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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 9:18

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While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshiped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

18. a certain ruler ] From Mark and Luke we learn that he was chief ruler of the synagogue, Jairus by name.

My daughter ] “My little daughter,” (Mark); “one only daughter, about twelve years of age,” (Luke).

is even now dead ] “lieth at the point of death,” (Mark); “lay a-dying,” (Luke).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18 26. The Daughter of Jairus, 18, 19 and 23 26; Mar 5:22-24; Mar 5:35-43. Luk 8:41-42; Luk 8:49-56

The Woman cured of an Issue of Blood, 20 22. Mar 5:25-34; Luk 8:43-48

Related with more detail by St Mark and St Luke. She had spent all her living on physicians. Jesus perceives that virtue has gone out of him. The woman tells all the truth before the people.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The account contained in these verses is also recorded, with some additional circumstances, in Mark 5:22-43, and Luke 8:41-56.

Mat 9:18

There came a certain ruler – Mark and Luke say that his name was Jairus, and that he was a ruler of the synagogue; that is, one of the elders to whom was committed the care of the synagogue.

See the notes at Mat 4:23.

And worshipped him – That is, fell down before him, or expressed his respect for him by a token of profound regard. See the notes at Mat 2:2.

My daughter is even now dead – Luke says that this was his only daughter, and that she was twelve years of age. Mark and Luke say that she was at the point of death, and that information of her actual death was brought to him by one who was sent by the ruler of the synagogue, while Jesus was going. Matthew combined the two facts, and stated the representation which was made to Jesus, without stopping particularly to exhibit the manner in which it was done. In a summary way he says that the ruler communicated the information. Luke and Mark, dwelling more particularly on the circumstances, state at length the way in which it was done; that is, by himself stating, in a hurry, that she was about to die, or was dying, and then in a few moments sending word that she was dead. The Greek word, rendered is even now dead, does not of necessity mean, as our translation would express, that she had actually expired, but only that she was dying or about to die. Compare Gen 48:21. It is likely that a father, in these circumstances, would use a word as nearly expressing actual death as would be consistent with the fact that she was alive. The passage may be expressed thus: My daughter was so sick that she must be by this time dead.

Come and lay thy hand upon her – It was customary for the Jewish prophets, in conferring favors, to lay their hand on the person benefited. Jesus had probably done so also, and the ruler had probably witnessed the fact.

Mat 9:20

And, behold, a woman … – This disease was by the Jews reckoned unclean Lev 15:25, and the woman was therefore unwilling to make personal application to Jesus, or even to touch his person. The disease was regarded as incurable. She had expended all her property, and grew worse, Mar 5:26.

Touched the hem of his garment – This garment was probably the square garment which was thrown over the shoulders. See notes at Mat 5:40. This was surrounded by a border or fringe; and this fringe, or the loose threads hanging down, is what is meant by the hem. The Jews were commanded to wear this, in order to distinguish them from other nations. See Num 15:38-39; Deu 22:12.

Mark says that the woman, fearing and trembling, came and told him all the truth. Perhaps she feared that, from the impure nature of her disease, he would be offended that she touched him.

Mat 9:22

But Jesus tutored him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort – Jesus silenced her fears, commended her faith, and sent her away in peace.

He used an endearing appellation, calling her daughter, a word of tenderness and affection, and dismissed her who had been twelve long and tedious years labouring under a weakening and offensive disease, now in an instant made whole. Her faith, her strong confidence in Jesus, had been the means of her restoration. It was the power of Jesus that cured her; but that power would not have been exerted but in connection with faith. So in the salvation of a sinner. No one is saved who does not believe; but faith is the instrument, and not the power, that saves.

Mat 9:23

And widen Jesus came into the rulers house … – Jesus permitted only three of his disciples, Peter, James, and John the brother of James, and the father and mother of the damsel, to go in with him where the corpse lay, Mar 5:37-40

It was important that there should be witnesses of the miracle, and he chose a sufficient number. Five witnesses were enough to establish the fact. The witnesses were impartial. The fact that she was dead was established beyond a doubt. Of this the mourners, the parents, the messengers, the people, were satisfied. If she was presented to the people alive, the proof of the miracle was complete. The presence of more than the five witnesses would have made the scene tumultuous, and have been less satisfactory evidence of the fact of the restoration of the child. Five sober witnesses are always better than the confused voices of a rabble. These were the same disciples that were with him on the Mount of Transfiguration and in the Garden of Gethsemane, Mar 9:2; Mar 14:33; 2Pe 1:17-18.

And saw the minstrels and the people making a noise – Minstrels are persons who play on instruments of music. The people of the East used to bewail the dead by cutting the flesh, tearing the hair, and crying bitterly. See Jer 9:17; Jer 16:6-7; Eze 24:17. The expressions of grief at the death of a friend, in Eastern countries, are extreme. As soon as a person dies, all the females in the family set up a loud and doleful cry. They continue it as long as they can without taking breath, and the shriek of wailing dies away in a low sob. Nor do the relatives satisfy themselves with these expressions of violent grief. They hire persons of both sexes, whose employment it is to mourn for the dead in the like frantic manner. See Amo 5:16; Jer 9:20. They sing the virtues of the deceased, recount his acts, dwell on his beauty, strength, or learning; on the comforts of his family and home, and in doleful strains ask him why he left his family and friends.

To all this they add soft and melancholy music. They employ minstrels to aid their grief, and to increase the expressions of their sorrow. This violent grief continues, commonly, eight days. In the case of a king, or other very distinguished personage, it is prolonged through an entire month. This grief does not cease at the house; it is exhibited in the procession to the grave, and the air is split with the wailings of real and of hired mourners. Professor Hackett (Illustrations of Scripture, pp. 121, 122) says: During my stay at Jerusalem I frequently heard a singular cry issuing from the houses in the neighborhood of the place where I lodged, or from those on the streets through which I passed. It was to be heard at all hours – in the morning, at noonday, at evening, or in the deep silence of night. For some time I was at a loss to understand the cause of this strange interruption of the stillness which, for the most part, hangs so oppressively over the lonely city. Had it not been so irregular in its occurrence, I might have supposed it to indicate some festive occasion; for the tones of voice (yet hardly tones so much as shrieks) used for the expression of different feelings sound so much alike to the unpracticed ear, that it is not easy always to distinguish the mournful and the joyous from each other.

I ascertained, at length, that this special cry was, no doubt, in most instances, the signal of the death of some person in the house from which it was heard. It is customary, when a member of the family is about to die, for the friends to assemble around him and watch the ebbing away of life, so as to remark the precise moment when he breathes his last, upon which they set up instantly a united outcry, attended with weeping, and often with beating upon the breast, and tearing out the hair of the head. This lamentation they repeat at other times, especially at the funeral, both during the procession to the grave and after the arrival there, as they commit the remains to their last resting-place.

The Jews were forbidden to tear their hair and cut their flesh. See Lev 19:28; Deu 14:1. They showed their grief by howling, by music, by concealing the chin with their garment, by rending the outer garment, by refusing to wash or anoint themselves, or to converse with people, by scattering ashes or dust in the air, or by lying down in them, Job 1:20; Job 2:12; 2Sa 1:2-4; 2Sa 14:2; 2Sa 15:30; Mar 14:63. The expressions of grief, therefore, mentioned on this occasion, though excessive and foolish, were yet strictly in accordance with Eastern customs.

Mat 9:24

The maid is not dead, but sleepeth – It cannot be supposed that our Lord means literally to say that the child was not dead.

Every possible evidence of her death had been given, and he acted on that himself, and conveyed to the people the idea that he raised her from the dead. He meant to speak in opposition to their opinions. It is not unlikely that Jairus and the people favored the opinions of the Sadducees, and that they understood by her being dead that she had ceased to be, and that she would never be raised up again. In opposition to this, the Saviour used the expression she sleepeth; affirming mildly both that the body was dead, and implying that her spirit still lived, and that she would be raised up again. A similar mode of speaking occurs in Joh 11:11 Our friend Lazarus sleepeth. The sacred writers often spoke of the pious dead as sleeping, 2Pe 3:4; Act 7:60; 1Co 15:6, 1Co 15:18; 1Th 4:13-15. The meaning of this passage, then, is, the maid has not ceased to exist; but, though her body is dead, yet her spirit lives, and she sleeps in the hope of the resurrection.

Laughed him to scorn – Derided him; ridiculed him.

Mat 9:25

He went in – With the father, and mother, and three disciples, Mar 5:37-40.

The maid arose – She returned to life.

There could be no deception here. Parents could not be imposed on in such a case, nor could such a multitude be deceived. The power of Jesus was undoubtedly shown to be sufficient to raise the dead.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 18. A certain ruler] There were two officers in the synagogue, chazan ha-ceneseth, the bishop or overseer of the congregation; and rosh ha-ceneseth, the head or ruler of the congregation. The chazan takes the book of the Law, and gives it to the rosh, or ruler; and he appoints who shall read the different sections, c. Jairus, who is the person intended here, was, in this latter sense, the ruler or governor of one of the synagogues, probably at Capernaum. See Mr 5:22 Lu 8:41.

My daughter is even now dead] Or, my daughter was just now dying; , or, is by this time dead: i.e. as Mr. Wakefield properly observes, She was so ill when I left home that she must be dead by this time. This turn of the expression reconciles the account given here with that in Mark and Luke. Michaelis conjectures that, in the Hebrew original, the words must have stood thus, atah matah, which, without the points, may signify either, She is dead, or She is dying.

To be successful in our applications to God by prayer, four things are requisite; and this ruler teaches us what they are.

First, A man should place himself in the presence of God – he came unto him.

Secondly, He should humble himself sincerely before God – he fell down before him-at his feet. Mr 5:22.

Thirdly, He should lay open his wants with a holy earnestness – he besought him greatly. Mr 5:23.

Fourthly, he should have unbounded confidence in the power and goodness of Christ that his request shall be granted – put thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

He who comes in this way to God, for salvation, is sure to be heard. Imposition of hands was a rite anciently used by the servants of God, through which heavenly influences were conveyed to the bodies and souls of men. This rite is still used in certain Churches; but, as there is no Holy Ghost communicated by it, some suppose it may be as well omitted. But why is this? Is it not because there is an unfaithfulness in the person who lays on hands, or an unfitness in him on whom they are laid? Let the rite be restored to its primitive simplicity, and God will own it as he formerly did. But, however this may be, where is the man or number of men who have authority to abrogate a rite of God’s own appointment? In the appointment of men to the sacred ministry it should never be omitted: even in these degenerate days, it may still serve as a sign of the necessity of the gifts and graces of that Holy Spirit without which no man can fulfil the work of the ministry, or be the instrument of saving the souls of them that hear him. When the inventions of men are put in the place of the ordinances of God, the true Church of Christ is in great danger.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Mark hath this history, Mar 5:22-24, And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and 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. And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him. Luke hath it, Luk 8:42, adding only that she was his only daughter, twelve years of age. Two evangelists say she was at the point of death, or dying: Matthew saith that he said she was dead; that might be according to his apprehension; she was so near death, that he concluded that by that time he was got to Christ she was dead. Others observe out of Greek authors, that the particle , here used, doth not always signify a time past, but sometimes a time near at hand. But the best answer is, that Matthew relates the story compendiously. It appears from Luk 8:49, that the maid did die. Matthew reports that first, which the messenger brought them the news of afterwards, as we shall see in Mat 9:23. By the ruler here both Mark and Luke tell us is to be understood Jairus; not a civil magistrate, but one who was the ruler of the synagogue in that place; for in their synagogues they had an order, there was one chief who ordered the affairs of it, and they say the interpretation of the law belonged to him.

And worshipped him, with a civil worship, or respect,

saying, My daughter is even now dead, or dying. One would judge the latter should be the evangelists meaning of the particle, because of what the other evangelists say,

Come and lay thy hands on her, and she shall live. His faith riseth not up to the centurions faith, who declared his faith that if Christ would but speak the word his servant should live. Jairus desires him to come and lay his hands upon her.

And Jesus arose, and followed him, and his disciples. The Jews thrust Christs followers out of their synagogues; he is more kind to the ruler of their synagogue, he presently goeth, and his disciples followed him: they were to be witnesses of his miracles. Mark adds, much people followed, and thronged him; which gave occasion to another miracle, which Christ did in his way to Jairuss house, the relation of which Matthew giveth us before he perfecth the history of this miracle.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

While he spake these things unto them,…. To the Scribes and Pharisees, and to John’s disciples, concerning, and in vindication of his, and his disciples, eating and drinking with publicans and sinners, and their not fasting as others did; and while he spake these parables, to expose the folly of self-righteous persons, and justify his own conduct, in calling sinners to repentance,

behold, there came a certain ruler and worshipped him. This man, as both Mark and Luke say, was named Jairus; and was a ruler, not of the sanhedrim, or lesser consistory, but of the synagogue that was at Capernaum; and whom the Jews call, , “the head of the synagogue”. Mark says, he was “one of the rulers”: not that there were more rulers than one, in one synagogue q: but as in great cities, so it is likely in Capernaum there were more synagogues than one, of which he was one of the rulers: so we read of r, “heads”, or “rulers of synagogues”. As this is one mistake, so it is another to say, that Dr. Lightfoot speaks of this ruler, as the same with the “minister” of the congregation; when both here, and in the place referred to, he manifestly distinguishes them; as do the Jews: for, by this ruler, as their commentators s say,

“the necessary affairs of the synagogue were determined, as who should dismiss with a prophet, who should divide the “shema”, and who should go before the ark.”

Whereas the business of , “the minister of the synagogue”, was to bring in and out the ark, or chest, in which was the book of the law; and particularly, when the high priest read, or pronounced the blessings, “he” took the book, and gave it to “the ruler of the synagogue”; and the ruler of the synagogue gave it to the “sagan”, and the “sagan” to the high priest t. The doctor makes indeed

, “the messenger of the congregation”, to be the same with “the minister of the synagogue”, and which is his mistake; for these were two different officers u: the former was the lecturer, or preacher; and the latter, a sort of a sexton to keep the synagogue clean, open and shut the doors, and do other things before mentioned. This Jairus was a man of great power and significance; who in such a very humble manner prostrated himself at the feet of Jesus, and expressed such strong faith in him:

saying, my daughter is even now dead, but come and lay thine hand upon her, and she shall live. Luke says, she was “his only daughter”: and Mark calls her his “little daughter”: though both he and Luke say, she was about “twelve” years of age, and that with strict propriety, according to the Jewish canons, which w say; that

“a daughter, from the day of her birth until she is twelve years complete, is called , “a little one” and when she is twelve years of age, and one day and upwards, she is called , “a young woman”.”

Her case seems to be differently represented; Mark says, she was “at the point of death”, or “in the last extremity”; and Luke, that she “lay dying”: but Matthew here says, that she was “even now dead”, which may be easily reconciled: for not to observe, that signifies “near”, and the phrase may be rendered, “she is near dead”, or just expiring, the case was this; when Jairus left his house, his daughter was in the agony of death, just ready to give up the ghost; so, that he concluded, by the time he was with Jesus, she had made her exit; as it appears she had, by a messenger, who brought the account of her death, before they could get to the house. The ruler’s address to Christ on this occasion, is a very considerable, though not so great an instance of faith as some others; that he, who was a ruler of a synagogue, should apply to Christ, which sort of men were generally most averse to him; that he should fall down and worship him, if not as God, since as yet he might be ignorant of his deity, yet behaved with the profoundest respect to him, as a great man, and a prophet; that he should come to him when his child was past all hope of recovery; yea, when he had reason to believe she was actually dead, as she was; that even then, he should believe in hope against hope; he affirms, that he really believed, that if Christ would but come to his house, and lay his hand upon her, an action often used in grave and serious matters, as in blessing persons, in prayer, and in healing diseases, she would certainly be restored to life again.

q Vid. Rhenfurd. de decem otiosis dissert. 2. c. 7. r T. Bab. Gittin, fol. 60. 1. s Jarchi & Bartenora in Misn. Yoma, c. 7. sect. 1. & Sota, c. 7. sect. 7. t Misn. Sota, c. 7. sect. 7. & Bartenora in ib. u Vid. Rhenfurd, dissert. 1. p. 81, etc. w Maimon. Hilchot lshot, c. 2. sect. 1. & Bartenora in Misn. Nidda, c. 5. sect. 6.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Ruler’s Daughter Raised.

18 While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live. 19 And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples. 20 And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: 21 For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. 22 But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour. 23 And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, 24 He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. 25 But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose. 26 And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.

We have here two passages of history put together; that of the raising of Jairus’s daughter to life, and that of the curing of the woman that had the bloody issue, as he was going to Jairus’s house, which is introduced in a parenthesis, in the midst of the other; for Christ’s miracles were thick sown, and interwoven; the work of him that sent him was his daily work. He was called to do these good works from speaking the things foregoing, in answer to the cavils of the Pharisees, v. 18: While he spake these things; and we may suppose it is a pleasing interruption given to that unpleasant work of disputation, which, though sometimes needful, a good man will gladly leave, to go about a work of devotion or charity. Here is,

I. The ruler’s address to Christ, v. 18. A certain ruler, a ruler of the synagogue, came and worshipped him. Have any of the rulers believed on him? Yes, here was one, a church ruler, whose faith condemned the unbelief of the rest of the rulers. This ruler had a little daughter, of twelve years old, just dead, and this breach made upon his family comforts was the occasion of his coming to Christ. Note, In trouble we should visit God: the death of our relations should drive us to Christ, who is our life; it is well if any thing will do it. When affliction is in our families, we must not sit down astonished, but, as Job, fall down and worship. Now observe,

1. His humility in this address to Christ. He came with his errand to Christ himself, and did not send his servant. Note, It is no disparagement to the greatest rulers, personally to attend on the Lord Jesus. He worshipped him, bowed the knee to him, and gave him all imaginable respect. Note, They that would receive mercy from Christ must give honour to Christ.

2. His faith in this address; “My daughter is even now dead,” and though any other physician would now come too late (nothing more absurd than post mortem medicina–medicine after death), yet Christ comes not too late; he is a Physician after death, for he is the resurrection and the life; “O come then, and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.” This was quite above the power of nature (a privatione ad habitum non datur regressus–life once lost cannot be restored), yet within the power of Christ, who has life in himself, and quickeneth whom he will. Now Christ works in an ordinary, by nature and not against it, and, therefore, we cannot in faith bring him such a request as this; while there is life, there is hope, and room for prayer; but when our friends are dead, the case is determined; we shall go to them, but they shall not return to us. But while Christ was here upon earth working miracles, such a confidence as this was not only allowable but very commendable.

II. The readiness of Christ to comply with his address, v. 19. Jesus immediately arose, left his company, and followed him; he was not only willing to grant him what he desired, in raising his daughter to life, but to gratify him so far as to come to his house to do it. Surely he never said to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain. He denied to go along with the nobleman, who said, Sir, come down, ere my child die (John iv. 48-50), yet he went along with the ruler of the synagogue, who said, Sir, come down, and my child shall live. The variety of methods which Christ took in working his miracles is perhaps to be attributed to the different frame and temper of mind which they were in who applied to him, which he who searcheth the heart perfectly knew, and accommodated himself to. He knows what is in man, and what course to take with him. And observe, when Jesus followed him, so did his disciples, whom he had chosen for his constant companions; it was not for state, or that he might come with observation, that he took his attendants with him, but that they might be the witnesses of his miracles, who were hereafter to be the preachers of his doctrine.

III. The healing of the poor woman’s bloody issue. I call her a poor woman, not only because her case was piteous, but because, she had spent it all upon physicians, for the cure of her distemper, and was never the better; which was a double aggravation of the misery of her condition, that she had been full, but was now empty; and that she had impoverished herself for the recovery of her health, and yet had not her health neither. This woman was diseased with a constant issue of blood twelve years (v. 20); a disease, which was not only weakening and wasting, and under which the body must needs languish; but which also rendered her ceremonially unclean, and shut her out from the courts of the Lord’s house; but it did not cut her off from approaching to Christ. She applied herself to Christ, and received mercy from him, by the way, as he followed the ruler, whose daughter was dead, to whom it would be a great encouragement, and a help to keep up his faith in the power of Christ. So graciously does Christ consider the frame, and consult the case, of weak believers. Observe,

1. The woman’s great faith in Christ, and in his power. Her disease was of such a nature, that her modesty would not suffer her to speak openly to Christ for a cure, as others did, but by a peculiar impulse of the Spirit of faith, she believed him to have such an overflowing fulness of healing virtue, that the very touch of his garment would be her cure. This, perhaps, had something of fancy mixed with faith; for she had no precedent for this way of application to Christ, unless, as some think, she had an eye to the raising of the dead man by the touch of Elisha’s bones, 2 Kings xiii. 21. But what weakness of understanding there was in it, Christ was pleased to overlook, and to accept the sincerity and strength of her faith; for he eateth the honey-comb with the honey, Cant. iv. 11. She believed she should be healed if she did but touch the very hem of his garment, the very extremity of it. Note, There is virtue in every thing that belongs to Christ. The holy oil with which the high priest was anointed, ran down to the skirts of his garments, Ps. cxxxiii. 2. Such a fulness of grace is there in Christ, that from it we may all receive, John i. 16.

