For the last few weeks, we have been talking about the various kinds of interruptions we might experience as we go through our lives. We’ve talked about divine interruptions as God invites us to go in a new direction as well as interruptions from sin – both the sin of others and our own sin. So many of the interruptions we face on a regular basis, though, aren’t critical interruptions, they’re just irritating. In those situations, knowing how to respond to the person who is the cause of the interruption matters a lot. This is especially true when the interruption turns out to be God-ordained after all. In part four of our series, we are taking our cue from the example of Jesus. Let’s dig in together.

A Choice of Response

Covid was tough. It was tough for a lot of reasons, but one of the reasons it was tough for me personally was that I wound up working from home a lot. With three still-young children. Who were all doing school from home. Do you know how hard it is to write a sermon or a Bible study outline when you’ve got three kids coming to you on a rotating basis (or simultaneously) either needing help with their schoolwork, needing to be reminded to do their schoolwork, or just needing to be entertained for a few minutes so they don’t start creating their own entertainment which usually creates more problems than it solves? About as hard as it is to get anything else done with all of those things going on. Many of you know those woes far better than you’d like. 

So then, let’s have a group confession time for a minute: How did that season go? How did you respond to all those interruptions? I’ll be honest: I didn’t always do all that well. Sometimes I was pretty tolerant of the whole circus, but other times I could be quite a bear. It took a lot of discernment to know what was the right way to respond in a given situation. Sometimes a kid just needs to be told to go play and entertain himself for a little while. Non-screen time play is better than the alternative. Screens are a short-term gain for long-term pain. The more you make your kids play without screens, the more they’ll develop their muscles of entertaining themselves without your input or involvement. Screens may make them quiet, but they’ll eventually cause their self-contenting muscles to atrophy resulting in a whole lot more work for you later. 

That being said, and as busy as you may be, one of the things I’ve probably learned too late is that sometimes you just need to stop what you are doing and go play a game with them. Moms, pull out a card game or a board game or a craft. Dads, let them try to pin you, and then flip the tables on them and sit on them for a while. What you need to get done will eventually get done even if it costs you a little bit more to do it later. But the lessons you’ll teach them in the effort will last a lifetime. Generally speaking, a gracious spirit will yield better results when dealing with interruptions than not. But like I said, I’ve probably learned that too late for it to make much of a difference anymore. Either way, how we respond in the face of interruptions matters. 

This morning finds us in the fourth part of our teaching series, When Life Gets in the Way. For the last three weeks and with two more to go, we have been talking about how to handle it when one of the various interruptions life occasionally throws at us lands in our lap. So far we have taken a look at the interruptions that God delivers to our lives when He invites us to follow Him in a new or unexpected direction, the kinds of hurtful interruptions that leave us wondering which way is up, and the interruptions we cause ourselves by our sinful choices. 

In each of these different situations, God’s character matters a lot. With Abraham we learned that when God interrupts our plans, we can trust what He’s doing. With Joseph we saw that even hard interruptions can place us where God can use us. And just last week, with Moses, we were encouraged by the fact that God can redeem our brokenness. No matter how much of a mess we have made of a particular situation, if we will repent and return to following Him faithfully, He can redeem us from out of our mess, and set us back on the right track, ready to advance His kingdom through us in powerful ways. 

Well, while learning to handle all of those different situations is important, those are all extremes. Big changes from God. Big changes from others. Big changes from ourselves. The reality is, though, that most of the interruptions we face don’t appear nearly that significant at first glance. They don’t necessarily leave us questioning God or at least our standing before God. They are mostly contained to an interaction we are going to have with another person. What we need, then, is not more reflections on what goes on between us and God when interruptions of various kinds come to our lives, but some wisdom for shaping what goes on between us and the people around…especially the people who are themselves the source of those interruptions. 

With that in mind, this morning, with the direction of an example from Jesus as our guide, I want us to consider just that: How should we respond to the people around us when they interrupt our lives? The reason for this is simple: we may have a whole lot to work out between us and God when our lives get interrupted, but while much of that can happen in our private prayer time, there is nonetheless the matter of the people who are the proximate source of those interruptions. If we don’t respond to them well, we’ll soon find ourselves with another issue to deal with between us and God beyond the original matter of the interruption. 

