In Our Broken Places

All right, well, good morning, everybody. I am excited and intimidated all at the same time. I feel like I’ve had this word, and then the intimidation comes — to be able to effectively communicate what I felt like the Lord has placed on my heart. So I’m excited. And as I was praying, I’m like, “Lord, I pray that it’s not just my words, but that Your words would be spoken today.” And so would we just prepare ourselves to receive from the Lord together?

Why don’t we see it today?

So we’ve been in the series God With Us, and today’s message is God With Us in Our Broken Places. Last week, as Jay was speaking, I wrote down this question. I just said, “How were there so many blind, sick, lame people who were healed? So many demonically oppressed? Why not today?” And then I put Luke 7:19–22, so I could remember what I was talking about, or the reference for the question.

And so I did what any sensible person in our congregation should know to do if you have a question: I went to Pastor Larry. And I said, “Pastor Larry, I have a question for you.” As we read the text, and we read about the story of Jesus and how He ministered, there were crowds of people who would come to Him and they would receive healing. How many times do we read that there were demonized people who were set free, and lame people, and blind people? What was it about that time?

And as we were having this conversation, I was reminded of an opportunity I had to go visit North Africa. When I was in North Africa, in this region, to this day there were men who were blind, who were in this blind community, and they were outside of a temple, and they were singing and praying — not to God — and waiting for their healing. And that’s what they do every day. They come to this place, and because they’re still considered unclean, they stand there and they chant and they pray, and they’re waiting for the receiving of their healing.

And I continue to think, you know, when we read through Scripture, we see that, right? The man who was at the gate Beautiful — people brought him there. There were people who would gather by the pool of Bethesda, and they were waiting for the springs to come so that they could receive healing. So this was a common practice, where the people who were the outcasts of society gathered together, right?

And today in our culture, there are so many reasons why maybe we don’t see that — in Western American culture, why don’t we see that? It doesn’t mean there’s a lack of it, right? It’s not that there’s a lack of sickness, a lack of these things, a lack of people who are spiritually in bondage. It’s all present today. But in our culture today, we go to different places. It’s more culturally acceptable to be sick, to be blind, to be deaf. It’s more culturally acceptable to have disabilities, and it’s received with inclusion — being inclusive and welcomed.

And so today, as I was pondering that — last week, I was sitting there, and I thought the Lord reminded me of this place in Scripture. And so I told Jay, “Hey, I got next week.” Little did I know, when I said I got next week, that like half of this city would get sick. I had already been fighting something, and so I just kind of chuckled, like, “Of course, of all weeks that I would call that I have, it would be this week,” where I was just laying in bed for a couple days. But it gave me time to really ponder and meditate on this place of Scripture we’re going to be going to today.

You know, in our culture today, we look for ways to solve our problems, instead of allowing Jesus to be our Good Shepherd and lead us into our healing and our wholeness. So many times, instead of leaning into Jesus as our only option, we have option A, B, C, and D, right? And then maybe even E and F. And we have all of these things — and not only do we have these options, we have different variations of things that you can do.

I even think — by this point on Friday, my head was pounding. It was clearly in my sinuses, whatever it was, and I desperately went to the doctor. And he said, “Well, why don’t you try some Flonase and some Sudafed and some Advil or Tylenol to help with your headache?” Right? He was giving me all these varying options, and I was at a place of desperation. I said, “Just give me whatever you need. I just need this to go away. What three combinations do I need to do to make this sinus pressure just disappear?” Right?

We can have so many variations and so many options, and that’s just a simple, uncomplicated place — the sinus filled with yuckiness — that there are all these options. And yet in our own complexity of our lives and where we find ourselves, we take the same approach: What variation can I get to get through this place of suffering fast? What variation, so I don’t have to walk through the hard place of being healed, or experiencing His healing? How can I just get through this quickly? How can I escape from the pain of what I’m feeling?

