The Bleeding Woman and the Dead Girl

Father, some of us here are maybe pretty pumped about some answered prayer.

Some of us, Father, are really sort of, maybe some of us have given up praying

because we don't even think it works.

And some of us are crushed with not getting the answer that we had hoped and prayed for from you.

And Father, you know the conditions of all of our hearts.

And we ask that your Holy Spirit would move in a gentle but deep and powerful way in each one of us,

that your word might be brought home to us,

that the gospel might be made even more dear and clear to us,

and that we might be so gripped by the gospel that we live each day for your glory.

And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

So the Bible text today has nothing to do with real life.

It's just completely and utterly religious and has nothing to do with any of the questions or experiences.

It only deals with why God answers some prayers and doesn't answer other people's prayers.

It only deals with sickness and death.

It only deals with social isolation and shame.

Nothing that any of us ever have to struggle with or experience.

So it would be a great help to me.

Actually, you'll see that it's the second week of our summer series.

It's Real Jesus, Real Miracles.

And this is our second week.

And we'll be looking at a story in the book of Luke.

In fact, interestingly enough, it's actually the story which is painted there.

You can sort of see it, Jesus and the young girl.

So it would be a great help if you turned in a moment to this famous story.

But before we do that, I want to just put up, if you could put up the first point, that would be very helpful.

Probably every week that I do one of these miracle stories, I just want to make this very simple point.

Is Luke is claiming, this is what Luke is claiming.

If you go back and you read the beginning of the gospel, if you go back and you read his other work,

if you notice all of the way he phrases time-shifting things, which often is not once upon a time, but it happened next.

The claim that Luke is making is that this is a true story about Jesus and it's also a miracle.

That it is something that could not happen unless God acted into our world and brought about something that only God could cause.

That's what a miracle is here.

And so this is Luke's claim.

True story about Jesus and a real miracle.

And when we start looking, it's going to be at Luke chapter 8, verse 40.

Luke 8:40

Just to sort of catch you up on it.

When we read Luke, we're reading an ancient biography of Jesus.

It was written by a pagan doctor who was an adult convert.

And Luke himself never knew Jesus physically.

He wasn't an eyewitness of any of the events in this story.

But what we see here is that Luke decided that he would go and do research after he'd become a Christian.

Maybe he's also recounting the journey that led him to become a Christian.

He interviews eyewitnesses.

He looks at official records.

And out of that, he frames this ancient biography of Jesus written at a time when many eyewitnesses to the events were still alive and could have commented on it, disagreed with it, rebutted it, whatever.

And there's no record of that.

And so that's sort of the context.

And we're going to start reading in verse 40.

And here's how it goes.

Now, when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him.

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 an only daughter, about 12 years of age, and she was dying.

And just sort of in the flow of the book, what Luke has just previously recounted is that Jesus has crossed the Sea of Galilee to the other side of the sea into a pagan land.

And he spent some time in this pagan land.

And now he's returned to the Jewish side of the Sea of Galilee.

In fact, he's returned to Galilee, which is sort of a bit of a mixed area.

But he's returned there.

And the crowd was waiting for him to return.

And when it says, and a synagogue is, and since it's now, we only have synagogues.

Synagogues weren't, in a sense, part of God's, there's no Old Testament passages that describe how synagogues are to be functioning.

Because in the Old Testament, it was expected that you would go to the temple to do the sacrifices.

But during a long period of exile, when they were away from the temple and there was no temple,

this habit of having a place, a community center that was also a place of the reading of God's word and of prayer and of instruction and support developed.

A little bit like what we would now call a church.

And so in Galilee, there is a leader of this particular place.

He has a 12-year-old daughter.

And in the original language, it's very clear that she's at the point of death.

She's at the point of death.

And so Jairus is probably unbelievably excited that Jesus has returned.

He would have known about how Jesus has already raised.

He might have heard about the fact that Jesus earlier has raised a person from the dead.

He's heard of Jesus' many miracles.

