Attention on Deck

The first time I ever heard those words shouted in my ears I was instantly paralyzed from the top of my close cropped head to the bottom of my boon-docker encased toes. As those words reverberated between my ears they completed a synapse in my brain that had not been made before and two very startling things became welded into my brain: stop immediately and focus directly on the source of the command and there is no such thing as a floor in the Navy; they do not exist – nor do doors, walls, hallways or staircases. Only decks, hatches, bulkheads, passageways and ladders comprise the world of the US Navy. You can read more about how God used this particular part of my education in It Was Smokey’s Hat … But.

And it was that command that struck me this morning as I was reading a very familiar passage in scripture. Those words seem to have a way of cutting through all the confusion and noise, making a place for themselves at the top of your “action list.” And yet there are other words that “call to action,” which are never audibly heard; words and actions so powerful that they often go completely unnoticed. Have you ever felt like you were shouting those words and no one was paying attention? Like, Hello God, where are you? Do you know I’m here? Attention on deck!

 We’ve all read the story of the woman with the issue of blood. It is well recorded in the gospels (Matt 9:20; Luke 8:43; and Mark 5:24). But in reading it this morning I was struck by a couple of things I hadn’t thought about before as I struggle to communicate with God in this noisy world we live in. Let’s see if they ring true for you?

First, put the incident in perspective.

Jesus had just returned to the “Jewish” side of the Sea of Galilee from His deliverance of the demoniac in the Grecian city of Gadera. As He set forth from the boat He came face-to-face with a ruler of the synagogue named Jairus, who pleaded with Him to heal his 12 year old daughter. So Jesus set out on this mission, followed by the huge crowd that met Him when He landed. But suddenly He stopped — someone or something got His full attention!

 Here was a lady who, according to Levitical law (Lev 15:25-27), had been ceremonially outcast for 12 years because of a continual issue of blood. Jairus was a ruler in the synagogue; she wasn’t even allowed in the synagogue. He was famous; she was anonymous. He was rich; she was poor. What a contrast. Jesus is on the way to heal the daughter of a ruler of the synagogue that had only lived 12 years and a woman that had be outcast from the synagogue and was socially dead for 12 years. For her it was the end of the line. We all know the story; she had spent everything she had to find a cure and Jesus was her last hope. Man had provided no answer to her dilemma (sounds familiar). Isn’t it interesting that it always seems to be sorrow and suffering that bring us to Jesus’ feet.

There is so much to glean from this encounter but I want to focus on just one element — why did Jesus respond?

While the answer is obviously in response to her faith there is a much deeper lesson for us as we struggle through this world we live in. With all the people pressing in around Him Jesus instantly knew when she reached out in faith. It’s still true today. While multitudes throng to Jesus, very few reach out and touch Him. Many dismissed her and called her superstitious but Jesus didn’t. Her faith drew “virtue” (power) from Him. It wasn’t because of touching His robe as was the common thought of the day; touch the hem of a garment worn by a rabbi of spiritual leader and you would be healed. It was her faith that shouted Attention on deck! It was her faith that caused Jesus to release His virtue. It was her faith that opened the door for a personal relationship with Jesus. Consider for a moment that the very next thing Jesus did was call for her to identify herself. Not because He wanted to reprimand her for being presumptuous but to accomplish two very important things.

First He wanted all to know that she was now no longer ceremonially unclean, that she was whole; sozo – saved; delivered; protected; preserved. It might have taken her a very long time to prove that she was now clean but Jesus had other plans and first He wanted her to acknowledge herself; secondly He wanted her to know that it wasn’t some superstition or magical garment that healed her; it was her faith. He was making a statement to the crowd that in the midst of a people without faith reaching out to Him, a person of faith touches Him differently. It didn’t take a “laying on of hands” to transfer healing virtue as they all supposed from Jewish teaching.

Look at the response of Peter and the disciples:

 Luke 8:45 And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?

Peter, as usual, addresses the obvious – how can we possibly in the midst of all these people tell you who touched you. They’ve all been reaching out to you ever since you got out of the boat. How can you ask us that?

Yet here was a woman, separated from her home, isolated from her family and segregated in the synagogue. Every human avenue had been exhausted and yet the old adage was true – Man’s futility is God’s opportunity. She falls at Jesus’ feet, trembling in anticipation of the condemnation she felt was coming because of her presumption. After all, for her to touch anyone was to also make them ceremonially unclean. But Jesus had no such thought. He wanted her to express the faith that caused her to touch Him; to make it public. Touching His robe resulted in the physical healing but He wanted her to understand that “wholeness” can only come through a face-to-face confrontation with Jesus. He wanted to publicly restore her self-respect and He removed her outcast, unclean status with but a word:

 Luke 8:48 And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.

 What a picture of true salvation! This is the only instance in scripture where Jesus uses the term thugater; a daughter — a descendant. She had a new relationship with Him; her faith healed (saved) her because it caused her to “seek” healing from Jesus. As one commentator put it; Faith, confident trust, derives its value not from the one who expresses it, but from the object in which it rests. Think about that the next time you get on an airplane!

I am reminded of my favorite English “plumber” and evangelist, Smith Wigglesworth. He always maintained that Jesus would overlook a million people to touch the one reaching out to Him in faith. Think about that. We reach out in faith and to Jesus it’s like a resounding Attention on Deck! He knows the cry of those in faith and those that are not. Her faith was exercised by reaching out to touch His robe; her point of contact. What’s ours?

What makes one touch different from another? Is it exhaustion or desperation? Is it the fact that we’ve blown it so bad that we don’t have anywhere else to turn? I think that, like Jairus, we can take a lesson of encouragement from her story. We mustn’t forget that Jesus was on the way to Jairus’ home when this incident took place; what must have seemed like an interruption to Jairus. But upon returning to their journey Jesus turned to Jairus and in the face of the “bad report,” after demonstrating the power of faith, He simply said:

 Luke 8:49-50 While he yet spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue’s house, saying to him, Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master. 50. But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.

 We need to hang onto that message no matter what we’re facing today or tomorrow; our own mistakes, failures, loneliness, grief or illness of a loved one — you fill in the blank. In our exhaustion and desperation when we reach out in faith we have His “full” attention. He is focused on us in the midst of our circumstances even though those circumstances are like the crowd around the woman in the story, making her feel like one insignificant individual in the midst of the clamoring crowd. His goodness is ready to turn the lost into the saved and turn our problems into opportunities for hope. His greatness makes our needs seem small and insignificant while at the same time His grace makes our healing, our salvation, secure.

Why did Jesus respond to the woman in the crowd?

Just like He wanted to encourage Jairus, He wants to encourage us so we don’t need to suffer through our personal 12 years of torment. So we can be assured that the smallest amount of our faith that will cry out — Attention on Deck — is assured of His full attention. Jesus didn’t reach out and lay hands on her; she reached out and touched him. I remember John Courson saying one time that if you don’t feel Jesus’ touch in your life at the moment, reach out and press through the crowd of unbelief around you and touch Him. Jesus didn’t admonish the woman because she didn’t follow the proper protocol. No, He just heeded her cry when she reached out in the midst of her depression.

You may be like Jairus today with everything going smoothly or you may be in desperate straights like the woman with the issue of blood. We don’t’ know what the next moment in our life will bring, but we do know that the answer to our situation is always the same. What God is doing in the lives of others needs to be our encouragement.

 It is no secret what God can do,
What He’s done for others, He’ll do for you.

 Don’t ask how, don’t ask why — Don’t be afraid; but only believe.