Pain in our culture is not tolerated. We don’t want it, right? We have all these self-help things, all these things that can make us better. And yet when we look at the life of Jesus, we see that suffering was included in it — that part of being a follower of Jesus means that things aren’t going to just magically disappear, that there is a process and an invitation that He has for all of us.

And so today, would you just journey with me on one of the most un-Christmasy Christmas messages that still talks about Christmas, as we journey through together and see how God with us in our broken places was very much His plan from the beginning of time, and was a prophetic word given before He was even on the scene — that He is really Emmanuel, God with us.

Would you join me in prayer? Heavenly Father, we just thank You so much. We’ve declared that You are the King of kings, that You are worthy of all of our praise. Lord, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your Scripture, that it is alive and living. So, Lord, we open our hearts to receive a word from You today. Lord, we put all distractions aside. Lord, I pray that our hearts would be open, and our hearts would be ready to receive the Word with gladness. But, Lord, that even at the end our hearts would be covered, and the seed would not be stolen from us, but it would bear much fruit in our life. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.

A sign for a broken king

All right. So, God With Us in Our Broken Places. We’re going to turn, if you have your Bibles, with me to Matthew chapter 1. Matthew chapter 1. And we’re going to look at this scripture that is the timely scripture.

“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth to you a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.’ So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is translated, ‘God with us.’ Then Joseph arose from sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus.”

So here we are. It’s a familiar scripture, right? If people are following along, or doing an Advent reading plan, we hear this, and we’ll hear it again on Christmas Day — this proclamation of this promise. But when we go back, what you don’t want to miss is it says, right in the midst of all of this, that this was done that there would be a fulfillment of the word spoken by the Lord through the prophet Isaiah.

So we’re going to turn to Isaiah chapter 7. Isaiah chapter 7. Like I said, we’re going to be journeying together. Isaiah chapter 7 — I should have marked them in my Bible. Is it up there? Jay is like, “Get with technology.” Isaiah chapter 7, verse 10.

In the midst of this — we’re going to give you some context — Isaiah has just heard from the Lord, and the Lord has asked him to be a prophet. And in the scripture before, Isaiah agrees: “Okay, I’m going to be Your prophet.” And now the Lord sends Isaiah to go and give this word to a king. And in the midst of this encounter, what we see is that the king maybe lacked faith, or maybe was even in rebellion, turning away from God, as many kings had done before. And I say that in the king’s own brokenness, in the midst of what is being said, Isaiah says something that seems almost out of place. Okay, let’s see what he says.

“Moreover the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, ‘Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.’ But Ahaz said, ‘I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!’”

Now, that can sound, if we’re reading it, like, “Oh, I’m never going to test God.” But that wasn’t his intention. He wasn’t saying, “Oh, I dare not test God.” No — there was a place where he said, “No, I’m not testing God,” and there was a very different delineation in how he was communicating to the prophet Isaiah.

And then Isaiah goes on to say, “Then he said, ‘Hear now, O house of David!’” He’s calling back into remembrance who he is: “Oh, remember, you house of David.” “Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”

Here, in the midst of this king’s brokenness, the prophet Isaiah speaks a word, and it seems completely out of context. He goes on to talk a little bit about who Jesus will be, and then he goes on to talk about their destruction and what will happen. But in the midst of this king’s brokenness, he proclaims something. He proclaims that a Son will be born, and His name will not just be any name. It will be a name that implies the very thing of what He will do: Emmanuel, God with us. In the broken place of this king, he’s beginning to declare that God is with us, even in our broken places.

The first promise: God with us

So we see that Emmanuel, God with us, literally means that Jesus’ physical presence was evidence to humanity that God desired to be near to us. Just think about that. His name carried the promise of what God wanted to do, and His action of being here on earth proclaimed the prophecy as true, saying, “I am God. I am God with you, and I am present with you today.”

Jesus’ presence — and the way Jesus was present and engaged with people. He sat with them. He visited. He saw those who were unseen. Why? Because He was Emmanuel, God with us.

