As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. (Luke 8:42)
This verse needs some context! Jesus had just met a man called Jairus, who was a ruler in the local synagogue. His twelve year old daughter was close to death, and he implored Jesus to help. So Jesus went to his house, but “as Jesus went, the people pressed around him”. One was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for a dozen years. She wasn’t bold like Jairus, she didn’t fall at Jesus’ feet and implore him to help. She just came up behind him, and reached out to touch “the fringe of his garment”. And was healed. In fact, there was more than just that. Jesus sensed something had happened, sought out the shy woman and commended her faith. What joy she must have felt!
What a contrast with poor Jairus. As Jesus is speaking to the woman, the synagogue leader receives news he must have been fearing: his daughter has died. Jesus, hearing the news insists on going to the house and the girl is raised from the dead.
Now, there are a lot of things we might say about this but I want to give two things to chew over. First of all, Jesus was not too busy to speak to the woman. The woman’s ailment was not too little to be healed. Her tentative reaching out to him was not to slight for him miss. Oh Christian! Never think what you have to bring to Jesus is too unimportant, or your faith too little.
Secondly, notice the timing. Jairus may well have felt let down by Jesus: why didn’t he rush to my house? If he wasn’t chatting to this woman he might have saved my daughter! What do we see here? The need to trust God with his timing. A delay does not mean that God has not heard your prayers. In fact, at times a delay can lead to a greater response.
So trust. Trust in God’s timing, Trust that he hears. Be confident.
