WWUTT 2361 Jesus Heals a Woman and Raises a Girl from the Dead (Luke 8:40-56)

Jesus Heals a Woman and Raises a Girl from the Dead

Jesus healed a woman with a hemorrhage of blood and raised a little girl from the dead. Some interesting comparisons and contrasts between these two, but all to show us the power of Christ and the grace of God when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it. Visit our website at www .wutt .com.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the gospel according to Luke, we're finishing up chapter 8 today with Jesus healing a woman with a hemorrhage and raising a girl from the dead. Let me begin reading here in verse 40 and I'll go to the end of the chapter, verse 56.

Hear the word of the Lord. 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 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. 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. And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him except Peter and John and James, and the father and mother of the child.

And all were weeping and mourning for her. But he said, Do not weep, for she is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But taking her by the hand, he called, saying, Child, arise.

And her spirit returned, and she got up at once, and he directed that something should be given her to eat. And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened. Now there are some interesting parallels going on between these two accounts.

Notice that the little girl is how old? She's 12 years old, right? And how long has it been that this woman has had this hemorrhage of blood? She's had it for 12 years. So she's had it for just as long as this little girl has been alive.

Also, they're both referred to as daughters. The 12-year-old girl, of course, Jairus' daughter, and the woman Jesus refers to as daughter. Your faith has made you well go in peace. And just as he says to the woman, your faith has made you well, so he says to the girl's parents, only believe and she will be well.

But there are also some contrasts going on here as well. The woman believed. She touched the fringe of Jesus' garment, and she was healed. The daughter did not believe, could not believe. She was dead.

So there's no faith for her to exercise in this scenario, that she would be made well and brought back to life. This is showing the power of God and the grace of God through Jesus Christ over this little.

Girl.

Jesus tells the parents, do not fear, only believe and she will be well, but we're not given any indication as to what their state of belief was at that point. It does seem to be that the people had this suspicion that Jesus was unable to help her at this point because she was dead, hence why someone came to him and said, your daughter's.

Dead.

Don't trouble the teacher anymore. So this is beyond his ability now. That was kind of the opinion of the people. And we don't have any reason to believe that the mother or father thought any different.

They were amazed when the girl was brought back to life. So this is simply by the grace of God that he gives this girl life, it brings her back to life and gives her to her parents because God showed compassion on them.

And for us, when we are brought from death to life, it's not by any work that we have done, but the work of Christ in us. We'll consider that further as we go here. So back to verse 40, when Jesus returned, okay, now there is a kind of some bookending verses here on this particular narrative.

In verse 40, when Jesus returned, and then in verse 56, Jesus charged the girl's parents to tell no one what had happened. Now, why are these two verses? Why would that be considered bookends? Because remember where Jesus has come from.

What we had just read, the last account that we read, was Jesus healing the man with the demon legion or the demons legion, I guess you could call it that. Jesus was at the country of the Gerasenes. He was on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee.

He was in heathen territory among the Gentiles, and now he's come back among the Jews. So hence that statement in verse 40, Jesus returned and the crowd welcomed him. So now he's back among the Jews, but because he's among the Jews, the reaction to the miracle that Jesus performs is different than the response that he gave to the man who had the demons cast out of him.

He told the man, go back to your home and declare how much God has done for you. So Jesus is telling the man, go spread the word that you who were once demon possessed have been healed. And it said at the end of that account, the man went away proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

But here at the end of verse 56, the parents were amazed, but Jesus charges them to tell no one what had happened. So that's quite the contrast to what we had read in the exorcism, the casting out of legion.

Jesus is now back in an area where there are political ramifications to what it is that he is doing. The Pharisees want to put him to death and they will try to influence the Romans to do that because they couldn't do it on their own.

They have to they have to get Roman approval. So Jesus had to be careful with what he did and what was said to others about what it was that he did, because his time had not yet come. It was it was not yet time for him to go to his death to fulfill all that he had been sent to accomplish.

So hence why he closes that miracle by telling the parents to not tell anybody what had happened. It's also noted here that only Peter, James and John were with him. And of course, they become eyewitnesses to this, which becomes told about later.

So back to verse 40, once again, Jesus returned, the crowds welcome him for they were all waiting for him. And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. Now, the last time Jesus was with a ruler from the synagogue, like like a ruler could be either a lawyer, it could be a Pharisee or a Sadducee.

Any of these persons would be thought of as rulers of the synagogue. It could also be a person who was like the caretaker of the synagogue. So this is the person who oversees all of the activities. He may not be part of the Sanhedrin himself, but but these different authority persons could fall into that category of ruler.

So he being a ruler of the synagogue, this is different than the last time Jesus was with a ruler of the synagogue with a Pharisee, which was at the end of chapter seven. Remember, there was a Pharisee that had invited Jesus to come and eat at his house.

And there was a woman who came and anointed Jesus while he sat there and ate. And the Pharisee was appalled by this. And so Jesus rebuked him and gave him a lesson there. The man was very self-righteous.

