The Struggle in Waiting, Pt. 2

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When was the last time you stood in a line that wasn’t moving? Maybe you were in line at the pharmacy, the DMV, or stuck in traffic. That kind of waiting is frustrating, But. Pastor Nick Gatzke walks us through a much harder kind of waiting––the kind where the stakes are high, and God seems silent.

Another desperate person comes into the scene. Verse 25 tells us about her. It says, “There was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years and who had suffered much under many physicians and it’s been all that she had and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, ‘If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.’ And immediately, It says the flow of blood dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed from her disease.” Jairus had just gotten what he wanted. Jesus was on the way back home with him.

But then everything came to a grinding stop. The unnamed woman was an outcast in society. She was the opposite of Jairus. Jairus was one of the elite. She was one of the ostracized. Jairus was rich. She was poor. Jairus had a family. She had no one. And in her desperation, her state is just as severe as his. Waiting on God. implies developing a new perspective on what God is doing while we wait on him. 12 years, potions and magic tricks. Verse 26 says “she suffered much under the hands of the physicians.” She’s exhausted all the options.

She’s got no money left. And so this woman, like Jairus, is desperate. She broke all the ceremonial law. She entered the crowd. She pushed her way through, presumably making a bunch of people unclean along the way. And she brushed up against the side of his cloak and she was healed. And the blood dried up within her. And it all happened so quickly. And Jesus’s hasty walk with Jairus comes to a complete stop. Verse 30 says that “Jesus perceived that power had gone out of him.” This is the same power that stilled the storm. It was the same power that cast out the demons into the swine. It was the same power that healed many, many, many before this woman. The power had left. He felt it. Disciples are confused because they don’t feel the power of Jesus leaving his body. So they’re like, well, why are you asking who touched me? Of course, they’re all touching you. That’s the point of why they’re here. Dozens were pressed in at that time. But in that moment, the woman knew that she needed to make herself known. And so in trembling and fear, she came to Jesus. And in verse 34, we see the point of the interaction. He says to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease.” made her well. Not her initiative, her faith, not her action of reaching out to grab his cloak. No, her faith, as meager as it was, made her well. And that’s really interesting because this faith was incredibly simple. I mean, this was naive in some ways. It was uninformed. Her faith didn’t understand the details of who Jesus was. It was in some way a mere hope based on a guy that she had heard about that was secured through a magic trick like an action of touching his cloak.

But the object of her faith was the person of Jesus himself. And that tells us something. That faith or a life of faith is marked by this kind of desperate dependence. on Jesus.

And the Lord still works that way today. Sometimes people feel like they can’t come to God because they don’t know enough about him. Or sometimes people don’t come to church because they feel like they don’t have all their stuff together. Or they don’t come to church because they’re scared their kids might not sit still in the service.

A couple weeks ago, I had a conversation with a young couple who professes faith in Jesus. And we were… were asking if I would officiate their wedding. And so I was describing premarital counseling and the process that we do to try to help young men and women grow into a godly marriage and therefore serve the Lord and be healthy in their marriage for the rest of their life. And at one point, one of them stopped and asked a question and they said, you know, I really don’t know anything about theology. Is that going to be a problem? And it was a great opportunity to explain that you don’t need to have it all figured out, to come to Jesus. But you do want to grow in understanding of what it means to follow him.

You see, you don’t need to have an advanced understanding to have faith that pleases God. I’m going to say it again because it’s very important. You don’t need to have an advanced understanding to have faith that pleases God. It can be simple. It can be desperate. It can be lacking certain understanding. Even children who have no categories to even begin to think about the eternal trinity or the nature of sacrificial atonement can have faith that is simple, in a savior, Jesus Christ.

Adults who have never read their Bible before but know that they have a need can have faith in a savior who will indeed save them. Even an unclean, hemorrhaging Jewish woman who just heard about Jesus exercises faith and Jesus makes her well. A life of faith is marked by a desperate dependence. On Jesus. At this point, you can almost feel the tension that Jairus must have had. Don’t stop. Don’t stop walking. Keep going. Who cares who touched you? There’s everybody’s touching you. My daughter might have only minutes left to live. Don’t stop. And you can almost hear Jesus reassuring him. Just wait. It’ll be fine. Be patient. We’ll get there. And the moments must have felt like ours. Jairus’s own faith had just been lifted. He just witnessed the miracle of Jesus with this woman, the very thing that he wanted for his own daughter. Maybe he really can heal her, he’s thinking. He thought, but we need to hurry up and we need to go right now. And just then he was informed of the very thing that he feared the most had come to pass.

Verse 35, “while he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house someone who said, ‘Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any longer?’

But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe.’”

The woman had just believed that Jesus would heal her, and he did. Jairus was now in the struggle to believe. And upon seeing the healing, there was a glimmer of hope and a kindling of some type of belief. But now he is called not just to have faith that Jesus could heal. He is called to have faith that Jesus could perform a resurrection from the dead. I know you think I’m late. Do not fear. Just believe. I know what you just saw. You know what you just saw.

A woman who has been unclean and isolated for over a decade has just been publicly healed and restored for everyone to see. I know you’re nervous, but I’m never late. Do not fear. Just believe. Keep believing. Keep believing in the agonizing weight, in that type of agonizing weight, and the lack of results in my timing or your timing, that’s when your faith is tested the most. Is it really genuine faith or not? And Jesus says, keep believing.

