Desperation!

This is where these two very desperate people's lives are about to intersect and are they ever different. He's the leader of the synagogue. She's ostracized from the synagogue.

He has an impeccable reputation. She's lost her reputation. He's enjoyed a family. She's lost her family. She's the walking epitome of the favor of God. She is the epitome of the disfavor of God. And they both meet here at the same time for the same reason.

Jesus is their last hope. We hate interruptions in life, don't we? A co-worker interrupts our preparation.

Our children interrupt a moment of quiet. Life interrupts our time constantly. Jesus also faced interruptions during his ministry.

But you know what he did? He often turned those seeming distractions into divine opportunities. Today on Wisdom for the Heart, Stephen Davey takes us to the streets of Israel. We're going to see that Jesus was on a mission, but there was a divinely appointed interruption just around the corner. We're in Luke eight today for this lesson Stephen called desperation. If you look up the word desperation in Noah Webster's 1828 edition, you'll find it defined as the giving up of hope, a state of hopelessness and despair.

That definition is still true today, isn't it? I've heard it said that you can live for 40 days without food, eight days without water, four minutes without air, but not very long without hope. Hopeless desperation is going to describe two people that were about to meet in this next encounter. One of them becomes hopeless rather quickly.

The other has had hope slip away over the years, but both of them when they meet Jesus are both essentially hopeless. I want you to take your copy of the gospel by Luke. Let's go back to chapter eight. One last time with this message, we'll finish chapter eight. We've been racing through it, haven't we? Well, as you're turning, Jesus and his disciples have now sailed back across the lake.

If you were with us in our last study, he's delivered a demonized man. When they get back to Capernaum, they're waiting on a seashore. It is this mob of people.

It's as if they never left. They're waiting for him, we're told in verse 40, and they welcome him. But Luke is going to focus the lens of his attention on two newcomers that have made their way into this crowd of people. Verse 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. For he had only one daughter, about 12 years of age, and she was dying. As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. It would be really easy to miss the fact that it is total desperation that brings a man like this to invite Jesus to his home.

Luke gives us his resume here so we don't miss it. We're told that he was a ruler, and archon is the word, of the synagogue. You could actually translate it, president. The high priests managed the temple system. The synagogues were managed by the local communities, and they would elect a president who would serve, as long as he was able, of the synagogue, and he was called president because he presided over their worship services. He selected the scriptures that would be read. He invited the rabbis who would come to teach.

It was his responsibility to take care of the scrolls. It was his role to guard the flock from false teaching, and that really kind of adds to the drama here. He's supposed to be responsible to tell the assembly of who the false teachers are that are rising up in the community, and he would have been very aware of Jesus. He would have been aware that the Jewish elite believed he was a false teacher. He would have been aware that a nearby synagogue had already kicked Jesus out for claiming to be the fulfillment of one of Isaiah's prophecies. In fact, that assembly led Jesus to a cliff to throw him over and kill him.

He mysteriously miraculously slipped through. Jairus knew all this. He would have been aware of all this. He's no follower of Jesus, but things have changed, haven't they? He has a 12-year-old daughter who's dying. From what we're told, as we can put the clues together, she has about an hour left to live. Now, Matthew's account squeezes everything together and tells us that she has already died. When Jairus meets Jesus, he's condensing the story into one conversation.

Luke stretches it out in his account, gives us the fullest account, and we discover that between his first conversation and his last that we're given, an event takes place. Jairus is, at this moment, so desperate, he is willing to throw his public reputation away. This is no doubt going to remove him from office. They'll be finished with him. They'll have nothing to do with him either. His good standing in the religious world is toast.

I mean, it's over. Verse 41 tells us that he falls on his face before Jesus. He's prostrating himself before an honorable man, and that's shocking. I'm sure at this point everybody knows Jairus. They're probably backing up.

They're watching this event unfold with amazement. Jairus is throwing caution to the wind, and in a sense, he's saying, so what? None of that matters anymore. My daughter's dying. Jesus is my only hope, and he begs Jesus to come to his home.

Maybe that's what you did some time ago. You threw everything into the side when you fell at the feet of Jesus. Your friends, your reputation, your business clients, your family, but it didn't matter because you had come to understand that Jesus was your only hope between life and death, and all the rest of that was nowhere near so significant.

When Jesus evidently agrees to go to his home because they continue on, the middle part of verse 42 tells us that as he went, the crowds were pressing him. Keep that in mind, okay, as we watch what happens next, verse 43. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for 12 years. She could not be healed by anyone. Mark's gospel adds, by the way, what Dr. Luke left out. Mark writes, and she spent all she had on doctors, and they only made her worse.

And I can just see Luke going, thanks so much, Mark, for adding that little line in there. Well, legend has it her name was Veronica. We don't know for sure. What we do know is the irony of 12 years.

Did you catch it? I've circled that in my text. This woman got sick the year this girl was born. I want to pause long enough so that we can understand her situation. Her disease is related to the flow of blood. This is the same Greek term used in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament for menstruation in Leviticus 15. Luke writes that she has been suffering some kind of discharge that will not stop.

