If you take a dive way down into the bottom half of Luke 8 lovely Jesus-craft is seen. There amongst a seaweed-set of very heavy, very personal pain swam our blessed Savior wondrously faith-shuffling the downtrodden. When he rose to the surface with him came a woman who no longer bled and a priest who no longer grieved. Let us slip on the shoes of Priest Jairus.
For 12 years Jairus’ house lit up with the sparkles of a daughter but calamity struck that sparkler. As she spluttered down near her end out of the house walked Jairus.
Was he going to clear his mind? Did he need some time alone on a hopefully lonely Galilean lakeshore? Was he going to offer last-ditch prayers? Did he seek an escape the from whisper-inklings of a funeral? Something else? When the scriptures are short on details gentle, Holy Spirit directed peering can help us catch some fish that we might feed our souls.
I like to imagine Jairus shuffling along in a funk of sadness only to come upon the Jesus flared crowd. Those things gathered an incredible steam, but something, somehow triggered in the mind of this priest and into the midst of it he went. Down upon his knees he fell with his appeal to Jesus.
What was behind that appeal? How did he decided Jesus was a very present help for his trouble? That before him amongst that bustling crowed was a bright spot. Could it have gone like this? “The widow of Zarephath had a son Elijah raised, maybe Jesus will do the same for me.” Or, maybe his mind went to the Shunamite Jewess whose son Elisha brought back to him. Luke had recorded that Jesus raised the son of the Widow of Nain. “Yes,” hoped out his mind, “maybe my daughter can be healed.” Perhaps the Holy Spirit infused his mind with those gracious remembrances. We do not know but it is enlivening to wonder at it.
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