The first point in this is that the proclamation of who Jesus would be proclaimed that God is with us — a promise that sets a tone for God’s desire to be in restored relationship with His people in the midst of their broken places. It’s the first proclamation of who the Savior would be. It could have been anything. It could have been, “He will be the One who saves” — all the attributes that could have been proclaimed in that place of Isaiah. And the one place the Lord decided to proclaim is that God would be with us. First, it wasn’t that He would come with judgment. It wasn’t that He would come to heal. It was that He wanted to be near to us. Is that not good? That’s the first proclamation of Jesus. We read later in Isaiah where he talks about all the things that Jesus will do, but the first place is that He wants to be in our presence.

You know, there’s a common phrase — and I remember this story. I was helping our youth, when Jay and I were youth pastors, and we were writing prayers for them. I think one week we had talked about things that they were struggling with, and then Jay and I were going and writing prayers that they could pray over themselves — trying to teach them how to pray. And I remember showing them to my father-in-law, and he challenged me with this. In the prayer I remember it saying, “God, be with so-and-so.” And I remember in that moment he said, “Suzie, God is always with us.”

And how many times have we ever prayed, “God, be with me, be with me”? The heart of it is, “God, let me sense Your presence.” But God is always with us — in our broken places, in our uncertainty, in our places where we are excelling. God is always with us. That was the first promise ever given about Him.

And my hope is that we would be awakened to the presence — that He is all around us. That we would be awakened to the presence — that He is speaking with us. That we would be awakened to understand that He is with us in our coming and our going and our sleeping, in our running around. He is always with us. And that’s the first promise that we need to remember. We don’t need to come and beg, “God, be with me, be with me.” He is with you. Would we be people who would walk with a confidence and a boldness, knowing His promise is in His name — that He is with us wherever we go?

Jairus at His feet

We see in Luke chapter 8 — and this is going to be our main scripture today — Luke chapter 8. And let me tell you, Luke chapter 8 is a full chapter. I mean, you have all of this that’s happening in Luke chapter 8. It’s jam-packed with God’s goodness and nearness. In the beginning of chapter 8, it’s talking about how the women were with Jesus — and these weren’t just any women. These were women who had been set free from the oppression in their life. And then Jesus is with a crowd of people, and He’s talking to them about how to hear and receive. And then He’s with His disciples. And we could have continued on about God’s nearness in brokenness. All of a sudden He crosses over, and He has this encounter with this deeply, deeply oppressed and possessed man that has all of these spirits in him, and Jesus is near him in his brokenness, and he experiences freedom. So chapter 8 of Luke is just so good. So good. But we’re going to look at one little part of chapter 8: Luke chapter 8, verses 40 through 56.

Now, we’re going to have me read again, and clearly I’m struggling a little bit today with reading, but just bear with me. You can read on that screen. I think I might need bigger text — that actually might be the problem. I think it’s time for either a set of readers or bigger text in my Bible. That could be half of my issue right now, the fact that this is a little small, and instead of reading like this, I’m trying to read from here.

“So it was, when Jesus returned, that the multitude welcomed Him, for they were all waiting for Him.”

Just think about that. When I read Scripture, I like to try to picture in my mind what was happening and the different players as I’m reading, because it helps the Scripture come alive. It helps me ask questions. We have to be reading Scripture and asking questions. That’s how we get to know Him. That’s why I’m asking, like, “Larry, there seems to be a discrepancy between what I’m reading and what I’m experiencing,” right? I’m asking a question. So read — close your eyes, envision it, I don’t care what you do — just get into it, because Scripture is alive.

Okay, so here they are. Jesus returned to them, and there was a multitude that welcomed Him, that were waiting for Him. “And behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. And he fell down at Jesus’ feet and begged Him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter about twelve years of age, and she was dying. But as He went, the multitudes thronged Him.”

