Saturday, November 6, 2010

Humility and Patience Go Together

In the Gospel (Luke 8.41-56) we witness both the patience of a devoted father and the humility of a real leader. As a leader of the synagogue, Jairus could have expected special treatment when he approached Jesus Christ to heal his daughter. He could have expected Jesus to drop everything and come at once to attend to his dying daughter. He could have expected the crowd to clear the way for Jesus to pass quickly so his daughter would not die. But he didn’t.

After Jairus had approached Jesus and begged Him to heal his daughter, and while on the way to Jairus’ house, Jesus was delayed. “As He went, the people pressed round Him. And a woman who had had a flow of blood for twelve years and had spent all her living upon physicians and could not be healed by anyone, came up behind Him, and touched the fringe of His garment; and immediately her flow of blood ceased.” (Luke 8.42-44) Because of this delay, Jairus daughter died.

Jairus could have given up hope. He could have left Jesus and crowd “defeated” and depressed. He could have blamed the young woman for the death of his only daughter. He could have become angry. But he didn’t.

Rather than demand special treatment Jairus was humble in the Lord. Rather than lose his temper he remained patient. Jairus is an example to us of great Christian humility and patience. I say Christian humility and patience because both these traits rest in knowing that Jesus Christ is God and has greater love for us than we know.

Don’t you want to be like Jairus?

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