So, Jesus was someone who knew a thing or two about having His plans and even His whole life interrupted. It would probably be worth your time at some point to do a study of the Gospels focusing entirely on the times Jesus was interrupted by something and what He did about it. Jesus was interrupted in all kinds of ways by all kinds of people wanting all kinds of different things. And while technically, yes, as God, He had some measure of control over these, in His humanity He had to take them as they came just like we do. In other words: He gets it. The particular story I want to look at with you this morning is a time when Jesus was interrupted not once, but twice, and one of those was an interruption to His interruption. With interruptions piling up to the ceiling, how Jesus responded was going to matter. If you have a copy of the Scriptures handy, find your way with me to the Gospel of Luke. The action begins to unfold in Luke 8:40. Check this out with me. 

I suspect you have traveled away from home for a time at least once or twice in your life. And how many times when you’ve gotten back have you said something to the effect of, “I need a vacation to recover from my vacation!” Jesus had recently gotten back to his home base of Capernaum after a trip around the region. To say this trip was eventful would be putting it mildly. On the way out, Jesus stopped a storm with a word when it was threatening to capsize the boat the group was using to cross the Sea of Galilee. When they got where they were going on the far side of the Sea—that is, the Gentile side; enemy territory as far as the disciples were concerned—they encountered a man possessed by multiple demons who had terrorized the area for who knows how long. Jesus cast out the demon into a herd of pigs that promptly stampeded off a cliff. The citizens of the city, rather than being grateful that Jesus had ended this possessed man’s reign of terror, were terrified themselves and begged the group to leave. 

So, that’s all what Jesus was coming home from. But if He thought He was going to be able to rest with the disciples and debrief together what they had experienced, He thought wrong. “When Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him.” Jesus may have sought rest, but there were the crowds. There were always the crowds. We may not face crowds like Jesus did very often, but there are plenty of life demands that are waiting for us when we are just hoping to rest. It sometimes seems like there’s always one more thing. Jesus was facing an entire array of one more things. And then there was another one; this one even more insistent than the rest. 

“Just then, a man named Jairus came. He was a leader of the synagogue. He fell down at Jesus’s feet and pleaded with him to come to his house, because he had an only daughter about twelve years old, and she was dying.” This wasn’t just a garden-variety life demand anymore. This was something that was going to take time. Jesus couldn’t just help Jairus on His way to whatever else He was planning to do, He was going to have to stop everything else He was doing and focus solely on him and his issue. This wasn’t an easy task, though, if for no other reason than that the crowds were still present. Life’s daily demands were still there, pressing in on Him just like you’ve felt them pressing in on you when you suddenly find yourself faced with a time-consuming interruption you can’t avoid dealing with. Except, in Jesus’ case, the pressing in was literal. “While he was going, the crowds were nearly crushing him.” 

Well, if one significant interruption is bad enough, two is even worse. And as Jesus started on His way to Jairus’ house, putting off anything and everything else He wanted to accomplish that day, a second interruption was unceremoniously dropped into His lap. “A woman suffering from bleeding for twelve years, who had spent all she had on doctors and yet could not be healed by any, approached from behind and touched the end of his robe.” 

There’s a lot we could say about this woman and her condition, clarifying exactly what was going on, but for now we’ll just say that she had been sick for a long time with a condition that was culturally humiliating because it forced her to live on the margins of society. She had done everything she could think of to make herself well, but nothing had worked. When she heard about this Jesus and the miracles He was working, she knew she had to make her move. The throngs of people pressing in around Him gave her the perfect cover. She shouldn’t have been there, but in a mass of people like that, she would be able to go unnoticed. If she could just touch the end of His garment, perhaps that would be enough to make her well. And indeed it was. “Instantly her bleeding stopped.” 

If she thought her quest for total anonymity was going to succeed, though, she was sorely mistaken. As soon as her bleeding stopped, so did Jesus. Verse 45 now: “‘Who touched me?’ Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, ‘Master, the crowds are hemming you in and pressing against you.’” In other words, “Everyone is touching you. Why would you even ask such a stupid question?” But Jesus knew something was different about this touch. “‘Someone did touch me,’ said Jesus. ‘I know that power has gone out from me.’” 