So here’s what’s happening. Here’s a man — and if it’s in Scripture, it’s worth taking a note — we see that here comes Jairus. He’s part of the synagogue. Now, what’s interesting is there was a lot of speculation about Jesus’ authority to teach — Jesus’ authority and the placement that He had, what He should and shouldn’t be doing. I’m sure they were talking about Him. They were questioning Him. But here comes this man who isn’t just any man. It’s not just a man who has a daughter. It says he’s a ruler in the synagogue. So this is a man of authority, and this is a man whom what he’s about to do might just cost his position and his placement.

So here he comes, and not only does he come to Jesus, but he comes to Jesus and he falls at His feet. He falls at His feet, and he begins to beg, and he says, “I have a daughter who’s twelve, who is dying.” Now, two things that are interesting about this: it’s his daughter, and she’s twelve, and she’s dying. Okay, those are three things we want to remember in this.

So then they go. Now, if you’re reading in Mark, it talks about how they journey. And as they’re journeying through this throng of people — a throng is a lot of people, right? So just think about this. Jesus is walking in the midst of all of these people. They’re pressing up against Him. He’s not just casually walking and talking. No, He’s on a journey. He’s on a mission. He’s with this ruler. So maybe this ruler had people with him. I just kind of think of the biggest celebrity you can think of — there are just throngs of people, so maybe he’s inaccessible. And He’s walking, and as He’s walking, Jesus is with these people. Is that an accurate statement? He’s in with people. Jesus is walking in His authority and power, and there are tons of people around Him.

The woman who touched His hem

And all of a sudden, in the midst of all of this: “Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped.”

I’m right now getting choked up thinking about this, because I want us to not miss this. I want us to catch what is happening here. Here’s a woman who has an issue of blood for how many years? Twelve years. Here’s a woman with an issue of blood for twelve years. She probably is unmarried, doesn’t have a family. She’s an outcast in society, because we know from the Old Testament and Jewish customs, if there were any bodily fluids or blood, you were untouchable. You were unclean. You were to be out in a different area. If someone touched you, they had to go through a ritual of getting clean. So here is just a whole bunch of situations happening at once, to say the least. In fact, I was reading that many priests wouldn’t even touch women, because they would not know if she was unclean.

So here’s a woman who’s going through this, and I just picture in my mind these two different stories that are happening, and both levels of desperation that they’re having. And both of them are near and present — they’re near God, the God who was with us, the Emmanuel. And in the midst of that, all of these other people are there too, who are near Emmanuel, God with us.

And there’s something that profoundly happens. I am sure — because I read Scripture, and I think this is maybe a safe assumption to say — there were probably people around Him who were sick, who were lame, who needed His healing. What makes me think that? When I read in Scripture, there were many people who gathered who were sick, who were lame, who needed His healing. So why would this be any different? There are people who are waiting for Him. So what was so special about this moment?

So in this moment, this woman does something that is already uncustomary, and she touches just the hem. And I have to think of this: as she’s touching the hem, she’s not up; she’s not walking. I just see this in my mind — and maybe I’m making it more than what it is, and maybe I’ve just encountered too many desperate situations. Even during worship I was like, “Lord, I need You in this place” — something I was praying about in worship, if that makes sense. And I just feel this level of desperation. So I just see her doing what she can, and she catches the hem of His robe, which is long — the bottom. That means her posture is one of what? Coming back down to His feet. Is that not the same posture that Jairus took?

She comes in this level of desperation. She’s tried everything. She’s paid all of what she has, and all she wants is to be healed. “And Jesus said, ‘Who touched Me?’ When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, ‘Master, the multitudes throng and press You, and You say, “Who touched Me?”’ But Jesus said, ‘Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me.’ Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately. And He said to her, ‘Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you well. Go in peace.’”

