Luke 8:40-48 Defeating Death
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: August 7, 2018 Luke 8:40-48
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus’ feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying. As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”
(Understanding the Text) Jesus had tried to get rest from the crowds by sleeping on the boat and crossing over to a part of the shore where they would not follow. Satan had attacked the boat to keep Jesus from resting and then used the demoniacs to attack at the Garasenes. Of course, the demons could not hurt Jesus, but all the trouble ensured that He did not get much rest. Jesus and the disciples may have gotten some rest on the return trip on the lake, but as soon as they landed, the crowds were there waiting, and they had to get to work again. Their little boat had probably become quite well known by then, so people would recognize it when it came close to shore, and word would spread quickly that Jesus was coming. It would not take long for a crowd to gather. According to the SDA commentary, Jesus stayed by the boat for a while healing people and teaching before going to Levi Matthew’s house for a feast given in His honor. It was at Matthew’s house that Jairus approached Jesus.
As word spread through the town, it arrived at Jairus’ house where he was sitting with his wife by his daughter’s bed worried for his daughter. Other people had gathered in his home believing that his daughter would soon be dead. Jairus knew that his daughter was dying, and there was no hope in his heart until someone came running in to announce that Jesus’ boat had docked and that Jesus’ was at Matthew’s house. Jairus and his wife looked at each other with a dawning hope, and Jairus jumped up and began running as fast as he could toward Matthew’s home. He saw the crowd up ahead waiting outside of Matthew’s house and ruthlessly used his position as leader of the synagogue to push through the crowd to get to Jesus. He gained entrance by reason of his important position and rushed to where Jesus was sitting at the table. There, he threw aside all dignity to kneel at Jesus’ feet and beg for Jesus to come heal his daughter. Jairus had been proud in the past and skeptical of Jesus’ way of doing things and teachings. He had kept a somewhat open mind because of all the many signs that Jesus had performed in Capernaum, but he had held back from belief because Jesus’ way of breaking with Pharisaical traditions went against the way he had been raised and his entire belief system. Now, religious theories and ritual cleansings did not matter. It did not matter that Jesus was eating with tax collectors. It did not matter that Jairus himself had just entered a home that he would have never willingly entered before for any other reason. All that mattered was the one thing that Jairus had already accepted. Jesus was able to heal. Jairus went to his knees because he knew that he could not command Jesus to heal his daughter. He could only beg and hope.
Jairus’ heart lifted for the first time in days when Jesus agreed and they began making their way toward his home. As they walked, the crowd who had been gathered outside of Matthew’s house moved with them. Jairus felt impatient at their slow progress. In Luke’s account of the incident, the word /sunpnigo/ which means to throttle or to choke is used (SDA commentary). This means that “Jesus was surrounded by a crowd so thick that His progress was, literally, ‘choked.’ He could hardly move.” Jairus tensely tried to hurry them forward and was frustrated by their slow progress. He felt like he wanted to scream when Jesus abruptly stopped and looked around at the crowd asking who had touched him. “Who had touched Him?” Jairus had been bumped and crowded against the whole way and Jesus was asking who touched Him? Jairus waited impatiently in the stillness that followed quietly echoing the disciples’ words in his own mind. Why was Jesus’ distracted by this silliness when Jairus’ daughter’s life hung in the balance? Then, to Jairus’ shock a woman stepped forward. Maybe Jairus knew this woman and her story. Jairus was momentarily distracted as he heard the woman claim that just touching the fringe of Jesus’ garment had healed her.
Jairus’ heart lifted again upon seeing this healing accomplished without Jesus even doing anything apparent. He heard Jesus’ words that the woman had been healed by her faith in Jesus, and Jairus’ own faith rose. However, it was soon to be dashed in the next second when he heard the horrible words that his daughter had died from one of his own friends who he had left behind in the house. “While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler’s house came and said, “Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the Teacher any more.” But Jesus on hearing this answered him, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well.” (Luke 8:49-50). Jairus heard Jesus telling him to have faith, and his daughter would live. At that moment, Jairus had a choice. Would he believe what he had always believed or would he trust that Jesus’ words were true? Jairus was converted on this day. When faced with the choice of believing the world’s reality and believing Jesus’ words, Jairus chose the path of hope; he chose to believe Jesus. His faith arrived before the healing, not after.