He might have heard of the official who had a son.

And Jesus was able to heal him from a distance.

And now Jesus is back.

He goes to Jesus.

This all sense of dignity is put aside, just as it would be for one of us if it was our 12-year-old daughter who was dying.

He throws himself at Jesus' feet and says,

Jesus, come and heal my daughter.

She's at the point of death.

And now one of the things, it doesn't talk about in the text, but it's sort of interesting,

is that he might have expected Jesus just to do what he had done with the official son.

Pick up Jairus and say, okay, Jairus, come stand up here.

She's healed.

Just you walk back and she's healed.

That might be very much what he's expecting.

But Jesus doesn't do that.

He doesn't do that.

And that's an important little detail in the story to notice, as well as all of the ways in the story.

You'll notice that Jesus doesn't react to each person.

He always acts with love and power and authority.

But he never acts the same way.

It's not like dealing with a banking machine that always has just pre-programmed responses to what you do.

He treats us as an individual.

And, you know, in heaven, we'll maybe find out why it is that for the official son, he did that type of miracle.

And I think it's in Luke 5.

And why here in Luke 8, he treats Jairus in a different way.

And just as in heaven, I'll find out why it is that he treated me one way and he treated Don a different way.

And he treated Terry a different way.

And the meaning of our life and why it was so important to us that God acted in one way rather than another.

The Bible doesn't make all that clear as to what his reasons are.

It just shows that he treats people in a different way.

And in this particular case, he says to Jairus, in a sense, I will go to see your daughter.

Well, what happens?

Look at the last part of verse 42.

The next paragraph, if you're looking up there.

Oh, maybe it doesn't have that.

Yeah, it does have that.

As Jesus went, the people pressed around him.

In other words, they were right up touching him.

They were like he was like moving through a crowd.

And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years.

And though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone.

She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment.

And immediately her discharge of blood ceased.

Now just sort of pause.

Remember, Jesus is going to Jairus' house.

His daughter is dying.

He's having to walk through a crowd.

And in the midst of a crowd, there's this woman that comes up and touches the fringe of his garment.

Now, some of you might or might not know this.

Probably what most scholars now think that she had a, I don't know if I'm going to pronounce this correctly,

a uterine hemorrhage.

That's probably what she had.

And she had it for 12 years.

It meant that there was bleeding from her uterus.

And whether it was continual or just intermittent, it would have been leaving her anemic.

And the regular, unusual amount of flow of blood, and not just regular in terms of like a once a month if she was younger,

but just intermittent but sort of constant flow of blood would have meant that from a Jewish perspective at that time,

she was unclean.

And we're not going to go into a little bit that much,

but every single one of us knows a little bit about what it means to feel unclean.

And she was unclean.

And in their system of thought, every person she touched, she made ritually unclean,

which would have meant that there were sacrifices and all that sort of stuff.

So what she had done is she's pushing herself through the crowd,

is she's making every single person she touches, she's making them ritually unclean.

She herself would have lived a very isolated life because she would have had to be constantly separated from other human beings

because of her ritual uncleanness.

And in the original language, when it says that she touches the fringe of his garment,

it's actually a very technical word.

In the Old Testament law, one of the outward signs that you wanted to observe all of the law

was that you had certain tassels, a fringe, put on your garment.

And what she touches, even though she's ritually unclean,

is she touches that which symbolizes that Jesus is a religiously observant Jewish man.

So later on, if she hadn't been healed, the crowd would have realized that she'd,

that in fact, actually what she did was quite wrong for most of their thinking.

She touched, she touched the part that showed that he desired to be ritually clean.

And she touched that to make him unclean.

She would have done a faux pas.

But lo and behold, she, not thinking about that,

she just has this belief that Jesus will heal her.

And she touches him and she's healed.

And we all know that sometimes people can think they're healed when they're not.

But in this case, what probably has happened is not only does she feel that the blood stops,

but there would have been persistent pain and the pain goes away.