Now, that one idea is probably worth exploring in more detail all by itself, but we’re not going to do that right now. The point here is that the woman, knowing she had been noticed, stepped into the light and acknowledged herself to Jesus. “When the woman saw that she was discovered, she came trembling and fell down before him. In the presence of all the people, she declared the reason she had touched him and how she was instantly healed. ‘Daughter,’ he said to her, ‘your faith has saved you. Go in peace.’”

So, we have a second interruption interrupting the first one. Normally that would be just mildly irritating (or perhaps really irritating), but not much more than that. In this case, though, it was an entirely more significant problem. Remember why Jesus was rushing through the pressing crowds to Jairus’ house in the first place? Because his daughter was dying. Now it was too late. “While he was still speaking, someone came from the synagogue leader’s house and said, ‘Your daughter is dead. Don’t bother the teacher anymore.’” I’m not even going to ask you to imagine the heartbreak here because I don’t want to imagine it myself. 

Fortunately, Jairus had an ace up his sleeve…or at least standing there with him. “When Jesus heard it, he answered him, ‘Don’t be afraid. Only believe, and she will be saved.’ After he came to the house, he let no one enter with him except Peter, John, James, and the child’s father and mother. Everyone was crying and mourning for her. But he said, ‘Stop crying, because she is not dead but asleep.’ They laughed at him, because they knew she was dead. So he took her by the hand and called out, ‘Child, get up!’ Her spirit returned, and she got up at once. Then he gave orders that she be given something to eat. Her parents were astounded, but he instructed them to tell no one what had happened.” 

That’s the story. And there’s a lot you can say about this passage. There are a number of different angles from which to examine it. But let’s state the obvious so we don’t miss it. What Jesus did here was incredible. He healed two people in amazing ways. But did you notice how He did it? I don’t mean the mechanics of the healings, although those are incredible in their own right. What Jesus did and said here should be something to which we give a pretty great deal of attention for all of the obvious reasons. But as important as what He said and did are, how He did what He did and said what He said. 

Let’s scan back through the story with that in mind. When Jairus came to Jesus, perhaps pushing his way through the massive crowd because of his presumed importance and the desperation of his need, Jesus could have put him off or sent him away or chided him for cutting in line. Instead, what did Jesus do? He simply went with Him. He didn’t huff about His busy schedule. He wasn’t short with Jairus. His actions toward him weren’t begrudging. None of that. He said, “Okay, let’s go.” 

And when the anonymous woman touched Jesus, getting a secret miracle for herself, how did Jesus respond? Did He berate her for stealing some of His power for herself without His permission? Did He scold her for merely using Him rather than coming to Him forthrightly as everyone else did (including the now very impatiently waiting Jairus)? Did He put her through any kind of rigmarole other than simply seeking to know who she was? Again, none of that. He spoke to her with graciousness and kindness and loved her. She didn’t need Him to do anything else for her because she had already gotten what she was seeking. He could have just ignored her as well and kept going. But He didn’t do that either. He stopped and gave her the grace of His undivided attention. He praised her courageous faith. And He gently affirmed that, yes, she really was healed when she touched Him. 

And then, when His attention gets turned back to Jairus again on the news that his daughter had died during the delay, He wasn’t dismissive or harsh or anything like that. He paused, looked Jairus straight in the eyes, and gave him hope. Over and over Jesus is not impatient or selfish or hard. He is just the opposite. He is patient. He is generous with His time. He is gracious. He is compassionate to their needs. He is kind. He seeks opportunities to love rather than insisting on continuing forward with whatever else He had planned. 

As it turns out, these were both God-ordained interruptions rather than merely distractions from what Jesus actually needed to be doing. Had Jesus insisted on His own plans, these stories would have never unfolded the way they did. Instead of refusing to drift from His path even a little bit, Jesus responded to both of these interruptions with sensitivity both to the needs of the people causing the interruptions, but also to the movement of God’s Spirit. As a result, God’s kingdom was advanced in powerful ways. If we want to be a part of advancing God’s kingdom in similar ways, this is an example we can’t afford not to follow. God-ordained interruptions call for a sensitive heart. 

Okay, but how do we know when an interruption is God-ordained and not merely a distraction from what we really need to be doing? Surely not every opportunity that comes along is from God. If we take every distraction as if it were, we are going to be led off into some places we do not want to go. At the same time, we don’t want to miss any opportunities for kingdom advancement God is setting before us. So, again, how do we know? 