One translation reads hemorrhaging. As a result, she would have been ostracized. She would be ceremonially unclean. The law specified that anything she touched, any chair she sat on or bed she lay on would be immediately unclean. The law recorded that if anyone touched her, they would have to wash their clothing and their bodies and be unclean until evening. If she was married, the rabbis would have encouraged divorce. If she had children, she would no longer be allowed to hold them. If she was a devout follower of God and were not told if she was, but if she was, she was barred from the temple and the synagogue.

Frankly, beloved, we cannot imagine these 12 unbelievably lonely years. She is the epitome of desperation. And finally, she's run out of money.

And this is where these two very desperate people's lives are about to intersect and are they ever different. He's the leader of the synagogue. She's ostracized from the synagogue.

He has an impeccable reputation. She's lost her reputation. He's enjoyed a family. She's lost her family. He's the walking epitome of the favor of God. She is the epitome of the disfavor of God. And they both meet here at the same time for the same reason.

Jesus is their last hope. Verse 44, she came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. Now stop here for a moment. Don't read ahead. This fringe is not a throwaway line.

None of this is. It's not a sidebar detail. This is a reference to that rectangular cloth slung over the shoulder of a Jewish man who was God-fearing who was announcing, essentially publicly, he believed in the law of God.

Jesus certainly would have deserved to wear this. It's called a kraspedon. That's the word Luke uses here. It's translated fringe.

It represented a godly man, a man who represented the word or the law of God. The verb for touch is a little unfortunate. It means clutch. She's reached out and she's grasped. Hanging from the corners in the front and back of this garment were blue tassels. She's reached out and she's clutched one of these blue tassels representing the law of God. I wonder why she would be willing to violate, as it were, Levitical law, certainly ceremonial law, regarding uncleanness by reaching out and touching, grasping that which represents the law of God, the word of God. We don't know, but I believe that she's throwing herself on the mercy of God here. She's essentially acting out this prayer, almost as it were, that God would vindicate her, that he's a just God. She does believe his word. This is a prayer of faith, which is why Jesus, a little later, will say, Your faith has saved you.

We'll get there. And at that moment, she feels a healing coursing through her body. She lets go and attempts to slip away. She's finished with him. He's not finished with her. So he stops, verse 45, and says, Who was it that touched me? And they're all looking at each other. We're all denied it. Peter said, Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you.

I love Peter. He's saying, Lord, are you kidding? Who hasn't touched you?

Everybody's reaching out. But Jesus said, Somebody touched me because I perceive power has gone out from me. Now, don't misunderstand this. He's not a battery like the ones you bought for Christmas or forgot to buy for Christmas.

So your Randallos, you got him, they lasted 10 minutes. He's not running out of power. The power of Jesus is constant. Even when he demonstrates power, he has not less power at any given time. And that's because he doesn't really have power. He is power. He's holding back, frankly. Jesus is saying, essentially, Somebody touched me differently.

It wasn't the press and the jostling of the crowd. It isn't an accidental touch. It's an intentional touch. So he stops. He knows the difference. And by the way, he knows who this woman is, too, by the way. He's going to bring her forward for a lot of different reasons. But don't miss the fact that this interruption is only deepening the desperation of somebody standing there by the name of Jairus. We'll get to him in a minute. Jairus, I will say, wants to get home. And this is an interruption. This is in the way.

This is not nearly as important as where we're heading. And so as far as he's concerned, Jesus in the mission he must accomplish is interrupted. And it made me kind of think about the ministry of the Lord. And if you go through the Gospel by Luke, we won't preach a sermon on it, but I'll mention, he's interrupted all the time. He was interrupted while he was teaching, Luke 5. He was interrupted while talking to his disciples, Luke 12. He's interrupted while he's sleeping, Luke 8. He's interrupted while he's eating, Luke 7. It's one interruption after another.

And by the way, Jesus models for his disciples then and now how we ought to be living. You know, none of us move from one planned event to the next, do we really? Life seems to be filled with interruptions. Even serving Christ is not moving from one planned event. It seems to be one interruption after another.

He's a good example of how to handle it. Now the Lord has something to teach Jairus in this delay, but he also has something to teach this woman. And so, notice, and when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she was discovered. 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. She explains her disease. She talks about her struggle. I mean, this kind of turns into a testimony meeting. Ever been in a hurry and somebody's giving you their testimony?

Well, here, this is happening. Poor Jairus is standing there biting his nails and she just declares in the presence of all the people what had happened to her. And I love the Lord's response to her in verse 48.

Let's not miss it. Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. I want you to know this is the only time Jesus personally referred to a woman with this term daughter. Daughter.

Wow. She'd lost her family. She'd been alone for more than a decade. We can surmise that her husband and her parents abandoned her.

Who knows how large or extended her family had once been. And Jesus says, oh, listen, you are now in my family. You're my daughter. Wow. Can you imagine what that meant to her?

You've got a new family now. Daughter, your faith has made you well. The verb is sozo.

It ought to be rendered. I believe it saved you. Sozo is the word for saved. She wanted to be healed. She's saved. Jesus now says to her because of her faith in his word, now demonstrated through the power of Christ, she now believes and knows who he is.

