Luke 8: Only Believe, Jesus Conquers Death

Introduction

"We live in troubled times, don't we?" That is how Damien Jacquemin opens his message on Luke 8:40-56, preached at the Église Protestante Évangélique Bruxelles-Woluwe. Troubled, but also privileged: in the West, and especially in Belgium, we enjoy a level of comfort unmatched by any previous generation. Scientific and medical progress extends life. The preacher admits that without it, he would probably have lost his first two children, who were born prematurely. "Thanks be to God, they are here today."

Yet not every disease has disappeared, others have emerged with our way of life, like diabetes, and no one escapes death. Why? "Because the root of the problem is not technological, it is not scientific, it is theological." It touches our relationship with God, broken by sin. With sin, sickness and death entered the world, and we live far from God's presence, outside that garden of Eden where the tree of life stood.

Facing this grim reality, the text announces a victory over sickness and death. At the heart of the passage is a key sentence: "Only believe, and you will be saved." From it the preacher draws three good reasons to come to Christ and place your faith in him and in his word.

Message Outline

1. A Key Sentence, Repeated Twice

In verse 48, Jesus answers the sick woman's faith: "Daughter, your faith has saved you; go in peace."
In verse 50, he makes a promise to Jairus about his daughter, who has just died: "Don't be afraid. Only believe, and she will be saved."
"Only believe, and you will be saved" is also the promise Jesus makes to each of us in the face of sickness and death.
The context: Jesus has crossed the lake, calming the storm, and then driven out dozens, perhaps hundreds, of demons in the region of the Gerasenes. When he returns, a crowd is waiting for him.

2. Only Believe, Because You Are Powerless

Jairus is a synagogue leader. He belongs to the local civil and religious elite: he has means, high social standing, and respect. Despite his dignity, he throws himself at Jesus' feet and begs him to come and heal his only daughter, twelve years old, who is dying.
At the same time a woman appears whose name we do not know, hidden in the crowd. For twelve years she has suffered from bleeding. She has spent all her living on doctors, and no one has been able to heal her (verse 43).
Unclean because of her illness, she suffers deep social isolation. She cannot go to the temple to worship God, nor have children, since all intimate relationships are forbidden to her. For twelve years.
On one side, someone at the top of the social ladder. On the other, someone at the very bottom. Yet the text puts them on equal footing: both are completely powerless.
This powerlessness is ours too. The preacher mentions Brian Johnson, an American entrepreneur who leads an extreme longevity movement whose slogan is "don't die". He spends 2 million dollars a year to reverse the biological age of his organs: constant medical monitoring, strictly regulated sleep and diet, more than a hundred pills and supplements a day. He looks younger than his age. And yet he has contracted an autoimmune disease.
"By our own efforts, we cannot avoid sickness or death." Like Jairus and this woman, we must recognize how desperate our situation is and come to Christ empty-handed.
This is Luke's aim throughout chapter 8: not merely to listen to the word of Christ, but to receive it with faith.

3. Only Believe, Because Jesus Is Powerful

After showing his power over the elements of creation and over the legion of demons, Jesus here displays his power over sickness and death.
For the woman, verse 44: she touches the edge of Jesus' garment, and immediately the bleeding stops. For the daughter, verses 54 and 55: Jesus takes her by the hand and calls out in a loud voice: "Child, arise!" Her spirit returns, and at once she gets up.
"Immediately," "at once": the healing and the resurrection are not done halfway, nor are they the result of a long process. They are instant and fully effective.
This power is displayed toward those who show faith. The woman seeks her healing in secret, but Jesus brings her out to show herself publicly and to show her faith. It is not Jesus' garment, like some kind of magic relic, that healed her, but her faith in him.
Jairus keeps following Jesus when someone from the synagogue comes to say: "Your daughter is dead." He believes Jesus' word despite the news and despite the mockery of those who are loudly mourning the child's death.
The schoolyard picture: when two captains picked their football teams, those left over, the preacher among them, hoped to join the stronger team, "not because we were going to make them win, but because they were going to make us win."
"Who else but Jesus" has healed the sick, made the paralyzed walk, given sight to the blind, cast out demons by the hundreds, subdued nature with his word, told a dead girl "wake up," and has himself risen, victorious and glorious? No one.