And here in this particular occasion, Jairus is very humbled before Jesus. He throws himself down before him at Jesus' feet and implores him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter about 12 years of age and she was dying.

So Jesus agrees. He decides to go, just like the account that we read previously with with Jesus healing the centurion servant, he agrees to go to the centurion's home. So here Jesus is going. The people pressed around him.

Remember, this is a whole crowd. Jesus returned. The crowd welcomed him. So you have a whole crowd of people that is around Jesus pressing in on him. And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years.

A lot of different assumptions are made as to what this discharge could have been. It's not necessary for us to know the details about that. Just that she has been hemorrhaging blood for 12 years. This is a very serious illness.

Blood does not seem to clot. It doesn't seem to stop up the wound. She has just been continually bleeding for that long. But it is a slow enough bleed that she's not dying from loss of blood. It's still an absolutely miserable situation, for not only would it have been constantly messy, a wound that needed to constantly be cleaned and bandages changed and things like this.

But this also makes the woman unclean. And there are a lot of public activities and religious activities that she can't do because she's considered an unclean person. So for these 12 years has not only been dealing with the pain and other side effects from this blood loss that she has, but she's also been separated and removed from other people.

She has had to keep her distance because of her uncleanness. But in this particular situation, she's willing to risk it so that she can get close to Jesus and touch him, for she knows this is her only chance.

She's had this discharge of blood for 12 years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. So she's paid all this money out to all these doctors to the point that at least according to what Luke tells us here, she's broke now.

She has paid all her living on physicians and can't seem to stop her constant bleeding. You know, even reading this, it makes me think of those snake oil salesman health and wealth preachers that will encourage people to sow a seed.

If you sow a seed and give us this much amount, God will bless you. The more you give, the more blessing that you will get by God. And you read accounts of people who are sick and ill and pleading and needing, and they and they are willing to give up entire life savings, paying thousands upon thousands, tens of thousands, even an entire inheritance, giving it all to this health and wealth preacher, believing that if I give it to him.

Then I am going to be healed and I am going to be saved. And of course, we know that never works, that never turns out to be the outcome, no matter how much money they're willing to give, that is not enough to heal.

And of course, these snake oil salesman health and wealth preachers, they make all kinds of money, they get pretty fat and wealthy and don't feel a tinge of guilt about it at all, that they are manipulating people and preying upon them and taking entire life savings only to deliver back to them nothing in return.

Now, I'm not saying here that these physicians that this woman paid for were all quacks, they probably were serious doctors, she's willing to find the best in order to stop her bleeding, but all the money that she has given has not been enough.

So another parallel between these two, this daughter who is dying and this woman who has this hemorrhage of blood, neither one of them can help themselves and no man can help them. No person can help them.

Both in both instances, in the daughter's instance and in this woman's instance, they are completely at the mercy of God. This is this woman's last chance, I've got to get close to the healer and I have to be able to touch him.

And verse 44, she came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment and immediately her discharge of blood ceased immediately, it ceased. That's another parallel, by the way, the moment she touches Jesus garment, she is immediately healed that very moment.

And when Jesus takes the hand of the little girl and tells her to arise, it says that she got up at once. So again, immediately in both of these instances, this woman is healed right away. Jesus tells the girl to get up, she gets up right away.

You'll have a lot of charismatics today claim to be working miracles and they never work that immediately, do they? So here the woman has been healed, having just touched the fringe of his garment and immediately her discharge ceases.

And Jesus said, verse 45, who was it that touched me? And when all denied it, Peter said, Master, the crowd surrounds you and are pressing it on you. I mean, the the implication that Peter is making here is like, what do you mean who touched you?

There's people all over the place. You're being crowded in upon. We're all pressed in here by all these people. Of course, somebody touched you. But Jesus said to him, someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.

Now, this isn't anything mystic, right? This isn't something like like Jesus was at about 90 percent power and now it feels like he's at 86. My power meter has drained a little bit. That's not what Jesus is referring to.

He just simply knows that something has happened. Someone merely touched him out of faith that by touching him, I will be healed. And he has since that that has taken place, he has felt that with the Holy Spirit upon him, whatever that would have felt like.

He knows it has occurred. And so explain specifically someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me. And here at this point, Jesus is looking for her. So verse forty seven, the woman saw that she was not hidden and 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.

Now, her coming to Jesus trembling. This is kind of like the people at the garrisons who saw the the man who had been possessed by Legion when he was clothed in in his right mind, he had the demons exercised out of him and the people were afraid of this and they asked Jesus to leave their region.

So they had fear as well. But it was a different kind of fear. The fear that the woman is displaying here, this is exactly the kind of fear that we should have, that we humble ourselves and come trembling in reverence before God.

That's the way the people at the garrison should have responded with that kind of reverent fear. And so the woman explains what she had done and what the result had been and what is Jesus response to her.

