Why Is God Making Me Wait? | The Gospels | Luke 8:40–56

[music] Welcome to Tim Minute Bible Talks. Where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. [music] Today we are going to be looking at Luke chapter A. But before we get into it, I just want to say, I've been really enjoying our time in the gospel of Luke. I've been following along with the Tim Minute Bible Talk reading plan myself, reading through this gospel alongside the podcast, and there are just things that keep jumping out to me, the more I sit with it. One thing I've noticed is that Luke is a really careful writer. He's intentional. He doesn't just throw stories together randomly. He's a historian, but he's also a storyteller at the same time. And the way he arranges his material is doing something. Sometimes the way he puts stories together is supposed to teach us things. One of the things I keep noticing and keep pointing out in these episodes is how much Luke loves putting two stories side by side. We saw a couple episodes ago in Luke 5 with the leper and the paralyzed man. We saw it last time in Luke 7 with this insurion in the widow, and guess what? I'm sorry to say if this is disappointed to you, but it's going to happen again today. We have two stories, two people, but actually today in Luke 8, they're a part of the same story. And so just like before, Luke is teaching us something about Jesus through the contrast and the similarities between these two people and how Jesus treats them. He's teaching us something about who he is, who they are, where they come from, and what they're carrying, and what they're carrying, and what happens to them when they get to Jesus. And so that's what we're going to look at today. And the thread running through both stories is this. God is always on time. Let's get into it. We pick up in Luke 8 verse 40. Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him. Then a man named Jairus, a synagogue leader, came and fell at Jesus' feet, pleading with him to come to his house because his only daughter, a girl of about 12, was dying. Jairus is a synagogue leader. This is a man of religious power and social standing. He's respected in his community. He's the kind of person people listen to. They look up to. They come to Jairus with their problems. He is by every measure of the world clean. He's acceptable and worthy. And he is on his face at Jesus' feet. His only daughter is dying. And all that status, all that religious authority, all that standing in the community and the clout and the praise, none of it can do a thing for him right now. He is nowhere else to go. So he goes to Jesus and he begs. Notice what he asks for. He pleads with Jesus to come to his house. He needs Jesus to move right now. His daughter is dying in every second matters. And so Jesus goes. Verse 42 tells us Jesus headed off with him. The crowd is pressing around them now and they're all moving. And then everything stops. Verse 43 says this. "And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. And immediately her bleeding stopped." This woman has been bleeding for 12 years, the same number of years that Jairus' daughter has been alive. Again, I don't think Luke is doing that by accident. This woman had been bleeding for 12 years, which in that culture meant 12 years of being ceremonially unclean. 12 years of being excluded from worship, from community, from touch. 12 years of being told by the religious system that Jairus represents, that she can't belong, that she doesn't belong, that she's on the outside. See, she is the opposite of Jairus in almost every way. He has power, she is none. He is clean, she is unclean. He came to Jesus openly in front of everyone and gave his name. She sneaks up behind Jesus in a crowd and tries to be invisible. She wants to get what she needs and disappear. She doesn't want to see her anything like that. She doesn't want to even be seen. She's not used to being seen. See, she reaches out and touches the edge of his cloak and she's healed immediately. And then Jesus stops in verse 45 and asks, "Who touched me?" Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you." But Jesus said, "Someone touched me. I know that power has gone out from me." See, Peter thinks this is almost a funny question. There's a crowd pressing in from every direction. Jesus everyone's touching you. But Jesus knows the difference between a crowd pushing against him and someone reaching out in desperation and faith. He felt it and he won't move until he finds her. Now think about what's happening here. Jairus is standing right there. His daughter is dying every second that Jesus stands in this crowd asking, "Who touched me?" Is a second his daughter is closer to death. He came to Jesus in desperation. Jesus started moving and now Jesus has stopped why? For someone else. For a woman who by the standards of Jairus's religious world shouldn't even be in this crowd. I mean, you can imagine Jairus saying, "Come on, please, we don't have time for this. My daughter is dying." And yet Jesus waits. Verse 47, "Then the woman seen 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. Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go and peace." This woman falls at Jesus's feet just like Jairus did to completely different people. One powerful, one powerless, one clean, one unclean, one who came boldly and one who tried to disappear and yet both of them are at the feet of Jesus. And Jesus doesn't let her go. He could have. The healing already happened, right? He could have said, "Okay, glad you're healed. We've got to keep moving." But he doesn't. He stops and finds her and he makes her tell her whole story in front of everyone. Not to embarrass her, but to restore her back to the community. There's a crowd around and they now know that this woman is valuable. She is a daughter of God. She's been invisible for 12 years, but Jesus has made her seen. He calls her daughter. This woman who's been unclean and excluded and invisible. Jesus looks at her and calls her daughter. He gives her back dignity, her place, and her belonging. And then, bad news arrives in verse 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." Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, "Don't be afraid. Just believe and she will be healed." "Don't bother the teacher anymore. It's too late. She's gone." Whatever window there was, it closed while Jesus was standing in that crowd, talking to that woman. The delay cost Jairus everything, his only daughter. This is the sharpest moment in the passage because we have to sit in it for a second. Jairus believed Jesus could heal his daughter. He had faith enough to fall at Jesus's feet. He came to him. He prayed to God. He cried out to God. And while he was walking with Jesus, while help was on the way, it was too late. She died. Does that resonate with anyone? He prayed, "You've believed and things just didn't move fast enough. The diagnosis came back. The relationship ended, the door closed and somewhere in your heart, there's a version of that messenger's voice. Don't bother him anymore. It's too late. Whatever you were hoping for, it's gone." Look at what Jesus says. He says, "Don't be afraid, just believe." "Not, I'm sorry you should have gotten to be sooner. Not if only that woman hadn't slowed us down. Just don't be afraid, believe. My timing is not your timing." Verse 51. "When Jesus 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. Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. Stop wailing," Jesus said. "She's not dead, but asleep." They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But he took her by the hand and said, "My child, get up." Her spirit returned and at once she stood up. Her spirit returned. The woman in the crowd had been suffering for 12 years. The girl had been alive for 12 years. Both of them restored. Both of them given back to their families. Both of them touched and healed by Jesus. See, here's something I don't want to dismiss. In both of these stories, Jesus gives these people more than what they came for. The woman came for healing. That's all she wanted. She didn't even want to be noticed. She just wanted to slip in, touch his cloak, and slip back out. But Jesus stopped everything and he found her and he didn't just confirm that she was healed. He called her daughter. He gave her back her dignity, her belonging, her place in the community. She came for a physical cure and Jesus gave her an identity. She got more than she asked for. And Jairus did, too. He came for healing. He needed Jesus to get to his house and time. That was the ask. But Jesus didn't get there in time. At least not by Jairus' timeline. His daughter died. And then Jesus raised her from the dead. Jairus came believing Jesus could heal the sick. But Jesus showed him that he has power over death. Jairus got more than he asked for. And I think that's worth sitting with for a second. If you're in a season now where God feels slow, where you've been praying and believing and things haven't moved the way you needed them to, where the timing has felt wrong, and the silence has felt like absence, maybe God's not withholding from you? Maybe he's saying no because he has something better. Maybe he's going to give you more than what you're asking for. The woman needed healing, but what she truly needed was to know she was a daughter. Jairus needed his daughter heal, but what he truly needed was to know that Jesus is Lord even over death. What you're desperately asking for might be real on legitimate. But maybe God is using the waiting, the uncertainty, the moment where it feels too late, to show you that what you truly need is him, more of him, a bigger view of him than you came in with. See, here's a deal. God's timing is not your timing. And that is not bad news. It's the best news because his timing is not just different from ours. It's better. It sees further. It goes deeper and it gives you more than you ask for. Can we pray? Father, we confess that we struggle with your timing. We want you to move when we want you to move and when you don't, we're afraid it means you don't care that it's too late or that we're not worth stopping for. Remind us today of this story. Remind us that you stopped for the invisible woman and you raised the dead girl and your timing is not our timing and that is good news. Remind us that you always give us more than we came for because what we truly need is you and nothing Jesus there is nothing that better than you. Help us trust you today. It's in your name that we pray. Amen.