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...And I would tell you this on behalf of your pastors and elders and deacons and community group leaders, there are seasons of ministry that absolutely feel like this. Jesus is at this point, is God become a man, so in this instant he can only be in one place at one time he only has so many minutes in an hour and so many hours in a day and all of these needs are crushing and collapsing around him, and Jairus’ daughter is some ways away, and the requests of these crowds are somewhat legitimate and Jesus has this very difficult moment where he has to choose who he will serve in that instance.
...And I would tell you this on behalf of your pastors and elders and deacons and community group leaders, there are seasons of ministry that absolutely feel like this. Jesus is at this point, is God become a man, so in this instant he can only be in one place at one time he only has so many minutes in an hour and so many hours in a day and all of these needs are crushing and collapsing around him, and Jairus’ daughter is some ways away, and the requests of these crowds are somewhat legitimate and Jesus has this very difficult moment where he has to choose who he will serve in that instance.
Pray for your leaders. And if you don’t feel like we got back to you quickly or perhaps you were somehow not tended to, accept my sincere apology. And please don’t grow weary in letting us know how we can love better. But I would also say, please also be understanding that sometimes it is 5 crises to get to your crisis, and sometimes we’re overwhelmed. Jesus in this instance is surrounded with need.
And so what will he do?
Verse 43 and there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for how long?
This woman had chronic bleeding, possibly a uterine haemorrhage, for twelve years. As long as the little girl, Jairus’ daughter, had been alive, this woman had been bleeding. And though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. That is the clinical diagnosis of Luke the physician, our author.
This woman is desperate, and she’s destitute. She’s desperate in that she’s tried every form of treatment. She’s gone to the doctor, she’s undergone alternative therapy, she’s prayed, she’s fasted, she has gone to the healing centre. She has done everything that medicine would make available to her, she is also destitute in addition desperate.
She has spent all of her money. She is now absolutely impoverished. This is what happens to those who are suffering, who have physical ailment, even in our own day. Some of you are in that condition. Some of you know and love people in that condition. They have spent their life savings, they have sold their home, they have unloaded their possessions, they have cashed in their retirement account, they have maxed out their credit cards, their friends, family and co-workers have hosted benefits, they have thrown all the money they can pull together toward that need, and nothing changes. And they’re without hope and they’re without help. And they’re desperate and they’re destitute.
This woman is in a horrible condition. And here she is before Jesus. And who will Jesus serve? Will he serve this woman, who has a very legitimate need? Or will he serve Jairus’ daughter, who also has a very legitimate need? And this is the burden of ministry for those who tend to God’s people and love them.
The story tells us as well; she had been in this condition for twelve years. And let me say, in Luke 15, that this would have made her ritually, ceremonially, under the Old Covenant, unclean. Here’s what this means, friends. No-one has touched her in twelve years. No-one has hugged her. No-one has laid a hand on her to pray for her. No one has kissed her on the top of the head, which is what I like to do when I go on a hospital visit, when someone is hurting and bed-ridden. No-one has held her hand. She has not had physical contact for a dozen years. She is very isolated and lonely in her suffering. She can’t be in crowds. She’s not allowed to go to the temple or to synagogue, to join God’s people in worship.
The only thing worse than suffering is suffering in isolation. There’s no one to be with you, to talk to you, to share with you. And see we don’t see a lot of this yet at Mars Hill, because we have hundreds of weddings for every funeral. Older people are coming to Mars Hill and the people here like me, I’m pushin’ 40, are getting’ older. But there will be a day as our congregation ages and more older people come, that the number of weddings and funerals will start to balance. That the list of people with cancer and debilitating illness, and untreatable trauma or injury or sickness, that that list grows.
And you need to know that those people oftentimes are destitute, desperate and lonely.
Grace and I first saw this when in college I was a new Christian. And as most college students I was hanging out as a new Christian with a lot of college age friends and some families who loved the Lord.