From outcast to daughter

Let me tell you what He did in that moment. She goes from being a woman with an issue of blood to being called adopted, and daughter. Think about it. In that moment, in front of all of these people — now remember, we have Jairus, who’s still there watching. He’s still up close, seeing what’s happening. And what is he wanting? He’s needing healing. He’s desperate for healing for his daughter, who has a father who will contend for her, who is contending for her healing. But here’s a woman, desperate, who has been in twelve years of desperation, and Jesus in a moment not only heals her — He brings her into His family and says, “You have a rightful place with Me.” And the first words that are out of His mouth are “Daughter.”

Let it not be lost on us that our heavenly Father calls us sons and daughters — not because of anything we can do, but because of our rightful place in His kingdom. When it was proclaimed that Emmanuel, God, would be with us, it was because He was looking to bring those people who were outcasts into His family. Adoption is one of the most beautiful things, because it says, “I choose you.”

And in that moment Jesus declares, “Woman, you are now My daughter, and I choose you. You are no longer an outcast. You are no longer defined by the things that have defined you for so long. Now I call you a new name.” And that new name comes with a new heritage. That new name comes with a new authority. That new name comes with a new legacy. “Daughter, you are well. And not only are you well — go in peace. Go and be freed. Go, because everything that you have come looking for, you have received.”

See, would we be people who, at all costs, at any level of desperation — that we wouldn’t even wait to let that level of desperation happen, but we would be people that would say, “God, I need You before my situation gets desperate. I need You”? Because, granted, when we look at the timeline of things, Jesus wasn’t doing these things for her twelve years, but she had been doing a lot of stuff on her own. I think too many times we’re satisfied with all the things we can do on our own. We are satisfied with all of the things that the world has to offer us, and we’ve actually not contended out of desperation, just to say, “Jesus, if I can just touch the hem.”

And we know now that we don’t need to be beggars. We know now that we don’t have to be people who throw ourselves down out of desperation, but we can come boldly into the throne room and say, “Heavenly Father, You’ve already called me daughter. You’ve already called me healed. You’ve already called me Your own. You’ve already given me the authority to walk in, and so I come in that authority. I come in that relationship — that You are mine and I am Yours.”

See, we have not experienced that level of desperation, and people are okay with spending thousands and thousands and hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars to try to figure out life’s answers. And here’s what the woman figured out: there’s only one answer, and that answer is Jesus. “I don’t know how He’s going to do it. I don’t know what it’s going to look like. I’m going to go to the one answer.” And when she went for the one answer, not only did that prayer get answered, but she got even more than what she could ask for, which was a new name. And it wasn’t just any name. It was one that says, “Now I am your Father. Now you know the Father.” Because that’s what Jesus had been talking about, right? “When you speak to Me, you speak to My Father. What I say is what I hear Him saying.” So immediately there was restoration, and the words and the prophetic proclamation of Emmanuel, God with us, was immediately put into action in that moment.

You guys, I don’t know about you, okay, but I actually remember the first time I read this scripture. I was on a plane. I don’t have my phone with me, but I have a note of the very day. I was headed probably to California — I don’t know. And I was sitting on the plane, and I was reading the scripture, and I read this portion, and all of a sudden, on an airplane where there is not much space, I began sobbing. I began weeping, because I realized that all of those places that were broken in me, all of those places of rejection — that in a moment the Lord said, “You are My daughter. It doesn’t matter what anyone else calls you. It doesn’t matter what anyone else says to you. You come to Me for your healing. You come to Me for Me to resolve things. You come to Me, because I am your heavenly Father.”

I remember that moment, that I had that revelation. This is one of those scriptures where I had that revelation so deeply — that I was no longer rejected, that I was no longer being judged by man. I mean, I could be — I guess in theory people could be judging me; that’s actually accurate — but the Lord began to say, “That doesn’t matter. Look to Me.”