2. Christ’s great favour to this woman. He did not suspend (as he might have done) his healing influences, but suffered this bashful patient to steal a cure unknown to any one else, though she could not think to do it unknown to him. And now she was well content to be gone, for she had what she came for, but Christ was not willing to let he to so; he will not only have his power magnified in her cure, but his grace magnified in her comfort and commendation: the triumphs of her faith must be to her praise and honour. He turned about to see for her (v. 22), and soon discovered her. Note, It is great encouragement to humble Christians, that they who hide themselves from men are known to Christ, who sees in secret their applications to heaven when most private. Now here,

(1.) He puts gladness into her heart, by that word, Daughter, be of good comfort. She feared being chidden for coming clandestinely, but she is encouraged. [1.] He calls her daughter, for he spoke to her with the tenderness of a father, as he did to the man sick of the palsy (v. 2), whom he called son. Note, Christ has comforts ready for the daughters of Zion, that are of a sorrowful spirit, as Hannah was, 1 Sam. i. 15. Believing women are Christ’s daughters, and he will own them as such. [2.] He bids her be of good comfort: she has reason to be so, if Christ own her for a daughter. Note, The saints’ consolation is founded in their adoption. His bidding her be comforted, brought comfort with it, as his saying, Be ye whole, brought health with it. Note, It is the will of Christ that his people should be comforted, and it is his prerogative to command comfort to troubled spirits. He creates the fruit of the lips, peace, Isa. lvii. 19.

(2.) He puts honour upon her faith. That grace of all others gives most honour to Christ, and therefore he puts most honour upon it; Thy faith has made thee whole. Thus by faith she obtained a good report. And as of all graces Christ puts the greatest honour upon faith, so of all believers he puts the greatest honour upon those that are most humble; as here on this woman, who had more faith than she thought she had. She had reason to be of good comfort, not only because she was made whole, but because her faith had made her whole; that is, [1.] She was spiritually healed; that cure was wrought in her which is the proper fruit and effect of faith, the pardon of sin and the work of grace. Note, We may then be abundantly comforted in our temporal mercies when they are accompanied with those spiritual blessings that resemble them; our food and raiment will be comfortable, when by faith we are fed with the bread of life, and clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ; our rest and sleep will be comfortable, when by faith we repose in God, and dwell at ease in him; our health and prosperity will be comfortable, when by faith our souls prosper, and are in health. See Isa 38:16; Isa 38:17. [2.] Her bodily cure was the fruit of faith, of her faith, and that made it a happy, comfortable cure indeed. They out of whom the devils were cast, were helped by Christ’s sovereign power; some by the faith of others (as v. 2); but it is thy faith that has made thee whole. Note, Temporal mercies are then comforts indeed to us, when they are received by faith. If, when in pursuit of mercy, we prayed for it in faith, with an eye to the promise, and in dependence upon that, if we desired it for the sake of God’s glory, and with a resignation to God’s will, and have our hearts enlarged by it in faith, love, and obedience, we may then say, it was received by faith.

IV. The posture in which he found the ruler’s house, v. 23. –He saw the people and the minstrels, or musicians, making a noise. The house was in a hurry: such work does death make, when it comes into a family; and, perhaps, the necessary cares that arise at such a time, when our dead is to be decently buried out of our sight, give some useful diversion to that grief which is apt to prevail and play the tyrant. The people in the neighbourhood came together to condole on account of the loss, to comfort the parents, to prepare for, and attend on, the funeral, which the Jews were not wont to defer long. The musicians were among them, according to the custom of the Gentiles, with their doleful, melancholy tunes, to increase the grief, and stir up the lamentations of those that attended on this occasion; as (they say) is usual among the Irish, with their Ahone, Ahone. Thus they indulged a passion that is apt enough of itself to grow intemperate, and affected to sorrow as those that had no hope. See how religion provides cordials, where irreligion administers corrosives. Heathenism aggravates that grief which Christianity studies to assuage. Or perhaps these musicians endeavoured on the other hand to divert the grief and exhilarate the family; but, as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that sings songs to a heavy heart. Observe, The parents, who were immediately touched with the affliction, were silent, while the people and minstrels, whose lamentations were forced, made such a noise. Note, The loudest grief is not always the greatest; rivers are most noisy where they run shallow. Ille dolet vere, qui sine teste dolet–That grief is most sincere, which shuns observation. But notice is taken of this, to show that the girl was really dead, in the undoubted apprehension of all about her.

V. The rebuke that Christ gave to this hurry and noise, v. 24. He said, Give place. Note, Sometimes, when the sorrow of the world prevails, it is difficult for Christ and his comforts to enter. They that harden themselves in sorrow, and, like Rachel, refuse to be comforted, should think they hear Christ saying to their disquieting thoughts, Give place: “Make room for him who is the Consolation of Israel, and brings with him strong consolations, strong enough to overcome the confusion and tyranny of these worldly griefs, if he may but be admitted into the soul.” He gives a good reason why they should not thus disquiet themselves and one another; The maid is not dead but sleepeth. 1. This was eminently true of this maid, that was immediately to be raised to life; she was really dead, but not so to Christ, who knew within himself what he would do, and could do, and who had determined to make her death but as a sleep. There is little more difference between sleep and death, but in continuance; whatever other difference there is, it is but a dream. This death must be but of short continuance, and therefore is but a sleep, like one night’s rest. He that quickens the dead, may well call the things which be not as though they were, Rom. iv. 17. 2. It is in a sense true of all that die, chiefly of them that die in the Lord. Note, (1.) Death is a sleep. All nations and languages, for the softening of that which is so dreadful, and withal so unavoidable, and the reconciling of themselves to it, have agreed to call it so. It is said, even of the wicked kings, that they slept with their fathers; and of those that shall arise to everlasting contempt, that they sleep in the dust, Dan. xii. 2. It is not the sleep of the soul; its activity ceases not; but the sleep of the body, which lies down in the grave, still and silent, regardless and disregarded, wrapt up in darkness and obscurity. Sleep is a short death, and death a long sleep. But the death of the righteous is in a special manner to be looked upon as a sleep, Isa. lvii. 2. They sleep in Jesus (1 Thess. iv. 14); they not only rest from the toils and labours of the day, but rest in hope of a joyful waking again in the morning of the resurrection, when they shall wake refreshed, wake to a new life, wake to be richly dressed and crowned, and wake to sleep no more. (2.) The consideration of this should moderate our grief at the death of our dear relations: “say not, They are lost; no, they are but gone before: say not, They are slain; no, they are but fallen asleep; and the apostle speaks of it as an absurd thing to imagine that they that are fallen asleep in Christ are perished (1 Cor. xv. 18); give place, therefore, to those comforts which the covenant of grace ministers, fetched from the future state, and the glory to be revealed.“

Now could it be thought that such a comfortable word as this, from the mouth of our Lord Jesus, should be ridiculed as it was? They laughed him to scorn. These people lived in Capernaum, knew Christ’s character, that he never spake a rash or foolish word; they knew how many mighty works he had done; so that if they did not understand what he meant by this, they might at least have been silent in expectation of the issue. Note, The words and works of Christ which cannot be understood, yet are not therefore to be despised. We must adore the mystery of divine sayings, even when they seem to contradict what we think ourselves most confident of. Yet even this tended to the confirmation of the miracle: for it seems she was so apparently dead, that it was thought a very ridiculous thing to say otherwise.

VI. The raising of the damsel to life by the power of Christ, v. 25. The people were put forth. Note, Scorners that laugh at what they see and hear that is above their capacity, are not proper witnesses of the wonderful works of Christ, the glory of which lies not in pomp, but in power. The widow’s son at Nain, and Lazarus, were raised from the dead openly, but this damsel privately; for Capernaum, that had slighted the lesser miracles of restoring health, was unworthy to see the greater, of restoring life; these pearls were not to be cast before those that would trample them under their feet.

Christ went in and took her by the hand, as it were to awake her, and to help her up, prosecuting his own metaphor of her being asleep. The high priest, that typified Christ, was not to come near the dead (Lev 21:10; Lev 21:11), but Christ touched the dead. The Levitical priesthood leaves the dead in their uncleanness, and therefore keeps at a distance from them, because it cannot remedy them; but Christ, having power to raise the dead, is above the infection, and therefore is not shy of touching them. He took her by the hand, and the maid arose. So easily, so effectually was the miracle wrought; not by prayer, as Elijah did (1 Kings xvii. 21), and Elisha (2 Kings iv. 33), but by a touch. They did it as servants, he as a Son, as a God, to whom belong the issues from death. Note, Jesus Christ is the Lord of souls, he commands them forth, and commands them back, when and as he pleases. Dead souls are not raised to spiritual life, unless Christ take them by the hand: it is done in the day of his power. He helps us up, or we lie still.

VII. The general notice that was taken of this miracle, though it was wrought privately; v. 26. The fame thereof went abroad into all that land: it was the common subject of discourse. Note, Christ’s works are more talked of than considered and improved. And doubtless, they that heard only the report of Christ’s miracles, were accountable for that as well as they that were eye-witnesses of them. Though we at this distance have not seen Christ’s miracles, yet having an authentic history of them, we are bound, upon the credit of that, to receive his doctrine; and blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed, John xx. 29.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Is even now dead ( ). Aorist tense with and so better, “just now died,” “just dead” (Moffatt). Mark (Mr 5:23) has it “at the point of death,” Luke (Lu 8:42) “lay a dying.” It is not always easy even for physicians to tell when actual death has come. Jesus in 9:24 pointedly said, “The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth,” meaning that she did not die to stay dead.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Is even now dead [ ] . The literal force of the aorist tense is more graphic. Just now died.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

JESUS HEALED THE WOMAN WITH AN ISSUE OF BLOOD AND RAISED JAIRUS’ DAUGHTER ‘FROM THE DEAD,

V. 18-26

1) “While he spake these things unto them,” (tauta autou lalountos autois) “As he was speaking these things to them,” not waiting until he was finished, but interrupting Jesus while He was speaking.

2) “Behold, there came a certain ruler,” (idou archon (eis) peroselthon) “Behold one who was a ruler approaching,” something to be wondered at, a distinctly reputable well known ruler of a synagogue, Luk 23:35; His name was Jairus, Mr 5:22; Joh 7:26; Joh 7:48; Act 4:26.

3) “And worshipped him, saying,” (prosekunei auto legon) “Worshipped him saying;” Though a ruler, a Rabbi, a teacher and administrator of a synagogue, he fell down prostrate before Jesus, the Son of God, and worshipped Him, saying,

4) “My daughter is even now dead:” (hoti he thugater mou arti eteleutesen) “That my daughter has just now died,” or is dead by this time; She was dying when I left the house, Mr 5:23.

5) “But come and lay thy hand upon her,” (alla elthon epithes ten cheira sou ep’ auten) “But coming lay your hand on her,” as I have seen you do in healing others.

6) “And she shall live.” (kai zesetai) “And she will live,” be revived or raised to life. This one ruling Jewish Rabbi had seen enough miracles of Jesus, and heard enough testimony of others regarding Him, that he came to Jesus in this crisis hour, and was blessed, was not disappointed or turned away, Joh 6:37.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

Mat 9:18

. While he was speaking these things to them. Those who imagine that the narrative, which is here given by Mark and Luke, is different from that of Matthew, are so clearly refuted by the passage itself, that there is no necessity for a lengthened debate. All the three agree in saying that Christ was requested by a ruler of the synagogue to enter his house for the purpose of curing his daughter The only difference is, that the name of Jairus, which is withheld by Matthew, is mentioned by Mark and Luke; and that he represents the father as saying, My daughter is dead, while the other two say that she was in her last moments, and that, while he was bringing Christ, her death was announced to him on the road. But there is no absurdity in saying that Matthew, studying brevity, merely glances at those particulars which the other two give in minute detail. But since all the other points agree with such exactness, since so many circumstances conspire as to give it the appearance of three fingers stretched out at the same time to point out a single object, there is no argument that would justify us in dividing this history into various dates. The Evangelists agree in relating, that while Christ, at the request of a ruler of the synagogue, was coming to his house, a woman on the road was secretly cured of a bloody flux by touching his cloak; and that afterwards Christ came into the ruler’s house, and raised a dead young woman to life. There is no necessity, I think, for circuitous language to prove that all the three relate the same event. Let us now come to details.

Lo, a certain ruler. Though it is evident from the other two, that his confidence had not advanced so far as to hope that his daughter’s life could be restored, there is no room to doubt that, after having been reproved by Christ, he entertained a stronger hope than when he left his house. But Matthew, as we have said, studies brevity, and puts down at the very beginning of his narrative what took place at various times. The manner in which the history must be arranged is this: Jairus first requested that his daughter might be cured of her disease, and afterwards that she might be restored from death to life; that is, after that Christ had given him courage to do so. Worship, or adoration, is here put for k neeling, as is evident from the words of Mark and Luke: for Jairus did not render divine honor to Christ, (527) but treated him with respect as a prophet of God; and we all know how common a practice kneeling was among eastern nations.

Come and lay thy hand. We have here a bright mirror in which the divine condescension towards us is beheld. If you compare the ruler of the synagogue with the centurion, who was a heathen, (Mat 8:5,) you will say that the full brightness of faith shone in the centurion, while scarcely the smallest portion of it was visible in the ruler He ascribes to Christ no power except through his touching the person; and, when he has received information of her death, he trembles as if there were no farther remedy. We see, then, that his faith was feeble and nearly exhausted. Yet Christ yields to his prayers, and encourages him to expect a favorable result, and thus proves to us that his faith, however small it might be, was not wholly rejected. Though we have not such abundance of faith as might be desired, there is no reason why our weakness should drive away or discourage us from prayer.

(527) “ Car Jairus ne pretendoit pas d’attribuer a Christ un honneur appar-tenant a la majeste Divine;” — “for Jairus did not profess to ascribe to Christ an honor belonging to the Divine majesty.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL NOTES

Mat. 9:18. A certain ruler.The president of a synagogue. His name was Jairus (see Mar. 5:22; Luk. 8:41). Every synagogue had its president, who superintended and directed the services. The ruler of a synagogue was at the same time president of its college of elders (Lange). My daughter.Mar. 5:23, = the little thing. Luke says she was about twelve years of age. Is even now dead.But see Mar. 5:23; Luk. 8:42. It is probable that he would employ various expressions in representing the case; and very likely, indeed, the case itself was such that he would be fairly puzzled to determine precisely whether she were dead or alive (Morison).

Mat. 9:19. And Jesus arose, etc.It thus happened that Jesus could prove to the objectors (Mat. 9:11; Mat. 9:14) that He was able and willing to rise from the feast and to sympathise with the deepest suffering, nay, to enter the valley of death itself. This constituted both the fasting of Jesus and His mission to relieve the sick (Lange).

Mat. 9:20. A woman.Tradition makes her a resident, not at Capernaum, but at Paneas or Csarea Philippi, who had wandered to Galilee, seeking relief from her trouble. A group of two statues, supposed to commemorate the miracle, existed at that place in the time of Eusebius (fourth century), and one was seen by him as he records (Eccles. Hist., vii. 18). Another church historian (Sozomen), a century later, describes the destruction of the same monument by order of the Emperor Julian (Laidlaw). An issue of blood.See Lev. 15:19 seq. Hem of His garment.The border or fringe of the loose outer garment, probably of a bright blue mingled with white (see Num. 15:38; Mat. 23:5).

Mat. 9:21. She said.The imperfect tense of the original denotes intensity of feeling. She kept saying over and over to herself (Carr).

Mat. 9:22. Daughter.A pure and affectionate, yet masterful name (Chadwick). Thy faith.Not thy touch merely.

Mat. 9:23. Minstrels.Flute-players (R.V.). Their presence indicated that the preparations for the funeral ceremonies had commenced.

Mat. 9:24. Not dead, but sleepeth.Christ used the same expression afterwards of Lazarus; and when misunderstood He put it plainly, Lazarus is dead (Laidlaw).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Mat. 9:18-26

A succession of answers.In these interlaced stories, as they have been called, there seems some confusion at first. The way out of it seems to be that of recognising the Saviour as the centre of all. If so regarded, we shall here see presented to us His manner of dealing:

1. With outspoken request.

2. With tacit desire.

3. With insult and scorn.

I. With open request.Openness, first in action. A man enters in (so some) in such a way as to cause men to behold, and so ask, we suppose, why he has come? The same man next acts in such a manner as to show why He has come. He worships Jesushe casts himself at His feet (Mar. 5:22)he is in the position of a suppliantevidently he has something of moment to ask Openness of speech, in the next place. How fearfully plain are his words. His daughterhis little daughter (Mar. 5:23)is even now dead; or, if not quite dead, as near to death as she can be (ibid.); as a matter of fact, in his anguish, he hardly knows which. Nor does it, from one point, signify much. Only let Jesus touch her, and whatever is wrong will be right. That is, therefore, what he now asks for, in so many words. To this open request the Saviour replies in as open a way, though not as express. He rises up to show He is ready. He does that, in fact, which is the beginning of coming. The action is so understood by the ruler, who, therefore, leads the way home, and is confirmed by Jesus, who follows him, and by the disciples, who follow both. All things, in short, signify hope!

II. With tacit desire.This tacit desire was on the part of a woman who is hidden in the crowd which follows the Saviour. Those who read countenances could see this desire in her looks. Twelve years of suffering and hope deferred had not passed over her without leaving their footprints behind them, if only in that touching and wistful expression which we so often see in like cases, saying so plainly, Oh! what would I give to be rid of this plague! Those who read actions would see it in hers. Coming behind Him, so as not to be seentouching His garment, so as to be in touch with His graceshe yet touches only the hem of itperhaps, so as not to be felt. All shows not only how much she desires, but how secretly too. Those who read thoughts, also, would see this desire amongst hers. If I may but touch, she said to herself, I shall get all I desire. That was the spring of the wholethat burning desire which, for all that, she could not bring herself to put into speech. The Saviours reply to it was, first of all, most express and direct. That it had reached Him was plain from His turning about; that He knew where it had come from, by His looking at her. If her looks had said much, so also did His. Next, it was overflowing with kindness. She had come as a stranger. He addresses her as a daughter. Only in fear and trembling had she ventured so far. He bids her, notwithstanding this, to be of good cheer. Already, therefore, if we may say so, was she mentally cured. Full of assurance and power. What you desire is now yours. It is yours by your faith. Now she is one who is wholewhole, too, from that hour (Mat. 9:22).

III. With insult and scorn.Two successive pictures represent this. A picture of uproar and insult. The uproar is outside the house of the ruler to which he has now come with the Saviour; and is due to the fact that, meantime, his little daughter has unmistakably died; and so caused the place to be filled with the usual minstrels and others making a noise (Mat. 9:23). The insult is provoked by the request of the Saviour to be allowed to pass through (Mat. 9:24), and by the character of the reason by which He supports it. Knowing, that, with the purpose He had in view, the child was only dead, so to speak, for a time, He speaks of her as such. The maid is not dead, but sleepeth. This was beyond endurance to them. Knowing, as they did, that she was dead (Luk. 8:53), knowing that they had only come there on that account, they laughed Him to scorn (Mat. 9:24). On the other side, in marked contrast to this, we have the picture of the Saviours reply, a picture of stillness and power. When the multitude were thrust out at last, Jesus went in. How silent the scene! How still that little one on the bed! How collected and quiet the Master! How markedly so after the rudeness just shown Him! How simple, also, His actiontouching her hand! How instantly wonderfulhow profoundthe result! She that was prostrate is now sitting up! She that had been deadcertainly deadso dead that it was thought madness to doubt itis now as certainly living! More than that, more than a hundred throats are now proclaiming the news (Mat. 9:26).

See, therefore, in these consecutive answers:

1. What encouragement there is to prayer of all sorts.By whomsoever it is offered, whether by a ruler or by one of the crowd; in whatever way it is offered, whether openly or secretly, whether by action or speech; and in whatsoever place it is offered, whether on the highway, or in the house of the living, or in that of the deadit is acceptable to the Saviour.

Whereer they seek Thee Thou art found,

And every place is hallowed ground.

2. What double encouragement to continuance in it.The greatest blessing vouchsafed here was the longest in coming, and had most obstacles in its way. But no obstacle can remain such in the way of continuous prayer. No distance, no interruptions, no delay, no unbelief of others, nor any depth of need, however undoubted, or beyond hope in the eyes of men! (Zec. 4:7) Much is meant by every word in that counsel of the Apostlecontinuing instant in prayer (Rom. 12:12).

