Luke 8:50 “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. Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.” This episode talks about how Jesus is bigger than the facts. When we are faced with impossible facts we need to hear Jesus voice telling us, "Don't be afraid, just believe!" Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Jesus is bigger than the Facts
Luke 8:50 “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. Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.”
Pastor Steven Furtick gave an excellent sermon on this passage a few weeks ago. If you want to listen to it you can check it our on the Elevation with Steven Furtick Podcast. The title of the Episode is The Facts aren’t Final. Steven Furtick explores this passage in a lot more detail then I can do in this short amount of time as his podcast is close to an hour long. However, I really liked his messages surrounding this verse. There are usually several messages in his sermons. They are really good. The main message for this episode is revealed in the title, Facts are not Final.
This verse is about a man who went to see Jesus because his daughter was dying. He found Jesus and he fell down on his knees and asked Jesus to come to his house and to save his daughter. Then in Luke 8:50 it says, “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. Hearing this Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.” Can you imagine being in this circumstance? Have you heard those words before, “Just believe and she, he, they will be healed?” This can be so hard. It can be so hard to believe on a good day, but when you are faced with facts that don’t give a lot of room for hope.
This man just received news that his little girl died. Not that she was sick, but that she had died. Imagine how hard it was for this man to believe. It says that Jairus was a synagogue leader. They synagogue leaders at the time of Jesus did not know what to make of Jesus. Even in this passage they refer to him as the teacher, no the son of God, not the healer, not the resurrected Christ, the teacher. Jairus must have wondered if Jesus was a healer because he did go to Jesus and ask Him to save his daughter. I wonder if he believed that he could heal his daughter or if this was just what some may call a “Hail Mary” attempt. A “Hail Mary” in case you don’t know is when you try something that you are pretty sure will not work, but you don’t have any other chance so you give it one last shot anyway. Hail Mary is actually a great name for that type of circumstance because she is definitely someone that we can rely on when all else has failed.
The facts of this case seemed bleak. Jairus wanted Jesus to save his daughter but according to the facts Jesus did not get there in time and his daughter died. Jesus was on his way to Jairus’ house when he got stopped by a large crowd of people. One of those people was the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years and no doctors could help her. She went up to Jesus in the crowd and touched his cloak and was immediately healed. Jesus stopped to acknowledge this and while He was still talking to this woman, who’s story is amazing and deserves a whole episode of her own, Jairus got new that his daughter had died. I don’t know about you, but I feel like I would be super angry at this point. I feel as the my grief would have over come me and I would have started to yell at Jesus. I would have told Him my daughters death was all His fault. If he hadn’t have stopped to talk to that lady, my daughter might still be alive.
Can you picture the scene? It seems when we are angry and hurt we lash out. It makes us feel better, even if just for a moment, if we can blame someone else. This is a normal reaction, however, there is no mention of any such reaction from Jairus. Jesus hears the man from Jairus’ house tell Jairus that his daughter died and Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.” The question is, “How do we believe when we are faced with facts that dispute that faith?” How does this man believe that his daughter will be ok when he was just told that she was dead? Do you have a circumstance in your life where the facts don’t leave room for much hope?
Do you have a situation where the facts tell you that there is no way out? For instance, maybe you have too many bills and not enough money. Maybe you have a diagnosis and the doctors are saying there is no cure for. Maybe your child is facing a situation and you don’t see a way out of it for them. Maybe your marriage is in trouble and your spouse has said there is no way to fix it. In all of these circumstances, the facts say that your situation is beyond hope. The facts say that you can’t change they things. If a doctor says you have a terminal illness, that is a fact. You can’t dispute that fact on merit, as you do in fact have an illness that there is no human cure for. If your spouse has made up their mind that divorce is the only way, then it will take divine intervention to save that marriage. So, how do we have faith when the facts are telling us there is no hope?
One great way is to look back at scripture. This Bible verse is not the only time it looked liked Jesus arrived too late. In John 11 Jesus’ friend Lazarus got sick and his sisters wrote to Jesus asking him to come home and heal their brother. Jesus stayed where He was and finished what He was doing and then He went back. By the time Jesus got back there, Lazarus had been dead and in a tomb for 4 days. The facts in this chapter would tell us that Lazarus was not coming back. He had already been dead for 4 days, his body was probably starting to smell and maybe decompose. However, Jesus came back and raised Lazarus from the dead. What about the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years? The facts told her she would never get better, there was no cure. The doctors couldn’t help her, they only made it worse. I am sure she had to fight her mind reminding her of these facts the entire way to see Jesus. She fought through the voices telling her the facts that she would not get better and that there was no hope. She stepped out in faith, touched His garment, the hem of his garment, and she was cured.
In the story above, the facts said Jairus’ daughter had died. He no longer had a need for someone to come and heal his daughter. The facts said it was too late. However, Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.” And Jairus went with Jesus to see his little girl. In Luke 8:54-55 it says, “ But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!” Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat.” The facts said it was too late and Jesus said “Do not be afraid, just believe.”
Where do you need to hear that in your life right now. The Bible is not just a collection of stories that give us historical data but don’t really pertain to our lives. The Bible is just as relevant today as it was back in that day. When Jesus is telling these parables to the people in the Bible, He is also telling them to you. Where in your life are you struggling with the facts? Where in your life are the facts not leaving much room for hope? Where in your life do you need to hear these words, straight from Jesus’ mouth, “Do not be afraid, just believe.”
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, help those that are struggling to believe that the facts aren’t final. Help those facing some very scary facts. Lord, we know you are amazing and you are God of the impossible. Please give us the strength to not be afraid and to believe. Lord we believe, help our unbelief. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Have a blessed day!