The Daughter Of Jairus
THE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS
MARK 5:35-43
Here is a promise of Christ’s power.
The arrival of the sick woman and her cure may have been providentially intended to sustain the faith of Jairus. He may not have seen it in this way. After all, she was taking the attention of Jesus away from him, and with every moment that passed his little girl could be getting worse. His fears were confirmed by the arrival of the message that she had died. This was surely the end. To cure illness was one thing; to raise the dead was quite another. It is surely more likely that Jesus “overheard” (RSV margin) rather than “ignored” the fatal message, and promptly acted to relieve the anxiety of the sorrowing father.
At the house the elaborate ritual of Jewish mourning had already commenced; in an eastern climate the whole business of burying the dead was accomplished with the utmost speed (Acts 5:5-7). Jesus upbraided the mourners because, he said, the child was not dead but asleep. That is enough for the rationalists! Obviously the girl had never died at all and was only in a coma; only later was the story heightened by saying that she had died. But notice that Jesus had not yet seen the child, and he was not in the habit of making medical diagnoses. On the other hand, he cannot simply be describing death as sleep. He means that she is in a state from which she can be awakened, death and yet not final, irrevocable death. Here, then, is promise of his power.
The miracle is simply described. The words of command are no magic formula, but the actual Aramaic phrase that Jesus used. His thoughtful care is seen in the command that she be given some food. The injunction that nobody should know what happened is strange. Surely a cure like this could not be kept secret? But Jesus was concerned with the actual act of healing which he conducted in privacy. The people outside the room could speculate about what had happened, but they could never be certain. Only in the presence of faith did Jesus show his power. Even the pagan Plato once wrote: “To find the maker and father of this universe is a hard task; and when you have found him, it is impossible to speak of him before all people.”