Faith in Jesus’ Word and Work

In the last part of Luke 8, specifically verses 22-56, Luke shows us Jesus’ power and authority over every aspect of creation.  We’ve seen Jesus’ control over danger (vv. 22-25) and demons (vv. 26-39), and now this week we’ll see his control over disease (vv. 43-48) and death (vv. 40-42, 49-56).

But remember how chapter 8 began with the parable of the sower.  The sower scatters the seed of the word of God and it lands in one of four types of soil: the path, rocky soil, thorns, or good soil.  And then we learned that the type of soil we are is revealed through our response to Jesus and his word.

Then following the parable are these examples of Jesus flexing his power.  The seed that is scattered is his word, yet his word isn’t divorced from his work, as his powerful works reveal the veracity of his word.  So how one responds to his mighty works is also indicative of what kind of soil they are.

And here in the last part of chapter 8 we have people responding to Jesus’ works in all sorts of ways.  The disciples are amazed and want to know who this Jesus is (v. 25).  Then after Jesus casts the legion of demons out of the man, the people are terrified and want Jesus to go away (v. 37), while the man who was healed wants to stay with Jesus (v. 38).

Then we come to verses 40-56 and we see yet more responses to Jesus.  Here we see a weak woman and a desperate dad respond with remarkable faith, a faith that activates Jesus’ power.  In all this, we’re to learn that one of the fruits of the seed finding good soil is faith in the word and work of Jesus.  Another way to say this is to simply say that faith in Jesus’ power is a fruit of God’s work in our lives.

The stories we’ll look at today are interwoven together. The main point is found in the middle story, and it has to do with the nature of true faith.

Luke is yet again revealing the power of Jesus in this episode, but he’s also asking us to consider whether we have the kind of faith that unleashes Jesus’ power in our lives.  The main point of this text is that you can trust Jesus in your desperation and even in your death.  We’ll see trusting Jesus in desperation in verses 43-48, then trusting Jesus in death in verses 40-42 and 49-56.

Trusting Jesus in Desperation

First, we see a woman who trusts Jesus in her desperation (vv. 43-48).  Verses 43-44 show us how desperate she was.  She had a sickness that had consumed her body and her money, a sickness that left her socially isolated and alone.  This is why she comes to Jesus covertly.

Why was she socially isolated?  Because the abnormal and chronic “discharge (or flow) of blood” would’ve made her unclean.  An Israelite woman was ritually unclean during her monthly cycle (Lev. 15:19-24), so this ongoing condition kept her in a perpetual state of uncleanness (Lev. 15:25-30).  This was devastating for her physically and socially.

Anyone who sits on her bed or on a chair she sat in would be deemed unclean.  So she couldn’t go to anyone’s house for dinner.  Few if any would come to visit her.  Services at the synagogue were off limits.  Her relational life had shriveled up, just as her physical life had.

And it wasn’t because she wasn’t trying to do something about it.  Verse 43, “She had spent all her living on physicians.”  Dr. Luke could’ve left that part out, but he doesn’t because like any good doctor, he knows that medicine doesn’t solve every problem.

Suffering Silently in Chronic Pain

Let me say a word to those suffering with chronic pain.  I am so sorry you have to endure the pain you’re enduring, the physical pain, but also the emotional and psychological and relational and vocational pain.  The frustration and sadness and despair and depression and anger and isolation and defeat.  Wanting to work and create and go and do and be but not being able to.  Wanting people to see you and understand what you’re going through.  Wanting to feel normal again.

In an article titled “Caring for the Chronically Ill” on Desiring God, Vaneetha Risner, who’s suffered from post-polio syndrome for over twenty years, describes what those with chronic pain experience.  She says, “When you live in constant pain, or struggle with chronic illness, discouragement is just part of daily life.  The simplest tasks can be exhausting.  You consistently worry that you’re becoming a burden.  Pain often leads to intermittent sleep, so you rarely feel rested.  It’s hard to stay upbeat and cheerful.  Since chronic conditions persist for a long time, or are constantly recurring, you depend on friends to encourage and support you – and then to keep encouraging and supporting you over extended periods of time.”[1]

She says that every situation is unique, but after living with chronic pain herself and walking with many others, she draws out three lessons for us as we care for those hurting around us.  She encourages us to “keep checking in, even when others have stopped.”  People with chronic pain often feel alone and forgotten, so one of the best ways we can serve them is to keep checking in with them even after the initial onset of symptoms.

Second, she encourages us to “be quick to listen and slow to speak.”  Let me quote Risner at length here:

While we all want to say something profound and comforting, sometimes listening is the most comforting gift we can give.  Friends with chronic illness may not mention their latest symptoms or struggles for fear of sounding like chronic complainers, but they may welcome the opportunity to share what’s going on.  Strive to listen without immediately passing judgment.  Resist offering them a “cure” for their sorrow.  And don’t pry if they’d rather not talk more about it now.  Instead of asking the general question, “How are you doing?” you might ask instead, “How are you doing today?” which is more personal and easier to answer.

