Faith
He called her “Daughter”
Luke 8:40-9:1 is taken from the Greek for us and rendered in the King James Version:
And it came to pass, that, when Jesus was returned, the people gladly received him: for they were all waiting for him.
And, behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue: and he fell down at Jesus' feet, and besought him that he would come into his house; for he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. But as he went the people thronged him.
And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any,
Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched.
And Jesus said, “Who touched me?” When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, “Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, ‘Who touched me?’”
And Jesus said, “Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.”
And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him and how she was healed immediately.
And he said unto her, “Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.”
While he yet spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying to him, “Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master.”
But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, “Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.”
And when he came into the house, he suffered no man to go in, save Peter, and James, and John, and the father and the mother of the maiden.
And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, “Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth.”
And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead.
And he put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, “Maid, arise.”
And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and he commanded to give her meat.
And her parents were astonished: but he charged them that they should tell no man what was done.
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We live in an age in the church where great emphasis is placed on faith. Of course, we know that without faith it is impossible to please God. The verses that say “the just shall live by faith” either bless or haunt us. Some of us are comfortable with the faith we now have; while most of us are fretful that we don’t have “enough.”
My question is this; “How much faith is enough?” Or to ask the same question but in another way; “How much faith does one need to move the mountains?”
Our Father uses words with eternal care and reason; He took great care when He inspired three Gospel writers to tell the same story. If it is of such importance for Him to say it three times, it goes without saying that we do well to pay attention.
For brevity sake I’ll only share some observations from Luke’s recounting of that one day. For your sake I urge you to read the others in concert with this one. They are there for you in Matthew 9 and Mark’s fifth chapter.
As with any portion of scripture, you as writers already know that a thousand topics could be drawn from one verse; I am compelled to keep it to one, perhaps two. The primary concern on my heart today is “faith”, in both the positive sense of it and the negative. I’ll explain.
As with any study I am moved to consider, it has become a habit to first see what the names of each character means; clues to the depth of discovery in the story are often concealed in the meaning of each name. More often than not.
Jairus literally means “Jah will enlighten.” Jairus was a normal Jewish boy. He’d not only sat for countless hours reading, writing and learning the Old Testament scriptures. He also was given the name that God had ascribed to him and his parents took the time to impress on him what his name meant. His faith was established from his youth onward.
A man in ministry, Jairus was a ruler in the synagogue; his upbringing may have had something to do with hastening that along. No matter really, the point is “he was a leader in the local church” He was enlightened.
Jairus, the man who “Jah will enlighten”, I am convinced is mentioned in this story for contrast. We applaud his parents for raising him as they did and we may even envy the man himself for being used by the Lord in the ministry. We certainly long for the life of faith that obviously was his portion; but he is so much larger than life that I feel we miss the whole point of the message if we look at Jairus too long.
I believe that Jairus is mentioned here, so that when we see the contrast, we will be comforted. Instead, in our day most of you have heard the derogatory sermons and the innuendoes of the enemy because of your “lack of faith.”
I want to bring the other character in this story center stage on your hearts and minds; the woman with the issue of blood. Some of you have had a Jairus like life and for that I offer my appreciation for the blessed life you’ve known and my meager congratulations.
To the multitudes of us that have not known such a life as Jairus and his present day colleagues; those of us who seem to have been severely disadvantaged by the life of days gone by? This is mostly for you.
It is not by mistake that her name is never mentioned. Whenever you see a name withheld in scripture, it is an opportunity for you to “fill in the blank.” The Lord desires that you put yourself in there and allow Him to speak to you personally. Most of us feel so insignificant that we prefer to be incognito anyway, but at the same time we don’t like feeling “invisible.” At least we don’t want to think we are insignificant to God because of our lack of faith.
The nameless woman ran and fell at Jesus feet. She presented her tithe while singing a worshipful song of celebration with unspeakable joy. She was looking deep into the Messiah’s eyes as she poured expensive oil on His feet and poured out her heart of love, adoration and trust on His heart. She was in church with Him when this marvelous experience inspired her to enthrone Him in her soul. All that He commanded; she did without hesitation. Right?
Read that paragraph again. Traditions that have been taught as commandments would have us believe that this is the life that pleases the Master. Aspiring to a life like this is driving us. Sheep are not to be driven, they are to be lead. As a former shepherd boy myself, I know how true this is.
Now, keep in mind the things that you believe. How many of your present beliefs are in my rendition of the day of that nameless woman in the story? Now, read the real story again and see for yourself the contrast between what you believe to be “the way it is” and the way it actually happened.
