Thoughts on Luke - Day 37

                                                    Luke 8:40-56

Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him. ⁴¹ Then a man named Jairus, a synagogue leader, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house ⁴² because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying.
As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. ⁴³ And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. ⁴⁴ She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.
⁴⁵ “Who touched me?” Jesus asked.
When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”
⁴⁶ But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”
⁴⁷ Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. ⁴⁸ Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”
⁴⁹ While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher anymore.”
⁵⁰ Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.”
⁵¹ When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother. ⁵² Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,” Jesus said. “She is not dead but asleep.”
⁵³ They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. ⁵⁴ But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!” ⁵⁵ Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. ⁵⁶ Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.

             We talked last blog about coming to Jesus when your life is a mess. It is hard to convince people that they need to do a 180 in their life and repent of their sins and follow Jesus, when they are cruising through life at a good speed. It's when things break down that people start searching for answers. Here in this account we have two people whose lives have reached a desperate point. We have a synagogue leader named Jairus who risks the anger, mockery, exclusion, even firing from his fellow synagogue leaders by reaching out to Jesus, the man that they had determined was a blasphemer worthy of death. However his daughter was dying and what good is pride and a job and a reputation when your child is dying. You will do anything at that point. And then we have a woman who is exanguinating from blood loss probably secondary to female problems. She has spent all her money trying to get fixed and visited every doctor and no one can help. She is desperate so she comes to Christ. In both of these situations, Christ does not disappoint.

           Now if I was Jesus I might be inclined to say, "Why didn't you come to me in the first place; why am I always the last resort." I get this in the office a lot. Tactless people say to me things like, "I tried a lot of other doctors offices but you are the only one that takes people without insurance." Or last week, "I tried to get into that office but they didn't have an appointment open until 3 months from now so I came to you." Or, "That doctor delivered all my babies and did my surgery but he won't see me anymore." I once told a patient that she needed surgery and she said she was going to find a doctor in the big city to do it and then come back to me for followup. I told her that I wouldn't followup with her in that case, the doctor that she trusted to do her surgery should be the one she trusts afterward. I still can't believe I did that - what a jerk! Why did I do that, because my ego was bruised, my feelings were hurt. God is a God who doesn't mind being the last resort. He is a last resort God. However, once you come to Him, He expects to be your only resort from that time on.I'm sure this is a bad illustration but it's the only one I can come up with now. I know some people on hospice care. They have tried everything and nothing is working so their last resort is hospice. Hospice says, we are glad to take you. We will give you everything you need. However, if you go to the hospital you will lose your hospice. Do you agree to that, and the desperate person does because they have exhausted all other means and nothing has worked. They are desperate.

        This is the humility of Jesus. He never needed to say, "Do you know who I am?" or play the God card or get His ego bruised. When you are God, you don't have to defend that - it just is. If you don't accept that, it isn't His problem, it is yours. Not only did He not feel the need to defend His ego but He didn't demand the "perks" that come with being God. Here He is coming back from a trip on a boat that weathered a near drowning, spent a few minutes on land, was told to leave, got back on the ship, sailed back to land and then was met by a crowd saying, "me first, me first." I have seen crowds like that on mission trips, people crowding, pushing, fighting others, for fear they won't be seen by the doctor. They cared nothing about me, they just cared for themselves. If I were Jesus, I would have said, "I will be back in 6 hours, I need to rest relax and unwind. I need some food and "me time". When I return, I will have someone give you numbers so that you can all be seen in an orderly fashion." Jesus didn't do that! Why? Because it wasn't about him, it was always about others. He saw them as sheep without a shepherd and had compassion on them. What an amazing man; what an amazing God.

        Lord, help me and my fragile ego. Help me to consider others as more important than me as I die to myself and model Your son's actions, attitudes and behavior.. Amen