Remembering what not to say is often more important than remembering what to say.  I say that as someone who has too often said too much.  Don’t minimize what they’re going through.  Don’t compare their suffering to others who are doing it “better.”  Avoid sentences that start with “At least . . .”  Don’t throw out platitudes like, “Count your blessings.”  Don’t tell them that you know their condition will improve or that they will be healed, because no one knows what the future holds.  Again, I give these examples as someone who regrets having said them all before.

Faithful friends weep with those who weep (Rom. 12:15). They acknowledge how difficult their situation is.  They let their sick friends vent for a time, and then encourage them to put their hope in the Lord Jesus.[2]

And the third thing she encourages us to do is to “take the most caring, most effective action: pray.”  Pray for their physical, and their emotional and spiritual needs.  Pray psalms of lament like Psalm 13, 43, or 142.  Pray for healing and for perseverance.

Nowhere Else to Go

Luke says in verse 43 that this sweet lady couldn’t be healed by anyone.  Despite two thousand years of medical research and advancement, this is still true for many today.  Like this woman, many are sick and have nowhere else to go.

Verse 44 says she tries one more thing.  Her desperation takes over.  She’d heard of Jesus and convinced herself, as Mark says, that if she just touched his clothes she’d be healed (Mk. 5:28).  She had no promise that this would be so.  Maybe it was just a holy hunch.  Whatever it was, she believed that if she touched Jesus’ clothes she’d be healed.

Because of the social stigma associated with her condition, she wanted to get to Jesus without being noticed.  So in her desperation, she comes up behind Jesus and touches the edge of his cloak, “and immediately her discharge of blood ceased” (v. 44).

Stopped in His Tracks

After touching him, she likely tried to fade into the crowd.  But Jesus stops and asks, “Who was it that touched me?” (v. 45)

Can you imagine what this lady is feeling at that moment?  Joy over being healed is suddenly overtaken by panic of being publicly exposed.  She probably thought Peter’s air-tight logic would save her, when he says, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!”  He points out the obvious, saying, “Look Jesus, everyone is touching you!”  But Jesus knew something he didn’t.  Yes, many were touching him, but only one was touching him in faith.

Jesus says that he knows “power has gone out from me” (v. 46).  He’s not complaining as if he were wronged or weakened.  He doesn’t grudge the fact that healing power went out from him.  His mercy is freely available to all who want it.  And he knows when it’s been activated.

This woman craved anonymity and is now terrified (“trembling”) that she’s been found out and is about to be publicly exposed before everyone.  But she overcomes her fear and embarrassment and falls down before Jesus and tells him what happened (v. 47).

“A Fountain Full of Mercies”

This woman who’d already lost so much socially was being asked to step out and publicly confess Christ.  She’s already alone in the world, afraid of being further humiliated.

But with one word, “daughter,” Jesus dissolves her fears and brings her into his heart (v. 48).  This is the only time in the Gospels that Jesus addresses someone with this term.  Her fear and shame run into Jesus’ tenderness and affection.

Jesus also clarifies for her how she was healed, “Your faith has made you well.”  This is so that she or others don’t think that Jesus’ cloak had magical powers.  He wanted her to know that her healing came from him through faith, not through superstition.  Her faith unlocked his mercy and power.  Matthew Henry puts this beautifully in his commentary on this passage:

“Her faith was very strong; for she doubted not but that by the touch of the hem of his garment she should derive from him healing virtue sufficient for her relief, looking upon him to be such a full fountain of mercies that she should steal a cure and he not miss it.”[3]

In Jesus, she saw an overflowing fountain of mercy, so full that she could drink from it and he wouldn’t even notice.  But of course he did notice, and he called her to bear witness to the power of his mercy publicly so that he could also affirm her publicly, restore her socially, healing her heart as well as her body.

True Faith and Discipleship

Jesus called the woman out publicly to teach her something about discipleship.  He challenged her to take a public stand with him.

Maybe you’re following Jesus at a distance, curious to see what he’s up to, unsure if he’s the real deal, or maybe you just want to see him do something cool or want to get something from him.  Why not approach him in faith and receive his grace?

If you do, he’ll call you to stand with him publicly.  This means publicly professing your faith in him through baptism and joining a local church.  Jesus wants us to tell the world what he’s done for us and he wants us to stand with his people until he returns.  If you’d like to know more about baptism or joining our church, I’d love to talk more with you after the service.

Jesus came to save those who’re lost in the crowd, those nobody takes notice of, those isolated and alone and suffering in silent shame.  Has Jesus called you out of the crowd yet?

Trusting Jesus in Death

Next we see what it means to trust Jesus in death.  Sandwiched around the healing of this woman is the story of Jesus and Jairus’ daughter (vv. 40-42, 49-56).

In the middle of the greatest crisis of his life, Jairus went to Jesus.  His twelve-year old daughter was dying and his instinct was to run and fall at the feet of Jesus (v. 41).

