Desperate Faith

3/11/25 Bible Thought (Luke 8)

One of my favorite sayings is, “Desperate times call for desperate measures.” I find people get incredibly inventive when they’re in a pickle and come up with all sorts of crazy ideas to get themselves out of it. Others, however, will use this logic to break the rules. Regardless, when times get desperate enough it changes how people behave. We’ll see a good example of this in Luke 8 today.

Faith is a common thread that is woven throughout much of this chapter. In the parable of the sower, those on the good soil hear the word and hold it fast (Lk. 8:15) which requires faith. Jesus’ disciples panic during a storm and after Jesus stills the storm, He responds, “Where is your faith?” (Lk. 8:25). After Jesus delivers the man with the legion of demons, the people in the land of the Gerasenes ask Him to leave because they had great fear and apparently not great faith (Lk. 8:37). Then, we come to two stories that are paired together at the end of the chapter.

Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue has an only daughter who is dying. He comes to Jesus at his wits’ end, in faith, imploring Jesus to come to his house (Lk. 8:41). Apparently, he had seen enough of Jesus’ works or heard enough about them that he believed. He knew his only hope was Jesus the Christ, the miracle-worker. Despite being a ruler of the synagogue in a position of prominence, he humbly casts himself at Jesus’ feet with a plea for help. Desperate times called not for desperate measures, but a desperate faith.

Jesus agrees and they depart, heading out to find the sick girl. But in the midst of this story, and in the midst of a great crowd, another sick girl comes on the scene. We have a daughter who is 12 years old and dying, and now we have a woman who has been effectively dying for 12 years. She’s suffered with a blood discharge that would’ve rendered her ceremonially unclean according to the Jewish law (Lev. 15:19-27).

She was an outcast. She was poor. She had tried everything. Now, she sees the Son of God walking with a great crowd. She presses through the crowd making everyone unclean on the way, for she believed with a desperate faith, that if she could merely touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, she would be better. No physician could help, but when Jesus is touched by her, power comes out from Him, and she is healed. The story concludes with Jesus pronouncing, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace” (Lk. 8:48).

Just then, after this wonderful miracle, bad news comes that the 12-year-old daughter of Jairus has passed away. He need not, “Trouble the Teacher any more” (Lk. 8:49). The hindrance of the great crowd and this woman who pushed through it had delayed them too long. It was hopeless. His daughter was gone. Healing the sick was one thing, but raising the dead was an entirely different category of miracle. Who knows how Jairus must have felt and how his faith might have wavered. Nevertheless, upon hearing this, the Lord Jesus says, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well” (Lk. 8:50). Jesus continues to the house, takes his inner circle of three disciples inside and raises the girl from the dead.

Earlier, a bunch of faithless disciples cried out when they were perishing at sea. They were without hope. They had the Lord Jesus, God-incarnate, in their boat with them, but they had no faith. But Jairus had faith, even when his daughter had actually perished. The woman who pressed through the crowd had faith. Their desperation drove them to Jesus’ feet with a desperate faith. They knew that He could do anything. There was no problem too big for Him to solve. There was no infirmity too great for Him to heal. But for the disciples, there apparently was a storm too big for Him to still.

Where do we go when we get desperate, and life’s troubles abound? Do desperate times call for desperate measures, or desperate faith? Will we cast ourselves humbly at the Lord Jesus’ feet in our times of need, acknowledging that nothing is too hard for Him? Will we believe when we can’t see? Will we believe when we’ve tried everything else, and it hasn’t worked? Jairus discovered that Jesus was far greater than he’d ever imagined, and the woman found that Jesus was the only solution to her problem. What does our faith in the Lord Jesus look like today?