The pain in her uterus, all of a sudden the pain stops.

She has a sense that the bleeding stopped.

And because when Jesus heals, and we see this in all of the ancient biographies,

when Jesus heals, he doesn't just sort of barely heal a person, she's healed.

Her anemia and her weakness would have been gone.

All of a sudden, she would have just felt well.

All of us here who aren't anemic, we don't even experience feeling well, in a sense,

because it's natural to us.

And all of a sudden, for the first time in 12 years, she feels well.

She doesn't feel anemic.

And the pain is gone.

And she has a sense that the bleeding has stopped.

It happens in an instant.

Now, there's a very surprising thing, though, that happens.

In verse 45, we see it.

And Jesus said, who was it that touched me?

He doesn't know who touched her.

He doesn't know who touched him.

Like, he literally, this isn't like an object lesson.

This isn't like when he says to the disciples in the feeding of the 5,000,

and how are we going to feed them.

And that's sort of like he's giving them a test question.

In this case, he literally doesn't know the answer.

He has no idea who it is that touched him.

He asked that question.

Verse 45 again, and Jesus said, who was it that touched me?

And when all denied it, Peter said,

Master, I don't know if he puts the word duh,

but the crowd surround you and are pressing on you.

Like, there's all sorts of people touching you, basically.

But verse 46, but Jesus said,

Someone touch me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.

And when the woman saw that she was not hidden,

she came trembling and falling down before him,

declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched Jesus

and how she had been immediately healed.

And Jesus doesn't rebuke her.

He speaks to her with great affection.

He says, daughter.

He claims her as part of his family.

Daughter, your faith has made you well.

And in the original language, your faith has made you well

can also equally be translated as your faith has saved you.

Go in peace.

Now, some of us are a bit troubled by this.

And I could well imagine that those who are non-Christians,

you know a little bit about what Christianity is,

be very puzzled as to how it is that Jesus,

like, don't Christians claim that Jesus is God?

How is it that he asks a question?

How is it that he doesn't know the answer?

How can he be God and ask a question?

If you could put up the point, Andrew, that would be very helpful.

Well, Jesus is fully human.

He asked questions.

See, one of the things which is so powerful about stories

is that stories help us to enter into truths

that we can maybe express as a doctrine,

like when we said the creed, fully man and fully God.

And okay, well, we can say that.

But a story helps us to enter into what that means

and experience it and know it in a deeper way.

It shapes us.

And the fact of the matter is, is if Jesus never asked a question,

how on earth could you possibly believe that he's human?

Like, how could he be human if he never asked a question?

It's one of the essential features of being a human being,

is to be able to ask questions.

It's one of the things, interestingly enough,

in totalitarian states and dictators,

what they want is they want to stop people asking questions

because they want to make you less human.

The state wants to crush you.

And if they want to crush you, they say,

no more questions.

You're not allowed to ask questions.

Just trust the glorious state, how wise it is.

In the Soviet Union, dissidents were sent to be brainwashed

or dealt with by psychiatrists

because they couldn't understand the glory of the revolution.

They'd ask questions.

Well, why is it if the revolution is so glorious,

why is it that people are starving?

Why is it that people are punished?

And, well, if you, no questions are not allowed.

So we can't look at Jesus and say,

well, Jesus was human but never asked a question.

You know, he's not here today.

Liam.

Liam went through a period.

He was really, really, you know, he's still cute,

but he was very cute.

And after service, he'd come and follow me around

and ask me questions.

Why do you do that?

And I'd give him an answer.

Why?

I'd give him an answer.

Why?

Give him an answer.

Why?

And should I just say, because.

I don't know.

Like, at some point in time,

you just can't answer endless whys.

All of you have had young kids,

many of them at some point in time,

they go through a phase,

they ask why, why, why.

Well, to think that Jesus, as a four-year-old,

never asked the question why.

Like, how could he be a kid?

Like, Jesus didn't emerge out of the womb

and immediately speak three or four languages.

