In God's Appointed Time

The sermon opens by reminding us that everyone faces needs and difficulties they cannot solve alone. When confronted with illness and hardship, we must turn to Jesus Christ through prayer to ask for His help. The story of Jairus (a synagogue leader) and the hemorrhaging woman illustrates three main aspects: Christ's priorities and decisions, the results of faith, and action in God's appointed time. Although Jairus was a person of high status, wealth, and power in society, he still had to come to Jesus because no one could save his dying daughter's life.

The second section develops Jesus Christ's unusual priorities and decisions in detail. While on the way to Jairus's house, Jesus is touched by a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhage for twelve years. Although the little girl's illness is acute (dying soon), while the woman's illness is chronic (lasting twelve years), Jesus still stops to ask who touched His garment. From a conventional medical standpoint, this priority seems wrong and dangerous. But Jesus is not merely a disease-healing physician; He wants to create an opportunity for the woman to publicly confess her faith and have a life-changing relationship with Him. As faith in Jesus grows, He will also grant much more than what we ask.

The third section explains three main results from Jesus Christ's priorities and decisions. First, Jesus demands and grants greater grace. Both Jairus and the woman received more than they asked for: not only healing from illness but also a deep relationship with Jesus. Second, all priorities, decisions, and results are based on God's grace, not on the merit of the one asking. Jesus stops prioritizing saving Jairus's daughter (a respected, wealthy synagogue leader) to pay attention to a diseased woman rejected by society. This shows that Jesus reverses all worldly values: the weak become strong, the lowly are exalted. Third, when Jesus does not answer or delays answering, it is because He knows what is most important and necessary for us. God is omniscient, omnipotent, knowing from beginning to end; why then do we struggle to believe that He will answer according to the most appropriate time?

The final section applies the message to life: when Jesus decides not to answer prayer, He still says "do not fear, only believe." Although the little girl had died, Jesus still came to Jairus's house. He did not perform the miracle through magic or spells, but simply took the girl's hand and called her to wake up in Aramaic "Talitha koumi" (my daughter, arise), as a father takes his beloved daughter's hand to wake her on a beautiful morning. Death is the last enemy, but in the power of Jesus Christ, death is no longer to be feared. When Jesus holds our hand through His Holy Spirit, we live in Him. To defeat the enemy of death, Jesus Himself had to suffer death on the cross as one who was weak so that we might become strong. Grace is the reversal of all values: to be great one must become small, to be first one must be last, to gain one must be willing to lose.