35 While he 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.
Read Mark 5:35-43 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
One fear that many people may have had in the first century was the fear of arriving too late to get help. In the gospels, this could be described as worry over whether one could make it to Jesus in time. If someone was very sick, then finding Jesus in time, with enough time for Him to come to help would be incredibly important.
However, with this fear, we have the temptation to get irritated or upset if Jesus gets delayed. The event we are focusing on in Mark’s gospel comes immediately following an interruption and delay. Jesus had been hurrying to Jairus’ home to help his daughter, but then they were interrupted with a woman trying to be healed secretly.
The woman wanted no recognition, but Jesus stopped everything to give it to her. Both the woman who was healed and Jairus wanted Jesus to continue without stopping in order to arrive at Jarius’ home in time to save his daughter. However, Jesus stopped and interrupted this mission to give recognition to the woman and her faith.
It is then that Jairus’ fear happened. Mark tells us, “While he 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.’” (v. 35)
Perhaps Jairus’ home was just around the corner of where they were, or maybe it was several blocks away. We cannot tell, but while this interruption likely didn’t take much time, it came at the exact point when Jairus’ fear came true: They were too late. The girl was dead. A healing would not be possible.
But Jesus overheard them, and in the next verse He says to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.” (v. 36)
In the moment when Jairus had lost hope, Jesus tells him to hold onto his faith. Both Jairus and the messengers believed Jesus to have the power to heal, but they did not believe He could resurrect and return life. In the details of this event, we can see how Jesus sets the stage to stretch this synagogue leader’s mind surrounding Him – including foreshadowing His own resurrection.
I wonder if resurrecting Jairus’ daughter changed the heart of this synagogue leader towards Jesus. Most synagogue leaders were opposed to Jesus. While they probably thought He had some good things to say, Jesus would often go too far, and He would ignore rules they had put in place to protect their day of worship. I wonder if all these disagreements were pushed aside in Jairus’ mind when Jesus returned his daughter to him.
All this happened after Jesus was too late to heal the girl.
This prompts me to believe and trust in God’s timing. While it may appear to be too late from my perspective, perhaps God is setting the stage to do something even greater than I could imagine. Perhaps He is setting the stage to stretch my mind about who He is!
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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