Letting Go of What We Know to Step Into the Unknown By Faith - Part 1

Have you read Luke chapter 8 recently? What a record of Jesus' ministry! We begin with a reminder of those women who accepted and believed in Jesus, who had found in Him deliverance, healing, and a glimpse of God, followed Him, and provided resources to Him, supporting His ministry. (Because of the targeted mission Jesus was sent to earth to fulfill, his adulthood did not follow the regular path of Jewish males, even though he was the firstborn son. He did not even have his own dwelling - which by age 30 would have been the norm (unless family responsibility required otherwise, of course. see Matthew 8:20.) 

Then Luke's record tells us that Jesus taught the crowds in parables - the one instant being the parable of the sower. This would have been a story that the people of that time didn't have to look up or ask about what it means to sow seeds. Planting, gardening, farming were a common routine and in generations past had found its rhythm and architecture in the Mosaic Law. Luke's account records Jesus' story parable this way: "A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.” As Jesus said this, he calls out, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” This went a little deeper than the common planting experience; I can imagine that some of those hearing Jesus' words were wrinkling their brows, squinting, or whispering the first century expression of "what is he talking about?" So when they were all together the twelve disciples asked for an explanation and Jesus explains that the seed in the story represents the Word of God and how it is received or not received by those hearing it and the consequences of each. 

Jesus is next indicating that those things that are hidden will come to light - a universal law. He follows that by a statement of 'holy' economy: "Then pay attention to how you listen; for to those who have, more will be given; and from those who do not have, even what they seem to have will be taken away."

As we travel along with Jesus compliments of Luke, Jesus' biological family tries to get His attention and draw Him away from His mission. As noted above, the modern day reader will want to take into context the norms of that day so that you can properly understand this account: Jesus is the eldest son. Joseph, His earthly father, has died. As the eldest son in Jewish culture one is to take on the role of head of household. Therefore, His family is concerned because Jesus does not follow that 'norm' in the way they think He should. His perspective is priestly and divine, but His family does not grasp why Jesus is different - even after all these years. As faithful as Jesus was to the things of the law, Jesus has a higher calling; I can imagine the inner wrestlings of Mary's spirit about this God-man firstborn son. 

Her encounter with the angel Gabriel about 30 years prior rendered a response of joy and gratefulness (Luke 1:26-56). And, perhaps, like us, three decades later after birthing several children, and still feeling the sting of her beloved husband's death, and attempting to negotiate an uneasy and uncertain existence under a burdensome authority of both the religious leadership and Rome, her memory of that amazing day could have become dampened, and the prospect of what she thought her firstborn was and why has become dim. No doubt, like so many others, she was expecting her adult Jesus to rally an army of strong Jewish men and call down the heavenly hosts for the most amazing battle to secure the land from Rome and break their oppression. But look at the men Jesus was collecting around Himself - they did not look like warriors! Her Jesus led a band of fishermen, a tax collector and businessmen, hardly the stuff of soldiers! Her Jesus performed miracles like the prophets of old, yet did not call down fire on the enemies! Her Jesus, whose life was transferred to her womb those many years ago with the promise that He would save His people is going around from town to town bringing up things from the scrolls about the Messiah and His teachings were stirring up the religious authorities! I personally think, too, that the family was ashamed of their son and sibling, and very embarrassed out of ignorance. (Do we, too, lumber under our own vision of Jesus, seeing a Jesus whose role is to bring material blessings and make our lives better by taking away all our difficulties - to defeat our enemies as it were? To listen to His words for inspiration and to feel emotionally elated, to float us with a little sunshine in our miseries, and then go back to the same struggles, weighed down by our sins and cares of this world?) 

As He would often say, Jesus must do the salvific work that His Father has given Him to do, which will require Him to lay aside some of the expectations of His family. Could not the Son of God, creator and sustainer, have provided for his family's needs when it was necessary? He was indeed their Head, but they did not understand how just yet. 

So the family arrives at the place where He is teaching and healing and they summon Him to those earthly tasks of the eldest son: "He was told, 'Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.' But He said to them, 'My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.'” In my mind's eye I can see the mixture of emotions of Jesus' family members upon hearing his statement: the siblings would have been nonplussed by Jesus' answer, and perhaps angered, or just thrown up their hands over their brother's reply; Mary possibly dismayed by her son's reply. It is worth noting at this point that Luke's accounts are often punctuated by statements of Jesus, the context of which would have been contemporary for first century observers who witnessed them first hand, and perhaps a little differently contextualized by our western minds two thousand years later. Jesus, knowing His time was limited, was teaching about the kingdom of God in the words of the prophets and by the Spirit. He was implicating Himself as the Chosen, the Anointed One foretold by the prophets who would deliver people free from their sins and would usher in a restored kingdom over which He would be king. Jesus was not dismissing His family disrespectfully but rather was sharing the good promise that because of His kingdom work, His biological family and all who accepted Him would become a part of that restored eternal kingdom and experience the true fulfillment of the prophecies concerning Him. And, that they would come to realize with a different set of emotions that they had been dwelling with the Son of the Living God and did not even know it. They had not yet received the gift of faith to understand.

