Flashback Episode — Life after Sleep: Mark 5:35-43

As we continue our chronological walk through the gospels looking at Jesus’ life and ministry, we come upon an event where it would be very easy for one of the individuals present to lose hope and faith in Jesus.

While the details of this gospel are not clear on if Jesus could have arrived in time had He not been distracted, because Jesus was distracted with an unexpected healing, we discover that the girl Jesus was headed to heal ultimately dies.

I suspect many of us who are familiar with the gospels know which event I am referring to. However, instead of jumping to the end of this event, let’s take a few minutes to focus on what happens leading up to the even-more-amazing-than-anyone-expected-it-to-be miracle that Jesus ultimately did.

If we look at the details leading up to the miracle, there are more than enough reasons for anyone faced with a similar situation to lose hope and faith in Jesus. However, with all these reasons for giving up hope, there are also hints within this passage that prompt us to keep our hope alive.

Let’s read what happened. Our passage for this episode is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 5, and we will read it using the New Living Translation. Immediately following an unexpected healing, verse 35 tells us that:

³⁵ While he [referring to Jesus] was still speaking to her, messengers arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. They told him, “Your daughter is dead. There’s no use troubling the Teacher now.”

³⁶ But Jesus overheard them and said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.”

³⁷ Then Jesus stopped the crowd and wouldn’t let anyone go with him except Peter, James, and John (the brother of James). ³⁸ When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw much commotion and weeping and wailing. ³⁹ He went inside and asked, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.”

⁴⁰ The crowd laughed at him. But he made them all leave, and he took the girl’s father and mother and his three disciples into the room where the girl was lying. ⁴¹ Holding her hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means “Little girl, get up!” ⁴² And the girl, who was twelve years old, immediately stood up and walked around! They were overwhelmed and totally amazed. ⁴³ Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone what had happened, and then he told them to give her something to eat.

Before this passage took place, Jesus had simply been a Healer – or an exceptional doctor – but after this passage, His reputation shifts into being a “life-giver”. The crowd, the messengers, and the mourners had all given up hope. “Don’t bother the Teacher anymore,” they said. Everyone, except Jesus, understood that returning someone’s life is different than simply returning someone’s health. They all believed that Jesus could return health, but returning life was completely different.

Jairus faces the tension in this passage: give up hope, or continue to have faith in Jesus. Mark tells us that Jesus stopped the crowd and told them (in addition to all but three of His disciples) to not go with Him the rest of the way to the house. It would seem that the pessimism in the crowd was spreading like a virus, and the last person Jesus wanted it to infect was Jairus, the father who Jesus wanted to help.

By stopping the crowd and only continuing with the select few individuals, Jesus stops the sea of pessimism and shifts it to one of curiosity and back in the direction of hope and faith.

However, the crowd of mourners at the house, like in the earlier crowd, had let death conquer their hope. Even Jesus, when He tried to shift their perspective, was laughed at. Death in their minds was nothing like sleep. These mourners understood that we wake up from sleep; we don’t wake up from death.

But Jesus would not be distracted. Taking the three disciples and the girl’s parents into the room, He proves all the naysayers wrong by giving life back to the dead girl.

In this event, Jesus proves that death really is just like sleep: at one point we lose consciousness, and at another point – when Jesus calls to us, we regain consciousness and “wake up”. Almost every spiritual truth has been illustrated by a physical parallel, and in this event, Jesus teaches us that physical sleep is our parallel to death.

But death is different than sleep. When we die, we cannot wake ourselves back up. After death, our bodies decay. Death in many ways is the absence of life, and our body’s internal systems cease to function or even exist. A loud sound can wake us up from sleep, but from death, no such noise can break its hold. Give our bodies just a little time to decay and we would not even have ears to hear that noise. When logically comparing death and sleep, death appears to be significantly different than sleep.

You may be scared of death. I can relate. There have been times in my life when the concept of dying is scary. But the truth I always come back to is Jesus – specifically the truth about who He is. Jesus is a “life-giver” and when given the opportunity, He gives life.

So with all this said, why would Jesus tell the crowd that this girl is not dead? Verse 39 records Jesus’ words as, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.” There had to have been other doctors around who could have taken a pulse and determined when the heart actually stopped beating. With no heartbeat and no breath, the girl’s life had left her. Doctors at the time would have easily been able to call this, and they would have done so prior to Jairus meeting Jesus, since messengers come and find them before they reach the crowd that is headed to the house. The messengers bring the message that the girl had died, and there was no reason to think anything different.

That is, until Jesus pushed the crowd to think differently, until Jesus pushed Jairus to not lose hope, and until Jesus proved His point by demonstrating that we have reason for hope after death. This twelve year-old girl was given a second chance for life, and her new life had a purpose. From that point forward, her life was no accident – it had been given and returned especially to her for a purpose. Jesus would always hold a significant place in her heart.

Jesus is the “Life-giver”, and when given the opportunity to give life, He does so. We might not experience the miracle of having our lives restored in the same way that this girl experienced, but Jesus does promise to restore our lives at the end of history when He returns.

This passage and miracle help give us hope that death is not the end. The life Jesus gives is stronger than death. This means that if we ever face sleep-death like this girl did, we know that Jesus will be the first face we see when He wakes us up, and following Jesus waking us up, nothing resembling death will ever be able to take His life from us!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life. Purposefully place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Him to keep you safe throughout history, and believe that the first face you see following any prolonged “sleep” that your future holds will be Jesus.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow closer to Jesus today. The closer you are to Jesus in this life, the more excited you will be for Jesus to return.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or walk away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!