Catching Hope and Resurrection
Beloved People of God,
Have you ever noticed how often Jesus was interrupted? It’s kind of amazing how often people seemingly derailed what Jesus was doing so that He might see their situation. You’ve got to be pretty audacious (or desperate) to interrupt a respected rabbi while He’s teaching!
While Jesus was addressing John the Baptist’s disciples, explaining why His ministry was blowing up their paradigms—they were trying to put His new Messianic wine into their old culturally acceptable wineskins—Jesus was interrupted. While Jesus was talking, Jairus knelt before Jesus, desperate for Jesus to raise His daughter back to life (Matthew 9.18). Jesus dropped everything and went with Him. He wasn’t angry. He didn’t make Him wait. Jesus heard his interruption and went with him. But no sooner did Jesus turn the corner when He felt a tug on His tunic. A woman with a persistent hemorrhage, which had plagued her for twelve years, was desperate too. She crouched through the crowd believing if she simply touched the hem of His garment she would be healed (an interruption inside an interruption!).
We might be tempted, if we were Jairus, to tell her to get in line, take a number, and wait her turn. Our situation is time sensitive. But the truth is, Jesus is able to address all our needs. He can speak resurrection and restoration into all our lives (28.18). Reading these miracles again, as if for the first time, we see a Savior willing to be interrupted because He cares. His love for us is so great He goes with us. Even if all He needed to do was speak a word, He still walks with us to bring resurrection into our world. He still draws close enough to us where we can reach out and touch Him.
Beloved, Jesus understands our needs and is willing to be interrupted and walk with us, to care for us, to turn to us and speak encouragement into our lives. Yes, Jesus is fully God, so He’s able to meet our need. In the Gospel, we also see He is fully human, like us “in every respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest” (Hebrews 2.17). Friend, don’t be shy today. Jesus is waiting to be interrupted.
For Christ the King,
Brett