The next event is crossing the lake in a boat. The Sea of Galiliee and its lakes were known for sudden storms and rough waters. Such a 'sudden' storm occurs while they crossed to get to the other side of Lake Gennesaret in the mid-to-upper part of the Sea of Galilee. A tired Jesus is asleep while the disciples man the boat during the crossing; the winds are so strong that they are tossing the boat and causing water to enter into it. The disciples panic and try to wake up Jesus during this crisis, telling Him don't you see what is going on - we're about to lose our lives! Jesus roused from sleep simply commands the winds and the raging waters to stop. Just as suddenly as they came, they left at Jesus' words and all is calm. Then Jesus asks the apostles, "Where is your faith?" 

[Reader, if you have not already figured it out, this chapter in Luke is all about faith in Christ and being enabled by God to step in faith into the unknown. To continue, go to Part 2]   

Letting Go of What We Know to Step Into the Unknown By Faith - Part 2

We return to our journey with Luke and the disciples as they follow Jesus. Luke next records in chapter 8 other events that would, indeed, necessitate a faith from God to understand. 

After crossing the lake, Jesus and the disciples arrive at the country of Gadarenes in the south and southeast and, as they go on shore at the place Jesus tells them to dock, they are met by a dreadful sight - a naked man, crazed by demon possession, grimy, bruises over his body, face twisted, eyes that looked like they were being strained open and bulging, sweating, raging with ungodly sounds, feet blistered, ankles having the remnants of broken chains. Luke gives us a bit of background about this man - that for a goodly amount of time in this man's life he had been indwelt by demons, who took control over the man's life and being, breaking restraints that city officials had installed to keep him from doing harm to others. The demonic possession made it impossible for him to live in society - the demons drove him to despair and isolation, and to dwelling in the tombs near the sea waters of that area. The demons - alerted to the fact that the Son of God was in their midst - forced the man forward to where Jesus was; they were afraid of what Jesus would do to them because they knew who He truly was. (Can you imagine what the disciples were doing at this instant? Were they like the people of the city scared out their wits, and going to the safety of the boat, or finding this man's dilemma a source of crude entertainment? They had only hours before saw another dimension to this rabbi - that He had control over 'nature', but this situation - inflamed by demonic madness - could have left them doubting as what Jesus would do or could do.)  Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man and asks the demon his name. The demon says "Legion" because there are so many in and with him. The demons beg Jesus not to put them into the abyss (for they knew what their ultimate fate was to be); Jesus sends them into a herd of unclean animals and they drive the animals into the sea and drown them. Upon learning of what happened, the people of the city came out to where Jesus was to see with their own eyes the 'crazy demon man' no longer inhabited by the destructive demons, but dressed and calm. The people are seized with fear because of the power of Christ (flashback to when the Israelites were fearful of Moses after His encounter with God on the mountain), about what His presence could do to their way of life, and, therefore, strongly tell Jesus to leave! As Jesus and the disciples leave, the now delivered man asks to go with them, but Jesus tells him to stay and tell all the people what God has done for him. Then Luke says that the man went about telling everyone all Jesus had done for him. He had not only seen - he had experienced the faithfulness of God.

Upon their return to Galilee, a crowd welcomes Jesus and the disciples, and we reach a compelling pinnacle in Jesus' travels in this chapter of Luke. A man named Jairus who was a leader of the local synagogue reaches Jesus and falls at His feet, begging Him for the life of his daughter who was ill unto death. (picture the scene - a respected leader of the synagogue, in his fine robes, falls to the ground at Jesus feet; his actions illumine for any paying attention, that this Jesus was from God, a special prophet unlike any they would have known) Jesus accompanies the man as they make their way through the crowds, but the crowds are dense and Jesus and the man and the disciples are bumped about in a stop and slow-go motion as they determinedly make their way forward. And then it happens, right in the middle of Jesus' slowly moving through the crowd. "As he went, the crowds pressed in on him. Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years; and though she had spent all she had on physicians, no one could cure her. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his clothes, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped. Then Jesus asked, “Who touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and press in on you.” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; for I noticed that power had gone out from me.” When the woman saw that she could not remain hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before him, she declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

Strict observation of Jewish Law and interpretations by the Jewish priesthood would make them aware of the scriptural backdrop to this story. In the Law of Moses, a woman's menses were considered unclean because of the flow of blood. Leviticus 15, beginning at verse 19 presents the ritual she had to pursue: ritual washing of anything on which she sits and sleeps; those touching anything on which she sits or sleeps - even her clothes - would render them unclean as well. That she had this flow of blood beyond her menses for twelve years would have made her living in society impossible. Laundry day would be every single day. She would have been isolated to a great degree because she could not visit and sit on their divans, and there was always a possibility of blood leaking past her efforts to contain it. As one faithful to the law, she was both compliant and trapped by its regulations because of her unique situation, and yet she persevered to obey - keeping herself 'socially distant', which was not an easy task in a village or community. 

