Preaching

‘The Two Daughters’

Taken from Luke 8: 41-56 A man came up to Jesus whose name was Jairus He fell at Jesus’ feet and begged him to come to his home because his twelve-year-old daughter, his only child, was dying. Jesus went with him, making his way through the pushing, jostling crowd.

In the crowd that day there was a woman who for twelve years had been afflicted with constant bleeding. She had spent every penny she had on doctors but not one had been able to help her. She slipped in from behind and touched the edge of Jesus’ robe. At that very moment the bleeding stopped.

Jesus said, “Who touched me?” When no one stepped forward, Peter said, “But Master, we’ve got crowds of people on our hands. Dozens have touched you.” Jesus insisted, “Someone touched me. I felt power go out from me.” When the woman realised that she couldn’t remain hidden, she knelt trembling before him. In front of all the people, she blurted out her story—of why she touched him and how at that same moment she was healed. Jesus said, ‘Daughter your faith has made you whole go in peace’

While he was still talking, someone from the Jairus’ house came up and told him, “Your daughter died. No need now to bother the Teacher.” Jesus overheard and said, “Don’t be upset. Just trust me and everything will be all right.”

Jesus went to the house took the dead child’s hand and said, “My dear child, get up.” She was up in an instant, up and breathing again! He told them to give her something to eat, her parents were ecstatic.

In this story found in Luke 8 Jesus is delayed from going to the little girl who is dying by a woman who needs healing, then Jesus is informed of the little girl’s death and understandably Jairus, the girl’s dad, is distraught. Jesus though, is not fazed by this news and continues to Jairus’ house where Jesus reaches out and takes Jairus’ daughter by the hand and life once again floods through her body

The story features two daughters: one, a woman who is slowly dying of her bleeding, the other, the little girl who is, dead. One daughter has been dying for 12 years the other daughter is aged 12 years when she dies. One daughter touches Jesus and the other daughter is touched by Jesus. One daughter has faith and the other daughter is unconscious and has no faith whatsoever.

Sometimes among Christians, when someone is prayed for, for healing, and does not get healed the ill person is told the fault is theirs. They are told that their healing is blocked because they do not have enough faith or, because there is sin in their life. Yet here in tonight’s story, the greatest of miracles, that of restoring life, requires no faith whatsoever on part of the little girl. This is proof positive of the grace of God and grace’s power in itself to heal or restore, purely because of God’s undeserved favour.

No one has strong faith all the time our human nature sees to that. Where was Noah’s faith after the flood when he got drunk to drown his sorrows, Abraham is called ‘our father in faith’ yet where was Abraham’s faith when he gave Pharaoh his wife to save his own skin? Where was Jacob’s faith when he was lying through his back teeth to get his own way, where was Moses’ faith when he murdered an Egyptian and did a runner? And David, a king and a man after God’s own heart, he often went through times of sorrow and despair; we know because he poured it all out in the psalms he wrote, where was David’s faith then? In the garden of Gethsemane where was Jesus’ faith when He was desperate. Where was Jesus’ faith when he cried out, My God My God why have you forsaken me?

There is a story in the Old Testament where we can relate to the highs and lows of faith. In 1 Kings 20, we find Israel being threatened by the Syrians; the king of Israel is bricking it as he has a very small poorly equipped army compared to the Syrians. Israel’s prophet comes to the King and tells him, ‘that the Lord will give the King victory if they go and attack them,’ and they do and God is with them as the Syrians flee.

The Syrian King escapes and back home He consults his adviser Dominic Cummings who says this about Israel, “Their gods are gods of the mountains. That is why they were too strong for us. But if we fight them in the valleys, surely we will be stronger than they.” And so the King of Syria raises another army and marches out against the Israelites staying in the valley

Israel’s prophet spoke to the king of Israel, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because the Syrians think I the LORD is a god of the mountains and not a god of the valleys, I will deliver this vast army into your hands, and you will know that I am the LORD.’” That day the 7000 strong poorly equipped Israelite army put to flight a well equipped Syrian army of over 120,000. What a monumental mistake thinking that the God of Israel only helped His people up on mountains, and not down in the valleys.

In scripture Mountains refer to our peak experiences, times when we sense God’s presence strongly and our faith is strong. Valleys refer to the times when we find it hard to know God’s presence and our faith is weak, and we feel let down by God and can’t believe He is still caring for us.

CS Lewis referred to one of his valleys as being “as if God had gone away and left the phone off the hook” …..you can be desperate for His voice and you hear nothing. ometimes we can think that God is the God of our good times, but He is not there when we are going through bad times. Life, as we all know, has its ups and downs and sometimes, when we are in a particularly tough valley it feels like God has left us to face it alone. But the Lord says of those times, I am the God of the mountains and I am the God of the valleys and you will know that I am the LORD. It is when our faith is at its lowest or even feels non-existent, that we must remember that God is still God.

There are times when we’re full of faith on the mountain top and times when there’s only God’s grace to rely on when we’re down in the valley. There’s a lesson from the story of the two daughters; one child of God with the faith to reach out and another child of God with no faith and seems to be beyond reach and so we must be encouraged by tonight’s story and know whatever our circumstance or whatever we are feeling, God is still God and God still loves us and cares deeply for us.

And there will be times of faith when we will reach out and touch Jesus and there will be
times of grace when, despite how low we feel or even how angry we feel with Him, Jesus will reach out and touch us.