Well, we ask some hard questions and think carefully about their answers. Will this interruption lead me into an opportunity to expand and magnify the love of Christ in some meaningful way? If it will, you probably need to pause to prayerfully consider leaning into it rather than away from it. If it won’t, staying focused on whatever is your task at hand is likely your best bet. Similar to this first question, but slightly more nuanced is this: Is the opportunity of this interruption consistent with the way Jesus loved other people? Is it going to put you more fully in line with the love of Jesus expressed outwardly into the world around you? Then follow it. 

Sometimes a potential interruption doesn’t have anything to do with furthering your kingdom work. But sometimes they look like opportunities to do just that. Here’s another question to consider, then. Will this lead me down a ministry rabbit hole that will be tough to climb back out of, or will this ultimately serve to enrich the ministry God already has me doing? Jesus came to invite people into the kingdom of God and to give them a taste of what life there will be like. Both of these interruptions fit squarely within that larger mission. In the same vein, here’s another thing to consider: Does this interruption resonate at all with the core mission God has given me to do within the body of Christ or out in the world beyond those borders? If the potential interruption has you actively moving toward the advancement of God’s work, even if it isn’t what you initially had planned, it’s probably an invitation into more of that. 

But, let’s be honest, most of the interruptions we face don’t seem very holy. They are other people intruding into our schedules in ways that usually aren’t wanted. Given that, here’s one more question that will help lay bare our motives in assessing the situation. Is my resistance to this interruption coming from a desire to stay on target with the work God has given me to do, or is it coming out of my personal selfishness and not wanting to give up my time for someone or something else? 

And let’s be clear that a great deal of the work God has given you to do doesn’t seem to have much of anything to do with the church. Don’t get all holy-minded on me here to avoid the weight of the honest answer to this question. If you are in that season of life where you have young kids at home, your primary work is raising those kids to know and love the Lord. This will take massive amounts of love and attention and energy; far more, in fact, than you have it within you to give. Your kids will make demands on your time. They will insist that you don’t do things you feel like you need to get done. They will try to make themselves your absolute, number one priority. And sometimes they need to be that. Not all the time, but sometimes they do. Is your resistance to the interruptions they bring to your life because you are trying to give due attention to an even higher priority, or are you just being selfish because you don’t want to put down your phone to engage with them? God-ordained interruptions call for a sensitive heart. 

If you are married, your primary work is loving your wife or husband with the love of Jesus, elevating her or him in His direction because of that love. Doing that is the one work that will consistently come ahead of leaning into the interruptions your kids bring to your life. God-ordained interruptions call for a sensitive heart. Guys, if your wife needs you to do something for her, that’s a God-ordained interruption. Put down whatever else it is you are doing and go and love her with the love of Jesus by serving her selflessly. Be sensitive to her needs. Ladies, the same thing is true in the other direction. 

Interruptions, though, can come outside even the context of church or family and still be God-ordained. Perhaps a neighbor has a need you can meet—and I don’t only mean the person who lives next door. At work, maybe you have a coworker who has suddenly intruded upon your day with a personal issue for which they need some godly wisdom. It may not be what you planned, but God may have something else in mind. Responding with graciousness and sensitivity just may help encourage them in His direction if they aren’t already there. And, if they are already there, your sensitive response may encourage them further down the path of righteousness to the point they are able to help someone else along in the same direction like you now have. God-ordained interruptions call for a sensitive heart. 

The truth is that these God-ordained interruptions can come from all kinds of different sources. We’ve got to be ready to respond with compassion and gentleness and graciousness and kindness. Each opportunity is an invitation. It is an invitation into doing more and more of God’s work—the very work for which you were designed; the work that, as Paul tells us, He prepared in advance for you to do when He saved you. Now, if you’re just looking to take your mind off of what you should be doing by fiddling on your phone or something else like that, that’s not God. But if loving a person in Jesus’ name lies at the end of a particular side street, it may not be a side street at all, but a whole new boulevard of grace for you to travel. God-ordained interruptions call for a sensitive heart. Let us be sensitive to the movement of God’s Spirit and the ways He is inviting us to love one another like He loved us. That will always see His kingdom grow.