When Jesus stopped to engage the woman who touched his garment, Jairus’ heart must’ve started racing.  He must’ve been thinking, “There’s no time for delay, my daughter needs attention now!”  Deep down he probably wanted Jesus to ignore the woman and go on to see his daughter.  But Jesus takes time to minister to others even while in a crisis situation.

It’s no accident that Luke mentions the length of the woman’s illness and the age of Jairus’ daughter (vv. 42, 43).  Both were twelve years.  Maybe Jesus wants Jairus to notice someone else’s pain?  His daughter had twelve years of life; this woman twelve years of misery.  Jairus, like us, is tempted to assume that his pain is deeper and harder than someone else’s.  But Jesus knows that all suffering is painful and worthy of his compassion and care.

Verse 49 says that Jesus was interrupted by the news that Jairus’ daughter had died.  Any parent who’s lost a child knows what Jairus felt.  In that moment, his body went numb and his heart was shattered into a thousand pieces.

But remarkably Jesus tells Jairus to trust him and his daughter will be okay (v. 50).  Jairus has already believed the difficult, now he must believe the impossible.

“Do Not Fear, Only Believe”

What kind of faith is Jesus telling him to have?  The middle of the episode is the key to interpreting the whole passage.  The answer is that he should have the kind of faith the woman had.  The woman trusted Jesus when she had nowhere else to go.  Her faith knew no limits.  Jairus needed faith like that, faith that Jesus could raise his child from the dead.

The woman and Jairus were the same in that they were both victims of desperate circumstances and had no hope apart from Jesus.  But their stories are very different too.  Jairus is named and has a position of power and leadership in the community.  The woman is not named and has no position of influence.  She’s only identified by what brings her shame, her flow of blood.  She approaches Jesus from behind while Jairus comes to him face to face.

Jairus is a person of privilege and status, but Luke makes it clear that he has no advantage over the woman in the one thing that matters.  The woman exemplified great faith by pushing through the crowd to get to Jesus despite her embarrassing circumstances.  Her gender, uncleanness, and shame didn’t keep her from getting to Jesus.  She’s undaunted in her pursuit of Jesus, and her pursuit is rewarded, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace” (v. 48).

Jesus is telling Jairus to have the kind of faith the woman had.  He needed Jairus to understand that his position didn’t privilege him.  He needed to come to the end of himself and throw himself completely on the mercy and power of Jesus.

“Child, Arise”

Jesus leads Peter, James, and John and the girl’s parents into the house.  It seems that the funeral had already started, but Jesus tells them that the girl’s condition is only temporary (v. 52).  The mourners start laughing at Jesus (v. 53), confirming that the girl was indeed dead, not just unconscious.  This wouldn’t be the last time Jesus was laughed at while carrying out his work.

Jesus asked them to step outside because only those who trust him have the privilege of seeing his glory.  Those who don’t trust Jesus’ words won’t trust his works.

Then Jesus tenderly takes the girl’s hand and says, “Child, arise,” and she does.  The hand of Jesus’ grace goes with his word to make it effectual.  A dead person came back to life in response to the word of Jesus.  To prove that she was totally restored, Jesus says that she should be given something to eat (v. 55).

The Clean for the Unclean

As great as these two miracles are, they illustrate the greater miracle of the gospel.  The woman with the flow of blood was unclean and cut off from God’s people for twelve long years.  Just by being in the crowd that day she was actively disobeying Old Testament law.  She knew that by touching Jesus she’d defile him.

But Jesus wasn’t upset that she touched him.  For the first time, the woman met someone who was willing to be defiled for her sake.  Jesus met this woman where she was, took what she had, and gave her what was his.  He meets her in her shame in order to deliver her from it.

Then when Jesus touches the dead girl’s hand, he becomes unclean because touching a dead body made a person unclean according to Old Testament law.  We see the tenderness of that moment, but Jesus is doing far more than meets the eye.  He’s willingly making himself unclean in order to make her alive.  He meets her in her death in order to deliver her from it.

On the cross, Jesus became unclean for us, touching our uncleanness in order to take it from us.  If we, like the woman, go and “touch” his cross with faith, we’ll be immediately healed and declared clean. If we, like the little girl, are touched by Jesus’ grace, we’ll have new life in Jesus.

This episode shows us that Jesus can be trusted in our desperation and even in our death, showing us his power and mercy for those who’ve come to the end of themselves.

The woman’s touch of faith was noticeably different from the touch of the crowd that was pushing around Jesus.  They wanted something from him.  The woman had faith in him.

Wanting something from Jesus and trusting in Jesus are not the same.  Only those who’re aware of their need and come to the end of themselves are in a position to truly trust in Jesus.  Those who want Jesus to make their lives more comfortable or give them a fresh start haven’t yet come to the end of themselves and therefore don’t have true faith.  As long as we think that Jesus is simply a means to the end of making our life better, we don’t have true faith.  True faith sees Jesus as our only hope.

[1]Caring for the Chronically Ill | Desiring God

[2]Ibid., emphasis hers.

[3]Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, vol. 5 (Old Tappen, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Company, n.d.), 664.