HOMILIES ON THE VERSES

Mat. 9:18-33. The Healer and the healed.

I. Christs side.

1. The Speaker was called upon for action. It is a long way from eloquence to beneficence in the case of some speakers; in the case of Christ speech and action were convertible terms.

2. Christ will interrupt an exposition for the sake of a man who mourns a little dead girl (Luk. 8:42).

3. It is more congenial to Christ to be binding up a broken heart than to be debating with factious Pharisees respecting intercourse with publicans and sinners, or even to be explaining to sectarians the conditions which make fasting acceptable to God and useful to man.
4. Christ was ever equal to the call of the hour. Was exposition required? The living stream flowed from His gracious lips. Was a miracle required? The same voice had but to alter its tone, and the miracle was complete.

II. The human side.Here are four miracles, the raising of the dead; the healing of the issue of blood; the opening of the eyes of the blind; the cure of a dumb man possessed with a devil. These diversified cases reveal the human side of the transactions under several aspects:

1. The right spiritual state in which to approach Christthe ruler worshipped Him; the poor woman modestly and trustfully said, If I may but touch His garment I shall be whole; the blind man said, Have mercy on us; the dumb man possessed with a devil found in his utter helplessness the best possible recommendation to Christs mercy.
2. The indispensableness of faith in any transaction between the natural and the supernatural. Faith is the link; without that connection is impossible.

3. This transactional faith can operate only in connection with profound consciousness of want. To know ourselves diseased is half the cure.J. Parker, D.D.

Mat. 9:20-22. The woman with an issue of blood.I. The womans faith in the Saviour, its strength and its weakness.

1. She put herself in Jesus way on this eventful occasion, and thus proved the strength of her faith. She had, most likely, never seen Him before, had never heard Him speak, had never beheld one of His miracles. In these circumstances it would not have been surprising after all she had suffered and spent through her wasting disease and her physicians together, had she thought of coming to the Galilean Healer as a forlorn hope. On the contrary, she not only had hope so much as led her to think it worth while to make the journey, but she had somehow gathered a strong persuasion of His ability, such that she said to her neighbours, to herself, or to both, If I may touch but His clothes I shall be whole. Nor was the persuasion arbitrary or fanatical. It was simple and generous, but it was thoroughly reasonable, because justified by facts. It was when she had heard the things concerning Jesus (Mar. 5:27, R.V.), that she came to Him.

2. No doubt there were defects in this faith. Its strength and weakness lay close together. It had the defect, so to say, of its quality. Its promptness may have owed something to the mechanical or material conception of the Healers power, as if it were some atmosphere that surrounded Him, or some magical influence that flowed even from His garments. The swift and secret touch was directed perhaps to the sacred fringe of His Jewish robe, in which, with a superstitious fondness, the healing power was thought specially to reside. The confidence she had in Jesus was typical, in that it was strong and well-founded. That it was mixed with those other elements from which the Lord proceeds immediately to purify it may teach us a double lesson. It hints, on the one hand, how small a part of gospel truth may save the soul if there be faith to receive and love to act upon it. Yet, on the other hand, the trust which is well-founded and generous, will meet with its reward in a rapid and progressive enlightenment through Christs word and Spirit.

3. This faith, as it was buoyant in persuasion, was prompt and immediate in action (Mat. 9:20).

4. It was as immediate in its success (see Mar. 5:29).

II. The Saviours action towards the woman, its wisdom and tenderness.The critical point in this miracle is that at first sight it seems as if it had been wrought outside the consciousness and will of Jesus (Godet). But He was not unconscious of the virtue He put forth, nor of the faith which received it. We can see why, for His own sake, and His works sake, Jesus had to make this cure public. But we are also to note how good it was for the sake of herself. Reserve was her fault, a wish to hide the cure; thus at once cheating her own self of comfort, and withholding from the Lord His due honour. He corrects that fault most gently and wisely. He does not insist upon publicity till the healing had taken place, thus making confession as easy as possible for her. The object of its publication then becomes apparent.

1. To show that the medium of the cure was faith, not physical contact.
2. To confirm what she had already taken by His own pronounced bestowal of it.
3. To bring her out in grateful acknowledgment both for His glory and her good. There are Christians whose fault is reserve. They would be saved, as it were, by stealth. The Saviour will not have it so. True conversion, no doubt, is first of all a secret transaction, very close and personal, between the soul and Christ. But because it is so, it cannot remain so. A seen religion is not always real, but a real religion is always seen.Professor Laidlaw, D.D.

The teachings of the incident.The incident has ever been a favourite and piquant analogue for the effects of living faith in Christ as contrasted with mere professed or traditional adherence to Him. As that day in the streets of Capernaum many pressed Him, but one touched Him, so is it still. Why it is so this story may instruct us.

1. This woman came at once to the vital touch, because she was so convinced of her disease and its danger. But so many nominal followers of Christ are trying to persuade themselves that their disease is not fatal.

2. She was quite done with all other physicians, and broken off from them. But many of us have not been conclusively shut up to Christ.

3. This woman went straight to Jesus so soon as she heard that He was nigh. But so many among us are waiting for the convenient season.

4. She made the most inconvenient season serve her turn. The Healer was on His way elsewhere. Jairus and the disciples were hurrying Him along. It was the worst time and place for such an invalid. But it was hers, for it was given her of God; she made the best of it, and was saved.

5. Some of our hearers say their difficulties are peculiar. There is nothing in ordinary preaching, in the common statements of the gospel, that meets their case, and relieves their perplexities. They are waiting for some clearer light, for some more special agency. This womans case was peculiar. She was by Jewish law unclean. She could not repair to the synagogue, where so many met Jesus and were healed. She could not stand up before the Healer in a public audience, and tell her case, and get His hands laid on her, as so many did. The ordinary mode of even these healing miracles would not have met her need. So she got her health in the crush of the street procession, by stealing behind Him, and pressing with the energy of hope till her fingers grasped His garment; for she was fully persuaded that, peculiar as was her case, she would find in Him an appropriate and certain cure. Those who in their soul-search for spiritual health follow her example will be as successful and as blessed as was she.Ibid.

Mat. 9:20-21. The woman with the issue of blood.

1. Poor and rich are alike welcome to Christ, for here, while He is going with the ruler, He neglecteth not this poor sick woman.
2. That which separates us from the society of the holy must not separate us from Christ, but rather drive us unto Him. This woman legally polluted, and so separate from the temple and all clean persons, draweth near to Christ to touch Him.
3. Though all remedies fail and our evil be of long endurance, yet Christ must be run unto.
4. Although Christ seem to take no notice of us, but to be about the helping of others only, yet must we take notice of Him and draw near to Him upon all occasions offered.
5. None can come to Christ rightly, but such as expect to be the better for coming.David Dickson.

Mat. 9:22. The woman cured.

1. Though modest souls resolve quietly to creep to heaven, unknown to others, yet God will have His work in them brought to light, for His own glory.
2. Faith in Christ gets a sweeter welcome than it can expect. It may come trembling, but shall find joy ere it go.
3. Our Lord will not suffer any means of our devising to take the place of means appointed by Himself. Therefore He doth not say, touching my garment, but thy faith hath made thee whole.Ibid.

Mat. 9:24. The lowest depth.And they laughed Him to scorn. These words throw light:

I. On the nature of our Saviours work.

1. How wonderfully they reveal to us the great depth of His humiliation. He was man, that is much; a poor man, that is more; more still one of the homeless poor (Luk. 9:58); most of all a man derided and despised. So psalmists and prophets had foretold, and so Evangelists relate.

2. Notice, also, the completeness of His sorrow. He was acquainted with grief, with every side and shape and variety of it, even with that form which we should have expected to be the farthest of all from His lot.
3. This consideration may teach us yet further the greatness of His love. All this depth of suffering was for our sake. Like one descending a coal shaft, who does not stop short of the very lowest depth, because those he would rescue are known to be trembling there, so was it with the Lord. He endured even the scorn of contemptible man in order to save man.

II. On the right interpretation of His words.And so, generally, of those Holy Scriptures which bear testimony of Him. The special saying which called forth this outburst of scorn was the following: The maid is not dead, but sleepeth; and the special ground of it was the intimate conviction of the hearers that she had actually diedknowing that she was dead. It is evident, therefore, that they took the words in their most ordinary and obvious sense, never stopping to search for another, and never considering whether such a Teacher and Miracle-worker could have meant anything so absurd. It was a confounding the obvious with the truemistaking the apparent for the realand considering first thoughts so much better than second, that no second thoughts are required. The mistake is very common. He that believeth on Me shall never die; Ye must be born again; Destroy this temple; This is My body, are all cases in point. The mistake arises from not recollecting:

1. That the true significance of a passage is not that which the hearer imagines, but which the speaker himself designed.
2. That in the sayings of the Bible where God is practically the speaker and man the hearer, these two meanings are often so far from identical that they are as wide asunder as the poles.

As a concluding thought, take notice of the profound wisdom here displayed. See how this contempt of man was made to minister to the mission of Christ. These scorners built up the very platform on which the evidence of the miracle stood. When the damsel arose and took food (Mar. 5:43) there could be no doubt about life. Was it restored life? Had it really been preceded by unmistakable death? These unhappy despisers, without meaning it, had established this beyond doubt. They had shut their own mouths on this point by their scorn. They had shut the mouths of mankind. So will it be at the last of all wilful despisers of Messiah. Every knee shall bow to Him, etc.Mathematicus in Homilist.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Section 20
JESUS RAISES JAIRUS DAUGHTER

(Parallels: Mar. 5:21-43; Luk. 8:49-56)

TEXT: 9:1826

18.

While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead; but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

19.

And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples.

20.

And behold, a woman, who had an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the border of his garment:

21.

for she said within herself, If I do but touch his garment, I shall be made whole.

22.

But Jesus turning and seeing her said, Daughter, be of good cheer; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.

23.

And when Jesus came into the rulers house, and saw the flute players and the crowd making a tumult.

24.

he said, Give place: for the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.

25.

But when the crowd was put forth, he entered in, and took her by the hand; and the damsel arose.

26.

And the fame hereof went forth into all that land.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS

What kind of faith in Jesus did Jairas and this sick woman have that drove them to Jesus? What factors probably brought them to this kind of belief ?

What is your opinion? Was the miracle of healing performed on the woman without the knowledge and will of Jesus?

Why do you think the woman would wish to resort to the method she chose, rather than simply ask Jesus directly for help?

Why did Jesus stop to embarrass this poor woman? She was embarrassed, was she not? What possible motive could Jesus have had for doing it?

Why was the woman so afraid after she had been healed? Would we not rather expect confidence and joy of her than fear?

Why do you think Jesus said only believe, to the desperate Jairus when the news came of the death of his daughter? How could that help?

Why would Jesus permit no more to enter the room where the maiden lay dead than just a few? Why should He drive everyone else out? Would it not seem better to have as many witnesses to this miraculous event as possible?

Why did Jesus order Jairus and his wife to provide some nourishment for their daughter after He raised her from the dead? Could not He have provided miraculous bread for the little girl?

What possible reason could Jesus have for not wanting this miracle reported? Was He ashamed of what He had done, or, perhaps, did He fear critical examination of the evidence for the fact and knew that He had foisted a common deception upon the parents? What was to gain by demanding silence over this miracle?

Do you think that Jesus really expected the people to keep quiet about this wonderful miracle performed upon the only daughter of a prominent official? Could He not have foreseen that at least the neighbors would have known the facts and so divulged the information? If He did not expect them to be silent about the miracle, why then did He sternly instruct them to be silent? If He did expect them to remain silent, how did He expect His instructions to be carried out against human nature?

Why did Jesus have the Gadarene demoniac spread the news of his great deliverance, but requires the opposite of Jairus and countless others?

Why do you suppose Mark quotes Jesus words to the dead maiden in Aramaic? Does this give any indication whether Jesus usually spoke Aramaic or Greek? How would you go about deciding? Is there any value in knowing the answer?

PARAPHRASE AND HARMONY

Now when Jesus had returned across the Sea of Galilee in a boat and arrived on the other side, He disembarked at His home, Capernaum. Instantly a large crowd of people began to gather about Him and welcome Him back, because they had all been waiting for His return.
While He was standing there on the beach talking to them, a man named Jairus, one of the synagogue officials, came up through the crowd. When he spotted Jesus, he fell to his knees before Him, worshipped Him, begging Him desperately to come to his home, since his only twelve year-old daughter was dying. He pleaded, My little girl is about to die! She is dead (if you do not come!) Just come lay your hands on her to heal her and she will live!
So Jesus started out to follow him with His disciples. But as they went, a large crowd of people followed too, the people all crowding through the narrow streets, They were all around Him, Now, notice, there was a woman in that crowd who had suffered a hemorrhage for twelve years. This lady had gone through a great deal under the treatment of many doctors. She had spent all her money and still could not be healed by any of them. She was no better off; rather, she had gotten worse. She too had heard what people were saying about Jesus. So she came up behind Him in the crowd and touched the fringe on His robe. She did this because she had said to herself, If I could just touch His cloak, I would be healed. Right then and there her hemorrhage stopped, and she knew in her body that she was cured of her disease.
Jesus, aware that healing power had left Him, immediately stopped, turned around in the crowd and asked, Who touched my clothes? Who was it that touched me?
When all denied it, Peter and those disciples who were with Him, objected, Master, you see so many people all around you, pressing against you, and yet you ask, Who touched me?
Meanwhile Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then He reaffirmed, Someone touched me. I know because I felt healing power leave me.
But when the woman, realizing that she had been healed, saw that she had not really escaped notice, came forward trembling fearfully. Falling down at Jesus feet, she laid before Him the whole story. She admitted before everyone why she had touched Him and affirmed that she had been instantaneously cured.
Looking right at her, Jesus encouraged her, Cheer up, Daughter, it is your faith in me that has healed you. Go in peace, healed of your disease.
Immediately the woman was cured!
While He was still talking to her, a messenger came from Jairus home with the news, Your daughter is gone. Why bother the Rabbi further?
But Jesus, overhearing and ignoring what was said, comforted the synagogue official, Now do not be afraid, just trust me and she shall be well.
Then Jesus cut the size of the group down to Peter, James and John and hurried along to Jairus house. When they arrived at the house, He permitted only these three and the childs father and mother to go in. He heard the funeral music and saw the crowd in general commotion. The people inside the house were weeping and wailing loudly, mourning her death. But when Jesus went in, He asked them, Why all this commotion and weeping? Stop crying and leave, because the little girl is not dead, just sleeping.
This drew a scornful laugh, since they all knew that she was really dead.
But Jesus ordered them all outside the house and led the little girls father and mother and His companions into the room where the child was. Then, taking the little girl by the hand, He said to her in Armaic, Talitha cumi, which means, My child, get up.
Instantly her life returned. The girl stood up immediately and walked around. She was twelve. Her parents just could not get over it, they were so overcome with happiness.
But Jesus very earnestly instructed them not to tell anyone about what had happened. Then He directed them to give her something to eat. The story of this became the talk all around that country.

SUMMARY

No sooner had Jesus returned from the Decapolis where He had freed the two Gadarene demoniacs, when He was met at the boat by well-wishing crowds who had been waiting for Him. No sooner had He begun talking with them than Jairus, an important synagogue official, requested Jesus to come immediately to heal his dying daughter. On the way, Jesus progress is not only impeded by surging throngs blocking the streets, but also by a woman whom He stopped to heal of a long-standing disease, a hemorrhage. Messengers informed Jairus that in the meantime his little girl had died. Whereupon Jesus encouraged him not to lose heart but trust Him. To hurry, Jesus reduced His entourage to three men and reached the rulers house only to find the funeral already in progress. Jesus, Jairus and the three Apostles rush into the house. Jesus said, Stop the music: funerals over! The little lamb is asleep, not dead. Everyone thought His words in bad taste and utterly ridiculous since they knew the child to be dead. But after ordering the crowd to leave the house, Jesus raised the damsel to life. The overjoyed parents part was to provide the little girl some food. Jesus tried to keep the matter private, but the story spread anyway.

NOTES

I. THE REQUEST OF JAIRUS DELIVERED (9:18, 19)

Mat. 9:18 While He spake these things unto them, as a phrase, immediately raises the obvious questions: to whom? about what things? Some harmonists use this phrase as if it were the clearest clue regarding the connection of contexts given by the three Evangelists, since Mark and Luke only begin this section of their respective narratives with the word and (ka) which loosely connects this section with what they record as preceding, Matthew, on the other hand, begins his narration of Jairus request with a genitive absolute that contains the apparently strict connection of time subsequent to what had immediately before been narrated, i.e. Matthews feast and the ensuing discussion with Johns disciples. In which case, we would know both the people with whom Jesus spoke as well as the subject matter.

But it is strange that Mark and Luke, who so often generally follow a more chronological arrangement, should now find themselves agreeing together on this point over against Matthew, who more often follows a logical system! Mark and Luke connect this request made by Jairus with Jesus return from Decapolis by boat after the freeing of the Gadarene demoniacs. (See Mar. 5:18-22; Luk. 8:38-41) And in fairness, it must be admitted that Matthew too, however much more generally, puts Jairus request after Jesus return from Decapolis (Mat. 8:34; Mat. 9:1; Mat. 9:18), with the exception that he inserts the accounts of the forgiven paralytic (Mat. 9:2-8) and the call of Matthew, the feast of the publicans and the question from Johns disciples (Mat. 9:9-17), events which Mark and Luke locate elsewhere. As noticed before, this does not surprise us, since Matthew has made no pretenses of following a strictly chronological sequence. But what IS surprising is Matthews rather precise time connection with which he introduces this narrative. Even though this second view of the question is taken in the PARA-phrase-harmony, it remains an admitted difficulty how Matthews introductory phrase is to be understood by the original readers of his Gospel who had no opportunity to compare Mark and Luke. Certainly they would have connected the phrase with the immediate context, as indicated above. But as noted by some commentators, this phrase by Matthew is introduced apparently without reason, until the other Evangelists are consulted. They, in turn inform us that Jesus was indeed met at the seashore by a great crowd of people who had been waiting to welcome Him back. It would then be this group He was addressing when Jairus arrived. This puts the emphasis upon the independent witness of the separate Gospel writers who give varying features of the same event while unwittingly complementing each others testimony.

But the greater problem raised by Jairus arrival is that, since Jesus was just in Capernaum the day before, before He sailed for the eastern shore, why had not the ruler brought the case of his daughter before Jesus then, before she got into this desperately sick condition?

This condition could have been caused by the sudden attack of some lethal illness or of a poison, a situation which would have left Jairus quite unprepared to intercept Jesus in time before He sailed.

Or perhaps the rulers own faith had not developed into that concrete confidence in Jesus that would have caused him to take that decisive step the day before. Could it be that the growth of his faith in Jesus had to overcome his own personal pride?

While He spake these things unto them, certainly indicates the emergency nature of Jairus request, as if, having once made the decision to ask Jesus, he must now interrupt what the Lord is saying to make his plea known. But Jesus, too, is willing to interrupt an important discussion (and what discussion of His was NOT important?) to heal the broken heart of this grieving father. Discussion was important, but the actual call of human need, to practice Gods mercy in actual cases, drove Jesus to action. His doctrine did not stop with discussion and theory but ACTION!

Behold, there came a ruler, named Jairus, one of the Jewish elders, responsible for the administration of the synagogue (Mar. 5:22), a pillar of Jewish orthodoxy in Capernaum. But his wealth and position meant nothing when death visited his home: Standing helpless before the tragedy that is at this moment threatening to strike his little girl, he comes to Jesus. That Jairus lived in Capernaum, hence had many excellent opportunities to see Jesus miracles for himself and come to this position of faith, is decided by comparing Mat. 9:1 : Getting into a boat He crossed over and came to His own city, with Mar. 2:1 where it is learned that Jesus was at home in Capernaum. This had been Jesus headquarters since His removal there early in His career (Joh. 2:12; Mat. 4:13). Had Jairus earlier joined his colleagues in accusing Jesus of blasphemy? (Mar. 9:2-8) Had he discussed the healing done by Jesus at long distance, with the government official (Joh. 4:46 b ff.)? Had he been among the delegation sent by the centurion to request Jesus healing for his servant? (Luk. 7:3-5) Whatever had been his conviction earlier, the circumstances in his family were facts stronger than theories. Now as never before he must decide what he thinks about this Rabbi from Nazareth! But he must decide carefully for a man in his position has everything to lose, should he choose wrongly: the disgrace brought about by failure, would be impossible to bear, his townspeople impossible to live with, He could be turned out of his influential position and laughed out of town! Jairus must have reckoned with this possibility as he weighed every facet of this question, He must now decide whether he believes Jesus or not. But this internal struggle is rendered most severe by the rapidly deteriorating condition of his only daughter who lay dying before his eyes. Surely all of the past miracles of Jesus now loom large in Jairus mind, tipping the balance in favor of appealing to Jesus for help now. So he goes.