Henri Nouwen was an author, and before his death, he wrote a book called Sabbatical Journeys. He writes about some friends of his who were trapeze artists. That’d be kind of cool, to have friends who are trapeze artists. They were called the Flying Rodellas. And they told Nouwen that there’s a special relationship between the flyer and the catcher on the trapeze. The flyer is the one, as you might imagine, who lets go. And the catcher is the one who snatches them out of the air. And as the flyer swings high above the crowd in the trash piece, the moment comes when he must let go. He arcs out into the air, and his job in that moment is to remain as still as possible and wait, and wait for the strong hands of the catcher to pluck him out of the air. And one of the flying Rodellas told Nouwen, the flyer must never try, to catch the catcher. The flyer must wait in absolute trust, and the catcher will catch him, but he must wait.

The girl is dead, and Jesus goes to the house anyway. He takes Peter, James, and John with Jairus to his house, and as they approach, they can hear the wailing from the distance. The morning party is already there, didn’t take long. And Jairus’s faith is holding on by a thread, but he still believes. Jesus rebukes the mourners by telling them that she’s just sleeping and they laugh at him. They know what a dead body looks like. They know what a dead body feels like. They know what a dead body smells like. The girl is dead. But Jesus wasn’t talking about physical death because true and lasting final death is a separation from God. And this girl was not separated from God. God was right there.

And so her dead body was asleep. But Jesus was going to bring her back to life. And he enters the chamber where the body lay. And here the tenderness of the Savior shines ever more brightly. He was tender when Jairus approached him, a guy who had stood against him, or at least his clan had. He was tender and healing and restoring the woman in the streets.

But now he looks at a little girl and he sits beside her on her bed and he gently grabs her hand and he says to her, “Talitha Kumi.”

Talitha is a pet name. It literally means little lamb. It would be like calling your daughter sweetheart or honey. Some of you might call your daughter little one or maybe even little lamb. You know, sometimes our children, like all children, have a hard time waking up for school in the morning, especially this time of year when you’re in the new rhythm and habit of things. And it’s one thing for me or for my wife to walk out into the hallway and yell, it’s time to get up, which we do sometimes. And it’s another thing to sit at their bedside, to run your fingers through their hair, and to say softly, sweetie, it’s time to get up for school. Both are effective, but only one of them is exceedingly tender. And our Savior is tender with those who are desperate, and he’s tender with those who need him.

You see, the woman had waited a very, very long time to be healed of the bleeding issue. And she experienced a great separation as a result. And she must have felt like she was forgotten by God at times as she cried out to him. But God would not be rushed. His timing was perfect. And the tender Savior could have just let her touch the cloak and disappear into the crowd. And she would have been healed. But that’s not what he did. He called out and he made her go public. Why? He did so because the fact that she was made clean would then be made known by everybody who witnessed it so she would no longer be isolated. He did so. He made her go public so that she and that all others would know that it was faith that made her well. What a loving type of restoration from Jesus.

Jairus felt like the wait was long. He surely must have thought that Jesus had forgotten his daughter. He must have tried to rush him, but to no avail. And then she died. But Jesus’s timing was perfect. And his actions were so tender and loving and helping the father. See the need for faith. He emboldened his faith all the more as he said lovingly, little lamb, it’s time to get up. And her heart started to race and she gave a light, happy moan as children do when they wake up and her fingers pressed, ever so slightly, and she gave one last tight squeeze of her eyelids, and she opened her eyes, and a smile came over her face. Jesus would not be rushed. And why would you rush someone who had that kind of perfect, tender, loving plan for those who exercised faith?

You see, a life of faith is marked by desperate dependence on Jesus. And you might even be able to say that in the reverse. A dependence on Jesus, a dependence on Jesus leads to a life of faith. Because he has authority over all illnesses, because he has authority over winds and waves of legions of demons, even death, you can trust his timing. Some of you have been waiting for a very long time. You have been praying for a family member. Maybe you’re waiting for physical relief. or longing for comfort in the midst of loneliness, or you’re trying to be patient, you’re trying to be patient, but the wait is so hard, keep depending on Jesus in faith. You know, there are some people who are willing to seek Jesus for the smaller things in life, but when it comes to the most important thing, the biggest thing, the need for forgiveness of sin and to be restored to God forever, you struggle.

And you’re reminded here, Acts 4:12, “There is salvation in no one else. There’s no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” And the opportunity for you is to become completely dependent on Jesus in faith. There are some people who trust Jesus for the most important thing, but struggle to trust him in the daily and most basic needs of life. And these accounts remind you of patience and trust and waiting in your daily dependence. And still there are some who are angry, asking God, why did you allow this to happen? And why are you making me wait? How could this happen to me? This is a thing that happens to other people, not to me. And if he doesn’t fix it right now, then I’m not gonna believe in him. I’m not gonna follow him. And for you, The reminder is that perhaps God is doing something that you can’t see and you will not understand until much later, until your desperation leads to dependence. He is never late. He’s never early. Do not fear, just believe.

So what is Jesus like? He is the one who ushers in the kingdom of God. He is the one who is the king. He is the one with all power and authority over all things. And he is loving and kind and tender. He functions on his time, not my time and not your time. And he’s mighty to save again and again and again. And so you can trust him. You can depend upon him. And in your hours of deepest desperation, you can run to him. A life of faith is marked by a dependence on Jesus. And it is my prayer that your life would be marked by that kind of faith and that kind of dependence.

Let’s pray. Father, we recognize today that the wait is so hard. Help us to depend upon your son as we wait. Father, we recognize that the feelings of desperation are profound and painful and difficult. Help us today, God, in our desperation to run to the right person, to your son, Jesus. Father, we recognize for some of us that the feelings of apathy have overcome us, and we don’t even see the ways that we’re supposed to be desperate. And today we ask, God, that you would allow us to feel the right desperation in the right time. And Father, today we ask that you would continue to bolster our faith in this King, your Son, who is all-powerful and is infinitely loving and tender and kind. Help us to trust him. Help us to wait on him. Help us to see him for who he is as he delivers us in our greatest need. We pray in his mighty name. Amen.

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** This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy, but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.