If I could Just get to Him! (Luke 8:40-56)

If I could just get to Him, Maybe He could heal my daughter! I have no other hope. Me, an official, a leader who has everything at my command. I am helpless. I have heard of Jesus, I heard that He heals the sick, makes the lame walk and gives eyesight to the blind. If I could just go and  beg of him maybe my twelve year old precious daughter will live. I will go to Him!

If I could just get to Him! I know I am not suppose to be near people for I have been unclean for twelve years. I have heard of all the wonderful things he has done!. In my lonely time, I feel He is the one, The Christ! The one the Prophets of old talked about. I know all I need in order to be healed is to touch him!. He will not see me. I will stay low and go quietly and unnoticed. If I could just be healed and clean!. I will go to Him.

These two stories are found on Luke 8:40-56. This is the end of Luke’s chapter we started our Dinner with. These two stories are similar in that both Characters were seeking Jesus in the multitude. They both have 12 year old issues. One 12 years with a hemorrhage and the other a 12 year old dead daughter. One claimed her healing and the other begged for it. Both of them received the answer they were seeking for. Both of them were part of Jesus’s teaching of faith for us. Does it mean that the end result of our petitions is what we ask for? I don’t know for sure but I think it is always according to His will and His purposes.

Jesus is willing to leave the people that are so eager to see him to attend to Jairus’s daughter. His cry for help and willingness to beg at Jesus’s feet, despite the fact that He is a high official, tells Jesus he is desperate. As Jesus makes His way through the crowd, someone else is also desperate and touches Him. How many people must have touched him that day? Were some of them hoping for healing?  When Jesus asked Who touched me? Peter says: Master, the people are crowding and pressing on you. They are all touching you.. Dah!(my translation)

Jesus Must have known who touched him!. He knew that power went from Him but He wanted the woman to make it public. Perhaps to help increase her faith or perhaps to help increase the faith of those around her and us. Maybe so She could realize her full victory! They all knew her. Now, she needed to make it known she was clean! she was free! Lead the way! do not hide in the shadows any longer! He says to her: ” Daughter, your faith has made you well, go in peace”

What about Jairus’s daughter? Did it take too long for Jesus to get there? For while he was distracted and remained with the people probably teaching them about faith, a message came to Jairus saying: “your daughter has died, do not trouble the teacher any longer” I wonder if Jairus had faith at this point. I wonder if he had faith from the beginning or if He was acting out of desperation. We know the woman had faith and Jesus acknowledges it but Jairus? Jesus tells him gently and firmly. “do not be afraid any longer; only believe and she will be made well”

Perhaps these two stories are here as examples of faith and hope. Jesus answered both of their requests. Jairus’s daughter was brought to life and the woman was healed. I get confused by these statements from Jesus sometimes. I have to remind myself that if faith is all it took to be well and to not suffer hardships, then people like Paul and Peter who are the pillars of the church and many others who lived by faith, would still be with us to this day, right? For they would have claimed this and would not have suffered and died.

We are told that Peter  was crucified for the faith but He chose to die upside down and Paul was executed. I also think about a statement Jesus made to Peter which was recorded in the book of John 21:18-22. This is the place where Jesus is telling how Peter will die and when Peter asks about John and says to Jesus ” Lord, what about this man?  Jesus said to Peter, ” If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? “You follow me”.

How our Journey will be on this earth is up to us, the choices we make and the hand we hold. We are not guaranteed anything but we are told to ask. I believe that sometimes, based on His plans for us and others, we are either granted or denied of our requests The outcome is always, weather seen or unseen, the best for us as we trust in Him who has our best interest in mind.