A ruler worshipped Him. (See on Mat. 2:2; Mat. 4:9, Vol. I) This homage is deeply significant, not because somebody falls at the feet of Jesus, but because THIS man, this member of the school board, this leader in religious matters, does it. As a man of position high in Jewish society, he stands to be disgraced if Jesus could not do exactly what he now asks, If he is trusting his cause to a Nazarene Rabbi, with whose views his unbelieving colleagues violently differed, he has more than personal pride to forfeit. Thus, this act requires great courage, born of love for his only child and confidence in and respect for Jesus, to grovel in the dust not only in front of Jesus, but in full view of the large crowd of people gathered about Him. (See Mar. 5:21; Mk. 8:40)

What is most noticeable here is that, while Jesus refused all forms of human ostentation and preached against it mercilessly, He accepted without blush this worship. (Contrast the proper response shown by His servants: Peter, Act. 10:25-26; the Angel, Rev. 19:10) Who is this that permits such high, respected religious officials to worship Him?

Saying, My daughter is even now dead. The problem immediately arises here how to harmonize this declaration of the father, as reported by Matthew, with his statement recorded by Mark and Luke: My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live. (Mar. 5:23) She was dying. (Luk. 8:42) Later, according to Mark, and Luke, a messenger from Jairus house reports the actual moment of death, after this appeal of Jairus had been made to the Lord, Two principle solutions have been offered to this apparent contradiction:

Either Jairus did not say it, in which case Matthew puts words into his mouth. Those who seek to point out that Matthew merely abbreviates the account, while Mark and Luke give the fuller version, must face the resultant weakness in Matthews historical reporting that such a harmonization involves, Here the fact that Matthews Gospel is topical, as opposed to the chronological versions of Mark and Luke, does not help. For, even if for sake of brevity, Matthew puts words in Jairus mouth on one occasion, which he did not say himself but heard from others on a later occasion, what is to keep Matthew from reporting words that Jesus did not say? Or facts that He did not do?

Or Jairus did say it, in which case his words may be interpreted in a sense that permit them to be a faithful description of the facts as he knew them when he left home in search of Jesus. See PARAPHRASE/HARMONY at this point. Barnes (Matthew-Mark, 102) observes:

It is likely that a father, in these circumstances, would use a word as nearly expressing actual death as would be consistent with the fact that she was alive . . . My daughter was so sick that she must be by this time dead.

Augustine, cited by Trench (Miracles, 108) commented: For such was his despair that his desire was rather that she should be brought to life, since he did not think it possible she should be found alive, who was dying when he left her. Bengel, cited by Trench (op cit.) thinks that this he said at a guess. Trench himself concludes:

When the father left his child, she was at the latest gasp; he knew life was ebbing so fast when he quitted her side, that she could scarcely be living still; and yet, having no certain notices of her death, he was perplexed whether to speak of her as departed or not, and thus at one moment would express himself in one language, at the next in another.

With this latter suggested harmonization agree also the latter words of Mark (Mar. 5:23) that she may be made well and live. Thus, Mark, while describing the daughter as at the point of death, also intimates Jairus anxiety and awareness that perhaps, even as he spoke, his only begotten had passed on. This latter harmonization also leaves Matthews reporting intact without assuming abbreviation, and reveals even more poignantly the truest psychological expression of the father. The problem is most easily resolved, therefore, not be examining Matthews reporting but by insight into the contradictory feelings in the heart of Jairus.

But come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live. How many times had this ruler of the synagogue seen Jesus heal just this way, by putting His hands upon the sick? She shall live: he asks for more than the common rabbis blessing; he demands life! These are words of faith, although not of so great faith as that of the centurion, since Jairus could not conceive of Jesus as being able to speak the word from where He stood, to heal his daughter. (Cf. Mat. 8:8) Nor did Jesus require him to accept such a great test of his confidence in His power, as He did of the other Capernaurn official (Joh. 4:46 b Joh. 4:53) Instead

Mat. 9:19 Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did His disciples. Imagine the scene: Jesus, having acknowledged the warm reception awaiting Him at the waterfront, was talking with the gathered crowds. Jairus interrupted to make his frantic plea. Now Jesus and the Twelve get moving through the crowds following the lead of Jairus. But the intensely curious people whose chief interest was the Lord do not necessarily open up a path in their midst to permit easy passage for this emergency. By the time the immediate party of Jesus arrive in town it becomes almost impossible to make rapid headway through the people (Cf. Mar. 5:24; Luk. 8:42 b especially in Greek: synthlibon and sunpnigon) crowding the narrow streets.

Why and how such a large crowd could be waiting for Jesus on the beach as He disembarked is easily explained by two facts:

They could be easily amassed at the beach long before He arrived, since the familiar boat in which He rode (Peters) could be seen coming across the lake long before it was pulled up on the western shore.

The explanation of the excitement of the people and their desire to welcome Him back is found in the unabated excitement of the preceding day, which, according to Mark and Luke, was a moment of great popularity for Jesus. (See on Mat. 8:23) Jesus had literally sailed away to escape this excitement. Now the people wait for Him, gather around Him and welcome His return. No wonder that, upon His first call to go elsewhere, they crowd around Him, reluctant to let Him out of their sight.

But in so doing, they impede His progress and unwittingly frustrate Jairus as much as humanly tolerable!

II. THE ROBE OF JESUS DISCREDITED (9:2022)

Mat. 9:20 And behold, a woman, who had an issue of blood twelve years, came behind Him. Here was one person in that vast throng that was not the least bit curious about what would happen at Jairus home. Her desperation and determination drove all other considerations from her mind: she was concentrating on her one last chance to be well after years of failure. Her hemorrhage must be seen from the Jewish legal standpoint to be able to appreciate the measures she adopted for her healing here. She was:

Banned in a practical way from worship of God in the temple, since the hemorrhage rendered her Levitically unclean (Lev. 15:19-31) and contaminating to all she touched (Num. 19:22). So she dared not venture into the Temple with the other worshippers (Num. 19:20; Lev. 15:31; cf. Gods symbolic use of exactly this womans situation as an expression of His deep disgust for Israel: Eze. 36:17).

Practically excluded from normal marriage relations (Lev. 16:24).

She should not even have been in this crowd, for she brought ceremonial uncleanness upon all she touched.

Practically penniless (Mar. 5:26) having spent more on medicines and doctors than on essentials. Until medicine was developed into a science, its practice in those days bordered more upon witchcraft, ignorance and superstition than upon knowledge. (See Edersheims description of typical prescriptions offered for this particular case, Life, I, 620) No cure, for which she paid, worked.

Decidedly incurable and growing worse (Mar. 5:26; Luk. 8:43).

Unbelievably desperate after waging this futile battle for twelve years against an illness that left her without her strength, her social intercourse, her worship.

Is it any surprise then, when we view her plight from this standpoint, that she should approach Jesus this way?

She came behind Him, and touched the border of His garment: for she said within herself, If I do but touch His garment, I shall be made whole. Why would this woman wish to touch just the border of Jesus garment rather than ask Him directly for help?

Having already dealt with so much superstition that passed for medicine, as well as being Jewish, hence, affected by the views Jews held toward the sacred fringe (see below), she may have held a somewhat superstitious view of His clothes. It is presumed she was Jewish, only in the absence of a declaration that she was gentile, something that the gospel writers would probably have not failed to notice.

The nature of her illness might cause her in fitting modesty to seek a private miracle, After all, she could not go to request Jesus help in the synagogues. And, in private, He was nearly always surrounded by His close men friends, His disciples. She must meet Him somehow while He was going from one place to another, But because of her particular disease, she could hardly force herself to make her need public.

But her Jewish background would teach her that she would contaminate everyone she touched, hence she would most naturally try to touch Jesus without making anyone else aware of it, But did she not believe that she would not also render Jesus impure? Had she heard about Jesus touching the leper without great concern for His own purity? (Mat. 8:3) Or did she even consider these questions? Her understanding is certainly conditioned by precisely what she had heard about Him. (Mar. 5:27)

Could it be that her humiliating poverty and ignorance of Jesus gracious willingness to help without charge, caused her to try to sneak this unpaid blessing away from Him?

Could it be that her desperation, brought about by years of semi-invalidism, led her to conclude this method to be the only one she dared risk? It is impossible for us to know perfectly the mental state with which she now approached the Lord.

These questions only superficially examine the womans situation from the naturalistic point of view. Jesus words (Mat. 9:22) are decisive in declaring that her real motive for coming to Him was her faith. These words (Mat. 9:21), however tinged with ignorance they may seem to us, are the expression of her faith! Jesus respected even this amount of trust she had in Him, in order to bring her to fuller knowledge and more intelligent faith.

The border of His garment. The westerner might ask why not merely touch Jesus while standing erect, or perhaps touch a fold of His robe without stooping to take hold especially of the border? But to the Jews the border of the outer garment was especially meaningful, since God had ordered them to make blue tassels at the four corners of their outer cloak as a reminder to them of their holiness unto God as His people committed to do His will. (Num. 15:37-41; Deu. 22:12) Arndt-Gingrich (449), translating krspedon, put edge, border, hem of a garment, as first definition, but include the tassel which the Israelite was obligated to wear, with the proviso: depending on how strictly Jesus followed the Mosaic law, and also upon the way in which krspedon was understood by the authors and first readers of the gospels. If the tassels are meant, they were fastened at the four corners of a large square of cloth with a hole in the middle for the head. When put on, this was folded over the shoulders with half in front, half in back much like a poncho. With tassels on the two front corners and the two back, it would be easy for anyone to touch one of the back tassels without the wearer feeling the touch. (See Edersheim, Life, I, 623; who thinks that exact knowledge about the nature of Jesus outer garment is not necessary, since the law would be fulfilled when the tassels were attached to the corners of any garment of any design.) Since the Pharisees attached great importance to the tassel by enlarging theirs (probably just another case of ostentation to gain special merit for obvious piety), this woman may have decided that the robe of Jesus possessed special power that she might receive by merely touching it, thus without disturbing Him or rendering public the nature of her affliction.

I shall be made whole. Looking at her actions as the expression of great faith, rather than half-enlightened superstition, Edersheim (Life, I, 626) suggests that she had thought about Jesus as One whose word, spoken at a distance had brought healing, and he concludes:

What strong faith to expect that even contact with him, the bare touch of His garment, would carry such Divine Power as to make her whole . . . She believed so much in Him, that she felt as if it needed not personal appeal to Him; she felt so deeply the hindrances to her making request of Himself, that believing so strongly in Him, she deemed it sufficient to touch, not even Himself, but that which in itself had no power or value, except as it was in contact with His Divine Person.

Mat. 9:22 But Jesus turning and seeing her said . . . The process by which Jesus singled her out among the crowd is here greatly abbreviated as Matthew omits what Mark and Luke record as a short conversation noted in the PARAPHRASE-HARMONY.

One problem, noted by many commentators but left unsolved by most and unsatisfactorily handled by the rest, is: did this miracle occur with the foreknowledge and will of Jesus? That is, did Jesus see her coming, perceive her heart and need and deliberately heal her when she touched His garment? It is easy to assert His omniscience on the basis of other texts, but that would not solve the question raised by this text, since there were certain things Jesus chose not to know, such as the time of His return (Mat. 24:36) and the exact quantity of faith of the centurion (Mat. 8:10 on which see Notes) or the unbelief of the Nazarenes (Mar. 6:6), for by both He was genuinely surprised. Unfortunately, our text does not state when Jesus knew the womans purpose or whether He exercised His will to heal her. The Evangelists do note clearly that the Lord was immediately aware that power had gone from Him to heal (Mar. 5:30; Luk. 8:46). Further, His deliberate gesture of looking around to see her who (iden ten) had done it (Mar. 5:32) and His question: Who touched me and my garments? can also be harmonized just as much with a desire to bring this hidden healing before the crowd as with a genuine desire for information. (Other illustrations where Jesus knew the answer to questions He asked in order to teach or clarify an issue: Cf. Luk. 9:47 with Mar. 9:33; Joh. 6:5-6; Luk. 24:17)

If He asks for information, in which case His personal knowledge and will were not involved in the healing, how then was the woman healed? It is answered by some that God the Father in His absolute omniscience knew the womans intention and approach, and so healed her by power from Jesus, whose human attention was deliberately concentrated elsewhere, i.e. upon Jairus and his needs. Jesus, then, aware of the healing but not immediately of the identity of the healed, stopped to discern who it was. Turning His divine attention to this question, by omniscience He knows who it was before she came forward.
These suggestions are admittedly not without problems, due both to the deliberate limitation of information shown by the Holy Spirit as well as by our ignorance of the true nature of the God-Man, Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus purpose in asking the questions was not to embarrass the poor woman, but to bring to light the facts of her case, her miraculous healing and to correct what misconceptions she had about His willingness to heal her or about the power that accomplished it. His question, asked in masculine gender (Luk. 8:45 : ts ho hapsmens mou;), leaves her free to admit what she had done. But her fear and trembling, noticed by both Mark and Luke, arise perhaps from fear that He was offended by what she had done in secretly taking a blessing while contaminating Him by her touch or that He might take back the blessing, leaving her thus forever hopeless after knowing an instant of perfect health. (Cf. 2Ki. 5:20-27)

But why did Jesus stop to point her out before the crowd, even though it must certainly embarrass her? The primary motive was His concern for her. He stopped and took time to concentrate all of His precious time, energy and attention upon this one human soul, for this was HER hour of need. Then, He must do this out of concern for the crowd and for His own honor. Her desire to hide the cure was cheating both her and the other people of the joy in knowing what Jesus desired to communicate both to her and all men. Her desire to hide was also withholding the thanks and honor due Him. Superstition could arise from this incident insinuating that Jesus robe itself possessed magical powers quite independent of His knowledge and will. So several reasons suggest themselves to explain Jesus actions:

Jesus wanted to prevent the misconception that there might be some magic power in His garments. Plummer (Luke, 236) summarizes: It was the grasp of her faith, not of her hand, that wrought the cure. It was her confidence in Him that healed her, not magic or superstitious reverence for a tassel! . Jesus Himself discredited His own robe, leaving no place for sacred relics to be specially venerated in His religion.

This incident was definitely not Jewish magic. (See Edersheim, Life, II, Appendix XVI, 775) Nor was it that practiced by Asians or westerners of a period shortly later when the Apostles in the name of Jesus combatted those very forms of the black arts, condemning those practices in no uncertain terms. However, some of their miracles, comment Conybeare and Howson, (Life and Epistles of St. Paul, 372),

were accommodated to the peculiar forms of sin, superstition, and ignorance they, were required to oppose. The narrative of what was done by St. Paul at Ephesus (Act. 19:11-12) should be compared with St. Peters miracles at Jerusalem (Act. 5:12-16). . . . Though the change was usually accomplished on the speaking of a word, intermediate agency was sometimes employed; . . . (Joh. 9:6-7). The hem of Christs garment was made effectual to the healing of a poor sufferer and the conviction of the bystanders. So on this occasion garments were made the means of communication of a healing power to those who were at a distance, whether they were possessed with evil spirits, or afflicted with ordinary diseases, Such effects, thus publicly manifested, were a signal refutation of the charms and amulets and mystic letters of Ephesus. Yet was this no encouragement to blind superstition. When the suffering woman was healed by touching the hem of the garment, the Savior . . . said, Virtue is gone out of me. And here at Ephesus we are reminded that it was God who wrought miracles by the hands of Paul (ver. 11), and that the name, not of Paul, but of the Lora Jesus, was magnified (ver. 17).

Jesus needed to demonstrate His certain knowledge of the miracle. To Him this was no surprise, even though done by secret, unseen power. He was unsatisfied to appear to have healed her impersonally by His garments. It was as if He said to her: I want you to see my face.

To confirm as hers what she had already taken, Jesus here states His own free, generous giving of it: Go in peace, and be healed of your disease. (Mar. 5:34 b). By so doing He removes any doubt in her mind about His willingness to heal and forgive her of any offense she may have caused Him by using the approach she did.

By lovingly restoring her to fellowship, love and usefulness, He opens the door for her to leave her secret admiration and become His disciple openly. Edersheim (Life, I, 627) remarks approvingly: The Lord did not, as Pseudo-orthodoxy would prescribe it, disappoint her faith for the weakness of its manifestation, To have disappointed her faith, which was born of such high thought of Him, would have been to deny Himself. By addressing her, Daughter, He renders this stranger, alone in the crowd, a member of His own spiritual family in fellowship with God (cf. Mat. 12:46-50). This tender, endearing term does not indicate whether she were older or younger than Jesus. It could be justly a friendly greeting by which He assures her of His own love and concern for her in contrast to her fear of His reproof.

Your faith has made you whole. (Other examples: Luk. 7:50; Luk. 17:19; Luk. 18:42; Act. 3:16; Act. 14:9) McGarvey (Matthew-Mark, 295) repeats what should be axiomatic in Christianity: that faith saves a man not by the mere fact that he believes, but by that which it leads him to do. This woman, going only on what she had heard of Jesus, formulated this plan and carried it out, even though it involved great ignorance on her part about His mercy and willingness to help. But, even as Jesus clarified the issue, it was not her plan that saved her, but it was her plan that brought her to Jesus, who on the basis of her faith, saved her. How much more can our faith save us as we follow Jesus clearly revealed plan of salvation whereby we come to Him to be saved? Praise God for His mercy in not leaving us to formulate our own plans out of ignorance! Now we can mold our plans according to His gracious revelation.

How had her faith made her whole? Her subjective trust in an objective supernatural power caused her to bring herself into contact with that power. Many had touched Jesus that day (Mar. 5:31), but nothing happened to them, even though many had diseases just as obstinate and needing miraculous help as hers. Her faith and determination to express it singled her out, so Jesus healed her only. Other days there would be other people (Mat. 14:36), but this day there was but one woman who showed this faith.

H pistis sou sskn se is ambiguous. See the examples above cited in which this phrase (Your faith has saved you.) is sometimes used with those whom Jesus had healed; at other times He says it to healthy, forgiven sinners. Perhaps Jesus deliberately chose this expression to convey two ideas instead of one: Your faith has brought you both healing and forgiveness. Whatever offense she might have brought Jesus by secretly trying to take a blessing without His express approval or by defiling Him by her touch (according to her view of defilement), is all forgiven. But the emphasis here is on the healing, since the lady thought, I shall be made well (sthsomai is the same verb, szein, Jesus used to declare her salvation, ssken).

And the woman was made whole from that hour. Mark and Luke time her healing as taking place when she touched His robe, since she immediately felt the change in her body that the healing produced, a fact which she apparently related later (Luk. 8:47). Matthews general statement (ap ts hras ekeins) must not be interpreted so as to contradict the others, as if the healing depended upon Jesus words here related and not upon the release of healing power Jesus Himself noticed earlier (Luk. 8:46; Mar. 5:30), an impression however distinctly conveyed by the RSV in that committees choice of the word instantly.

III. THE ROLE OF JESUS DECIDED

Jesus journey, interrupted by the healing of the woman, was filled with delay that must have been agonizing to this father who just knew that every second counted. His understanding and faith could not rise to the challenge imposed by, the many hindrances these must overcome. Just then, right at this extremely tense moment for Jairus, when the hurrying procession, bringing the Master to heal his daughter, had ground to a halt by seemingly endless delays, is about to get started again, right at that moment, the word came from his house that his worst fears are now reality: they are too late! (Mar. 5:35; Luk. 8:49) It would have taken almost superhuman effort to keep him from going into shock there, but Jesus words provided just the needed psychological power to balance the effect of that crushing message and give him hope: Do not fear; only believe and she shall be well (Luk. 8:50; note here again sthsetai). Feel the irony of the situation revealed by the words of the messenger: Your daughter is dead: why trouble the Teacher any further? They had had faith enough to believe Jesus could heal the sick, but not enough to believe He could raise the dead. This practical unbelief on their part could become contagious, infecting also the ruler himself. This news drove his crisis of faith to the very limit. Perhaps the very confidence of Jesus manner when He encouraged Jairus to believe, plus the fact that Jesus calmly resumed His journey to Jairus house, gave the man respite from the pressure of the immediate disaster of the apparently unchangeable fact of his daughters death. Edersheim (Life, I, 630) notes accurately the completely passive role that Jairus now plays from this point to the end. Whereas before, he had led Jesus toward the house, now Jesus takes complete charge of the whole scene, making on-the-spot decisions and giving orders. (Mar. 5:37-40; Luk. 8:51) Jairus faith was threatened for its very existence, but Jesus would not despise or quench it. He was ministering also to Jairus in his greatest moment of need.