We are not told how much adherence to this law impacted her 'norm', e.g., how did she obtain items from market? How did she maintain her house? Did the physicians come her door and drop off some compounds or other remedies in front of it, being careful to be contactless? How did she or could she bring her sacrifices to the priest? Her condition would have kept suitors away - a husband and family was beyond her hopes now. Can you imagine living in a small town or village, being sick or potentially always on the verge of making others unclean before God, so that you are prevented from interacting with others in any meaningful way? (Of course you don't have to think hard about that: we've been through some highly difficult months of isolation and limited socializing. Multiply that by 12 years in the same place.) 

Her prayers for twelve years had been seeking God's healing and blessing, perhaps for God to send a special prophet as He had done through Elijah and Elisha to provide such healing. To remove this curse from her. Perhaps she had prayed Psalm 3:8, Psalm 4:6, especially Psalm 5:3. Maybe even Psalm 51. Perhaps all of the deliverance prayers she had learned of in holy scripture.  But her pleas were seemingly answered by silence. She sought out physicians who claimed to have a remedy, but all of them failed - so much so that she was financially spent seeking a cure. She could not puzzle out why her obedience to the law had not resulted in deliverance by now, or even an easing of her dilemma. Even the priests were not able to heal her, even though she may have been able to presented an offering to the priest for forgiveness of sins and God's favor. So this woman, for twelve years, having once long ago known the freedom of living under the law, now lived captive to the impact of Adam's sin in her body and restrained by that same law to living an imprisonment and captivity that no one could save her from. 

And then she heard about Jesus - the Great Prophet and Healer. Still, she was caught in a cycle of doing the 'right thing' and believing her righteousness would result in a deliverance. That God would be so pleased and moved by her faithful self-imprisonment, and gradual impoverishment as a result of legal obedience, that He would release her from her circumstance. Then she learned that Jesus had left Galilee. Had her hopes become so narrowed, her commitment to 'play by the rules' her focus, that she had missed what could have been God's answer to her years of difficulties and pain?

Did her prayers now change? Did she now pray, 'God - if you would have me step out of all I have known for these many years to risk it all, please give me a new kind of faith to do it. O God, please let me see Jesus!' 

Was God moving her in this new hope? Yes! She dared to believe that God would answer her twelve years of prayer, her twelve years of isolation and shame, her twelve years of being faithful, her twelve years of hoping against hope. That in this Great Prophet and Healer, in Jesus God would answer her. O God! She felt a new hope rising in her. But - and for her this was a big 'BUT' - in order to see her Deliverer, to receive His healing, she would need to step out in faith, literally - leaving her hiding place to stand in the brightness of the day. 

She had to seek and believe God's mercy. She had to leave the legalities of restraints in the law and of the priests, and step out in faith trusting in God's grace and mercy that were inherent in the law but not often taught (see Matthew 12:6-8). She had to let go of her rigidity of following the rules, of the fear and shame that narrowed her vision and thinking, and which kept her isolated and stuck on that expectation. She had to listen to what God was offering to her - something far beyond what she thought was the correct thing to do, and to actuate the faith God had sprouted in her. She had to seek Jesus at all risks to herself and her future in that place. So, determined, yet with fear and trembling, she clothes herself to obscure her identity (not realizing possibly until later that God's hand of protection clothed her) and skulks through the crowd - afraid that at any minute someone will recognize her and thus block her way to her Savior. And then she sees Him! She sees Him! She moves stealthily, and ever so carefully, but with an increasing urgency as she inches towards Him. She reaches out, straining to get near enough to the Great One and, finally, her hand touches His robe. And right there, right there in the middle of the noisy crowd a silent peace comes over her as she feels the healing taking place inside her body. A glorious warmth envelops her and she is filled to overflowing with gratefulness and joy as twelve years of strain leave her, replaced by a feeling of wholeness that she had not felt in so long, and of a Godly love that takes her by surprise. Then the silence is broken by His voice. "Who touched me?" The fear and trembling return - He knows what I have done! He knows that this unclean, unworthy woman has touched his garment and received His holy power in her inmost parts! It had been a glorious moment, one that would never leave her memory. Even if it was to be temporary, if He removes the miracle she just experienced, she will understand she tells herself. I haven't done anything for Him, so why should He allow me to keep this gift? Yet, He is now calling for her, He is now seeking her! He says, "someone has touched me because I felt my power leaving me." She did not know emotionally and spiritually until that moment that this Great Healer is the Anointed One. She would not know yet that her illness and suffering had been a gift, a sacred instrument, that had been planned for her from before time, that God's timing of her encounter with Jesus was intentional, and that her unique deliverance divine, and salvation came by God's grace. Jesus came back to Galilee for her and for those whom the Father had foreordained. That even while she suffered all of those years, God was moving heaven and earth to bring her to this point in time, to a point in her life that she would step into the unknown by the saving faith that God would give her. A faith she had received from God to risk what she thought had been the reasonable thing to do because she had done it for so long, that the possible reward of healing had become of more importance to her than the Healer, and to let that go so that she could, even with fear and trembling come to Jesus with a faith that saw who He was. 

