His Extravagance

We often think of generosity in terms of what we have left to give. Our time is limited. Our energy runs out. Our attention can only stretch so far. When we are already focused on one urgent need, it is easy to overlook another.

But Jesus is different.

In Luke 8, Jesus is on His way to the home of Jairus, whose twelve-year-old daughter is dying. The situation is urgent. Yet along the way, a woman reaches out in faith and touches His garment – and Jesus stops for her.

He was not too busy for her.

There is another detail here that is easy to miss. This woman had suffered for twelve years – the same length of time that Jairus’s daughter had been alive. Whether Luke intends us to see significance in the parallel or simply records these remarkable circumstances, the contrast is striking: a woman who had endured twelve years of suffering and a twelve-year-old child whose life was slipping away.

Jesus met them both.

His compassion was not diminished by another person’s need. His power was not exhausted by one miracle. His grace simply flowed from Him to another who desperately needed it.

That is the extravagance of Christ.

Like the stream flowing in this video, His grace keeps moving. It does not run dry because someone else has received it.

Maybe you feel hidden in the crowd, carrying a need no one else can see. Or perhaps you are waiting for an answer while circumstances grow darker.

Take heart.

Jesus sees you. His grace is not limited, His compassion is not exhausted, and His goodness has not reached its end.

Come to Him. His fountain never runs dry.

His grace is never diminished by giving. His compassion never runs dry. Come to Christ with your need – His fountain of mercy is always flowing.

One last thing to add to this; there are millions of people around the world who believe that a grown man marrying a six-year-old (consummating that marriage only three years later when she was only nine-years-old) is acceptable. They will tell you that, at age nine, this girl had become a woman.

Now, contrast that with Jesus’ treatment of the woman who touched his garment (in the Greek the word used for woman was γυνή, pronounced goo-nay). The woman (γυνή) had been bleeding for twelve years, the Greek literally says “an issue, or flow of blood.” This wasn’t merely a physical ailment – according to Levitical law, her condition rendered her ritually unclean, making anyone she touched unclean as well. She was classified as a zabah, a woman with abnormal discharge beyond normal menstruation.

Now, the final contrast – Jesus uses the words Ἡ παῖς (pronounced ho paheece) for the girl. This is sometimes translated servant, but almost as often it is rendered as child or girl or boy. Had Jesus been referring to Jairus’ daughter as a woman, the word γυνή would have been used.

Make no mistake, Jesus considered a twelve-year-old to be a child, a girl, not a woman.

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