Jesus role in the picture is no longer that of a Healer. If He continues another step further toward Jairus house, He must do so as Victor over death itself. If He admits that the common sense course for Jairus is to cease troubling the Teacher, to let Him go His way, then Jesus will have quailed in face of death. His human contemporaries could have excused Him, for what other rabbi could challenge Death? However much we may have loved Him and honored His message, we could never worship Him as complete Master over all problems that it is our lot as human beings to suffer. (Cf. Heb. 2:9; Heb. 2:14-18) The death notice was for Jairus a crisis in faith, but the somber message was even more for Jesus a crisis in His self-revelation.

IV. REASON FOR JOY DISPUTED (9:23, 24)

Mat. 9:23 And when Jesus came into the rulers house, He had already commanded nine of the Apostles to remain behind, bringing with Him only Peter, John and James. His purpose was obviously to keep the crowd under control and out of His way, since He allowed no one to follow Him (Mar. 5:37) or when He got to the house, He permitted no one to enter with Him, except Peter, John and James and the father and mother of the maiden. (Luk. 8:51) His choice of the nine Apostles to remain with the crowd was perhaps to serve as an example of self-discipline. Physically, the nine men just by standing still easily blocked the passage to all who tried to follow Jesus. This first step was necessary in order for Jesus to secure the quiet and dignity He desired to surround the resurrection of Jairus daughter.

When Jesus came into the rulers house, He saw the flute-players and the crowd making a tumult. The funeral began even the same day as the death. The flute-players and tumult represent a different custom of mourning the dead than ours. Our custom demands silence of respect for the dead; theirs calls for release of pent-up emotions through loud mourning. This led naturally to the attitude that considered mourning more genuine, more deeply felt, the louder and more prolonged it was continued. But even human grief knows its natural limits unless it is artificially bolstered by sentimental music of hired musicians, as the flute-players here, or by the emotional reminiscences skillfully repeated by the semi-professional wailing women. (Cf. 2Ch. 35:25; Jer. 9:17-22; Jer. 16:5-9; Eze. 24:15-24; Amo. 5:16-17 and perhaps also Act. 9:37-39) So when Matthew describes the funeral as a tumult, he is merely saying that it was a good funeral proceeding in good order according to the custom of the day. Mark and Luke describe the tumult as consisting of weeping and loud wailing.

Mat. 9:24 He said, Give place. (anachrete). This command may be taken in two different ways, both of which could be Jesus meaning:

Stand back, make room! This then is Jesus request merely to pass through the crowd that simply by their presence now blocked the entrance to the room where Jairus daughter lay.

But taken in its stronger sense to leave, to withdraw, Jesus is saying nothing less than You may leave now, folks: the funerals over! These shocking words call dramatic attention to what He is about to do.

Naturally, at this time all attention would be drawn from the mourning to the sudden return of the master of the house, Jairus, and the precipitate entrance of Jesus, for many in the house knew that Jesus had been sent for. They also knew that other messengers had been dispatched to Jairus to inform him of the death of the daughter, counselling him not to bother Jesus further. Now Jesus enters the room and literally takes over. The seeming imperiousness of His manner is only apparent because, besides this brusque command (Depart), He intentionally began speaking by pricking their curiosity: Why do you make a tumult and weep? Do not weep; the child is not dead but sleeping. (Mar. 5:39; Luk. 8:52)

For the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. Patient with their ignorance of His power and His plans, He is giving them opportunity to react in quite another manner than they do. His enigmatic declaration was intended to stir them to reflection about His meaning. Thus, if they were disposed to respectful attention to Him and His purposes, they were about to become the witnesses of a resurrection from the dead. Instead they responded stupidly with scorn and insults, unable to see in His words anything more than obvious insensibility to the parents tragedy in this moment of loss.

These words, however, morally commit Jesus to a position of gross imposture or else to one of highest integrity. For if the little girl were not really, literally dead, then Jesus must be charged with imposture, allowing to be believed what never occurred. The parents and disciples believed the daughter to be dead (Luk. 8:49; Mar. 5:35), but Jesus did nothing to correct that impression except to assert that she slept. Then upon raising her, He said nothing that would correct the distinct impression that He had just brought a person once actually dead, back to life.

Not dead but sleepeth are words, then, not intended to contradict the literal state of the little girl, but to correct the common view these people had of death. They had perhaps viewed her death as a cessation of existence for both body and soul (a view not unlike that held by the Sadducees), whereas Jesus affirms, contrarily, that she is very much alive elsewhere and can be recalled as easily as one is awakened out of sleep. Or perhaps they held that she was permanently deadat least until the resurrection (a more Pharisean view) and there was nothing now to do but resign oneself to that fact and mourn her loss. But Jesus is objecting that she is NOT dead permanently so much as asleep in death from which He shall wake her, (Other illustrations of death described as a sleep: Joh. 11:11-14; Act. 7:60; 1Co. 15:6; 1Co. 15:18; 1Th. 4:13-17; 2Pe. 3:4)

They laughed Him to scorn. This sentence has the greatest value as circumstantial evidence for the reality of the miracle that follows, since they evince the true psychological reaction of a qualified group of people sure both of the purpose of their wailing and of the apparent inappropriateness of Jesus claim that the damsel was not dead. They were all more than sure that she was dead. (Luk. 8:53) This psychological reaction, though blamable from one standpoint (see above), is exactly what one would expect under the circumstances. The presence of the parents, who would be the last to surrender to the heart-rending conclusion that their only little lamb had gone, are proof against any supposition that she was in any state other than literal, physical death. (But even if it were a deep coma after whatever disease had so reduced the girl, as Barclay [Matthew I, 353] suggests, would she have been so quickly revived to full vigor and health? So it is impossible to remove the supernatural from this event.) No, her death was a fact the certainty of which these friends and neighbors thought it madness to doubt!

McGarvey (Matthew-Mark, 85) with his usual clear insight, detects in this phrase one of the best evidences for the authenticity of the entire account:

If it were a pretended death and revival, we would expect to see an anxiety on the part of Jesus to make it appear that the girl was dead, and a disposition on the part of the unbelievers present to question this fact. But the reverse is true: it is the unbelievers who insist that the girl is dead, while Jesus alone raises a question about it. Perhaps the chief object of the remark She is not dead, but sleepeth, was to bring forth from the inmates of the house, who had the best opportunity to know the fact, a more emphatic affirmation that she was certainly dead.

Without intending to do so, then, these scorners among the mourners established this fact of a real resurrection from the dead beyond all doubt. By their scorn, in retrospect after the resurrection, they had shut their own mouths and, as a result, really shut the mouths of all future doubters of the reality of this marvellous resurrection.

Not dead but sleepeth. These words, that were intended to stimulate joy and eager anticipation of the mighty act of God through the resurrection of Jairus daughter, were disputed, scorned and rejected. Jesus had tried to communicate this hope to all in Jairus house that day, but they failed to grasp it. This is fatal, for they missed seeing the great event that all mankind has longed to look into: real resurrection from the dead. They failed because Jesus words were a bit difficult and they refused to rise to the challenge of understanding Him. They thought they were justly condemning Him, but by His choice of words, He had already let them judge and condemn themselves. He was not on trial: they were. (Study this same psychology of Jesus, Joh. 6:25-69.)

V. THE RESURRECTION OF JAIRUS DAUGHTER (9:25, 26)

Mat. 9:25 The crowd was put forth not only for the reasons suggested above, but also for the following:

Scorn and criticism sterilize the attention, drawing it away from the Father onto self-defense. Perhaps Jesus wanted to concentrate His own heart upon God who raises the dead, rather than waste time and dissipate energy in defending Himself or arguing further.

He desired not credulity, but quiet. Faith could come later on the basis of the evidence here produced, but people must be in a proper spirit to observe what he does. This calls for the dignity of silence, not the confusion and tumult of mourning. Jesus put the crowd outside (Mar. 5:40), not because He wanted an indispensable atmosphere of faith, as if disbelief could hinder the miracle.

He did not desire the publicity that would be certain to follow. The larger the group, the more difficult it would be to keep the matter quiet. For reasons for this attitude, see below on Mat. 9:26. This harmonizes perfectly with the strict injunction given the parents not to publish this miracle.

Perhaps the large group of professional mourners, some of them perhaps objecting out of self-interest, having been hired for the occasion, would have actually, physically hindered Jesus from, as they put it, imposing upon the parents, since no one can raise the dead! But, this suggestion is weak, since Jesus could have overpowered them by any manner He chose, had they attempted to stop Him.

Considering the temper of the crowd, Jesus action assured the few chosen witnesses the best opportunity to observe what actually took place. This quiet enabled them to hear what was said, so that they would know that what He did, He did not by magic but by authority. So doing, Jesus avoided misconceptions circulated by means of wild stories started by a mob of half-hysterical people who only thought they saw or heard this or that.

He entered in, i.e. into the room where the child was, taking five unimpeachable witnesses (Mar. 5:40; Luk. 8:51) These future Apostles needed to witness the fact in order to give a careful account of it later to the world. (Compare the account of Peters raising Dorcas from the dead, Act. 9:36-42, wondering what effect this resurrection had on Peter as he walked alone into the room where Dorcas lay dead!) The parents of all people could not be deceived or bribed to promote the publication of a falsehood regarding a matter that touched them so closely and so intimately.

He took her by the hand. To touch a corpse or be touched by a woman afflicted with a hemorrhage or to touch a leper (see on Mat. 8:3) would have involved Jesus in ceremonial defilement. But here, as always, He imparted cleansing, healing and life by His touch, removing all cause of defilement in the person He touched. He was the one true exception to the Law of defilement, that was written only for people without such supernatural powers, who, rather than helping those they touched, only became defiled themselves, leaving two defiled persons. Jesus always left two clean persons, whole, cleansed and alive.

The damsel arose when Jesus took her by the hand and called to her, just as He would if He were waking her up from sleep. But this was not sleep: her spirit returned. (Luk. 8:55) On the basis of the above considerations, we have to conclude that this is a real resurrection. For Jesus, Lord of both nature and miracles, both sleep and death are no mysteries, for He has experienced both. As simply as Jairus had for twelve years gone in to awaken his daughter out of sleep, so Jesus instantly raised her out of death. For to Jesus, both the sleeping and the dead can be, awakened. Who then is this who calls the dead to life? But no sooner had this twelve year old, now full of all the life and vigor, bounced out of bed and walked over to her amazed mother and daddy, than Jesus commanded them to provide her something to eat. (Mar. 5:43; Luk. 8:55). Why?

Jesus is so reasonable. He ordered her parents to give her, not the Law and the prophets, but food. Jairus, here is your little sweetheart, now you take care of her: give her something to eat! This marvelous Jesus has just robbed Death of its victim and yet still thinks about a meal for the little girl.

Seeing the parents overcome with amazement, Jesus may have commanded that bread be given her also to demonstrate that they were beholding no ghost, no apparition, but a real person, once dead, now returned to the concrete reality of human existence. (Cf. Luk. 24:41-43 and perhaps Act. 10:41) Thus, this simple demand breaks the stunned, awed silence caused by this direct contact with the supernatural, bringing the onlookers back down to the natural, Jesus could have provided miraculous bread too, but He required the parents to do their part by using natural means they had at hand.

Mat. 9:26 And the fame hereof went forth into all that land despite all Jesus could do to keep this from happening. Some might wonder how He could have expected otherwise by the incredible tactics He used: He stopped a funeral, drove out the mourners, while His nine disciples kept another great crowd waiting for Him to return from the funeral at Jairus house. (Mar. 5:24; Mar. 5:37) Human curiosity, about what took place in that bed room, could know no bounds, especially when Jairus daughter reappeared later, alive and healthy! But Jesus forbade only Jairus and his wife to publish the story (Mar. 5:42; Luk. 8:56), since they especially were in positions of authority as eyewitnesses of good repute and would have been only too willing to spread the joyful tidings far and wide. What the other neighbors and bystanders do is no concern of Jesus, for He knows that if His own disciples and the parents do not spread the story, the sensation reported here by Matthew will die out. Some might object: Why bother to hush the story when it represents so powerful an evidence of Jesus authority over death itself?

Because, unless the news is quieted, people could conceivably begin bringing Jesus requests for resurrection for all their dead. This would not only be unwise on their part, but it would further hinder Jesus real ministry to earth. Men too often tried to use Jesus for selfish motives. He had not come to build up a healing ministry or raise all earths dead yet, but to reveal God. His miracles of healing were to demonstrate Gods compassion and identify Himself as Gods Revealer. McGarvey (Matthew-Mark, 297) makes the interesting observation about how remarkable it is that we read not of a single instance in which Jesus was requested to raise the dead: and the fact may be accounted for in part by this charge of privacy, indicating he did not wish to be importuned for this exercise of His power.

Because, unless the story is suppressed, political excitement could reach a fever pitch, since mistaken views of worldly messiahs would be attached to Jesus name, blocking all progress for His spiritual work. Worse still, bloody riots could result as the patriots, primarily the Zealots, tried to force Jesus to be their king and lead them against the Romans.

Plummer (Luke, 238) suggests another reason: It was given more probably for the parents sake, to keep them from letting the effect of this great blessing evaporate in vain-glorious gossip. To thank God for it at home would be far more profitable than talking about it abroad.

Trench (Miracles, 113) sees an ascending scale in the glory of the three records of resurrection from the dead: here a girl just died; the son of the widow of Nain on the road for burial; then Lazarus already dead for four days. Then he continues: Immeasurably more stupendous than all these, will be the wonder of that hour, when all the dead of old, who will have lain, some of them for many thousand years, in the dust of death, shall be summoned from and shall leave their graves at the same quickening voice (Joh. 5:28-29).

FACT QUESTIONS

To what city did Jesus return from the freeing of the Gadarene demoniacs across the Sea of Galilee? How do you know this?

What was the position in the Jewish community occupied by Jairus?

Harmonize the accounts of Mark and Luke with that of Matthew in regard to the actual request of Jairus in relationship to the actual state of the little girl: was she living or dead? Did Jairus want Jesus to come to heal or to raise her?

List several other miracles that Jesus had accomplished in this city prior to this time which may have brought Jairus and the sick woman to their position of dependence upon Jesus to help them in this their critical hour.

Explain how the womans faith healed her, showing how this harmonizes with the fact that it was Jesus power that did it.

How did Jesus address the woman?

Describe the desperate case presented to Jesus by this woman, not only the physical malady but also the social, personal, religious and economic effects of her disease.

Describe her plan borne of desperation by which she hoped to be healed and how she carried it out.

Describe the scene changes from the first request of Jairus until Jesus actually arrived at Jairus house.

10.

Explain the presence of the flute players and the mourners so soon after the death of the maiden.

11.

Explain the words of Jesus: The little girl is not dead, just sleeping.

12.

Was the little girl really dead? On what basis do you answer as you do?

13.

How many persons actually witnessed the resurrection of Jairus daughter? Name them.

14.

Explain how it was possible for people actually to be expecting Jesus return from Gergesa so as to be crowding around on the beach as He landed.

15.

Describe the political situation in Galilee that renders comprehensible Jesus requirement that people not tell others about His miracles.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(18) While he spake these things.The sequence seems so clear as, at first, hardly to admit of doubt; and yet it is no less clear that St. Mark and St. Luke represent what is told as following close upon our Lords return to the western side of the lake after the healing of the Gadarene, and place many events between it and the call of Levi. Assuming St. Matthews own connection with the Gospel, we may justly, in this case, give greater weight to his order than to the arrangement of the other two, who derived the account from others.

A certain ruler.St. Mark and St. Luke give the name Jairus, and state that he was a ruler of the synagogue, probably an elder, or one of the Parnasim or pastors. The fact is interesting as suggesting a coincidence between this narrative and that of the centurions servant. As a ruler of the synagogue, Jairus would probably have been among the elders of the Jews who came as a deputation to our Lord, and would thus have been impressed with His power to heal in cases which seemed hopeless.

My daughter is even now dead.St. Luke adds, as one who had inquired into details, that she was the rulers only child, was twelve years old, and that she lay a dying, agreeing with St. Marks is at the point of death, literally, in extremis, at the last gasp; and both add that the crowd that followed thronged and pressed our Lord as He went.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

52. SEVENTH MIRACLE RAISING THE RULER’S DAUGHTER, Mat 9:18-26 .

This miracle is narrated with greater detail by Mark, upon whose account see our comments.

18. A certain ruler A ruler of the synagogue at Capernaum. His name was Jairus. Worshipped The Greek word implies reverence, but not necessarily divine worship. See note on Mat 8:2. Even now dead The exaggeration of his parental feelings. She had not at that moment probably died. She shall live The ruler’s faith was firm.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘While he spoke these things to them, behold, there came a ruler, and worshipped him (or ‘paid him homage’), saying, “My daughter is even now dead, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” ’

‘While He spoke these things to them.’ This could be intended to be specific (and thus as signifying ‘while He was actually speaking what has just been recorded’) or it could be intended to be more vague (‘while He was teaching similar types of things to those which have just been recorded’) as a convenient means of linking the narratives. In the latter case he would simply be saying that the Ruler burst in on Jesus at some time when He was teaching about the coming of what was new. Compare Mar 5:21 which is also vague. Neither confirms the true chronological position of the story.

We have in this whole account a typical Matthaean abbreviation. He condenses a more complicated situation mainly in order to save space, but possibly in this verse also for the purpose of emphasising from the start that by the time Jesus arrived at the house she really was dead. By establishing that fact here there would be no danger of anyone (well, nearly anyone) misinterpreting Jesus’ later comment about her being ‘asleep’. In order to obtain the full facts the sentence has to be divided into two halves, the first indicating that the Ruler came to Jesus and fell at His feet, and the second indicating that the Ruler informed Jesus that his daughter was dead, for this latter in fact took place some time after the former. It may thus be a typical piece of journalistic condensation. Basically Matthew is saying as briefly as possible that the father came to Jesus for help, informed Jesus (later) that his daughter was dead, and asked Him to heal her in the usual manner. The way in which Jesus regularly healed was no mystery. It was, however, unusual. There is a solitary reference to Abraham being called on to lay hands on a sick person in a Qumran scroll, but it is a rare occurrence.

Alternately Matthew may be depicting the Ruler as exaggerating the case in order to bring home to Jesus the seriousness of the situation. By ‘is dead’ he may simply have meant ‘as good as dead’, ‘could die at any moment’, ‘dead if you do not come and do something about it’. (Compare ‘let the dead bury their dead’). This may have been a commonly recognised way of indicating nearness to death, especially when calling a doctor. ‘She is dead if you do not come quickly with your medicines’. But if this is so we have no other evidence of it. On the other hand this interpretation is supported by the words that follow. For the suggestion that Jesus would lay hands on her so that she might live suggests that the father did not see her as actually dead, but was hoping for a cure. The Ruler would have had no cause to think that Jesus could raise the dead by laying hands on them, but he would have every cause to think that Jesus could heal the sick by doing so. (Note that in fact Jesus does not lay His hands on her, so this is not conforming the story to the later facts).

We are given fuller details in the other synoptic Gospels. When the Ruler first made contact with Jesus, as far as he was aware his daughter was still alive, although dying. It was only later when messengers arrived to tell him that his daughter was dead that he passed that information on to Jesus. So the basic facts as depicted in Matthew is right, it is the inessential (to Matthew) detail that is missing.

This should act as a warning to us that in many Bible stories details are often missing so that we should beware of drawing lessons from silence, or overemphasising what might simply be the result of condensation. But we do note that while Matthew elsewhere draws attention to outstanding faith (Mat 8:10; Mat 9:28), even doing so later in this story (Mat 9:22), there is no mention of the Ruler’s faith here, simply because Matthew knew the full story and knew that his was a wavering faith, and not something to be especially commended.

‘The Ruler.’ He was a ruler of the synagogue and therefore respected, playing an important part in society. We must not judge the attitude of the synagogues by the Pharisees (see Mat 12:9; Mat 13:54), although Jesus was aware that His Apostles would experience rough treatment in some synagogues (Mat 10:17).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Raising of A Ruler’s Daughter And The Healing Of The Woman With A Discharge of Blood (9:18-26).

No better illustration of the fact that the new had come can be found than here. In the raising of the anonymous Ruler’s daughter we are provided with a foretaste of the resurrection. It was a pointer to the fact that to all ‘Rulers’, as to all men and women, new life was being offered. And in the woman who was made clean we have a picture of the prospective new Israel who need to reach out and touch Jesus and be cleansed. (Compare for the latter Eze 16:60-63).

In what follows Jesus goes to the aid of a young girl who has died, and raises her from the dead. But there is a subsidiary story, which is always seen as an integral part of the main story. This reveals a woman who was continually ceremonially ‘unclean’ because of a discharge of blood from within her which she had had for twelve years. She too was dying, and she had been dying for twelve years. And she had found no hope anywhere until the day when she came to Jesus and found that He could make the unclean clean. Both were in their own way representative of the people of God, dead in sin and unclean before God.

