To follow Jesus, we have to be willing to break what’s normal and acceptable.

In fact, the more you follow him, the more you’ll drift outside cultural norms.

You have to be willing to be an outlier and an outcast.

Here’s what I mean…

In Luke 8, a Jewish religious leader named Jairus comes to Jesus and begs him to heal his 12-year-old daughter. On the way, a crowd presses in. Jesus was already well known for healing, and large crowds often followed him.

In that crowd was a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years with no medical hope (Luke 8:43). According to Levitical Law, she was unclean, and anyone who touched her would be unclean until evening (Leviticus 15:19). She knew this. But desperate for God, she reached out anyway and touched Jesus’ clothes. Immediately, she was healed.

Twelve years of bleeding, healed in an instant. But she broke the law.

Jesus stops and asks who touched him. Imagine being that woman. You’ve touched a man while unclean, experienced a miracle, and wanted to slip away quietly. The pressure and fear must have been overwhelming.

His disciples are confused because everyone is touching him. But Jesus persists. Terrified, she comes forward, trembling, and falls at his feet. Then, in boldness, she tells her story publicly: unclean for 12 years, yet daring to believe she would be made clean instead of making him unclean.

And Jesus doesn’t rebuke her. He blesses her: “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

She broke the law and admitted it publicly, and Jesus blessed her anyway.

Now imagine Jairus. As a Jewish leader, he knew the law and the scandal of what just happened. Yet he still had to decide whether to trust Jesus. On the road, he hears his daughter has died. Jesus tells him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

Think about that. Jesus stopped for a woman who was legally unclean, risked making himself unclean, and in the delay, Jairus’s daughter died. Bitterness could have set in. But Jairus proceeds anyway.

At the house, mourners are crying. Jesus kicks them out and tells them to stop. That alone must have felt offensive. Then he takes only Peter, James, John, Jairus, and his wife. He touches the girl’s hand (again breaking the law by touching a dead body, see Numbers 19:11) and tells her to get up. And she does. And in practical fashion, Jesus tells them to give her something to eat.

It’s easy to miss how many norms and legal standards Jesus collided with. There was a way to do things. There were rules and formalities. And Jesus navigates them with an uncomfortable amount of freedom.

But Jesus didn’t abolish them; he fulfilled them (Matthew 5:17). He lived the heart of the law, not just the letter.

Even our courts in America today recognize what’s called the “necessity defense”, which is breaking a law to prevent greater harm. If you break the speed limit to get someone to the hospital, you can argue that it was justified because the heart of the law is to protect lives.

We all understand there’s a difference between the letter and the heart of the law. That comes from God, who gives us grace even though we’ve all broken his law.

We don’t get a pass for sin, but God knows the heart. 

One of my favorite lines is, “An ignorant yes is better than a well-informed no.” 

If you’re pursuing God’s heart and make a mistake, good – you were pursuing him. If you break social norms or even actually laws while chasing him, grace covers you.

Fear tells you not to do the thing you feel compelled to do. 

Faith says if your heart is set on God, you don’t have to worry about the outcome because Jesus takes care of your life (Colossians 3:3–4; Matthew 6:33).

Where there’s faith, there’s uncertainty. 

And where there’s uncertainty, there’s discomfort. 

Our comfort zones of acceptance and admiration will be challenged. But will we move forward when there’s no clear path to success?

Jesus said if you want to follow him, you must deny yourself and take up your cross (Matthew 16:24). In his time, a cross meant shame and rejection. It was the opposite of normal. Carrying a cross implied guilt and required grace.

Picking up your cross means dying to the law none of us can meet. But the promise is that if you give up the need to draw life from fitting in, being accepted, and being comfortable, you’ll gain true life from God (Matthew 16:25).

And like Jairus and the bleeding woman, you’ll see things far greater than anything you imagined.