He would have, like, babbled.

He had to learn.

And this helps us to feel it and experience it.

You see, if you read all of the Gospels together

and you read the rest of the New Testament,

what you understand is this,

that Jesus was fully human.

He asked questions.

He got tired.

He got hungry.

He had to sleep.

And what it is,

is that if Jesus needed to know something

that a human being wouldn't normally know,

God reveals it to him.

Because it's, in a sense,

every time you see Jesus knowing something

that he couldn't know,

it's a way for you in the story

to enter into the intimacy that he had

with his heavenly father

and the trust he had of his heavenly father,

that his heavenly father would provide for him,

including knowing when he needed to know.

So Jesus asks a question.

He doesn't know the answer.

The woman comes,

and he speaks to her with great peace.

But, remember,

Jesus is now spending time,

and who knows how long it took,

maybe 10 or 15 minutes with the woman,

not just as brief as it was here.

Maybe he was asking questions for 10 or 15 minutes

before the woman finally was brought to the front.

And you can well imagine that Jairus

is hopping up and down on both feet

because he's so anxious.

If he was sitting,

his leg was probably going like that

because he has a daughter

who's on the point of death,

and Jesus is spending time with this woman,

this woman, not his daughter.

I'm sure he'd say,

yeah, yeah, I like that woman.

But my daughter,

my 12-year-old daughter,

she's on the point of death.

And what happens?

Well, terrible news.

Look at verse 49.

While Jesus was still speaking,

while Jesus was still speaking,

someone from the ruler's house came and said,

your daughter is dead.

Do not trouble the teacher anymore.

Now, we just need to pause here for a second,

camp on it for a second.

This describes this room.

I'm guessing

that if we were to have

an open mic for people

to share prayer requests,

I'm guessing there's a couple of people

who could say,

I'd really like to share with you

how God has dramatically answered a prayer

for me this week.

I'd be surprised

if there's not a couple of you

who could get up and share

within the last week,

within the last month,

some dramatic answer to prayer.

And at the same time

that they're sharing,

and maybe after they share,

we all clap

and they go back to their seat,

a few high fives.

But at the same time,

in this very same room,

there are people

who are praying their heart out

and God is not answering their prayers

the way they want.

They prayed for the job.

They didn't get the job.

They prayed for a relationship.

They didn't get the relationship.

They prayed for a child.

They didn't get the child.

They prayed for a good answer from the doctor.

They didn't get the good answer from the doctor.

They prayed for their wayward child.

Their wayward child has gotten more wayward.

We could go on.

Verse 49,

the woman's going back to high fives.

And in the same crowd,

Jairus is crushed.

That's every church service

that you ever attended

in every Christian community.

Right here in the text.

So what happens?

How does the story

continue to resolve itself?

Well, let's look at verse 50.

How does Jesus respond to this?

And by the way,

just before that,

you can well imagine,

can't you?

And this is,

this again is so much

for many of us.

Can't you just imagine

that Jairus is saying,

Jesus,

if you had just

not stopped

for that woman,

my daughter would be well.

My daughter would be well.

So the story continues.

Verse 50.

But Jesus,

on hearing this,

that the girl is dead,

says to the man,

do not fear,

only believe,

she will be well.

That word once again,

well,

can also be translated

as saved.

And in verse 51,

and when he came to the house,

he allowed no one

to enter with him

except Peter and John

and James

and the father

and mother of the child.

Peter,

John,

and James

are three of the apostles,

three of the disciples.

And all were weeping,

verse 52,

and mourning for her.

But he said to the crowd,

do not weep,

for she is not dead,

but is sleeping.

And just so you know,

it's a very ancient metaphor,

but Jesus is using

a metaphor for death.

He knows she's dead,

as the rest of the story

will show.

He knows she's dead,

but he's using,

it's a whole other sermon

about why there could be

for Christians

a metaphor of death

as sleeping.

But that's what he's doing.