“And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any,
Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched.”
Her life had been punctuated by twelve years of grief. Her entrepreneurial endeavors had been spent on doctor visits, all for nothing. Personally, I am amazed that the Lord moved me to choose the version of this story that is in Luke; rather than the other two. Luke, the beloved physician of his day, had no problem pointing out that doctors were powerless in this situation. (I’d like to say that I thought of that beforehand, but even that was just shown to me. I hope you’re as blessed as I am.)
This woman did not come with a heart of worship; neither was she worshipping Jesus, as Jairus was.
Jairus came to Jesus and conversed with Him face to face, but this nameless woman not only came from behind, she didn’t say a word. She wasn’t praying at all.
Not once did she say “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.”
Never do we hear her positively confessing anything at all. She didn’t even come to Jesus because He was the Christ; she came for herself. He was not the reason at all. She had an agenda.
She was not there because of a relationship either. If she had any kind of a relationship with Him at all, she would have spoken to Him as Jairus did; instead of talking, we see her touching. Not touching Him, but the hem of His garment.
How much better off we would be if only we could allow ourselves to be the nameless woman? Faithless, miserable, selfish and cowardly this pitiful soul came to Jesus as a last resort. She had nothing to give. The tithe that could have been His had been given to doctors instead.
None of her faults were mentioned by Jesus. Her “lack of faith” is not brought out for all to see. He would never do to her or to us the things we do to others or ourselves.
How can you say anything about her lack of faith, Don? Didn’t you read the story for yourself? If you are asking that question right now, it’s a fair one. But don’t miss the best part of the whole story by getting the proverbial cart before the horse.
“And he said unto her, “Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.”
All the things that she needed, you and I need as well and the most sought after treasures in our Christian lives are encapsulated in these 19 words. All of them.
“He said” What is the desire of your heart? To hear Him? The nameless woman did.
“Unto her” Is the desire of your heart to hear Him talk directly to you? She did.
“Daughter” All of us speak so easily about it being “relationship, not religion” but until you hear Him say “Daughter” to you personally, all you will have is a religion.
“Be” two little letters packed with power, but only when He says them. His Word framed the universe and all that is in it. If He says let there “Be”, there will most assuredly “Be.”
"Good comfort" We may comfort ourselves, but He extends to this woman a comfort that is good. As if plain old comfort weren't enough. A double portion? I believe so.
“Thy faith” How long have you hoped for a faith like Abraham, Joshua or Paul? It must be “thy faith” before it is faith at all, and that faith will not come until you are reading your bibles; but, just reading them is not enough.
Any cultist can read a bible and they will read the same words you do in your morning devotions. The difference can only be that as you read, you hear Him speaking to you through those pages. Amazing grace, the cultist may “come behind Jesus” too and He will turn to face them as well.
Wholeness and peace are also gems that we covet, but since I’ve chosen to talk about “faith”, I’ll leave those two for you to ponder at your leisure.
I suggest to you that the nameless woman’s faith was authored in her heart by Jesus. He has made it clear that He is the author and finisher of our faith. The twelfth chapter of Hebrews says.
She may have come to Him as a last resort. She’d believed for years that doctors could heal her, and we see her coming to Jesus with a conviction that, according to Jesus own words, He authored within her.
Faith as big as a mustard seed? How big is that? Sadly we believe that to move mountains we have to have “bulldozer” sized faith. That the faith we possess has to be equal to the size of the mountain. We work ourselves up to faith in a frenzy of worship, but this nameless, miserable woman didn’t.
We jump for joy hoping for joy to come. We praise the doctors first while our life is draining away, just as this woman had done.
We throw our tithe into the basket and say within “good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over” crossing our religious fingers that the money we gave is a good enough measure; meanwhile we are the ones pressed down in despair, shaken up in spirit and our doubt is running over.
This woman offered nothing and said nothing. She just came.
Unknown to her, she had been called to come. She came for one thing; He gave her more than she knew she needed. She came with no name and He named her “Daughter.”
She came from behind; He turned to speak to her face to face, the way a friend does.
How much faith does one need to realize the “mustard seed” variety? I could answer that myself, but you need to hear it from Him.
“If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.” 2 Timothy 2:13
Mustard seed faith? Three words, three of His words, which you need to hear Him say to you, are these “He abideth faithful.”
This woman had some beliefs, but it wasn’t until she touched this Nazarene; that she didn’t even know, that the faith He wrote in her heart, became hers. Notice in closing that before Jesus talked about faith:
He called her “Daughter”
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