But in order to confirm the lesson lying behind this we need to go to a passage in Ezekiel 16. There Jerusalem was likened to a baby, cast out at birth covered in the blood flow of its mother, whom God had commanded ‘in her blood’ to live (Mat 9:6). He then betrothed her to Himself, but she remained naked (it is not a natural picture). And when she came to an age for love (i.e. about twelve years of age) He wiped the blood from her (Mat 9:9). So either the idea is that for twelve years she had been covered in vaginal blood, or that she was once again covered in blood because of her menstruation, seen as connecting back to her first condition. And now she was His to be restored by His mercy to full glory.

It would seem that this is the lesson behind both the child whom God will make to live, and the woman with a flow of blood for twelve years which will be made clean. The two together reveal that Jesus (the Bridegroom – Mat 9:15) has come to make clean and give life to His people so as to betroth them to Himself.

Analysis.

a While He spoke these things to them, behold, there came a ruler, and worshipped him (Mat 9:18 a).

b Saying, “My daughter is even now dead, but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live” (Mat 9:18 b).

c And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did His disciples (Mat 9:19).

d And behold, a woman, who had a discharge of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the border (or ‘fringe’) of His cloak. For she said within herself, “If I do but touch His clothing, I will be made whole” (Mat 9:20-21).

e But Jesus turning and seeing her said, “Daughter, be of good cheer, your FAITH has made you whole” (Mat 9:22 a).

d And the woman was made whole from that hour (Mat 9:22 b).

c And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the flute-players, and the crowd making a tumult, He said, “Remove yourselves, for the damsel is not dead, but sleeps.” And they laughed Him to scorn (Mat 9:23-24).

b But when the crowd was put forth, He entered in, and took her by the hand, and the damsel arose (Mat 9:25).

a And the fame concerning this went forth into all that land (Mat 9:26).

Note that in ‘a’ the ruler came and worshipped Him, and in the parallel His fame went throughout the land. In ‘b’ he pleads for his daughter’s life and in the parallel Jesus grants his request. In ‘c’ Jesus arose and followed him and in the parallel they arrive at the ruler’s house. In ‘d’ the diseased woman says to herself that if she touches Jesus’ clothing she will be made whole, and in the parallel she is made whole. Centrally in ‘e’ it is her faith which has made her whole.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Three Miracles Requiring Faith in Jesus for Healing (Man’s Heart: Faith in God’s Word) Mat 9:18-34 gives us three stories of how Jesus responded to the people’s faith in Him to heal them (Mat 9:22; Mat 9:28-29). These three miracles testify of the important aspect of a person’s need to put their faith in Jesus to heal them because it is a part of the atonement. [419] These stories testify to man’s heart to believe His Word.

[419] Grant Osborne acknowledges the dominate theme of faith from those who receive healing in Matthew 9:18-34. See Grant R. Osborne, Matthew, in Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, ed. Clinton E. Arnold (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), 345.

Outline Here is a proposed outline:

1. Ruler’s Daughter & Woman with Issue of Blood Mat 9:18-26

2. Two Blind Men Mat 9:27-31

3. A Dumb Man Mat 9:32-34

Mat 9:18-26 The Ruler’s Daughter and the Woman with Issue of Blood ( Mar 5:21-43 , Luk 8:40-56 ) Mat 9:18-26 tells us the stories of the woman with the issue of blood being healed by touching the helm of Jesus’ garment while He was on His way to raise Jarius’ daughter from the dead. This story is placed with narrative material that places emphasis upon Jesus training His disciples (Mat 8:1 to Mat 9:38) in order to send them out (Mat 10:1-42). The story of the ruler’s daughter and the woman with the issue of blood reveals the need for God’s children to put their faith in Him to heal because it is a part of the atonement.

Parallel Accounts – It is interesting to note that Matthew’s Gospel does not mention the fact that Jesus took Peter, James, and John with Him into the room. We know that Matthew’s Gospel gives the briefest account in the Synoptics. Perhaps the reason is the Matthew is simply emphasizing Jesus’ healing ministry in general, while Mark, the longest of these parallel passages, emphasizes the miracles themselves as a testimony of Jesus as the Son of God. Luke’s Gospel places emphasis upon the training of the Twelve.

Mat 9:18 While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

Mat 9:18 “but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live” – Comments – The man’s confession of faith in this verse is for Jesus to lay hands upon his daughter. In verse 25, Jesus took her by the hand as a response to this confession from the father.

Mat 9:25, “But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand , and the maid arose.”

Mat 9:19 And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples.

Mat 9:20 And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:

Mat 9:20 “and touched the hem of his garment” – Comments – Why did she want to touch the fringe of the garment? Num 15:37-41 tells us that this fringe of Jesus’ garment represented a remembrance of all the commandments of the Mosaic Law. Within these commandments was the promise of divine health for those who obeyed the Law.

Num 15:39, “And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring:”

Mat 9:21 For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.

Mat 9:21 Comments – Her confession of faith was to touch His garment. In verse 20, she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and was healed. In verse 22, Jesus said that her faith was what made her whole.

Note the confession of Thomas in Joh 20:25. This also was a confession of faith that God honored. Jesus responded to this confession of faith in Joh 20:27 by granting the request of Thomas.

Joh 20:25, “The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

Joh 20:27, “Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.”

Mat 9:22 But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.

Mat 9:20-22 Comments – The Woman with Issue of Blood – The woman with the issue of blood was subject to the Levitical Laws as taught in Lev 15:19-33.

Mat 9:23 And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise,

Mat 9:24 He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.

Mat 9:25 But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose.

Mat 9:25 Comments – It is interesting to note the fact that Jesus put the scorners out of the room before raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead. This is because He had to drive out the atmosphere of doubt and unbelief. Anyone who has every ministered the Gospel knows the witness in his/her spirit of a receptive heart or a stubborn, closed heart of the hearer. When someone is hungry to hear the Gospel, the anointing of words seems to flow out of the mouth of someone preaching the Gospel. But to the scorners, the minister feels as if he has to push each word out with force, because it does not flow out easily, and there is little or no inspiration of words. Jesus knew that if He were to be in the presence of doubt and unbelief, it would hinder the flow of the anointing.

One of the most dramatic examples of this in my ministry took place in 2006. I had the privilege of preaching a number of times in a particular church to a large congregation of over five thousand people. For certain reasons, there were not friendly relationships between the pastor and his wife and me. As I had been invited to preach occasionally in this pulpit over the years, his wife had always hosted me. On one particular Sunday morning in early 2006, I was preaching the three services. Neither the pastor, nor his wife, nor any other skeptical members of the staff were in attendance. As I stepped up to the pulpit and laid down my Bible and notes, the choir was finishing its worship song. I then lifted my hands to heaven, and it felt like I touched electricity. For the next forth-five minutes we stood in the presence of God. I believe one major factor that led to this open door from Heaven was the fact that there were no skeptics sitting close to the front, and the people’s hearts were receptive to my ministry. In contrast, a few months later the pastor and his wife were seated in the front row when I had been invited to preach. It was difficult for me to speak, because I did not feel an unction. It was not that I had not prepared myself, but I believe that a hearer’s heart can determine whether the anointing flows from the minister or not.

Mat 9:26 And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.

Mat 9:27-31 Jesus Heals Two Blind Men Mat 9:27-31 records the story of Jesus restoring sight to two blind men. This story is placed with narrative material the places emphasis upon Jesus training His disciples (Mat 8:1 to Mat 9:38) in order to send them out (Mat 10:1-42). The story of Jesus healing two blind men reveals the need for God’s children to put their faith in Him to heal because it is a part of the atonement.

Mat 9:27 And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us.

Mat 9:28 And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.

Mat 9:29 Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.

Mat 9:30 And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it.

Mat 9:30 Comments – In one country where he was rejected (Luk 8:39), Jesus tells the healed man to tell the Gadarenes what God has done. However, in a place where people received Him, He told them to be silent about what God had done (Mat 8:4; Mat 9:30, Mar 5:43, Luk 5:14; Luk 8:56). Why did He do this? Perhaps because Jesus knew that He could not return to the country of the Gadarenes and there would be no one else to preach the Gospel to them. However, in the regions where multitudes came out to hear Jesus, He needed the liberty to move about and to teach to smaller crowds in order to better communicate the Good News. Therefore, with His fame now being spread abroad in this region (Mat 9:26), it became important for this testimony of the blind men to remain quiet so that the crowds would not make Jesus’ public ministry too difficult.

Mat 9:31 But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country.

Mat 9:32-34 Jesus Heals a Dumb Man – Mat 9:32-34 records the story of Jesus healing a dumb man. This story is placed with narrative material the places emphasis upon Jesus training His disciples (Mat 8:1 to Mat 9:38) in order to send them out (Mat 10:1-42). The story of Jesus healing the dumb man reveals the response of the multitudes to Jesus’ public ministry and the impending persecution coming from the Jewish leaders.

Mat 9:32 As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil.

Mat 9:33 And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake: and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel.

Mat 9:34 But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.

Mat 9:34 Comments Mat 9:34 contains the first comments in Matthew’s Gospel of the impending persecution that Jesus will face from the Jewish leaders. This comments is strategically placed by the author because the theme of Mat 9:32-34 is to reveal both the positive and negative response that Jesus and His disciples will received during their public ministry.

Mat 9:33-34 Comments Mat 9:33 b-34 is the key verse to the previous three miracles recorded in Mat 9:18-34, revealing the common theme that they all share, which is the demonstration of the growing magnitude of His ministry and fame, coupled with the response of the people: the multitudes were amazed, and the religious leaders were angry, which is the theme of these three miracles. We find similar concluding statements offering passage themes in Mat 8:17, which reveals God’s will to heal His people, and in Mat 9:8, which reveals the authority of the name of Jesus. Each of these three triplicates of miracles were used to train the Twelve to be sent out, having first seen Jesus demonstrate (1) God’s will to heal everyone, (2) the authority in the name of Jesus, and (3) the response of the multitudes and adversity from religious leaders.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Daughter of Jairus.

v. 18. While He spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler and worshiped Him, saying, My daughter is even now dead; but come, and lay Thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

v. 19. And Jesus arose and followed him, and so did His disciples.

Jesus was still in earnest conversation with the Pharisees and the disciples of John, when there was an interruption. A ruler, or elder, of the synagogue at Capernaum, a man of some influence, coming in, threw himself down before the Lord in the attitude of supplication. Matthew here, for the sake of brevity, mentions the cry of the ruler after he had received the actual report of his daughter’s death, Mar 5:35. His faith in the ability of Christ to heal, and even to bring back from death, is absolute. Even now she surely must be dead, but the touch of the great Healer’s hand could restore her to life. Jesus, ever full of loving sympathy, ready, for the sake of a soul, to go also to the bedsides, went with the distracted father.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Mat 9:18. While he spake As St. Mark has given us the history of these two extraordinary miracles so much more circumstantially than St. Matthew, we shall postpone our observations upon them till we come to Mar 5:22. See also Luk 8:41. Dr. Campbell renders the verse, While he was speaking, a ruler came, and, prostrating himself, said, my daughter is by this time dead; but come, and lay thy hand upon her, and she will revive.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Mat 9:18 . ] a president ; Matthew does not further define the office. According to Mar 5:22 , Luk 8:41 , it was the synagogue-president , named Jairus .

The correct reading is (comp. the critical remarks), and not (Gersdorf, Rinck, de Wette, Tischendorf, Ewald), yet not as though the following were at variance with Matthew’s usual style (Mat 22:35 , Mat 23:15 , Mat 26:40 ; Mat 26:69 , Mat 27:14 ; see, on the other hand, Mat 5:41 , Mat 6:27 , Mat 12:11 , Mat 18:5 , Mat 21:24 ); but since this, like the former incident, also occurred at that meal in the residence of Jesus (according to Matthew, not according to Mark and Luke), and as this fact was misapprehended, as most critics misapprehend it still, consequently it was not seen to what might refer, so that it was changed into . According to Matthew, the order of the incidents connected with the meal is as follows: (1) Jesus sends away the Pharisees, Mat 9:11-13 . (2) After them, the disciples of John approach Him with their questions about fasting, and He instructs them, Mat 9:14-17 . (3) While he is still speaking to the latter, a president enters , Mat 9:18 , and prefers his request. Thereupon Jesus rises, i.e. from the table (Mat 9:10 ), and goes away with the , Mat 9:19 ; and it is not till Mat 9:28 that we read of His having returned again to His house.

] has just now died . The want of harmony here with Mar 5:23 , Luk 7:49 , is to be recognised, but not (Olearius, Kuinoel) to be erroneously explained as meaning jam moritur, morti est proxima. Others (Luther, Wolf, Grotius, Rosenmller, Lange) interpret, with Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euth. Zigabenus: , , . A harmonizing expedient.

Laying on of the hand , the symbol and medium in the communication of a divine benefit, Mat 19:13 ; Luk 4:40 ; Luk 13:13 . See on Act 6:6 ; Act 8:17 f., Mat 13:3 , Mat 19:5 ; Gen 48:14 ; Num 27:18 .

The account of Mar 5:22-42 , which is followed by Luk 8:41 ff., is so unique and fresh in regard to the detail which characterizes it, that it is not to be regarded as a later amplification (Strauss, Baur, Hilgenfeld, Keim, Bleek); that of Matthew follows a condensed form of the tradition, which, moreover, is responsible for straightway introducing the as if forming part of what the president addressed to Jesus.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

VI
The woman with an issue of blood, and the dead maiden; or, the twofold miracle.Miraculous working of the Lord in the face of despair and death

Mat 9:18-26

(The Gospel for the 24th Sunday after Trinity.Parallels: Mar 5:22-43; Luk 8:41-56.)

18While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain [there came in a]15 ruler [of the synagogue], and worshipped him, saying,16 My daughter is even now dead [has just now died]: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

19, And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples. 20And, behold, a woman, which [who] was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem17 of his garment: 21For she said within herself, If I may but touch hisgarment, I shall be whole. 22But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her,18 he said, Daughter, be of good comfort [cheer];19 thy faith hath made thee whole. Andthe woman was made whole from that hour. 23And when Jesus came into the rulers house, and saw the minstrels [pipers, flute-players, ] and the people [crowd]20 making a noise, 24He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn [laughed at him]. 25But when the people [crowd]6 were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose. 26And the fame hereof [this fame, ] went abroad into all that land.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Mat 9:18. Ruler, .The president of a synagogue. His name was Jairus, see Mar 5:22; Luk 8:41; . Every synagogue had its president, who superintended and directed the services. The ruler of a synagogue was at the same time president of its college of elders. See Vitringa: Archisynagog., Franek., 1685.Jairus was president of a synagogue at Capernaum.

The reading , in Mat 9:18, is not only best attested, but most suitable. The arrival of the ruler of the synagogue interrupted the conversation of the Lord with the Pharisees and the disciples of John, which took place during or after the meal in the house of the publican. It thus happened, that Jesus could prove to these objectors that He was able and willing to rise from the feast and to sympathize with the deepest suffering, nay, to enter the valley of death itself. This constituted both the fasting of Jesus and His mission to relieve the sick. The description of the conduct of Jairus is exceedingly vivid. His first appeal consists in falling down at the feet of Jesus, which he then explains by a few urgent words of entreaty, leading him at once into the midst of his domestic affliction. Accordingly, the Lord first calmed the excitement of the father by proceeding leisurely. In the circumstances, it was quite in accordance with His purpose that the woman afflicted with an issue of blood should have stopped Him by the way. This delay would serve both to try and to strengthen the faith of Jairus.

My daughter has just now died, [in this moment, opposed to ] .Meyer supposes that there is a difference between this account and those of Mark and Luke. But the latter has , which agrees with Matthew. According to these two accounts, the of Mark must be explained. Jairus left his daughter dying, and hence might express himself either in this way, She was (when I went away) at the point of death, or else, She hat just dicd. The circumstances of the case account sufficiently for the difference in the narrative. (So Chrysostom, Theophylact, Grotius, Wolf, etc.).

Mat 9:20. An issue of blood.It is not necessary to enter into details as to the peculiar malady with which the poor woman was afflicted. The long continuance of this disease not only endangered her general health, but was a direct cause of divorce, and rendered it necessary for her to avoid every public assembly. Von Ammon. According to the law, it rendered unclean, Lev 15:19 sqq.

Came behind Him.A sign of hopelessness. The rapid movements of the Lord, and the peculiar character of her disease, would lead her to come in this wayashamed, as it were, and timorous. All the greater appears the faith of this woman: she takes hold of the fringes upon the border of Christs garment, in the conviction that she would thereby be restored. The Hebrews wore four fringes (zizith) on the four borders of their garments, in accordance with the commandment in Num 15:38.

Mat 9:22. Jesus turned Himself about.The other Evangelists report the event more fully. The Lord asks who had touched Him. The woman then comes forward, makes confession, and is dismissed with a word of comfort. Matthew gives a more brief account, satisfied to state the great fact, that this poor hopeless woman by her faith obtained recovery from the Lord, while He was hastening to the bedside of the daughter of Jairus. In this instance, her faith is extolled as the medium of her recovery, though it almost seems to stand in direct contrast to that of the palsied man, whose earnestness and energy overcame every obstacle. We might compare the one to a robber, and the other to a thief; but the difference is only in form,their faith was the same, both in its strength and decision. Although the woman had obtained recovery by her quiet and retiring faith, yet the Lord constrained her to make public confession, partly to seal her faith and to strengthen her recovery, and partly to present her to the world as healed and clean. In ecclesiastical legend she bears the name of St. Veronica, and is said (Euseb. Mat 7:18, and the Gospel of Nicodemus, ed. Thilo, p. 561) to have erected to her Deliverer a brass monument in front of her home at Paneas, by the sources of Jordan. But Dr. Robinson (New Bibl. Researches in Palestine) thinks it probable that the statue was erected in honor of some Roman emperor.Owing to this delay by the way, a message could reach Jairus, that his daughter was now dead.

Mat 9:23. The minstrels.The appearance of these minstrels indicated that the preparations for the funeral ceremonies had commenced. (Comp. the corresponding articles in the Encyclops., Winer sub v. Trauer, Lightfoot ad loc., etc.)

Mat 9:24. The maid is not dead.The idea of a trance (Paulus, Schleiermacher, Olshausen) is entirely opposed to the spirit of the text. The words of Jesus are evidently metaphorical, and intended, on the one hand, to present death under a higher than the common aspect (see also the history of Lazarus), and on the other, to prepare for the raising of the maiden. The Lord first requested the hired mourners to leave the room; and then, when they laughed Him to scorn, He expelled them. Evidently those around Jairus shared not his faith,a circumstance which we infer even from the messages brought him by the way (as recorded in Mark and Luke). All the greater was the faith of Jairus, and especially the miracle of the Lord.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. We notice a gradual progression even in the miracles of raising the dead. The maid upon her death-bed,the youth on the bier,the man (Lazarus) in the grave. The same progression may also be traced in the doctrine of the resurrection: First, the Lord; then the first resurrection of believers; and in the end the general resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15 Similarly, these instances of awakening from the dead may be regarded as an earnest of the coming resurrection. By His eternal power, Christ first recalled from death to this mortal life, and then to eternal life.

2. We behold the glory and majesty of the Lord, in that, on the way to the house of Jairus, He displayed no trace of excitement, but that in calm consciousness He is ready to receive any impression from without. Of this we have clear evidence, when, in the midst of the excited crowd, He perceives that one in the agony of faith has touched the fringe of His garment; and when He stops to comfort and confirm the trembling believer, whom His power and grace had restored.
3. The maid was not in a trance; she was dead. But she had died in the anticipation of help, and awaiting the return of her father. Such is the internal connection between the miraculous interposition of Christ, and her who was its subject. A similar connection appears in all the miracles of Christ, and especially in the raising of Lazarus.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

It is proof of a holy feast, and of holy joy, when we can immediately leave for the house of mourning.We learn from Jairus, how parental affection may stimulate and strengthen faith and piety.The disciples of the Pharisees and of John fast; they object and judge; but they cannot bring help to the weary, nor comfort to the afflicted.The ruler of the synagogue must go to the house of the publican to find the Lord.How felt need may drive many persons to the Lord, whom in ordinary circumstances obstacles around would have prevented from coming.From an uncongenial controversy, the Lord forthwith proceeds to a conflict with death, the king of terrors.To live in the Spirit, is to be always ready.How the Lord can convert even interruptions into active duty, and an occasion for dispensing blessings.Jesus, the Saviour of those also who are beyond human hope.The Saviour of poor diseased woman.These miracles prove that Christ was about to awaken the dead.Jesus notices even that faith which is unperceived by men, and only finds utterance in sighs.He blesses and strengthens retiring faith, so that it breaks forth into open profession.Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole.Why Christ ascribes to faith the deliverance which He alone works: 1. Because faith alone can receive the deliverance of Christ; 2. because Christ is present in our faith, and works it; 3. because He would convert the act of faith into a life of faith.The maid is not dead, but sleepeth: 1. She sleepeth according to her disease in this life; 2. under the eye of her God and Saviour; 3. till the hour when she shall be raised.Death and sleep: 1. Sleep is a kind of death; 2. death is also a kind of sleep.Greatness of the moment when Jesus declared that death was but sleep.Opposition between the old mourning for the dead and the new life of the Lord.Comparison between Jewish and Christian mourning: 1. Wherein they agree; 2. wherein they differ.What is implied in the mysterious silence which the Lord enjoins before the performance of the miracle?Jesus delivering from the lowest depths,1. All who believe on Him, or wait for Him; 2. from the depth of guilt, of misery, of death, and of judgment.The fame of Christ, as awakening the dead, going forth into all the world: 1. The preparation for Easter; 2. Easter itself: 3. the echo of Easter throughout Christendom; 4. the harbinger of the day of judgment, which shall usher in the eternal Easter.