Thus, feeling a courage that she didn't know could be in her, with all fear and trembling she comes up to the Master and falls at His feet, sobbing with a heart full of gratefulness and thanksgiving, in a flood of tears prostrate before Him in all humility, she publicly confesses her identity and what she had done to Jesus, at first expecting to be reprimanded, or even worse, for Him to take back His healing. But then, she heard Jesus' compassionate voice, His comforting words, wrapped in divine love that shattered the fear and dimmed the years of pain - calling her Daughter, and telling her that it is because of her faith she was healed. Jesus did not say that her gift of healing was due to her twelve years of prayer focused on the reward of following the law was what healed her, He tells her it is her faith, a trusting faith in God and not in rewards. That the God-Man Jesus, had not only healed her condition - He had changed her heart and the course of her life and blessed her with a faith that would be enduring and based on grace and not the false precepts that the religious establishment had tacked onto God's covenant law with Israel that eroded faith in God.

She acted on the gift of faith from God. It had been a long, debilitating twelve years, she had exhausted her finances and her spirit looking for the reward, yet somehow continued to wait on the Lord - even if from the wrong perspective. In His grace and in His timing He gifted her with the faith and confidence to trust and let go, and step out into the unknown in a new revitalized faith, based on belief and trust in God's Son Jesus, on His love, mercy and grace. She looked up at Jesus in deepest gratitude and awe, words hardly coming from her mouth. She looked into His eyes and saw the face of God.  

After blessing the woman, Jesus continues with Jairus despite their receiving the message that his daughter had died. Jairus, dejected by the news, hears Jesus tell him, “Do not fear. Only believe, and she will be saved.” In his mind and heart no doubt Jairus was at a crossroads - how can she be saved? She is dead. Yet, I will believe. And Jairus takes Jesus home with him. The mourners were already gathered for the bereavement rituals. Jairus wife was probably inconsolable, and upon seeing Jairus may have said, why did you trouble the teacher, our daughter is dead. The community has begun gathering outside here. Jesus tells the parents in the hearing of those present at the house that the young girl is just 'sleeping', and the people who had seen the girl die, nervously laughed at such a supposition. The door of the house closes leaving the mourners outside, and Jesus takes into the house Peter, John, and James, and the father and mother. The parents look to this God-Man and Great Healer, in faith as He touches the dead child's hand and says "Child, get up!" (a touch that would have rendered Him unclean under the law). Jesus speaks life back into her body to the astoundment of all, the parents awestruck yet filled with thanksgiving and so lost in the moment of this miracle, Jesus needs to instruct them to give her something to eat, to rejoice because they did believe, and their faith by God's grace, changed the direction of their lives in those few moments.

It does take faith to step into the unknown. We sometimes stick with what seems the reasonable thing to do, looking at those material supports that a reasonable person would look at. Praying for miracles and stymied by human reason, we cannot see the miracle that is already there. We are sometimes called in difficult and trying circumstances to let go of what we know - of what our reason tells us is the right thing to do, and to trust God in a different way. That new faith and trust takes us into the unknown, into the unseen, where God is free to execute His plan for us. It is in that unseen and unknown place where the faith in God and from God brings true victory.

What He has planned for us is sometimes waylaid because we are confusing and fusing trust in God with our own human reasoning. Look at Abram and Sarai. God had promised them a son, an heir, through whom God would bless all peoples. Well, they waited, and they waited, and finally reasoned that such a thing would happen if we pay it forward and have a child through a young female slave so that God's blessings can come to fruition. Yet the stepping out in reason led to unforeseen difficulties, a disruption in the household, and bitterness - a rift between two peoples that continues even unto this day. Yet God, who does not promise and not fulfill, places a new covenant between Himself and Abraham, a new faith to believe that Abraham's wife Sarah would become pregnant and bear the true child of promise. That through that child a there would be one born who would have the power and authority to bless the world. That child would be the Author and Perfector of our faith who tells us to lay down all those self-imposed things and human reasoning as supports and lean on Him instead. Listen to Him for He alone can open doors that no one can shut.