Week 18-A "Traffic & Tassels"

This was the topic we were originally going to cover this week. However, sensing the leading of the Lord to move on to chapter 9, we are not covering this material in our Sunday service. However, this material may still be of interest to some so we post it here.

Text: This week we’re covering Luke 8:40-56 which contains the intertwined narratives of the healing of the woman with the bleeding problem and the raising of Jairus’ daughter.

Other passages to read: There are two parallel passages in the other gospels: Matthew 9:18-26 and Mark 5:22-43. We would recommend that you read all three passages side-by-side to glean all the unique details as well as the common elements in order to see the events in 3-D…but there’s no need to duck! An Old Testament passage to read is found in Malachi 4:2.

Points to ponder: In your study this week, you might want to think about one of these questions:

• What are the common words and themes in these two intertwined healing narratives?
• Compare the raising of Jairus’ daughter to the raising of the widow’s son in Ch. 7. Are there similarities, common themes?
• What did your reading of the parallel accounts, from Matthew 9 and Mark 5, add to your understanding of these miracles? Did it raise any further questions?
• How might Luke (the physician) have felt writing 8:43?
• What does this passage add to our understanding of Jesus attitude towards women?
• Is Jesus still able to work miracles in the lives of those that put their trust in him?

Questions to ask ourselves: The following questions are intended to help us move towards greater application of what we learn about Jesus…

• What do I do when God doesn’t answer my prayers according to my timetable?
• In the midst of my own needs, am I sensitive to the needs of others?
• What do we do in our own areas of expertise when our ability and resources are not enough to bring about the desired results?
• Am I willing to ask Jesus to help me? Jairus was not shy about humbly asking, even publically begging Jesus to heal his only daughter.
• Am I willing to trust Jesus to make me well (spiritually and every other way) even when others say it is no use?

Commentary & Quotes:

[Regarding Luke 8:48] “Only now, in response to her public testimony, does Jesus commend the woman and pronounce that she is whole. Her cure was realized in the privacy and anonymity afforded by the crowds, yet… he signals that he is not content to leave her cured according to biomedical definitions only. He embraces her in the family of God by referring to her as “daughter,” thus extending kinship to her and restoring her to the larger community—not on the basis of her ancestry, but as a consequence of her active faith. Now she is not the only one who knows what God has done for her; so do the crowds gathered around Jesus. Because he has pronounced her whole, they are to receive her as one restored to her community.” (Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke (NICNT), Eerdmans, 349)

v. 40 The laymen who were rulers of the synagogue presided over the affairs of the synagogue, including organizing and teaching in synagogue services. Most of them were Pharisees. The Greek term, archisynagōgos, has been found on many inscriptions from Palestine and throughout the Roman world …The fact that Jairus … fell at Jesus’ feet demonstrates his real need and his sincerity. (ESV Study Bible)

v. 42 An only daughter: See 7:12 Jesus heals and raises daughters from the dead as well as sons.

KJV = “thronged” Same word used in 8:7 for the thorns that “choke” the wheat.

v.43 The 12 years the woman has in common with the age of the dying girl is not an accident. It is part of God’s providence in the situation. As for the desperate state of the woman, “…her hemorrhaging would also have made her ceremonially unclean, which would have cut her off from many social and religious relationships (cf. Lev. 15:25).” (ESV Study Bible) How interesting for Dr. Luke to include this part about physicians inability.

The corner of his garment: The corners of the prayer shawl are also called the “wings” See Malachi 4:2. I believe it likely that this was not a superstitious act by the woman but an act of Messianic faith.

v. 45 Why would Jesus ask? Did he really not know? [Yes, he did know…so…?]

v. 46-47 “It was good for her, indeed it was necessary for her… if she was to be received back into regular religious and social [involvement] it was necessary that her cure become a matter of public knowledge. So Jesus took steps to see that people knew what had happened.” (Morris, Luke, 175)

v. 48, 50 How would this address used for the woman have made Jairus feel?

“Jesus addresses her tenderly as Daughter, the only woman he is recorded as having addressed this way.” (Morris, Luke, 176)

“Your faith has made you well would suggest both physical and spiritual healing, for Greek sōzō can mean either “heal” or “save.” The woman’s faith in Jesus for physical healing at the same time became faith in him for salvation from sin.” (ESV-SB)

v. 50 “…she will be well (again this is Gk. sōzō, but several times in these miracle accounts it seems to mean that both physical healing and spiritual salvation have taken place).” (ESV-SB)

v. 52 Do not weep: He tells the professional mourners to stop it. He likens her death to sleep for it is not permanent and Jesus is able to raise the dead like we are able to wake sleepers.

v. 54 Taking her by the hand: “A first century reader coming upon this double story would know very well that Jesus was taking on double pollution…Jesus shares the pollution of sickness and death, but the power of his own love—and it is love, above all, that shines through these stories—turns that pollution into wholeness and hope.”(Wright, Luke for Everyone, 104-105)

Arise: Make the connection to 7:14 Leon Morris says this phrase is what her mother would said to her to wake her up in the morning. See mark 5:41 for Aramaic phrase.

v. 56 tell no one: Why? In v. 39 the delivered man was to tell everyone. What is different here? Most likely it is a concern for the girl’s needs.

 

Did you notice the common words between the two miracle narratives?

• Crowds/People
• Pressed/Pressing
• Daughter
• Twelve years
• Faith/believe
• Healed/Well

There is an amazing miracle story of God’s providence in R. Kent Hughes' commentary, Luke Vol.1 on 331-315, when his wife almost bled to death in the hospital. Also some examples of the bizarre cures for the flow of blood practiced in Jesus’ day…that the woman would most likely have suffered.