Starke:Zeisius: Woman, who has brought sin and misery into our world, should be distinguished, both inwardly and outwardly, by great humility, 1Ti 2:14; 1Pe 3:3.The Lord oftentimes delays long, but He always comes at the right moment, Psa 22:2; Hab 2:3.God sometimes deprives us of all outward means, or renders them insufficient, in order to bring us to Himself.When our faith has saved us, joy and peace in the Holy Ghost succeed.2Co 5:4; 1Ti 6:7; 2Pe 1:14.Zeisius: Leave the pomp and vanity of the world, if you would see the miracles and the glory of God and of Christ; for, in order to perceive them, you require quietness of soul, Psa 62:2; Isa 30:15.Cramer: Those who scorn the Lord and His benefits, are not deemed worthy to witness His miracles, Isa 33:1.The fame of Christ spreads through the whole land, and it is vain to attempt suppressing the Gospel.

Gossner:For Christ death is not death, but only a peaceful slumber.

Lisco:Full of reverence for Jesus and of womanly modesty, and feeling herself unclean in the eye of the law, she seeks, in the fulness of her faith, help in secret.In prayer we also touch the Lord, who, though invisible, is near to us.Jesus, our Deliverer from sorrow and death.

Heubner:Those who are in the higher ranks of life (the ruler of the synagogue) should not be ashamed to seek the help of Christianity.He worshipped Him. The deeper our humiliation, the higher the aspirations of the soul.What consolation does Christianity offer to parents on the loss of beloved children?Christ still takes us by the hand.And Jesus arose. This teaches His disciples that they should spare no trouble to help men and to save souls.The woman a picture of modesty and humility.Press through any obstacle that may intervene between Christ and thee.Faith renders the weakest means effective.Those who are most timid and shrinking, are oftentimes most gracious and near to Christ.The scorn of worldly men need not disturb the faithful servant of God.With His living hand did He take hold of the dead hand.How we may rightly touch Jesus.The certitude of Jesus, and of the believing soul.Personal and domestic suffering leading us to Jesus.

Bretschneider:The laughter of unbelief about the hope of immortality.Theremin (in Zimmermanns Collection, ii., 1827):How sorrow and suffering abound on earth, but how the Lord is able to deliver from all suffering.Rambach (Entwrfe, 1831):Weep not for the dead.Niemann (Sermons, p. 355):Believing remembrance of those who have gone before, a rich blessing, as teaching us,1. To love more purely; 2. to contend more faithfully; 3. to pray more penitently; 4. to die more joyfully.Eylert:Death under the picture of sleep.Reinhard:On the calmness with which Christians should act, even when surrounded by an excited multitude.On the fact, that the conduct of true Christians frequently appears ridiculous to the men of the world.Grneisen:The perfectness of the human life of the Redeemer.Kraussold:The dear cross: 1. It comes from the Lord; 2. it leads to the Lord; 3. it is blessed by the Lord.C. Beck:The power of faith: 1. Excited by affliction; 2. strong in confidence; 3. blessed in what it receives.Bachmann:Jesus Christ the true helper in every need.

Footnotes:

[15] Mat 9:18.Tischendorf: , according to Codd. C., D., E., M., X., etc. [and Cod. Sinait. Lange, in his G. trsl., adopts this reading; so also Alford.]Lachmann: , , according to Cod. B.Griesbach: . [Engl. V.: a certain ruler] .Recepta: . [The original copy no doubt read in large letters: , which may mean or , probably the former; for is superfluous here, although it occurs frequently in Matthew both after the noun, Mat 5:41; Mat 6:27; Mat 12:11; Mat 18:5; Mat 21:24, and before it, Mat 22:35; Mat 23:15; Mat 26:40; Mat 26:69; Mat 27:14. The refers to the house of Matthew where this scene, like the former, took place, comp. Mat 9:10.P. S.]

[16] Mat 9:18.Lachmann retains the recitative after , which makes the speech more lively.

[17] Mat 9:20.[Dr. Lange inserts here in smaller type: die Quaste, i. e., the tassel, fringe, with reference to the fringes on the borders of the garments which the Jews were commanded to wear (Num 15:38). Dr. Conant also translates fringe.P. S.]

[18] Mat 9:22.[Literally: And Jesus, turning (, the oldest reading, sustained also by Cod. Sinait., for ) and seeing her. said.]

[19] Mat 9:22.[Be of good cheer. is the usual rendering of the Greek in the E. V., comp. Mat 9:2; Mat 14:27 Mar 6:50; Joh 16:33; Act 23:11.P. S.]

[20] Mat 9:23; Mat 9:26.[Lange translates in both cases Haufe, crowd, which is better than people.P. S.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

We have here two most interesting miracles of the Lord Jesus; and they are blended into one view, because the one runs into the other, and both serve mutually to illustrate the glory of Jesus. The importunity of the poor man, that Jesus should hasten to his child, and the interruption which took place from the woman in detaining Christ for her cure, are finely worked up, both to heighten the miracle, to exercise the faith of the patient, and to manifest the sovereignty of the Lord. What an interruption was this woman’s stopping Christ to the ardor of the ruler. How he must have felt! How his fears must have increased; lest, according to his views, Christ should come too late. Anti Mark, in the relation of this miracle adds to Matthew’s account, that while Jesus was speaking with this woman, there came certain from the ruler’s house which said, thy daughter is dead, why troublest thou the master? Mar 5:35 . And Luke in like Manner, Luk 8:49 . Let the children of God in their exercises of faith, while at any time the Lord is suspending his gracious answers to prayer, or bringing them into difficulties, or under all their dead and dying frames, think of this! Remember, it is one thing to feel and know our own totally lost and helpless state; and another to have lively faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. For it is not what we are, but what Christ is. And it is good to have the sentence of death in ourselves, that we may not trust in ourselves, but in him that raiseth the dead. Oh! the blessedness of entering into the full enjoyment of those sublime truths of Jesus, when he saith, I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live; and lie that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. 2Co 1:9 ; Joh 11:25-26 .

The account of this woman, is uncommonly interesting. Mark, and Luke, add to the account of her twelve years labouring under this disease, that she had spent all her living upon physicians, and had suffered many things of many of them, and was nothing better, but rather worse. What a striking representation of the sinner, who is seeking relief to his sin-sick soul, in anything short of Christ! Such it is, and such it must be, in every case, and circumstance of spiritual malady. None but Jesus can cure. Twelve years, or eighteen years, as the woman in the synagogue, (Luk 13:11 ) or eight and thirty years, as the man at the Pool of Bethsaida, (Joh 5:5 ) are all the same, until Christ is found! Oh! that every poor sinner, crippled by sin, was made sensible of this: that instead of looking to Physicians of no value; in tears, and attempted reforms in their own strength, might, like this woman, be led to Christ. Job 13:4 . We never can sufficiently admire the faith of this woman; neither can we sufficiently bless Him who gave her such strong faith; for she said of Christ, if I may but touch his garment I shall be whole. Reader! let us not hastily pass away from the view of such illustrious faith in this daughter of faithful Abraham, without first crying out with the Apostles, Lord! increase our faith! I must beg the Reader also to notice the humbleness of the woman, in the midst of such exalted faith; she came behind Christ! The greatest faith is always blended with the greatest humility. Never will a soul, lay lower before God, than when that soul is entering into the sweetest communion with Cod. The higher views we have of the Lord’s grace, the humbler views shall we have of our own understandings. Gen 18:27 ; Ezr 9:15 . And I must beg the Reader also in noticing this woman’s humbleness, in coming behind Christ, to remark; that our approaches to Jesus’, in every direction, behind, or before, is the same. The lamb is in the midst of the throne. Rev 7:17 . Hence Jesus is acceptable, all around, and in every direction. They shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south. They shall come that are ready to perish. Isa 27:13 . So that any poor sensible sinner, who, like this woman, hath been spending all in pursuits after healing, and found none, because never looking wholly to Jesus; but now being led by the Holy Ghost to Christ; though blushing to come before Christ in the sight of any fellow creatures, from consciousness of disease, shall come behind Christ; the touch of faith, the trust in Christ, will find virtue from Christ; and, like her, the sinner be made perfectly whole.

We must not dismiss our review of this miracle before that we have also considered the grace and favor manifested by the Lord Jesus to this woman; for this is the chief point in the miracle. Jesus, which had, unknown to her, given her this lively faith to believe in him, as instantly gave his blessing to that faith. And however unnoticed, as she might suppose herself to have been, Jesus gave her to understand, that he both knew her complaint, and the cure he had wrought for her. Reader! what a precious consideration it is, that however unknown our cases are to men, they are all well known to our Cod. In the greatest throng, as well as in the secret place, Jesus sees all, knows all, and both appoints, and will sanctify, all and every individual case and exercise of his people We never can sufficiently admire the abundant tenderness the Lord Jesus manifested upon this occasion, to this poor woman. She wished the cure to be in secret: but no! Jesus will have her faith in him made public. His grace to poor sinners shall be proclaimed thereby; and, her trust in him shall make her history illustrious through endless generations. Both Mark and Luke relate this miracle with more particulars than, Matthew; for they observe, that when the woman touched Christ’s garment, Jesus, immediately knowing in himself what was done, and that healing virtue was gone out of him, (Reader! mark that in testimony of his Godhead) turned himself about, and said, who touched one? And when all denied, his unconscious disciples wondered how Jesus should make such an enquiry, while such a multitude were thronging and pressing him. But He, who knew all that had passed, while looking round to eye her, (as he did in after days look on Peter, Luk 22:61 ) by his grace in her heart, inclined her to come and look on him. And oh! what a precious interview then took place, which neither of the Evangelists could relate; the love, and joy, and thankfulness to Jesus, in the consciousness of her cure, and the delight in the heart of Jesus in beholding the blessed effects of his salvation. Such, Reader! is now the case in every recovered sinner! And such will be the case of the whole Church of God, in every individual instance, when the ransomed of the Lord shall return to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads, they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Isa 35:10 .

It is high time to follow Jesus to the Ruler’s house. Here death had taken place, and according to all human calculations, all hope was over. But not so with Him who came to be the life and light of men. As the Lord Jesus quickeneth the dead in trespasses and sins, so he was pleased in several instances to manifest the sovereignty Of his power, in raising from the dead many of the bodies of his people. Mat 11:5 . Oh! with what ease can Jesus now raise up our dead, and dying affections! Never should a soul despair that reads this miracle. Neither when the enemy, or graceless friends would tempt one to give it over, saying, in words like those who came to the ruler, thy daughter is dead, trouble not the Master; even then, when hope seems hopeless: oh! what cannot Jesus accomplish? And while he saith, be not afraid, only believe, may my soul say with one of old; Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him! Job 13:15 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 38

Prayer

Almighty God, thou art wonderful in healing: there is none so wounded that he cannot be cured by thy touch or by thy word. Thou canst even heal the broken heart, and bind up with many balms the wounded spirit, which no hand of man can touch. Behold thou art very kind, thy patience is more than the long-suffering of our mother, and thy care is beyond all the wisdom of our father’s understanding. Yet thou hast given us our father and our mother, as helps to know somewhat of thee: they lead us up a little way towards thine own heart: like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. If men being evil know how to give good gifts unto their children, much more wilt thou give good gifts unto them that ask thee. A woman may forget her sucking child, that she have no compassion on the son of her womb, yet thou wilt not forget thy redeemed ones, and thy saints shall miss thee but for a small moment.

Thou hast written our names on the palms of thine hands, and thou hast written thy name upon our foreheads. We belong to one another, we are counted in the covenant, we are weighed in the scales that weigh the fine gold, and no speck of dust shall be lost. The foundation of the Lord standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. Help us all to be thine. In our rough way we are all thine, but so prodigal and wanton and wild, so rebellious and destructive and self-willed, slain by our obstinacy and utterly lost by the stubbornness of our unanswering hearts, though thou didst appeal to them by all the ministries of earth and heaven. Last of all thou didst send thy Son, saying, “They will reverence my Son,” and we caught him and took him and slew him: we nailed him to the tree and pierced his side with a spear. Yet in his blood is salvation, in his death is sacrifice, in his offering is there all the power and grace of an infinite atonement, not to be known or set forth in words of man, but to be felt by the heart in its night of woe and in the keenness of its mortal pain. Bring us all to the cross, may it be our home, our refuge, our rest. Other refuge have we none.

Let thy word be very sweet to us, sweeter than honey, yea sweeter than the honeycomb a new sweetness all its own, without answer or parallel among all the sweetnesses of the garden. We bless thee that we have begun wisdom: the fear of the Lord is that holy beginning. We have not learned much: have pity upon us and spare us that we may add little to little as the days fly away. Gold cannot buy it, it is not in silver to compass the price thereof; it is the wonder of the deep, and destruction and death have only heard the fame thereof. All corals and rubies are not to be named with it. Help us to grow in wisdom, may we be wise in intelligence and wise in love, may our whole life be as a flame of wisdom.

Pity us in our daily distresses, and help us in our daily burdens: speak comfortably to those who this day feel the coldness and loneliness of a great bereavement. Bind up the heart in which there is no more blood, speak to the life in which the hope has died, and in the house that is desolated with sevenfold night do thou set thine own candle.

The Lord keep us quiet and give us the joy of peace, the solemnity of the infinite assurance of our acceptance with the beloved. When we come to touch the holy bread and sacred wine that have in them the memory of the great life and death may our lips be touched as with a live coal from off the altar, that we may receive the same reverently and with thankfulness unfeigned. Amen.

Mat 9:18-26

Affliction In the House

“While he spake these things.” We need not critically inquire whether any interval separated between what is written in the seventeenth verse and in the eighteenth. No doubt such an interval did occur, yet it would have been quite in accordance with the habit of the great Teacher and Sufferer if he had in terrupted any speech in order to do good to a broken heart. It did not shock the writer when he wrote, “While he spake these things unto them.” It did not occur to him that he was indicating a point of interruption, nor did it occur to him that he was violating any probability of the case. Christ himself was the one improbability, the one impossibility of human history, and therefore we must not bring little rules and standards by which to measure anything that he did or said.

He was answering a question put to him by the disciples of John about fasting, and Matthew writes, “While he spake these things unto them,” ere yet the answer was fully given, or whilst the last word was being uttered, or whilst he was in the act of pausing for some rejoinder either by way of comment or inquiry just then a great, solemn, heart-laden prayer burst upon his startled ear. “My daughter is now dead, but come and lay thy hand upon her and she shall live.” Elijah taught us that other gods might be so busy that they could not hear the cry of their devotees; Elijah spoke so in irony and mockery, bitter and severe, telling us to cry louder, that our God was talking or pursuing; he told us that we got no answer because our voice was too low, that the god was on a journey or sleeping nobody knew what he was doing: he must be called for by a louder and shriller cry. Jesus Christ was never so busy that he could not answer any question put to him, and in proportion as that question was acute, arising from the heart’s sore distress and burning agony, would he interrupt even a miracle of a minor kind, to accomplish a miracle of a superior kind. These are the things that prove his quality, these are the elements which, being brought together into one complete mass, establish his claim to be something more than I am. I go with him so far, and in a moment he shoots beyond me and stands alone on the solemn elevation. Up to a given line he is a good man simply, extremely kind and sensitive, answering every emotion of the life that is around him steadily and truly; then in a moment he leaves all examples and precedents and parallels behind, and stands before us as God, so much like God that were a man to say to him, “My Lord and my God,” not a heart in all the listening assembly would feel the shock of an irreligious or painful surprise. The cry would accord with the circumstances, and would establish a sweet though pensive rhythm. The two words, the word of Christ and the acknowledging word of man, would form a balance to one another, and establish between them a consistency that would grow into an argument.

Yet he appears to be Servant as well as Master, for we read, “And Jesus arose and followed him,” as if he had no alternative. He never has an alternative when the heart really wants him. It is the heart that shuts him up to one reply. He can tell your intelligence to wait, he can rebuke your eager ingenuity or your impetuous fancy; but when the broken heart needs him, if he were to delay, then it would be but to come with some richer blessing on the third day. Sometimes he does put off until the third day; it is his favourite day, he typified it by instances in his life, he crowned it by his resurrectional return. “Come, let us return unto the Lord: he hath bruised us, and he will bind us up again: he hath torn us, and on the third day he will revive us.” But he always answers the cry of the burdened and broken heart. He arises like a servant, and clothed with humility as with a garment, he walks after the man that wants him as a slave might go.

Yet you say you have never seen him and never known him. I can tell you why. You have had no trouble in your life. You have always sought him by the lamp of your intelligence; you have always invited him into the cunningly arranged chambers of your fancy and imagination; you have always endeavoured to tempt him by your intellectual curiosity. To all these Herods and Pilates he answers nothing. To this man will I look, the man whose eyes are upon the dust, whose accusing hand is upon his heart, and who sobs rather than says his eager prayer. You will send for him some day, and he will come.

This is an instance of a man praying for another and yet praying for himself at the same time. “My daughter is even now dead.” That is all we hear, but there was an unspoken prayer, for there was a subtle undertone, there was an aside in the action that touched the heart of Christ. If the child is dead, why call her back? Who would call back a friend from summer to winter, from the land where the moon is as the sun, and the sun is bright seven times beyond himself, to the land of night and coldness and ice and bitter desolation? He could have said, “Jairus, I congratulate thee: is she gone, is she at home, have the angels taken her?

But there was another prayer: not only was the little girl dead, but the living man was dead too. He answered the prayer not for the child’s sake, but for the man’s sake. The house was no longer worth going into, the house had become a ghastly tomb, the house had shaped itself into its ghost’s faces, and miserable spectacles Jesus went for the living man’s sake. “When such friends part, ’tis the survivor dies;” so wondrous is the way of mercy, so subtle and incalculable are the methods and issues of divine providence, that sometimes they who are in heaven have to be called back again in order to make up our life, or we shall fall right down in the pit of despair, and our lamp shall go out in total and perpetual darkness. Selfish man still not wholly selfish. If a man has lost one of his wings and cannot fly, he may surely ask to have it returned to him. If the lame man has lost his one crutch, surely God will not account it inexcusably selfish if he should ask to have it given back to him.

My daughter in another place, my little daughter, my only daughter is dead. Does death go into great houses? This man was governor, a ruler, a man of station and social influence. Does death go into the house of the ruler, into the dwelling of the magistrate, into the habitation of the judge, into the palace of the monarch? Is he not affrighted by the great gates gilded at their tops like pinnacles? He makes others fear, he knows no fear himself. Let us proceed with the narrative, for it is full of action. There is no rest in the outward life of this Christ: He has to cut out days and nights in which to rest, for the world’s necessity would never allow him even to sleep. He had to create a Sabbath sometimes in the night that he might go to church and sing and pray. This portion of the chapter is full of action, it moves, it trembles with a strange energy, divine and human.

“And behold, a woman——” Yes, I will, and I know she will develop something in Christ that no man could ever touch. I will behold this woman; I have known Christ worsted by a woman; I have never known him beaten really in his own field but by a woman. He once told a woman that the meat was not for the dogs, and she said, “Truth, Lord, but the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the master’s table.” And he could not stir one step from that spot till he had given a great “Yes” to her great prayer. Let us then in very deed behold this woman. She has been diseased twelve years, which was exactly the age of the little girl that was dead. The little child had twelve years, let us hope, of joyous life and daily dreaming, much laughter, high glee; and this poor woman, all the time, year by year through every one of the twelve, had been suffering much. No physician could treat her case successfully; she had nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. She came behind him. There is a touch of modesty and a touch of something more than modesty and nearer divinity still if there be aught nearer divinity than downright, healthy, real humbleness. She was going to entrap him, she was going to perpetrate what centuries afterwards was known as a pious fraud, she would steal a blessing. She had a speech in her heart who has not? You are going to face some difficulty to-morrow, and you have told your nearest friend what you will say, or you have kept it altogether in your heart, and turned it over and over with many an amendment. You will begin so, and continue thus, and then you will wait. What secret preparations we have, what speeches gotten by heart, what prayers stored up in the silent chambers, to come out some day and surprise heaven!