But the crowd reacts

in a different way.

Look at verse 53.

And they laughed at him,

knowing that she was dead.

Just sort of pause here

for a second.

Once again,

doesn't this describe life?

Like if you think about it,

if people who are walking by

on the street

knew that there were people

in here who believe

that Jesus is still alive

and that they can talk to him

and he will answer their prayers,

they will laugh at us.

They'd laugh.

They wouldn't laugh.

They're Canadians.

They maybe wouldn't laugh

if we were right with them.

But what they're going on

off to their friends

to have some brunch

or some dim sum

or whatever,

they'll say,

all those stupid people

in there praying,

what a waste of time.

Like that's the real world.

Once again,

so Jesus is in a room

with the five of them.

Nobody has any faith.

There's a dead girl.

Verse 54,

but taking her by the hand,

he called saying,

child, arise.

And her spirit returned.

She got up at once

and he directed

that something should be

given her to eat.

In other words,

she's so healthy

that she not only

becomes alive again

and she's so healed

that she can get up

out of the bed

and she's so healed

that she's hungry.

And he directed

that something

should be given her to eat

and her parents were amazed

but he charged them

to tell no one

what had happened.

Now,

Jesus recalls her spirit

and she's alive.

Now,

some of you might say,

this is just a couple

of coincidences.

You know,

they're not very sophisticated

back then.

They don't know about science

and, you know,

maybe just Jesus startled her

and, whoa,

she's not actually dead

and she wakes up

and, you know,

maybe it's just one

of those things

where, you know,

she was about to get well

all by herself

and it's just a bit

of a coincidence.

And, well,

I mean,

we can't entirely answer that

except to say this.

The other day,

I was in a coffee shop

and I overheard a young guy

explain to an older guy

what he did for a living.

He was an engineer

and he was an engineer

who designs

computer systems

and to protect

against cyber attacks.

And he gave,

I know there's some

computer engineers here.

I'm just going to give

a couple of things

that I overheard him say

because the rest of it

I'd get so wrong

that the engineers

and the computer people

around us

would be going like this.

But just a couple of things.

He gave the analogy.

He said,

so we have algorithms

that can track

when something anomalous

happens.

And so,

like something might be

that all of a sudden

a person accesses

their banking record

at three o'clock

in the morning

and there's an algorithm.

They know that's

an anomalous thing

that that person,

George Sinclair,

never accesses his bank

at three o'clock

in the morning

but nothing necessarily

happens

just because of

one anomalous event.

But what we're working on

is when there's

a cyber attack,

we're working on

recognizing

when there's

a certain type

of pattern

of anomalous events

within a certain

time period

that indicates

that there's an attack

and then having

a way of responding to it.

And that's the algorithm

that we're working on.

And that's a little bit

of the question here.

You could say,

well, okay,

so Jesus,

there's this true

biography

which is written

about Jesus

and it's an ancient

biography

and it records this

and it records this

and it records this

and yes,

it might be

a little bit of anomaly

that just at the moment

that she touches

his Jesus

that whoa,

all of a sudden

she's better.

It's just

odd coincidence

but another odd coincidence

about this

and if you go back

and you read the rest

of the book of Luke

and it's an odd coincidence

that this just happened

and this just happened

but at some point in time

you have to wonder

if it's an attack,

if it's a cyber attack,

if it's an invasion.

That the only way

to understand

what's going on

is that there's

something systematic.

So if you could put up

the next point,

Andrew,

that would be

very, very helpful.

So here's what's happening

in the course

of this story.

What Jesus does,

only life himself

can do what Jesus does.

Only life himself

can do what Jesus does.

Only health himself

can do what Jesus does

in this story.

Remember,

one of the things

which is so powerful

about stories

is that the stories

help us to understand.

We can take it

very abstractly

that God creates

all things

or that Jesus is God

and comes and enters in.

And those are just

some doctrines

and for some of us

we love statements

like that of logic

and of great verbal precision

and abstract

and we love it.