4. Only Believe, Because Jesus Is Full of Compassion

Jesus is not portrayed as an all-powerful but intimidating, terrifying, or indifferent figure. The text shows his real care for Jairus and for this woman.
At Jairus' request, he goes to his house. When the child's death is announced, he reassures and encourages him. He goes in with the father, the mother, and three of his disciples, raises the girl, and asks that she be given something to eat.
For the woman, it is even more obvious. Jesus does not let her leave once she is healed. He heals her physically, but also spiritually: he restores her standing and her reputation.
He calls her "daughter." A few verses earlier, he had said that his mother and his brothers are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice (Luke 8:21). He brings her into his own family.
"Your faith has saved you," and not only "healed" you: in Luke, salvation includes healing but means much more.
"Nowhere else but in Christ do we find this power and this compassion together." A compassion that makes no distinction of social or economic status, sex or age, nationality or origin: rich or poor, young or old, man or woman, whoever comes to Jesus by faith is saved.

5. Another Victory First: Victory Over Sin

"Our deepest problem is not sickness, it is not death, and it is not social inequality either. Our deepest problem is sin." It is our rebellion against God, which draws his righteous judgment and wrath upon us.
Sickness and death are only consequences of sin, the signs of a world in rebellion against its Creator.
Jesus, the Son of God, God himself, came among us taking on our nature, but without sin, to restore what sin had broken. He who was without sin took the punishment for our sins: the righteous died for the unrighteous.
The worst of what he endured was not the physical suffering, but God's wrath falling on him in the place of sinners.
The good news: whoever comes to him by faith does not have to endure that wrath. They receive, right now, forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, and adoption into God's family.

6. Peace Already, Complete Healing Not Yet

Isaiah 53:5: "The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his stripes we are healed." Peace is the restored relationship with God. Healing is the restoration of our human condition.
We already enjoy peace with God through faith in Christ. That is not yet the case for healing, and even less for resurrection.
The miracles of Luke 8 are signs: they announce a far greater restoration, complete, final, and eternal, in the kingdom of God. Jesus said this kingdom was near; he did not say it was already established in its full manifestation.
It is at Christ's return that his kingdom will be fully established and all creation will be set free from sin, sickness, and death: "He will wipe away from them every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more" (Revelation 21:4).
These truths can bring joy, but they can also bring disappointment, even anger, because of the illness or suffering of a loved one. We may wonder whether God is good, and why we do not receive healing today. The preacher reminds us that the healed woman and Jairus' daughter eventually died too.
"This text does not call us to show enough faith to receive healing today," a healing that would only be temporary. It calls us to faith in the salvation Jesus brings through the forgiveness of sins, for our ultimate healing and eternal life in his kingdom.
"So let us be patient, my friends, and only believe, and you will be saved."

Key Takeaways

Neither science, nor technology, nor money can save us from sickness and death, because the root of the problem is our broken relationship with God.
Facing death, the prominent leader and the ruined woman stand on equal footing: powerless. We must come to Christ empty-handed.
Jesus heals and raises the dead immediately and completely. His power is displayed toward those who believe in him.
His compassion makes no distinction. He heals, restores, and brings into his family those who come to him by faith.
Peace with God is already given. Complete healing and resurrection will come at Christ's return.

Personal Application

What are you really counting on to protect yourself from sickness and death: your health, medicine, your means, your efforts?
Are you ready, like Jairus, to throw yourself at Jesus' feet and admit that you can do nothing on your own?
What news, like the news brought to Jairus, pushes you today to stop believing? How can you hear "Don't be afraid, only believe" for yourself?
If the illness or suffering of a loved one disappoints you or makes you angry at God, can you tell him so, while holding on to the promise of ultimate healing?
Have you already received the forgiveness of sins and the peace with God that Jesus offers to whoever comes to him by faith?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does "only believe, and you will be saved" mean in Luke 8?

The phrase comes up twice in the passage: in verse 48, Jesus tells the sick woman "your faith has saved you," and in verse 50, he tells Jairus "only believe, and she will be saved." For Damien Jacquemin, it is also the promise Jesus makes to each of us in the face of sickness and death: to come to him by faith, empty-handed.

If I have faith, can I claim my healing today?

The preacher answers that this text does not call us to show enough faith to receive a healing today, which would only be temporary. The healed woman and Jairus' daughter eventually died too. These miracles are signs of the kingdom of God, which will be fully established at Christ's return. Peace with God is already here, while complete healing and resurrection are still to come.

Why does Jesus call the healed woman "daughter"?

This woman had been unclean, isolated, and ruined for twelve years. Jesus does not let her slip away unnoticed: he heals her physically, but he also restores her spiritually and brings her into his family. A few verses earlier, he had said that his family are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice (Luke 8:21).