There’s a modern proverb which says, “desperate times call for desperate measures.”

So… let me ask… what images come to mind when you think of the word “desperate?” A “hail-Mary” pass at the end of a football game… a relationship on its last legs… a community without food or water… an untimely death… broken humanity separated from a Holy God.

Desperation is a last gasp of hope. Desperate people are hanging by a thread, and with every amount of energy they have, they are trying to hold on. But most often, help must come from an outside source. Every resource has been tapped already.

We find two such desperate individuals in the next events of Jesus’ ministry.