But you know what?

For many of us,

how we come to understand

these is we come

to understand them

by reading stories.

And it's not just enough

to understand

that God is God

but that what the Bible

says is this.

In all Eastern religions,

in all Eastern religions,

the fact that you

and I exist

is a result

of a primeval tragedy.

All things were one.

It was just like

there was an ocean

and all of a sudden

difference started to happen.

And it's a tragedy.

And now there's difference.

And now there's you

and now there's me.

And all of life

is at the end of the day

ultimately a tragedy

which ends

by the reincarnation

coming to an end

and then comes oblivion.

The drop of water

merges with the ocean.

And in what is basically

the atheistic worldview

which is on one level

the basic worldview

of most of the modern West.

It's on one level

taught in schools

that everything

that came to be

is just a result.

There's always just been matter

and there's always

just been energy

and matter and energy

start to interact

in scientific ways

in such a way

that eventually

life was produced.

But life came out

of nothing

other than processes.

Life has no inherent meaning

and at the end of it

you will just die.

And the Christian story

is very different.

The Christian story is

that from all eternity

the Father loved the Son

and the Son loved the Father

and the Holy Spirit

is on one level

both another person

but He's also

the actual love

which eternally flows

from the Father

to the Son

and from all eternity

there was a life.

God the Father

and the Son

and the Holy Spirit

three persons

one God

He is alive

and out of life

and out of love

God creates.

And the tragedy

of sickness and death

and our fallen creation

comes out of our

prideful rebellion

against God.

But life

is what

life comes out of.

And so what the Bible

here is picturing

is that life

well

could you put up

the next point Andrew?

What we see in this miracle

is that life

is invading

now we would say

it in the past tense

life

has invaded

His dying creation

to put things right

and deliver

His fallen image bearers.

Life has invaded

His dying creation

to begin to put things right

and deliver

His fallen image bearers.

There used to be a man

who came to the church

for a few years

he was a great old guy

his name was Jacques

and he was from France

and he

I believe he's passed away now

and he grew up

in a small little area

in France

very close to the coast

and one night

during the

Second World War

him and his family

heard gunfire

very close to the house

just in the lower field

not the field

right by his house

but just the lower field

they heard gunfire

and screaming

and they stayed

inside the house

they were under

Nazi occupation

and they just stayed

in the house

but the next morning

when it was light

he went out

and he found

the body

of an American

GI

in his lower field.

He found the dead body

of an American soldier

in Nazi

occupied Europe

and he didn't realize that

but later on in the day

in the next day

he discovered

that that was

a paratrooper

who had come in

the night before

D-Day

and that at the same time

that he was discovering

the dead body

the Allied forces

had landed

very close to where he lived.

There was an anomaly

of a dead American GI

in his lower field

but it wasn't just an anomaly

it was an indication

that the invasion

had begun

and that's what

every miracle is

in the gospel

it is evidence

that the invasion

had begun.

In this case

last week

I talked about

how the creator himself

had entered

invaded his dying

or fallen creation

here in a sense

to understand

that God

is life

life has invaded

his dying creation

to begin to put

things right

and deliver

his fallen

image bearers.

this is not just

an anomaly

it is an anomaly

that indicates

the invasion

has begun

and we know

that it will come

to an end.

But some of you

might say

well George

I don't have

faith to believe

something like this

I'm too skeptical

I'm too broken

you know

it's just

too hard

it's just

too hard

to believe

something

I just can't

possibly have

faith or belief

in it.

Well the story

actually has

some things

to say

about that

whole response

of not having

you know

faith

or enough

belief.

See part of the

problem is

that we say

we don't have

enough belief

we don't have

enough faith.

you know

in our culture

or just

we do know

that actually

belief and faith

is very very

important

just in general

it's very important.

You can't have

human relationships

and you can't

have love

relationships

if you don't

have some

degree of trust.