And in that moment — just think about this — this woman, with boldness and courage, when she realizes that she cannot hide, she stands there, and with trembling and fear begins to proclaim: “It was me. Not only was it me, but I was unclean. Not only was I unclean — I’ve been having this issue of blood.” And just think about the ruckus, the chaos — let your mind just wander for a little bit. There were all these people who had now touched her. There were all these people who had now been exposed to her. And in her vulnerability, in her honesty, and in her courage, Jesus says this thing: “Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”

When we allow Jesus into our broken places, He calls us out by who we are, not what we’ve done. Again, she goes from being a woman with an issue of blood to Him calling her His daughter. He sees the past. He knows those places. And He invites us, saying, “Just be near to Me, because I want to be near to you.”

And I just think about the shame and the condemnation. We are now in a culture that wants to create a life that looks a certain way, right? I took a picture, and I was like, “I don’t like that angle.” I took another picture, and then it’s like, “I still don’t like that.” And then I took another picture — right? Because I wasn’t quite getting the right angle. We believe for some reason that these markers are the markers. And all He’s saying is, “I want to be with you in your broken places. I want to make those broken places whole.”

We’ve got to stop looking around. Will you, like the woman with the issue of blood, just come near? He knows you. You know, the hope that I — as I was praying, I was like, “Lord, it took twelve years, and You did it.” Twelve years. Do I have the faith to contend for places to break through for twelve years? Do I have the faith to say that You will do it, that You are the only answer?

Because we’re in a family, and this isn’t just any family. In this family, our Father is the Creator of the universe, and He calls us His. We serve a God who literally is the author and finisher of our faith. Just think about that. We serve a God where it says in Hebrews that Jesus is the author and the finisher of our faith. And don’t we see it with this woman? He rewrites her story and gives her the faith to go on and live in a way. He changes the narrative of our story. And it’s not so that we’re just looking like projects He can fix. No, He’s just saying, “Just come to Me, and I will address what needs to be addressed, and I will rewrite the places that need to be rewritten. You don’t need to do it. I’m the author and the finisher of your faith.”

It says in Psalms that He’s written our days in the book of life. There’s vision and hope and dreams He has for each one of us. And somehow we allow these other things to become our identity, instead of resting in the identity of being His son and daughter — son and daughter to the One who was with us. We don’t need to beg. We don’t need to perform. We don’t need to do all these things for His attention.

It’s in our humility that we need to position ourselves to encounter freedom for the places that we’re navigating. It’s in humility. We see this in both places. We see Jairus, who comes, and the first thing he does is he throws himself — he doesn’t curtsy; he doesn’t bow — he throws himself at the feet of Jesus. We see a woman who’s bending and doing everything she can. So, in her humility, instead of letting shame and condemnation be the steps and the thoughts in her mind that dictate her encounter with Jesus — she knows. She knows. She knows that this is her moment of freedom. This is her moment for healing. She didn’t hide. And when she was exposed, in her humility she spoke out in courage. And as only our beautiful, beautiful Savior does, He covers her immediately in those moments.

And then Jairus. Jairus — do you know what it means? Anyone, by any chance? Ironic — not ironic that you don’t know. Ironic what his name means. Jairus means “to walk in the light.” Just think about this. His name means to walk in the light.

Now, when I named my kids, I named them with intentionality. I named them because I wanted that when I said their names — we’ve said this before — we’d be proclaiming a truth over them. And there have been many times I’ve been corrected in how I say my kids’ names, because, I mean, I’m human, right? But there have been times that I’m like, “I can speak their names, and when I speak their name, it is a promise of God.” I didn’t want anything trendy. I mean, trendy would have been cool. I really wanted to name my daughter Fiona. Fiona was my name for her. Jay was like, “We’re not doing it.” And I said — because Fiona means fair-skinned — I said, “If she’s born light-skinned, I’m going to push you on this.” My sweet girl was born with dark hair, olive skin, and brown eyes, and so Fiona was out the window. And I’m sure she and everyone else is saying, “Thank goodness Fiona’s out the window.” But that was the only half-trendy name that I was kind of looking at for my kids. I wanted their names to be something that — and this is no condemnation; this is just for me — when I said their name, I would speak truth and life over them.

