Study Guide

Jesus is Never Late

An Orderly Account:

Encountering Jesus in the Gospel of Luke

Luke 8:40-56

Introduction:

I love being able to share my location from my phone. Have you ever tried it? It sends a miniature map to anyone you want and in the center of that map is a little blue dot representing your location. As you move, the dot moves, allowing friends of family to track your position.

That way, they don’t have to wonder and guess where you are. If you hit traffic, they’ll be able to see it. If they were expecting you at one time, but now you’re delayed, they’ll know.

Each Summer our family travels 13.5 hours with a bunch of friends to a Camp in New York, and several of us share our location because we all begin the trip at different times and use different routes. So, we’re all watching one another’s maps, as these little blue dots all snake their way to Camp.

Orient Towards the Main Idea

Now, wouldn’t it be great, if Jesus shared his location with you; if at all times you knew where he was, what he was doing, and when you could expect him to show up? Have you ever wondered if he gets delayed or distracted?

In Luke 8, Jesus is travelling around, and everyone is tracking his location. Everywhere he goes, a crowd is waiting. He’s bombarded with needs from every side, and we’re forced to ask, “What happens when Jesus is delayed”.

So many people need him. He’s always being asked for something. We might even wonder, “Does he really listen to me and my needs? Are my needs important enough for him? What if he doesn’t get to my needs on time?”

This passage teaches us that:

1. Jesus is Never Indifferent
2. Jesus is Never Too Busy
3. Jesus is Never Too Late

Friend, Jesus Christ is a compassionate healer— who will listen to every request we make. Who is never too busy to help, and who will heal all of our sicknesses. He will raise us up even out of death. And as we’ll see today, his “delays,” aren’t really delays.

The Text

⁴⁰ Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him…

1. Jesus is Never Indifferent

Jesus has just returned from the region of the Gerasene to Capernaum, and big surprise: a crowd is waiting. Have you noticed that everywhere Jesus went, a crowd formed? He’s always on call. Needy people constantly approach him. And the same happens here:

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,

Consider the dire situation this man is in: his daughter who is twelve is dying. Notice, as well, it’s his only daughter. You understand his urgency.

Though he is a respected man, a ruler of the synagogue, he humbles himself, falls down at the feet of Jesus, and begs him to come. He’s urging. His need is dire. No one else can help. Jesus is his only hope. He throws his social status to the wind.

Now consider how imperfect this man’s faith is. He thinks Jesus has to come to his house. We know better. We know that Jesus can merely speak a word and the girl will be healed. This man is a ruler in the synagogue. His view of God’s power is so small, so weak.

But does Jesus condemn him? Does he tell him to go away and study and come back when he has a better understanding? Does he scold the man for having weak faith? No!

The truth is that Jesus could have found a thousand valid reasons for not helping this man. He could find a thousand valid reasons for not hearing us. But over and over again in the gospels, weak, stupid, ignorant and needy people reach out to Jesus begging him for help—and he never once ignores, rejects, or is indifferent to their pain.

What a marvel this story is. Here is the eternal Son of the Father; the Word through whom the worlds were made, the Voice which upholds the universe. The reason the galaxies hold together instead of spinning off into chaos is a person—who chose to come in our likeness, walk dirty roads, and listen to the pleas of men like Jairus.

Friend, if Jesus Christ was this compassionate in his earthly ministry, how much more compassionate is he now in risen and ascended reign at the right hand of the Father in heaven?

If he was willing to listen to the pleas of a helpless father 2,000 years ago, how much more willing is he to listen to the prayers of his people today?

Decades ago, whenever I had a problem, I would use a search engine to find solutions and answers. In the last year, I open up an AI Chat. It’s always there, always able to listen. It never gets tired of the dumb things I ask it. Whenever I can’t figure something out, my instant reaction is, “Ask AI.”

Friend, you have someone ready to listen to you who is infinitely wiser, more powerful, and whose heart is nothing but goodness and truth—who is not nor will he ever be indifferent to you.

I wonder, when your heart is heavy, is your instant reaction to pray—to run to Jesus? Are you weighed down simply because you are trying to carry all of your mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical burdens on your own? You don’t have to. Jesus welcomes and invites you to unburden yourself in his presence. Philippians 4:6 says:

do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Are you anxious? Go to him like Jairus. Fall down at his feet. F.B. Meyer once said there is no burden of the spirit but is lighter by kneeling under it. He will not despise you. He will not turn you away. He is not indifferent to your pain.

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
that soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no, never, no, never forsake.

2. Jesus is Never Too Busy

As Jesus went, the crowd follows with him, and here comes an interruption, a delay, a detour.