I've met

people

who've been

so beat up

by life

just so

betrayed

and beat up

by life

their parents

in many cases

literally beat

them up

and abused

them

and in some

tragic cases

they were just

beat up

by the judicial

system

by the

foster system

by their

siblings

and they

are just

so beat

up

by life

that they

can no

longer

trust

anybody

at all

virtually

trust

nobody

at all

and they

live very

very very

very isolated

lives

and miserable

lives

because the

fact of the

matter is

you can't

have a

friend

you can't

have a

wife

or a

husband

you can't

actually even

go to the

police

or go to

a contractor

you can't

go to a

bank

if you

don't have

some degree

of trust

so on one

level in our

culture we

understand the

real importance

of love

but the problem

in our culture

is that we

want to create

make it look

as if somehow

or another

that

well you know

how many movies

talk about how

you just have to

have trust

you just have to

believe

you just have to

you just

it's as if

almost trust

or belief

is a type of

a power

that you

have

and if

you have

this type

of power

if you

just believe

in people

if you

just believe

that Santa

is going

to come

if you

just believe

that things

are going

to be

right

then things

are all

going to

be right

but if

you can't

go sort of

all the way

to the other

extreme

because on

one hand

we can

understand

that there's

things that

happen that

take away

any ability

to love

or any ability

to trust

but we're also

aware of the

fact that in

our culture

there's lots

of things

and people

and movements

that just

aren't

trustworthy

like the

abused

woman

that just

keeps trusting

her husband

and she

goes back

and he just

continues to

abuse her

and she

goes to the

hospital

she goes

to the

shelter

and then

she goes

back

and he

beats her

up

and she

just keeps

trusting him

what the

Bible says

is the

Bible talks

about

importance

of faith

obviously

but it

always puts

it at a

second level

if you could

put up the

next point

Andrew

that would

be very

helpful

who or

what you

place your

faith in

matters far

more than

the power

or purity

of your

faith

who or

what you

place your

faith in

matters far

more than

the power

or purity

of your

faith

and

and that's

what the

Bible is

showing us

right here

the Bible

is trying to

portray to

us

how

spectacularly

trustworthy

Jesus is

in a way

that will

start to

elicit

our faith

the Bible

doesn't come

to us and

say just

believe

just have

faith

do these

exercises

take

meditation

take drugs

take therapy

so that you

will build

your faith

what the Bible

says is

that who

or what

you put

your faith

and trust

in

matters

vastly

more

than the

amount of

faith that

you have

I might

have next

to no

faith

whatsoever

that if I

get on a

plane

that I will

arrive safely

at the other

end of my

destination

but it doesn't

matter how

strong my

faith is

what matters

is that the

plane is

trustworthy

it's always

the object

which matters

more

and that's

why what the

Bible does

here in this

particular story

is that it's

trying to

portray

who Jesus

is and

why he is

so completely

and utterly

trustworthy

but some of

you might say

George okay

you're

that's very

interesting but

what about this

part that you

described of the

unanswered prayer

are you just

saying that

really

I mean

Jairus

he didn't have

any faith

he didn't have

any faith

and Jairus

has his

daughter raised

from the dead

but that's

not my

experience

of prayer

like I

just seem

George to

be going

through such

a long

period of

time where

my prayers

aren't being

answered in

the way that

I hope

and this

story doesn't

solve that

it solves it

in one very

important level

another level

it doesn't

what it does

is it doesn't

tell me why

it is that

sometimes when

I pray

what I pray

for happens

and sometimes

when I pray

God just

says no

and sometimes

when I pray

he takes a

long time to

answer so long

that sometimes

I don't even

remember that I

originally prayed

for it

and sometimes

when I pray

he answers a

prayer but in

a very very

different way

than I'd

expected and

it's only later

on that I

realize that he

answered in

different ways

and this

text doesn't

explain to

me why it

is that those

particular things

happen in my

life but what

it does is it

helps me to

press into the

fact that Jesus

is very

trustworthy

you see if

the story just

ended here

and the Bible

just ended

here I'd be a

little bit

confused about

the object of

faith and the

power of my

faith and why

God does

