully restored to life, to family life, community life, and religious life. Her faith in Christ’s power to heal her led to Christ restoring her to her loved ones, to her community, and to her God.

 

God can restore your physical health and your relationships, but he may not. Being restored to a right relationship with God is greater than having your physical health restored. That’s His priority with you, that’s what you were ultimately created for, a relationship with God.

 

This detour, however brief, seems to have delayed Jesus enough that someone from Jarius’ house comes to tell him that his daughter has died, don’t bother the Teacher anymore.

 

Now, this messenger had quite the small view of Jesus’ power. He must’ve thought: if the daughter were still alive, Jesus might be able to help, but no one can bring the dead back to life. Therefore it makes no sense to trouble Jesus about this.

 

But when Jesus hears this, He says to Jairus, don’t fear, giving Jairus reassurance. He tells Jairus to just believe (have faith [in what or whom? Jesus]), and she will be well (literally saved). Jairus doesn’t say anything, they just continue on to his house together, with Christ’s disciples in tow.

 

When He gets there, He only allows Peter, John, and James (the first time the inner 3 are singled out in Luke) to go in with Him and Jarius and his wife.

 

But outside was a crowd of mourners and wailers weeping and mourning the loss of Jarius’ daughter, literally beating their chests in mourning. There would’ve been family, friends, and professional mourners there.

 

When He sees them, Jesus says, don’t weep because she’s not dead but asleep. Now Jesus didn’t mean that she was literally asleep. Everywhere else in this passage it’s clear she’s dead.

 

Jesus wasn’t diagnosing her condition; he was making a prognosis of the outcome of her condition. Like sleep, this girl wasn’t going to stay dead for long.

So the crowd laughs at Him (must’ve been something He said) instead of trusting in His power (different crowd? Tough crowd?) because they know she’s dead, dead.

 

But inside Jairus’ house, Jesus takes the girl by the hand, says child (little girl, Mark 5:41) get up. As we’ve seen already seen before, it’s not Christ’s touch that raised her up from death to life, but His Word.

 

Her spirit returns to her, proving that she truly was dead, and she immediately got up! Her parents, Jarius and his wife, are amazed, astounded, astonished, overwhelmed by this turn of events.

 

They might have believed that Jesus could’ve saved her before she died, but bringing her back after death was totally unexpected. But not for Jesus, He tells mom and dad to give her something to eat.

 

But drastically unlike with the demon possessed Gentile, Jesus tells them not to tell anyone what happened there that day. While He has His reasons, it doesn’t take away from the fact that this little girl being raised from the dead is a reality, it’s a real, tangible fact.

 

Jesus truly is mighty to save. This is the truth of our passage today, salvation comes only through faith in Jesus Christ, who possess all power and authority over the natural world, the spiritual realm, and over all disease and death.

 

Come to Christ in faith, even in your desperation, because He alone has the power to save.

 

For twelve years doctors couldn’t heal the woman, but in her desperation, she recognized the power of God in Christ and her faith rested in Him, and He saved her.

 

Jairus was a Jewish synagogue leader, but rather than depend on his own righteousness to save his daughter, he also recognized the power of God in Christ to save and his faith rested in Him, and Christ saved his daughter.

 

Often, we tell ourselves we need our faith to be bold, to be confident, to be strong.

 

But look at what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12:8 – 10. In our weakness Christ’s power is made perfect. Paul learned that God’s power is most clearly displayed when we recognize our own weakness and our complete dependence on Christ.

 

Like with Paul, the answer won’t always be yes. But just because the answer may be no or not right now doesn’t mean that God doesn’t want us to bring our most desperate needs to Christ in faith, even a desperate and weak faith.

 

So first, dedicate time to prayer. Prayer is a means of grace, a discipline that we often neglect. So often we don’t come to God in prayer until we’re desperate and we’re throwing up a last minute hail Mary.

 

But here’s the truth, God wants you to pray, and to pray often. Look at 1 Thessalonians 5:16 – 18, He wants you to pray when you feel strong. He wants you to pray when things are going well, when the sailing is smooth.

 

He wants you to pray when life gets tough. He wants you to pray when the seas get rough, and He wants you to pray when you feel so weak that you can’t even stand, so you fall on your knees and pray.

 

And prayer doesn’t have to be a long, drawn out, eloquent speech. Prayer is just a natural conversation between a child and their Father. It’s not reciting canned words as prayer, it’s real, it’s raw, and it’s intimate. I’m still learning how to undo years of canned prayers and how to just talk with God.

 

So set aside time daily for this. For some of you it might be first thing in the morning with your cup of coffee, for others it might be at night before bed. For some of you it might be while you’re driving to or from work or driving for work, and for some of you it might even be in the shower, or some combination of all of these.

 

This is why Paul writes in 1 Thess. 5:17, “Pray without ceasing.”

 

And it doesn’t have to be alone either, in fact it shouldn’t be alone either. This is one real, tangible way that the we bear one another’s burdens, by lifting each other up in prayer to God. Both when we pray on our own, but also coming together to pray for one another too.

Second, rest in the truth of God’s Word. Scripture is full of God’s promises that speak to every challenge you’ll face in life. While on the surface, what you’re facing may not be obvious in the pages of your Bible, I promise you it does speak to the core issue you’re facing.

 

When you feel weak, obey God when He commands you to be strong and courageous and trust His promise that He will go with you and He will never leave you or forsake you.

 

When you’re afraid, hear His Word when He says, do not fear, for I am with you. Whenever you’re tempted to sin, believe God’s Word when it says that He will provide you with the way out.

 

When you’re facing death, whether your own or a loved ones, believe that Christ has defeated death and that because of His resurrection death has no power over you. Whatever desperate situation you find yourself in, rest in the truth of God’s Word because God is in control, always.

 

Bring your desperate faith to Jesus and Trust the power of Christ to save you from whatever you’re facing. Christ’s power over sickness and death is power over life itself.

 

Because of Christ, the woman’s bleeding no longer held any power over her life. Because of Christ, the grave couldn’t hold Jairus’ daughter. The grave couldn’t hold Jesus either.