Jesus: Never Rushed, Always on Time

We see patience in full display as a crowd presses up against Jesus in Luke 8. The crowd is packed with suffering people, all hoping Jesus will replace their sorrow with joy by healing, delivering, feeding, or teaching them.

In this scene, a man named Jairus makes his way through the crowd and falls at Jesus’ feet, imploring Him to come to his house because his twelve-year-old daughter is dying, and he desperately needs Jesus to come quickly and heal her. At the same time, a woman who has had a chronic discharge of blood for twelve years approaches Jesus from behind. She has tried all other remedies and sought help from many doctors, but nothing has made a difference. Out of desperation, she reaches out and touches the fringe of Jesus’ garment, and she is healed instantly. Jesus stops in His tracks, turns around, and looks for this woman in the midst of the crowds.

The Contrast of Peter and Jesus

Peter impatiently tries to move Jesus along, saying, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” (v. 45), but Jesus continues looking for her. Finally, He sees her. Realizing she is not hidden from Him, the woman approaches Him again “and falling down before him [declares] in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed” (v. 47).

She had waited twelve years for this. Jesus is not rushed by the crowd. He isn’t swayed by the crowd’s demands or agenda. Instead, He entrusts their needs and the timing of His ministry to His heavenly Father. For the moment, connecting with this one precious woman is His work. He looks at her and blesses her, saying, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace” (v. 48). What joy she must have felt!

Jesus always arrives, and He is always on time.

By now, we may have forgotten the other person imploring Jesus for help in this scene. Jairus is still waiting for Jesus to come to his house and heal his daughter. But while Jesus is taking His time to bless the woman, someone comes from Jairus’s house to tell him that his daughter has already died. Can you imagine his devastation? Can you imagine what anguish he must have felt as his sorrow mingled with someone else’s joy? I wonder if he began to question Jesus’ intentions. I wonder if he began to question Jesus’ power. If Jesus couldn’t show up when a Messiah was needed, who could? Have you ever been in a similar situation in which you have desperately needed God’s help in a trial or temptation, but He didn’t seem to show up? I have.

Sorrow and Joy

Has your sorrow ever mingled with someone else’s joy? Mine has.

In that moment, Jesus moves His attention toward Jairus, saying, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well” (v. 50). Then He walks to Jairus’s house where He is met by yet another crowd, this one mourning for the child. Jesus says to them, “Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping” (v. 52). They laugh at Him because they know that she is dead and He is too late. God’s timing has failed them. But the next few verses finish the story in triumph. Jesus approaches the bed where the little girl is lying, holds her hand, and says, “Child, arise” (v. 54). Her spirit returns. In fact, she pops right up just as you’d expect a spunky twelve-year-old to do.

Jesus tells her parents to give her something to eat. Luke writes, “Her parents were amazed” (v. 56) and no wonder: when Jairus was waiting for Jesus to come to his house, it didn’t seem like Jesus knew what He was doing. It didn’t seem like His plan was good or His character trustworthy. But Jesus arrived at the house of mourning just in time. He took a little girl by the hand and restored a family that had been weeping one moment, and the next moment was rummaging through the pantry for the makings of a feast. Jesus always arrives, and He is always on time.