Luke 8: 40 – 56
A man approaches Jesus and falls at his feet – his 12-year-old daughter is dying. He pleads with Jesus to help.
A woman approaches Jesus from behind and touches the edge of his cloak – she has been bleeding persistently for 12 years.
In the midst of this, ‘the crowds almost crushed him’ (v 42). Place yourself at the scene. Jesus is squashed between strangers, his disciples trying to keep close by. Hear the noise of many voices as people clamour to get close to Jesus. Take in the warmth of the air and the heat of the crowd.
In the midst of this, Jesus remains calm and manages to pay full attention to the woman. Her on-going menstrual issue would have marked her out as ‘ceremonially unclean’ according to Old Testament law. Not only should she not even have thought about touching Jesus; she shouldn’t have been anywhere near anyone – not least a mass of people – because she would defile them. But yet here she was reaching out a hand of faith – after spending all her money on doctors – to tug Jesus’ cloak, in the hope that something miraculous would happen. And it did!
In the midst of the chaos, squeeze of the crowds and his disciples dismissing his request to find out who touched him (‘the people are crowding and pressing against you’), Jesus stops and focuses on the woman, recognising her faith and telling her to ‘go in peace’. The chaos didn’t phase him – he took the time to see the woman among the throng of people and ministered healing to her, breaking years of shame, pain and isolation.
As Jesus is speaking the man receives news that his daughter has died and is told ‘not to bother the teacher anymore’. Unphased and focused, Jesus continues to the house where he is met with another chaotic scene. This time, people are ‘wailing and mourning’. Again, Jesus’ efforts to focus on the person who needs him – the little girl – are dismissed, but this time people are laughing at him. Jesus remains calm, takes the girl by the hand and tells her to ‘get up!’ Like the woman, she is miraculously healed.
In the midst of the noise and chaos of your life, Jesus sees you; he is focused on you. He’s there to break the chains that have been holding you back and to bring life to situations that you or others have called ‘dead’.
We are living between two kingdoms and so still experience the sufferings of this world but we also access the privileges of God’s kingdom. We need God’s wisdom to discern the situations we need to go through for a season or a lifetime (perhaps for our learning and character building), and the ones that he wants us to deliver us from now. Sometimes we accept circumstances that God wants to free us from, because we’ve become so used to them. We have become comfortable with the pain because we’ve lived with it for so long and it’s hard for us to imagine life being any different, let alone believing that God can change things for us.
Whatever your status in life – the man was highly esteemed, a synagogue leader; the woman was of a lowly status – Jesus can bring calm to your chaos. It may be something that has suddenly come upon you, like the 12-year-old girl, or you may have been suffering for years, like the woman with the menstrual issues. It doesn’t matter, Jesus can help you drown out the noise and the naysayers and give you his healing and peace.
Pause: Imagine how the woman felt after she was healed and went back to her life.
Reflect: Is there something in your life that you have accepted because it’s easier to live with it rather than believe that God can bring you through it?
Rise: Tug at Jesus’ cloak by bringing this situation to the Lord in prayer.