(Application) My application for myself is that I need to trust Jesus’ words even when my reality contradicts those words. Jesus has the ability to change the rules that govern my life and bypass the world’s ways. Jesus keeps His promises and does not give up or get distracted in the middle of His workings in my life. Jesus will stay with me and not abandon me. He will not get tired of my slowness and will work with me to build the faith that I need to remain connected to Him and healed.
(Understanding the Text) The SDA commentary points out the importance of the “only daughter” aspect of this situation. For the Jews the death of an only child meant the possible death of the family itself. “The Israelites considered it a tragedy for a family to become extinct (see on Deut. 25:6).” When I studied about Mary and Joseph, there was the idea that Mary might have been the last of her line and her marriage to Joseph adopted him in as heir to her line. (That idea was put forward to explain the differences in lineages of Jesus in the gospels.) Anyway, if true, it would be another example of how important it was for a family lineage to be saved in the Hebrew culture. The little girl was twelve, so in twelve years of trying Jairus had received no other children. It was unlikely (although not impossible) that Jairus would have more children with his wife. Yes, Jairus loved his daughter dearly and may not have even been thinking of this aspect, but other Jews upon seeing the miracle would have seen a double miracle. Not only had Jesus raised a little girl from the dead, but he had saved Jairus’ family line.
According to the SDA commentary using the Desire of Ages as a source, the woman with the issue of blood had first tried to reach Jesus at the seashore but missed Him there. Upon asking around, she learned that he was going to Matthew’s house, so she hurried there as fast as she could, but again missed catching Him before He went inside. This was partially because her disease had made her so weak and anemic that she had little strength to hurry. She could not get into Matthew’s house to see Jesus, so she waited outside with the crowd for Jesus to exit the house.
I imagine that one of the reasons that they chose to eat at Matthew’s house was because he had servants who could keep the crowds away. Peter’s house had already proven insecure to people who wanted to enter, but as a tax collector, Matthew had needed a secure place where those who hated him like the sicarii could not reach him. Matthew may have planned this feast partly so that his Master would have a place of rest and peace for a short time.
(Revelation of God) The woman was not the only one healed in this manner, but she may have been the first. “And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. And when the men of that place recognized him, they sent around to all that region and brought to him all who were sick and implored him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.” (Matthew 14:34-36). It was important for Jesus to make sure the woman and those around Him understood that it was her faith in Him and not some magic inherent in His clothing that had healed her. Even today, we seem to want to make God into magic instead of into the Person that we have to have a relationship with. We hold up a cross and say get back to evil like it is a talisman. We say “in the name of Jesus get back” to evil without actually praying to Jesus that He will get rid of the evil. Many Christians treat the name of Jesus like the sons of Sceva did in Acts instead of actually communicating with Jesus. It is important that we understand that we are not doing magic. We are operating in faith that God is powerful and can do miraculous things and will do what He has promised.
The SDA commentary points out the irony that the “touch that brought healing to the woman would be considered by the rabbis to have brought ritual uncleanness upon Christ.” Sometimes, when I read passages condemning the Pharisee’s nitpickiness about this kind of thing, I sort of side with the Pharisees in that Jesus Himself had given the rules in Deuteronomy and Leviticus about being ritually unclean. The problem is not, however, with the original rules. It is with how the Pharisees had taken guidelines that were for health and welfare to the extreme and negated other rules like loving each other with these guidelines. They had taken perfectly good rules and made them into burdens overriding the more important rules for the less important rules.
(Prayer) I want faith in You to trust You even before I see You act, but my faith is weak. The hurts that the world inflicts and the distortion of my ideas interfere with my faith in You. Give me faith and teach me to trust You always.