Content
Daughter of the synagogue ruler (Mk 5:22-24, 35-43)
(the dying daughter)
Jairus was the ruler of a synagogue. He may have heard Jesus preaching in his synagogue and even seen Jesus healing people with his own eyes in his synagogue. His daughter, at the age of twelve (v42), was sick and “at the point of death” (v23). Jairus could hardly wait but rushed to Jesus for help. “When he saw him, he fell at his feet, And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live.” (v22-23) The urgency of the matter caused a synagogue ruler to kneel down humbly before Jesus in public regardless of his religious status. His request showed that he had absolute faith in Jesus--if Jesus laid hands on his daughter, her life would be maintained. Jesus was touched by the father’s love for his daughter, his humble attitude as well as his strong faith in him. He granted his request and headed for his home to heal his daughter out of mercy. However, a woman with blood disease (v25) was in the way as she sought Jesus’ healing as well. While dealing with her case, Jesus postponed healing Jairus’ daughter…
(the deceased daughter)
A throng of people followed Jesus at the time.(v24) While everyone was quietly listening to the dialogue between Jesus and the woman, what do you think of the feeling of Jairus in that instance? He must be extremely worried and distressed with the daughter’s condition. He just wanted Jesus to set off quickly to his house.
Sadly, Mark 5:35 told us, “While he (Jesus) yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further?” Even before Jesus finished his word with the woman, the death news of Jairus’ daughter arrived. Since this news was reported by someone from his house, the news must be very accurate. This is certainly a big blow to the worrying father. How would he feel at that tragic moment? Prior to hearing the death news, he was still anxiously bearing a bit of hope that Jesus would get to his house in time to heal his daughter. Now, he was plainly told by someone from his house, “Don’t bother! Your daughter is already dead.” His tiny hope was dashed all at once.
While Jairus still wondered how he should respond to such shocking news—whether to keep on inviting Jesus to his house or just to tell him to forget about it, Jesus comforted him with this word, “Be not afraid, only believe.” (v36) What a comforting word to this hopeless father!
Sometimes when our hearts are broken for some reason, we need comforting word but receive negative word instead. This will not only hurt our hearts more deeply but strike our faith in our Lord. Satan always attempts to dash our hope and faith in the Lord in our distress. It is at this desperate moment that the Lord brings to us timely comfort through His own word from the Scripture or from the mouth of other Christians.
Jesus has taught the lesson of “faith overcomes fear” to his disciples in the incident of quieting the sea in Mark 4. Jairus was not there in the ship, of course; but he was right here when the blood-disease woman got healed. He has just heard of the woman’s live testimony and witnessed Jesus’ immense power of healing. While his mind was blank with the befalling of the sudden death news, his little hope was revived by Jesus’ encouraging word. What he needs now is faith in Jesus’ power of healing again. Nevertheless, his faith must be no less than the faith of the blood-disease woman. Frankly, his faith must be far greater than the first time he besought Jesus to heal his daughter, since what he is now facing is a daughter who is no longer alive. A moment ago, he had strong faith to believe that this Master could heal his daughter “at the point of death.” But how can he believe in a Master who can heal a person who has already died?! So it is natural for him to cast doubt on Jesus’ saying “be not afraid, only believe.” He may even question what sort of faith Jesus is talking about.
Now Jesus demands Jairus to double his faith in him. This is definitely not easy at all. However, we have reason to believe that this is actually an acid test given by Jesus to Jairus on purpose. Why? Just consider that Jesus allowed the urgent matter of healing his daughter to be delayed by the public testimony of the blood-disease woman--until his daughter died! We have good reason to believe that Jesus wanted Jairus and his relatives and neighbors to see a great miracle, that Jesus not merely has the power of healing a dying person but even the power of raising the daughter from real death. Their faith in Jesus would definitely be doubled afterward.
We are not told why Jesus only arranged for Peter, James and John to follow him all the way to Jairus house.(v37) All we know is that these three disciples are his close disciples (refer to the passage of “The 12 disciples”). In my opinion, he wanted these three disciples to perceive his power of reviving the soul in the girl’s room. As a result, their faith would be enhanced for future leadership.
(the revived daughter)
Jesus finally reached Jairus’ house with his three disciples. As soon as he entered the house, he “seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly.” (v38) The fact that the fellows inside the house “wept and wailed greatly” was an evidence of true death of the girl. Describing the scene with the word “tumult” (“commotion” NRSV), however, is rather surprising. It sounds like the word revealed the atmosphere of fury, discontent and even complaints for the late arrival of Jesus other than the sound of grief and mourning. In order to soften the tense and grievous situation, Jesus immediately comforted everyone by saying, “Why make ye this ado, and weep? The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth” (v39). The crowd was simply shocked by Jesus’ saying. Everyone knew that the girl was already dead, otherwise they would not have grieved to death. Jesus said that the girl was only sleeping! Was he just joking?
“And they laughed him to scorn.” (v40) They merely took Jesus’ word as nonsense and naïve, as he considered that she was sleeping instead of lying dead. At that moment, they did not anticipate Jesus to be able or ready to offer any help. They simply thought that he arrived too late to perform any healing, and thus put the blame on him for coming late. Jesus drove out the crowd whose responses could only damage the parents’ faith and hope in him. “When he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying.” (v40) The parents and the three disciples were given the opportunity to be the eyewitnesses of how Jesus saved the life of a dead girl. “He took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her… ‘Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.’ ” (v41) A magnificent miracle happened with immediate effect—“straightway the damsel arose, and walked.” (v42) There was no delay of saving the soul.
Many a time when we can hardly wait for the Lord to answer our urgent prayers, we think that the Lord is delaying the time and making the matter more serious. We are just as nervous as Jairus and will probably begin to complain like the crowd. We will be losing our faith rapidly over time. Here is where the Lord’s promise in the Scripture helps to maintain our faith in Him. In this miracle, we have learnt that if the Lord has answered our urgent prayer requests, he will take action in His proper time. In fact, as far as our Lord is concerned, saving alive a dead person is as simple as waking her up from sleep.
When the crowd saw this great miracle, “they were astonished with a great astonishment.” (v42) Had not Jesus delayed curing the girl, she would not have been raised from the dead. This miracle would not have astonished everyone so greatly. It is totally out of everyone’s surprise that Jesus had the power to do so. They have only seen Jesus healing people before, not making alive the dead bodies.
This miracle is one of the three miracles recorded in the Four Gospels in which Jesus raised a person from death. The other two miracles are: Jesus raised a widow’s son (Luke 7:12-15) and raised Lazarus who has died for four days (John 11:43-44). We are not told if there are any other cases of human being raised by Jesus. The fourth and the most profound miracle about revival of human life from death is of course the raising of Jesus himself by God after three days of burial inside a tomb.
At last, Jesus “charged them straitly that no man should know it.” (v43) Such a great miracle of raising people from death is not to be spread around! Anybody, especially the one who performs the miracle, would love to do so. Why not? As discussed before, Jesus does not want people to come to him only for healing. Nor does he want them to worship him because he has the power of performing miracles. He wants them to truly recognize and believe who he is—one who is sent by God to save them from sin. In this great miracle, he seems to be more concerned about Jairus’ faith in him. “Be not afraid, only believe” (v36) is the key message and lesson that Jesus intends to give us—for the purpose of doubling our faith.