Verse forty eight, he said, Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. And again, the contrast between the woman and the girl is that the woman has faith. The girl can't have faith. She's dead.

But we see in both occasions how we need to have faith. But it's still God, by his mercy, who heals and saves. So going on in verse forty nine, while he was still speaking, someone from the ruler's house came and said, your daughter is dead.

Do not trouble the teacher anymore. So we're coming back to the action of Jesus going to Jairus's house to heal his daughter. And it seems to be that because of this situation that happened. With the woman touching Jesus and then him having to stop and talk to her, however long that exchange would have taken place, the narrative seems to indicate that the girl died because Jesus was helping this other woman while he was still speaking.

Someone from the ruler's house came and said, it's too late now. She's dead. So don't bother the teacher with this. He doesn't need to come now. And again, as I said, it's like the people think this is now beyond Jesus ability.

He can heal, but she's not even sick anymore. She's dead. Can he really raise the dead? And that's what Jesus is going to demonstrate. So verse 50, but Jesus, on hearing this, answered him, do not fear, only believe and she will be well.

And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him except Peter and John and James and the father and the mother of the child. So you have the six of them in the room with the girl on the bed.

And verse 52, all were weeping and mourning for her. But he said, do not weep, for she is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him knowing that she was dead. This is absurd. What is he talking about?

She's sleeping. And it's important that Luke includes that part because the people know how to check someone for life signs. They know whether a person's dead or not. And this girl is dead. Enough time has transpired with Jesus coming to the house and and stopping to talk to this other woman and the servant coming and saying, don't trouble the teacher anymore because your daughter is dead.

Enough time has transpired here where the people have been able to pick up. She's gone. Her spirit is not with her anymore. But Jesus, ignoring them, verse 54, took her by the hand and he called, saying, child.

Arise.

Man, I so love that Luke phrased it that way. He took her by the hand and called. You know, it wasn't that long ago we were in the parable of the sower. That was in chapter eight, wasn't it? Yeah, that was that was right at the beginning of chapter eight.

It's been a few weeks that we've been in chapter eight. But in the parable of the sower, you had a contrast between effectual calling and external calling. External calling is the call of the gospel that everyone hears who hears the gospel.

Whether a person comes to faith or not, when the evangelist preaches the gospel, when the preacher preaches, when, you know, whoever the missionary, whoever it is that sharing the gospel, when they speak it, that's the external call of the gospel.

And everybody who hears that message hears that external call. But the effectual call is when the Holy Spirit penetrates a person's heart to understand it, makes them born again, brings the dead back to life so that previously their ears, which were dead, are now open to hear and they receive it and believe.

And that's exactly what was demonstrated in the parable of the sower with the good soil. The good soil, the word falls upon the good soil and it produces a harvest. The person receives the message with joy.

And so here we have this phrase that Jesus calls to the dead girl. Just as the Holy Spirit calls to us when we are dead in our sins and our transgressions. And taking her by the hand, he called, saying, child, arise.

And her spirit returned. And so that effectual calling of the Holy Spirit, when we hear the gospel and we're able to hear it and understand it, it's the spirit coming to us, which has to happen first before we believe the gospel.

The spirit does something transforming in our dead hearts, bringing our dead hearts back to life so that we can hear the gospel and believe and we are saved. And so her spirit returned, indicating again that her soul was gone from her body.

She was dead. But now Jesus raising her back to life, her spirit returned and she got up at once and he directed that something should be given her to eat, because this is going to be the sign that she's fine and all is well when she eats.

We'll see at the end of Luke's gospel, Jesus eating with his disciples after he comes back again from the grave. This shows to them, I'm not a ghost. I'm right here. I can eat with you. I can eat substance.

I'm not a spirit. And so it shows again that everything is back to normal. Everything is fine when she can even eat. And this is not a ghost. She is right here alive in the presence of her parents. And verse 56, her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened.

Now, again, there's political reasons there. The time was not yet right for Jesus to be arrested and therefore be crucified. So he charges them not to tell anybody what had happened. But when we have been changed by the Holy Spirit in this way, and we have been brought from death to life, we must tell everybody.

For it is only by faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ that a person is saved, justified before God and is given the promise of everlasting life. And so these are the comparisons that we have between these two accounts.

Jairus's daughter, who died and was raised from the dead, and this woman who was bleeding and believed and she was saved. God is going to act by his mercy, by his own compassion, as said in Romans nine, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.

But we still must believe. God is the one who acts first, he is the one who brings the dead back to life and we must believe in Jesus Christ and in so believing we are healed from our sins and our transgressions and the death which clings to us.

All of that defeated, raised to life by the grace of God. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here and I pray that it would be a reminder to us of the healer and the savior whom we worship.

He is the one who forgives us our sins, who who heals us of our wounds when we come to him and ask for grace and he is the one also that brings the dead back to life. And so God, may we walk in the life of Christ that we have been given and do so pursuing holiness today until we join our savior in glory.

It's in Jesus name we pray.

Amen.

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