One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward.
Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying,
"My daughter is at the point of death.
Please, come lay your hands on her
that she may get well and live."
The synagogue official was moved by his desperate love for his daughter to put his faith in Jesus. Jesus had gained the reputation for being a healer. For Jairus this reputation now became a matter of life or death for his daughter. Jesus was no longer just a passing spectacle or curiosity but someone on whom Jairus had no alternative but to to trust. In good times, when things are easy, we like to imagine that we're trusting Jesus. But it is when situations became dire that the genuineness of our faith is tested. When our own lives our shaken, is our instinct to trust in Jesus no matter what?
There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years.
Normally we'd be happy to see another individual healed. But if, like Jairus, our daughter was dying, and every moment mattered, would we easily tolerate an interruption? Or would we instead become envious, wishing that whatever good happened in the meantime had not happened so that we could attain our own desire? Jairus, however, apparently waited without wavering. Even when, in the ultimate test of his faith in Jesus, he was told that his daughter had died, he did not protest about how things might have gone differently if only Jesus hadn't stopped along the way. Instead, Jesus invited him to continue to trust him as he had at first and he responded with faith.
Disregarding the message that was reported,
Jesus said to the synagogue official,
"Do not be afraid; just have faith."
Jairus must have been able to correctly interpret the healing of the hemorrhaging woman as a sign that increased his own faith in the power of Jesus. Rather than seeing himself as left out or forgotten he must have been able to be happy to see her healed even while his own situation remained at the breaking point. And even after things had progressed beyond human hope he did not appear to blame the woman or to blame Jesus.
So he went in and said to them,
"Why this commotion and weeping?
The child is not dead but asleep."
The faith of Jairus was rewarded because to Jesus even death was no more permanent than sleep. He was able to wake this child from death as a parent might wake a child from slumber to welcome the light of a new day. And now the delay that he seemed so costly bore the abundant fruit of an even greater revelation of the power of Jesus, leading Jairus to even greater faith. It reminds us of the delay of Jesus in coming to Lazarus.
Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” (see John 11:14-15).
Just to touch Jesus in faith was enough to save a woman who had suffered with no relief for twelve years. At his world, a child of twelve who had died was brought back to life. We are meant to see that there is no limit to the power of Jesus. But we are also meant to appreciate that he doesn't necessarily visit us on the schedule we would set for him. Delay can lead us to doubt. But we are meant to persevere instead. If we do we too will be rewarded with a revelation that will strengthen our faith.
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