So I found it interesting that, of all people, Jairus’ name was “to walk in the light.” Because here is a man who was a ruler of a synagogue, and his life up to that point had not been — I mean, it wasn’t like he was a bad man. He was studying Scripture. But he wasn’t actually walking fully in the light until this moment. And not only is he walking in the light from the revelation he receives — he gets to walk with the Light. Just think about this. I can’t make this stuff up. When I read that, I was like, “He got to walk with the Light.” Someone whose name meant to walk in the light walks side by side with the Light. And not only that — this prophetic proclamation is what happens in his life.

Little girl, arise

We’re going to continue on this story. So now there’s this beautiful moment that’s happening, at least for the woman and Jesus, right? And I keep kind of seeing chaos — I just see it all kind of happening — but Jesus is locked in. Locked in with His daughter.

“While He was still speaking, someone came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house, saying to him, ‘Your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the Teacher.’” She’s dead; just leave Him. “But when Jesus heard it, He answered him, saying, ‘Do not be afraid; only believe, and she will be made well.’ When He came into the house, He permitted no one to go in except Peter, James, and John, and the father and mother of the girl. Now all wept and mourned for her; but He said, ‘Do not weep; she is not dead, but sleeping.’”

Now, in that time, the custom was, when someone had died, there were professional mourners. Can you believe there were professional mourners who would come, and they would cry, and they would lament for the family? So just think about the time frame. These people were already there. They were already lamenting. They were already mourning, right? If I would have dug further, maybe I could have figured out how far she lived — walking time — because they weren’t in cars. They weren’t just hopping on and going. There was time to all of this. There was time for them to get there. There was time from the ruler’s house to get to where Jairus and Jesus were.

And Jesus says — now He’s like, “Clear out, everyone. Clear out. You guys go outside.” Not just outside — go out. And what I think is interesting is He calls His inner circle and the mother and father into this room. So the mourners, of all people — they ridiculed Jesus, which I think is funny. But we all do that, right? When I read this, I’m not like, “Shame on you.” There are times I’m like, “Lord, why are You doing it that way? What is going on?” I can get such a saucy attitude with Him sometimes. He knows what He’s doing. Can I just trust and lean? But here are these mourners who are ridiculing Him because of what He’s saying. So they ridiculed Him, knowing that she was dead. But He put them all outside. That’s what we need to do with our thoughts sometimes — the ones that don’t line up: “You’re going outside.” Put them all outside.

“He took her by the hand and called, saying, ‘Little girl, arise.’ Then her spirit returned, and she arose immediately. And He commanded that she be given something to eat.” Praise the Lord — the first thing after healing comes is, “Now feed her.” “And her parents were astonished, but He charged them to tell no one what had happened.”

Let me tell you, Jesus was doing many things for a crowd, but this one He did sacredly, for the family. See, so many times we want the crowd and the miracles and signs and this and that, and this awe and wonder. And yet He calls them to this beautiful, intimate moment — for Jairus, whose name means to walk in the light; for his wife, the mother who’s devastated at the loss; for these disciples who were a part of His inner circle, and who would go on to be the ones who proclaimed the good news after Jesus would ascend to heaven. He calls them all closely in, and He performs this miracle. And then He says this: “Don’t go tell anyone.” “I don’t need the fame. I’m not doing it so I can get more followers.” This was Jesus, the One who was sent to people, and He’s saying, “Keep this between us.”

Because some moments in our life are not for everyone else. Some moments in our life are to be met in the intimate places of the Lord, so that we can be propelled forward when the time is right, so that we can be fortified in a way that keeps us moving forward in faith, because we know the things He’s done in secret.

You know, we read in Scripture that whatever is done in the dark will be brought to light — and you can read that depending on whatever mood you’re in, in any tone you want to read it in, right? If I’m having a rough day: “Oh no, what have I done?” Or: “Lord, You see the depths and the deep parts of my heart that cry out to You, and I trust that what needs to come to light will come to light.”