things and why

he doesn't

do things

but this

story is

part of a

longer story

and in this

longer story

it's moving up

to a culminating

point and the

culminating point

is Jesus dying

upon the cross

and the way we

are to understand

the story is

that when we

come to that

point in the

story and in

the very next

chapter Jesus is

going to in fact

begin to explain

to his disciples

that the entire

reason that he

came was to

die the entire

reason he came

was to die to

die for others

and so it comes

that when he

finally dies with

it's valid for us

to ask ourselves

how is it that a

man who could

raise dead people

to life would

ever allow himself

to die upon the

cross how is it

that a man who

was just touched

by a woman and

she's instantly

healed how is it

that such a person

could ever die on

the cross and what

on earth could it

possibly mean like

how could that even

physically happen if

he can make a dead

person come alive how

is it that even

physically he could

die if he can just

touch somebody in

their life how is it

that he could how is

he could die what

does it mean to have

health die on the

cross what does it

mean to have life

die on the cross

and the answer to

the gospel is that

the only thing that

it can explain that

life would enter to

die for the dead

is love

is love

no amount of human

power can kill life

no amount of human

power could kill

Jesus if he just

wanted to continue to

heal no amount of

human power he

chose to die for

you for me if you

could put up the

point Andrew what we

see in the story is

that Jesus dies a

slave's death he's

bleeding it means he's

unclean he dies on a

cross which means he's

cursed he's dying on a

cross which means he

has the status of a

slave and he dies

condemned and Jesus

died a slave's death

unclean cursed and

condemned so that you

might become his

child clean blessed

righteous and eternally

alive

and this we receive by

faith Jesus died a

slave's death unclean

cursed and condemned so

that you might become his

child clean blessed

righteous and eternally

alive I don't make

myself alive in Christ

he makes me alive I

don't make myself clean

he makes me clean I

don't make myself blessed

he blesses me I don't

remove the curse he

removes the curse I

don't by having a

powerful faith have a

life that will survive

death he calls me when I

am dead like he called

Jairus his daughter he

takes my hand when I am

dead he calls my name

when I am dead and his

call and his touch seen

completely and utterly

pictured upon the cross is

what makes me clean makes me

blessed makes me alive makes

me righteous makes me as

child and so I do not

know why it is that God

answers my prayers and

does not answer my

prayers the way that he

does but what I know is

that he's for me he's for

me at the deepest possible

level that will go into

eternity he is for me at

the deepest possible cost to

himself and so I can live

God of gratitude please

stand

let's bow our heads in

prayer

Jesus if some of us are

willing to be honest with

each other right now we

stop praying because we

think it's not worthwhile

cynicism has poisoned our

soul and if we're honest

father some of us don't

believe we're being cynical

we're just being more aware

we're more realistic but

father we don't want to

confess that a cynicism and

a lack of faith has started

to permeate who we are and

robbed us of prayer and father

some of us are struggling with

prayers that aren't going the

way we want and we don't

know why some of us father

have had fantastic prayers and

father we thank you that we

thank you that Jesus is for us

at the deepest level

that because he is our savior

and our lord you want us to

pour out our heart to you in

prayer to pray for big things

and for small things that you

delight in our prayers that you

hear them and we know father

we know lord Jesus that you

answer them that you approach

them out of the deepest

possible love for us a love

that was deeply costly for us a

love that saves us so father we

ask that you would both increase

our honesty in prayer and our

boldness in prayer and increase

within us father more and most

importantly of all to be gripped

by the gospel in such a powerful

way that we will understand what it

is that Jesus has done for us who

he is that we pray for and his

great love for us and all these

things we ask in the name of Jesus

your son and our savior amen

your heart in prayer for us a

builds for us and our weer

and our minds of Jesus

God radiant and above me

and our honor Joker thank you

and that's his firm person

for us to pray and share

for us with our God

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