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. (v. 43)

On the one hand, we ought to sympathize with this woman’s suffering. Because of the issue of blood, this woman has been ceremonially unclean for over a decade according to the law of Moses. She has bankrupted herself going from physician to physicians. She is an object of pity. Yet, on the other hand, consider the urgency of Jairus’ daughter. Here is a 12-year-old girl who is on death’s doorstep. And here is a woman who, though pitiful, has survived these 12 years.

No doubt she isn’t trying to delay him. She doesn’t ask him to stop. She does not call out to him. She simply wants to touch the fringe of his garment. And the moment she does, the issue of blood ceased; healing floods into her body.

And here’s the shock: it’s not so much the woman who causes the delay. It’s Jesus. She doesn’t stop him. He stops himself.

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.” (v. 45)

It’s rather ironic because Jesus can apparently heal without being asked, but he doesn’t know who he healed. Now, if you or I are on our way to help a dying girl, we don’t stop to interrogate a large crowd about who touched us. You can imagine someone looking at Jairus, then looking back at Jesus sand saying, “Why does it matter! We have to go!”

When I was in college, I served as an aid to famous Christian apologist as he spoke at a conference. So I drove him to and from the hotel, introduced him during his talks, and helped him navigate the crowds. And let me tell you, I thought I was pretty important. After his keynote lecture a long line formed to greet him. He was scheduled to shoot a video and I knew the long line would make him late. So, I, being the genius I am, stepped in and said, “Folks, I’m sorry, but we have a video shoot to get to.” And at that moment, he looked at me and said, “Actually, Jonathan, what I need to do is greet these people who came to see me.” I still have nightmares about that moment.

You see, I thought this man was too busy to be bothered. But he understood that people mattered far more than a video.

When Jesus stops the crowd to ask who touched him—he understood there was someone in the crowd who needed not only his power, but his love and compassion.

⁴⁷ 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.

She was too afraid to bother him, and that’s precisely the reason he allowed himself to be bothered.

Jesus Christ is never too busy for you. Because he is the fully divine Son, it is no trouble for him to attend to every prayer at once. And because he is the fully human son of Mary, he is able to sympathize with our suffering. In him is united exalted power and humble meekness.

Why would you not go to him? Do you think your problems to small? Do you think him to important? He called the littlest children to come sit on his lap. Will he not have time for you? If your Father in heaven feeds the birds of the air, and if he waters the grass with rain—the grass that will be cut down tomorrow—then is any problem of yours too small to bring him?

Do you think he will despise you for your weakness and neediness? Do you think he will roll his eyes at your lack of strength? The Puritan Richard Sibbes said, “As a mother is tenderest toward the most diseases and weakest child, so does Christ most mercifully incline to the weakest.”

Jesus is never too busy. Finally…

3. Jesus is Never Too Late

⁴⁹ 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.”

From a human perspective, it appeared that Jesus was too late. The delay came with a fatal cost.

⁵⁰ But Jesus on hearing this answered him, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well.”

They came to the house, Jesus goes into a room full of mourners, and says, “Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.”

⁵³ And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead.

Laugh here is a word that means they derided him. They jeered. They’re insulted at his apparent insensitivity. How can he come into this room and sat something so callous?

⁵⁴ But taking her by the hand he called, saying, “Child, arise.” ⁵⁵ And her spirit returned, and she got up at once.

Jesus sits by the little girl, takes her by the hand, and says two things to her. The first is talitha. Literally, it means “little girl,” but it’s actually a pet name. It’s like a mother saying, “Honey.” The second thing he says is cumi, meaning arise. He doesn’t say, “I command you to be resurrected!” He says, “Honey, wake up.”

Jesus is facing the strongest most fearful enemy of the human race: death, and his power is so great that he holds her hand and lifts her up through the grave as if he’s waking her from a nap.

Jesus is saying, by his actions, “If I have you by the hand, death itself is nothing but sleep.”

Now listen, he’s never too late. He can raise the dead. And whether a little girl died 5 minutes ago or 500 years ago makes no difference to him.

In Revelation 1:17, the risen Christ says:

“Fear not, I am the first and the last, ¹⁸ and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

Jesus Christ didn’t die so that we wouldn’t die. He died and was raised that we might be raised with him. He died that our sin, which separates us from God might die. He died that disease and the curse might die.

And because he is raised, he’s never late. O, he may not answer our prayers how or when we want. Are you trying to hurry him? Are you impatient with the waiting? Let him take you by the hand, let him do with you what he wants to do. He loves you completely, and he is glorifying his name in all that he does.

And soon it will be time to wake up.