In this beautiful moment, where Jesus could have maybe had more people who would have followed Him — and all of those people who ridiculed Him — He says, “Now go and say no more.” He wasn’t really interested in correcting anybody or making it right. If the mourners were there and the girl walks out, clearly they’re going to see what has happened. But He says, “Go and tell no one.” Which is interesting, because when you read earlier in the chapter, the man with the many demons in him actually says, “Can I go with You?” And He says, “No — go tell your friends. Go tell everyone what you’ve just encountered.” So just a few scriptures before, Jesus is saying, “Go proclaim what you’ve just encountered,” and now at the end He’s saying, “No, this is for us. This was for My children. This is just for the intimate” — so you would know that Emmanuel has been with you.

The invitation: come as you are

You know, the invitation and the promise for Him to be near us is always there. It says in Scripture, “Draw near to the Lord, and He will draw near to you.” He is with us. I believe in the promise of Him being near us in our brokenness, and that there’s an invitation that we would walk with Him and experience His moving, power, and authority — not just for ourselves — but that we would be patient while we wait for the things in our life that are not yet, and move and contend for things to happen mightily in other people’s lives.

You know, Jairus, the man whose name is “to walk in the light,” gets to see this full circle. He sees the restoration that’s happening with the woman. Meanwhile, at that moment — and I can’t even imagine the gut-drop feeling of what it felt like to hear those words. And Jesus says, “No, let’s go. Have faith.” See, Jairus was invited to walk and contend for the things that he was believing for, while also seeing it happen for someone else.

I believe — I believe, I believe, I believe with all of my heart — that that is our invitation today: that the first words that were proclaimed about Jesus were that He was Emmanuel, God with us, and that we would carry that message — that wherever we go, He is with us. We don’t need to beg. He wants to bring wholeness to those places that are broken. We all have broken places. Sorry — you do. I know you think you have it together. But we have someone who’s called the author and finisher of our faith for a reason — not because we’re a project, but because He loves us so much. He would say, “Would you just come to know Me in a greater way?”

That’s the invitation. That was the invitation to the woman when He said “Daughter.” The invitation was, “Come know Me intimately.” And the invitation when He’s sitting in that room is, “Now you’ve just encountered Me intimately. What are you going to do with it?” That’s the God we serve. That’s what we’re celebrating this Christmas: that Emmanuel, God with us, came in an unlikely way, through an unlikely person, ultimately for unlikely people.

And in those places He says, “I see you. I know you.” He knows the deep cries of our heart. He knows this place is a disappointment — “I just talked to Him about it,” because I’m like, “You know, Lord.” And the invitation is, “I am with you. You don’t need to beg. Would you trust Me? Would you trust Me in this place?”

I believe the invitation today for all of us is that we would be people of courage, and that we would stand up and say, “Lord, I know everything I’ve tried to obtain without You is not worth anything compared to what I can obtain with You.” We don’t need to run the hamster wheel anymore. He’s just saying, “Come.” That’s the invitation, literally, for today, as we’re entering this Christmas season: “Come as you are, and experience My goodness, and experience My love.”

You know, the woman with the issue of blood — I think she got to a point that said, “I’ve tried everything on my own. Everything. I’ve tried everything on my own.” I’m sure Jairus had tried everything on his own. They both were there, and they both said, “I surrender to You. I surrender to Your ways. I surrender to Your lordship. I surrender to what You have, because You are all that I need.”

And that’s my heart and prayer: that we would come to know it is Him that we need, that we would keep our eyes on Him. And as we keep our eyes on Him, there are going to be times that it’s going to feel a little nerve-wracking — a little bit like that woman who was exposed. We might shake a little bit as we’re speaking. But just know He calls you sons and daughters. We’re part of His family. And sometimes when we think about family, we all have our own experiences with it. But His family is one that started with a proclamation: “I’m sending someone who’ll be with you.” So we’re never alone.

Transcribed from the message recording and lightly edited for reading.