He can say to her, you leave, now go back into your life. It's no longer a life of desperation. It's a life of peace. Now just remember, she's been excommunicated for 12 years from where? The synagogue. And who's standing here?

The ruler of the synagogue. It's not included in here, but I imagine the Lord saying, oh, by the way, Jairus, I want you to meet Veronica. You haven't seen her in 12 years. And Veronica, you might not know who Jairus is.

He was elected 10 years ago or whatever. And Jairus, why don't you save her a seat? She'll be there Saturday. In fact, why don't you save her a seat with your family? She's probably going to go for the first time in 12 years. You see, by calling this woman forward, Jesus has the opportunity to announce her cleansing to the entire world. The news is going to be spreading like wildfire. She's no longer unclean.

And she's now welcomed as a member of the family of God. Let's enter this scene for a moment. It'd be like you driving in your car behind an ambulance. And inside that ambulance is a loved one of yours. They're desperately ill, racing down Interstate 64 to get to Wake Med. The siren's on, the lights are flashing, and you're driving behind it.

And you're praying all the way. We've got to get there. Lord, keep the cars out of the way. Keep everybody out.

Just part it. We've got to get here. There's no time to lose. Suddenly, the ambulance pulls off the interstate and over to the side, there's a homeless woman who's been pushing an overstuffed cart. She's fallen, scraped her knee. She's bleeding. She's been waiting for somebody to stop and help her.

Nobody's stopped. The ambulance pulls over, doors open, EMS crew gets out, walks over to her, talks to her, hits a kit and goes and bandages her knee, cleans her up, stands her up. And while they're doing that, you're sitting in your car. And can you imagine the panic and the anger and the frustration?

Why in the world are we stopping for her? And before they're even finished, the back door of the ambulance opens, EMS guy gets out and he comes over to you and says, look, we're going to turn the siren off. Your loved one has died. No need to rush. I'm sorry. It's too late.

That's what's happening here. While he, Jesus, verse 49, was still speaking to this woman, someone from the ruler's house came and said, your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the teacher anymore. Turn the siren off. The light's too light. But Jesus, on hearing this, answered him, that is Jairus, do not fear, only believe and she will be well.

Now he evidently did. Again, they're continuing this journey. It takes some time before they finally arrive because of the crowd to their home. In fact, by the time they get there, verse 51 says, and when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him.

He's still outside. They're about to enter. He takes Peter, James, and John with him, the father and mother of the child. And all were weeping and mourning. That's a reference to the professional mourners. They've already been called. They're already wailing. They're already playing on their reed flutes, these dirges.

They're already there. And he says, do not weep, for she is not dead, but sleeping. Wait a second. He's talking here in riddles.

He's telling the truth. Her spirit's alive. Her body looks like it's sleeping, but it's dead.

Common to refer to a deceased body as sleeping. He's speaking in riddles because he apparently doesn't want this miracle to become center stage at this particular point. So he's kind of putting these people off. And he knows, verse 53, what they'll do. And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead.

These are professional mourners. They've already seen her. They know death when they see it. They don't understand the life of the spirit.

He ignores them. He goes into the house, into the bedroom where she's lying, and he takes her by the hand, verse 54, and he calls, saying, child, arise. And her spirit returned, and she got up at once. He directed that something should be given her to eat.

That's proof that she's truly alive. Her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what was happening. This is only for the parents and a few disciples. Jesus takes this ruler of the synagogue from believing that he is a healer. Did you notice that the messenger from his home said, don't bother the teacher anymore?

He's a teacher. He was. He was much more. And he sees it with his own eyes that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He could have healed this woman much earlier. In fact, he didn't have to even see her. He knew she was there. This event is planned by his sovereign providence.

He didn't have to have this delay. He didn't have to meet her, but he wanted to because he was reintroducing her back into life. She had lived, as it were, a dead person. So their delay for both of them becomes a doorway into even greater discovery about who Jesus was. And to this day, isn't this true for us? Some of the deepest things you learn about God are when your Bible pages are dotted with your tears. Isn't it true that you rely on him at those desperate times like none other?

And you would say to someone, those were actually spiritually some of my best times. Delays become doorways into greater discoveries and it becomes then one of God's most powerful methods of teaching us. In the form of a principle, I could put it this way, unwanted interruptions and unexpected trials are designed to make us wait in order to deepen our walk with God. The key truth from this lesson is a powerful one. Perhaps God has brought desperation into your life to invite you to himself. He's not just your last option.

He's your only option. And what a great reminder today from God's word. Thanks for joining us. This is Wisdom for the Heart. Your teacher for these daily sermons is Steven Davey.

Steven Davey called this message simply desperation. You can learn more about the Ministry of Wisdom International if you visit our website, which is wisdomonline.org. That site is filled with biblically faithful resources that will strengthen and encourage you. You can have free and unlimited access to the complete library of Steven's Bible teaching ministry. Again, visit wisdomonline.org. If we can help you in any way today, please give us a call. The number here in our Cary, North Carolina office is 866-48-BIBLE. We'd be delighted to have the opportunity to talk with you. Give us a call. And of course, join us next time for more Wisdom for the Heart.