Perhaps nothing is so fearful as disease and death. We live under the shadow of our vulnerability and mortality. A moment can change our whole experience of life. We can feel so powerless before circumstances beyond our control. Few chapters of the Gospel underline how different Jesus’ experience of life in this world can be from ours. Luke 8 has taken us on a tour of the comprehensive authority Christ has over all the consequences of the fall, that precisely seem to have authority over us: the cursedness of creation; the demonic and the unclean; and now over physical sickness and death.
We are utterly helpless as we face death, even when we have significant social, financial, cultural or even religious status. Death is the great leveler. Jairus is a man of high standing. Yet he falls at the feet of Jesus in a humility born of desperation. It is likely that he had done all he could, and now in despair he clings to one last hope. It is hard to imagine how difficult this is for a Synagogue Ruler. John 9:22 tells us that ‘the Jewish leaders … had decided that anyone who acknowledged Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue’.
And it is hard to imagine the frustration he must have felt, having sacrificed everything, his last hope is delayed because of someone else who needed healing. Jesus’ journey is interrupted by a nameless woman. She seems to be presented as the very opposite of Jairus. She has nothing. It is not only her health and money that has been taken from her, but the flow of blood would have rendered her unclean and so she has also lost her status and belonging in the Jewish community. But she and Jairus have this in common, they both fall before Jesus. It turns out He too is a great leveler!
Jairus’ frustration and anger must have been all too evident as – seemingly as a result of this delay – ‘someone’ comes from his house to tell him it is too late. And Jesus speaks directly to it. Without apology or explanation, He simply tells Jairus not to jump to conclusions: Don’t be afraid. Just believe. She will be healed (8:50). Jesus has options open to Him that we could never anticipate. For us death is inevitable and irrevocable. But for Jesus, even death is not the end it appears to be.
Questions:
How do you account for the differences in the way Jesus is treated on either side of the lake (8:37 & 40). How sincere, and how well informed is this ‘welcome’?
What is the difference between the way the ‘crowd’ were touching Jesus, and the way the ‘woman’ touched his? What is it that alerts Jesus and provokes His response (v.45)?
Why does it matter that this healing is made a public matter? Wouldn’t it have been better for Jesus to protect her anonymity?
Is Jesus teaching us that if we have faith we will be healed (v.40)? What is the connection between this woman’s faith and her healing?
How do you think Jairus felt when Jesus spoke to him in v.50? What did he think? What was he expecting?
Why doesn’t Jesus let anyone come in with Him except Peter, James and John (v.51)? What is different that Jesus wants privacy for this miracle, when he had demanded a public dealing with the woman?
Some people conclude from v.52 that when we die we enter a ‘sleep-state’ that renders us unconscious until the Day of Resurrection. Do you think this is what Jesus is teaching? Why does He say she is asleep? In what sense is she not dead?
What do you think v.55 means?
Do you think it is a coincidence that the woman has been bleeding for 12 years (v.43) and that the girl who dies is also ‘about twelve’ (v.42)? What does the proximity of these two miracles teach us?
Why is Luke working so hard throughout Chapter 8 to establish Jesus’ absolute authority?