What would this good old mother say? She said within herself, “If I may but touch his garment I shall be whole. I need not trouble him with any speech or with any form or ceremony of restoration, I am one that need not go to him in trouble if I may but touch the hem of his garment, the dusty hem, the hem that is trailing on the ground. I need not ask to touch his dear hand, nor need I pray for that dear hand to be laid upon me. I will go behind him and watch the train of his dress as it goes along the ground, and if I can but touch it for a moment, I shall be whole.” That was faith, that was religion! A soul that could burn with such spirituality must cure any body which it tenanted for a few frail years. Your bodies would be better if your souls were stronger.

Does Jesus Christ permit any theft? Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, as no other eyes had ever looked upon her, he said, “Daughter.” We are all his daughters, we are all his sons, he is our Father and our Brother; all relations in marvellous contradiction represent themselves in him, just as we put ourselves in relation to him. “Daughter, take heart again, be happy: thy faith hath made thee whole.” He asks no questions regarding her disease, or the time of its continuance, or the peculiarity of its symptoms, or the keenness of its pain. He knows us altogether.

But how kind to make this little speech as well as to give the healing. A flower is all the better for having fragrance as well as beauty. How sweet to say something to her, to make a whole little speech to the woman herself! Sometimes he made the speech to the multitude: he said, “I say unto you I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” He took, so to speak, her little birthday book, which we give to our friends to write their names in, and he writes a little speech with his own dear hand, and it is all the woman’s own. “Daughter, be of good comfort, thy faith hath made thee whole.” He almost made the woman feel she had cured herself. He takes no glory he needs none. He does not say, “Behold the virtue of my clothes, see what can be done by this oversoul that flows into the hem of my garment. He tells the poor woman that she healed herself. He loadeth us with benefits!

And then these people came to Jesus, not because of their richness and health and strength, but because they wanted something of him, because of their helplessness and pain, or poverty of some kind. That is just what we do if we come to him in the right way. Sometimes you mock us, and when you see us going to church you say, “There go the good ones, there go the patterns of society, there go your pious ones. We poor creatures do not go to church or to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper we leave that for you patterns of high virtue and noble piety.” There is no sense in your mockery, you are altogether wrong in your conception, and therefore wholly unjust in your criticism. We come to Christ because we are bad. If you could say to us, “There go the bad ones,” you would speak with some justness. “There go the cripples, there go the helpless ones, there go those that cannot make up their own life and redeem their own soul, there go the paupers, the dependents, the helpless ones.” Say so and you touch the reality of the case. I do not remain to partake of the sacred bread and wine because I am good, but because I am the chief of sinners. I never knew any man come really and truly to Christ who did not come because he was helpless, because he was suffering from mortal distress, because he was conscious of an emptiness and impotence of soul which nothing can touch but the divine hand of Christ.

Think of us, therefore, as worse than you. You can do without him, we cannot. You want to wait till you have washed yourselves and apparelled yourselves and made yourselves fit for his presence.

Now we resume the story that was interrupted by this woman, and beautifully interrupted. Such parentheses are the very glory and blossom of the history. It would be poorer history but for these interruptions. Jesus Christ does a great deal of good on the way towards doing some other good. He preaches as he is walking down to the church. His very passing by the house of the people leaves a blessing behind it. He is as a flower carried through the quiet air that breathes its fragrant blessing, that all may receive it and be made glad. This is an aside in his ministry which does not lie on the direct line as part of one continual purpose: it is something that happened intermediately.

Now he comes to the ruler’s house. “When he saw the minstrels” for heathenism had made some incursion even into Jewish habits “when he saw the minstrels and the people making a noise (an artificial noise; hired mourners made to create a sensation), he said unto them, Give place, for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth.” Thus he would always reduce his own miracles. He did not say, “She is sevenfold dead;” he always made light of his miracles; he said, “It is only the death swoon, she is asleep;” and they laughed him to scorn. They knew better so did he, if it came to a merely literal interpretation; but he includes death itself in sleep. So he will strip death itself of all its terrors and stings, and make it at last into a child’s slumber. They laughed him to scorn they had seen a thousand children dead, and they knew that this child was as dead as any child that had ever been buried in rock or in pit.

“And when the people were put forth, he went in.” I see his stoop as he passes under the door and takes her by the hand. She could not touch him, and therefore he touched her. He will have it either way, only the touch must take place. He does not care whether it be your touch or his touch, but the hands must meet, the lives must impinge, there must be a beneficent collision. The woman had strength enough to touch on the ground, as it trailed along, the hem of the mean garment; the little girl lay there stiff and cold, and motionless, she could do nothing; he therefore did it all. “He took her by the hand, and the maid arose.”

These miracles must not be blotted out of human history. They set mind in its right place; they set the moral forces of creation in their true position; they will not let death have all its own rude, violent way in the world; they put life on the throne; they elevate soul above body, spirit above matter. That is the grand interpretation of the miracles, that mind is regal and matter slavish, servile, and wholly helpless under the dominion and beneficent regnancy of the soul. If you have been trying to reconcile the miracles with your little laws of nature and partial conceptions of the universe, no wonder that your heads are dizzy and in the whirl of scepticism; but if you see in these miracles types of the supremacy of mind, the royalty and divinity of spirit, the right relation of the universe to the King and Creator, then these difficulties become as the small dust in the balance, as a drop in the bucket They are not to be accounted of. When you come into this spirit of high, loving, pure, sublime, and noble criticism, then all these miracles wrought by Jesus Christ will no longer be the surprises of such a history but the commonplaces of a life so divine.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

18 While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

Ver. 18. Behold, there came a certain ruler ] Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue. Few such came to Christ; but this man was driven out of doors by the cross, as the wolf is out of the wood by hard hunger. It was his only daughter, of a dozen years old, that was now at point of death. This makes him seek out Christ the best Physician. Men must be fatherless (childless) ere they find mercy,Hos 14:3Hos 14:3 , and a poor afflicted people ere they will be brought to trust in the name of the Lord, Zep 3:12 . The came not to Christ while she had a half-penny to help herself,Luk 8:43Luk 8:43 .

But come and lay thine hands upon her ] He thought Christ could not otherwise cure her. This was weakness of faith, far short of that of the centurion, who yet was a Roman soldier; whereas Jairus was a learned Jew. Knowledge therefore is one thing, faith another; and the greatest scholars are not always the holiest men. Neither have all God’s people a like measure of true fiath. This should humble and excite the weak, but not discourage them in their course; since the tallest oak was once an acorn, and the deepest doctor was once in his horn-book. a

a A leaf of paper containing the alphabet (often with the addition of the ten digits, some elements of spelling, and the Lord’s Prayer) protected by a thin plate of translucent horn, and mounted on a tablet of wood with a projecting piece for a handle. A simpler and later form of this, consisting of the tablet without the horn covering, or a piece of stiff cardboard varnished, was also called a battledore. D

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

18 26. ] RAISING OF JAEIRUS’S DAUGHTER, AND HEALING OF A WOMAN WITH AN ISSUE OF BLOOD. Mar 5:21-43 .Luk 8:41-56Luk 8:41-56 . In Luke and Mark this miracle follows immediately after the casting out of the devils at Gadara, and our Lord’s recrossing the lake to Capernaum; but without any precise note of time as here. He may well have been by the sea (as seems implied by Mark and Luke), when the foregoing conversation with the disciples of John and the Pharisees took place. The account in the text is the most concise of the three; both Mark and Luke, but especially the latter, giving many additional particulars. The miracle forms a very instructive point of comparison between the three Gospels.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

18. ] A ruler of the synagogue , named Jaeirus. In all except the connecting words, , and ., which seems to imply that our Lord was still in Levi’s house, the account in the text is summary, and deficient in particularity. I have therefore reserved full annotation for the account in Luke, which see throughout.

] She was not dead , but dying: at the last extremity. St. Matthew, omitting the message from the ruler’s house (Mar 5:35 ; Luk 8:49 ), gives the matter summarily in these words.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mat 9:18-26 . The daughter of Jairus, with interlude (Mar 5:21-43 ; Luk 8:40-56 ). Given by Matthew in immediate connection with the discourse on fasting, but by Mark, and Luke following him, in connection with the return from the eastern shore, after the story of the demoniac.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Mat 9:18 . : exactly the same formula as in Mat 8:2 . , an important person, a ruler of synagogue, according to Mark. : peculiar here, but taken from Mark where it is intelligible, the suppliant being there described as one of the rulers of the synagogue. The word puzzled the scribes, and gave rise to many variants ( vide crit. note). : this statement of Matthew, compared with those of Mark and Luke, which make the father say his daughter was dying, has created work for the harmonists. The patristic view (Chrys., Theophy., Euthy.), that the statement was an inference from the condition in which he left her, or a natural exaggeration, has been adopted by many. Probably it is an inaccuracy of the evangelist’s due to abbreviation. The girl was dead when Jesus arrived; that was all he cared about. The ruler thought Jesus could do anything short of raising from the dead, save even in articulo mortis . But our evangelist gives him credit for more faith; that Jesus can bring back from the dead, at least when death has just taken place. , not remain living, but revive, come to life again (Fritzsche).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Matthew

THE TOUCH OF FAITH AND THE TOUCH OF CHRIST

Mat 9:18-31 .

The three miracles included in the present section belong to the last group of this series. Those of the second group were all effected by Christ’s word. Those now to be considered are all effected by touch. The first two are intertwined. The narrative of the healing of the woman is embedded in the account of the raising of Jairus’s daughter.

Mark the impression of calm consciousness of power and leisurely dignity produced by Christ’s having time to pause, even on such an errand, in order to heal, by the way, the other sufferer. The father and the disciples would wonder at Him as He stayed His steps, and be apt to feel that priceless moments were being lost; but He knows His own resources, and can afford to let the child die while He heals the woman. The one shall receive no harm by the delay, and the other will be blessed. Our Lord is sitting at the feast which Matthew gave on the occasion of his call, engaged in vindicating His sharing in innocent festivity against the cavils of the Pharisees, when the summons to the death-bed comes to Him from the lips of the father, who breaks in on the banquet with his imploring cry. Matthew gives the story much more summarily than the other evangelists, and does not distinguish, as they do, between Jairus’s first words, ‘at the point of death, and the message of her actual decease, which met them on the way. The call of sorrow always reaches Christ’s ear, and the cry for help is never deemed by Him an interruption. So this ‘man, gluttonous and a wine-bibber,’ as these Pharisees thought Him, willingly and at once leaves the house of feasting for that of mourning. How near together, in this awful life of ours, the two lie, and how thin the partition walls! Well for those whose feasts do not bar them out from hearing the weeping next door.

As the crowd accompanies Jesus, His hasting love is, for a moment, diverted by another sufferer. We never go on an errand of mercy but we pass a hundred other sorrowing hearts, so close packed lie the griefs of men. This woman is a poor shrinking creature, broken down by long illness which had lasted for the same length of time as the joyous life of Jairus’s child, made more timid by disappointed hopes of cure, and depressed by poverty to which her many doctors had brought her. She does not venture to stop this new Rabbi-physician, as He goes with the church dignitary of the town to heal his daughter, but lets Him pass before she can make up her mind to go near Him; and then she comes creeping up behind the crowd, puts out her wasted, trembling hand to the hem of His garment,-and she is whole.

The other evangelists give us a more extended account, but Matthew throws into prominence, in his condensed narrative, the essential points.

Notice her real but imperfect faith. There was unquestionable confidence in Christ’s power, and very genuine desire for healing. But it was a very ignorant faith. She believes that her touch of the garment will heal without Christ’s will or knowledge, much more His pitying love, having any part in it. She thinks that she may win her desire furtively, and may carry it away, and He be none the wiser nor the poorer for the stolen blessing. What utter, blank ignorance of His character and way of working! What gross superstition! Yes, and withal what a hunger of desire, what absolute assurance of confidence that one finger-tip on His robe was enough! Therefore she had her desire, and her Healer recognised her faith as true, though blended with much ignorance of Him. Her error was very like that which many Christians entertain with less excuse. To attach importance to external means of grace, rites, ordinances, sacraments, outward connection with Christian organisations, is the very same misconception in a slightly different form. Such error is always near us; it is especially rife in countries where there has long been a visible Church. It has received strange new vigour to-day, partly by reaction from extreme rationalism, partly by the growing cultivation of the aesthetic faculties. It is threatening to corrupt the simplicity and spirituality of Christian worship, and needs to be strenuously resisted. But the more we have to fight against it, the more do we need to remember that, along with this clinging to the hem of the garment instead of to the heart of its Wearer, there may be a very real trust, which might shame some of those who profess to hold a less sensuous form of faith. Many a poor soul clasping a crucifix clings to the Cross. Many a devout heart kneeling at mass sees through the incense-smoke the face of Christ.

This woman’s faith was selfish. She wanted health; she did not care much about the Healer. She would have been quite contented to have had no more to do with Him, if she could only have stolen out of the crowd cured. She would have had little gratitude to the unconscious Giver of a stolen good. So, many a Christian life in its earlier stages is more absorbed with its own deep misery and its desire for deliverance, than with Him. Love comes after, born of the experience of His love. But faith precedes love, and the predominant motive impelling to faith at first is distinctly self-regard. That is all as it should be. The most purely self-absorbed wish to escape from the most rudely pictured hell is often the beginning of a true trust in Christ, which, in due time, will be elevated into perfect consecration. Some of our modern teachers, who are shocked at Christianity because it lays the foundation of the most self-denying morality in such ‘selfishness,’ would be none the worse for going to school to this story, and learning from it how a desire for nothing more than to get rid of a painful disease, started a process which turned a life into a peaceful, thankful surrender of the cured self to the love and service of the mighty Healer.

Observe, next, how Christ answers the imperfect faith, and, by answering, corrects and confirms it. Matthew omits Christ’s question as to who touched Him, the disciples’ reply, and His renewed asseveration that He was conscious of power having gone forth from Him. All these belong to the loving method by which our Lord sought to draw forth an open acknowledgment. Womanly diffidence, enfeebled health, her special disease, all made the woman wish to hide herself. She wanted to steal away unnoticed, as she hoped that she had come. But Christ forces her to stand out before all the crowd, and there, with all eyes upon her,-cold, cruel eyes, some of them-to conquer her shame, and tell all the truth. Strange kindness that; strangely contrasted with His ordinary desire to avoid notoriety, and with His ordinary tender consideration for shrinking weakness! He did it for her sake, not for His own. She is changed from timidity to courage. At one moment she stretches out her wasted finger, a tremulous invalid; at the next, she flings herself at His feet, a confessor. He would have us testify for Him, because faith unavowed, like a plant in the dark, is apt to become pale and sickly; but ere He bids us own His name, He pours into our hearts, in answer to our secret appeal, the health of His own life, and the blissful consciousness of that great gift which makes the tongue of the dumb sing.

His words to her are full of tenderness. She receives the name of ‘daughter.’ Gently He encourages her timidity by that ‘Be of good cheer,’ and then He sets right her error: ‘Thy faith’-not thy finger-’hath made thee whole.’ There was no real connection between the touch of the robe and healing; but the woman thought that there was, and so Christ stooped to her childish thought, and allowed her to prescribe the road which His mercy should take. But He would not leave her with her error. The true means of contact between us and Him is not our outward contact with external means of grace, but the touch of our spirits by faith. Faith is nothing in itself, and heals only because it brings us into union with His power, which is the sole cause of our healing. Faith is the hand which receives the blessing. It may be a wasted and tremulous hand, like that which this woman laid lightly on His robe. But He feels its touch, though a universe presses on Him, and He answers. Not the garment’s hem, but Christ’s love, is the cause of our salvation. Not an outward contact with it or with Him, but faith, is the condition on which His life, which knows no disease, pours into our souls. The hand of my faith lifted to Him will receive into its empty palm and clasping fingers the special blessing for my special wants.

The other evangelists tell us that, at the moment of His words to the woman, the messengers came bearing tidings of the child’s death. How Jairus must have grudged the pause! A word from Christ, like the pressure of His hand, heartened him. Like a river turned from its course for a space, to fill some empty reservoir, His love comes back to its original direction. How abundant the power and mercy, to which such a work as that just done was but a parenthesis! The doleful music and the shrill shrieks of Eastern mourning, which met them as they entered Jairus’s house, disturbed the sanctity of the hour, and were in strong contrast with the majestic calmness of Jesus. Not amid venal lamentations and excited cries will He do His work. He bids the noisy crowd forth with curt, almost stern, command, and therein rebukes all such hollow and tumultuous scenes, in the presence of the stillness of death, still more where faith in Him has robbed it of its terror, in robbing it of its perpetuity. It is strange that believing readers should have thought that our Lord meant to say that the little girl was not really dead, but only in a swoon. The scornful laughter of the flute-players and hired mourners understood Him better. They knew that it was real death, as men count death, and, as has often been the case, the laughter of His foes has served to establish the truth. That was not worthy to be called death from which the child was so soon and easily to be awaked. But, besides this special application to the case in hand, that great saying of our Lord’s carries the blessed truth that, since He has come, death is softened into sleep for all who love Him. The euphemism is not peculiar to Christianity, but has a deeper meaning on Christian lips than when Greeks or Romans spoke of the eternal sleep. Others speak of death by any name rather than its own, because they fear it so much. The Christian does so, because he fears it so little,-and, as a matter of fact, the use of the word death as meaning merely the separation of soul and body by the physical act is exceptional in the New Testament. This name of sleep, sanctioned thus by Christ, is the sweetest of all. It speaks of the cessation of connection with the world of sense, and ‘long disquiet merged in rest.’ It does not imply unconsciousness, for we are not unconscious when we sleep, but only unaware of externals. It holds the promise of waking when the sun comes. So it has driven out the ugly old name. Our tears flow less bitterly when we think of our dear ones as ‘sleeping in Jesus.’ Their bodies, like this little child’s, are dead, but they are not. They rest, conscious of their own blessedness and of Him ‘in whom they live, and have their being,’ whether they ‘move’ or no.

Then comes the great deed. The crowd is shut out. For such a work silence is befitting. The father and mother, with His foremost three disciples, go with Him into the chamber. There is no effort, repeated and gradually successful, as when Elisha raised the dead boy; no praying, as when Peter raised Dorcas; only the touch of the hand in which life throbbed in fulness, and, as the other narratives record, two words, spoken strangely to, and yet more strangely heard by, the dull, cold ear of death. Their echo lingered long with Peter, and Mark gives us them in the original Aramaic. But Matthew passes them by, as he seems here to have desired to emphasise the power of Christ’s touch. But touch or word, the real cause of the miracle was simply His will; and whether He used media to help men’s faith, or said only ‘I will,’ mattered little. He varied His methods as the circumstances of the recipients required, and in order that they and we might learn that He was tied to none. These miracles of raising the dead are three in number. Jairus’s daughter is raised from her bed, just having passed away; the widow’s son at Nain from his bier, having been for a little longer separated from his body; Lazarus from the grave, having been dead four days. A few minutes, or days, or four thousand years, are one to His power. These three are in some sense the first-fruits of the great harvest; the stars that shone out singly before all the heaven is in a blaze. For, though they died again, and so left to Him the precedence in resurrection, as in all besides, they are still prophetic of His power in the hour when they ‘that sleep in the dust’ shall awake at His voice. Blessed they who, like this little maiden, are awakened, not only by His voice, but by His touch, and to find, as she did, their hand in His!

The third of these miracles, which Matthew seems to reckon as the second in the group, because he treats the two former as so closely connected as to be but one in numeration, need not detain us long. It is found only in this Gospel. The first point to be observed in it is the cry of these two blind men. There is something pathetic and exquisitely natural in the two being together, as is also the case in the similar miracle, at a later period, on the outskirts of Jericho. Equal sorrows drive men together for such poor help and solace as they can give each other. They have common experiences which isolate them from others, and they creep close for warmth and companionship. All the blind men in the Gospels have certain resemblances. One is that they are all sturdily persevering, as perhaps was easier for them because they could not see the impatience of the listeners, and possibly because, in most cases, persistent begging was their trade, and they were used to refusals. But a more important trait is their recognition of Jesus as ‘Son of David.’ Blind as they are, they see more than do the seeing. Thrown in upon themselves, they may have been led to ponder the old words, and by their affliction been made more ready to welcome One who, if He were Messiah, was coming with a special blessing for them-’to open the blind eyes.’ Men who deeply desire a good are quick to listen to the promise of its accomplishment. So these two followed Him along the road, loudly and perseveringly calling out their profession of faith, and their entreaty for sight.

The next point is our Lord’s treatment. He let them cry on, apparently unheeding. Had, then, the two miracles just done exhausted His stock of power or of pity? Certainly His reason was, as it always was, their good. We do not know why it was better for them to have to wait, and continue their entreaty; but we may be quite sure that the reason for all His delays is the same,-the larger blessing which comes with the answer when it comes, and the large blessings which may be gathered while we wait its coming. Christ’s question to them, when at last they have found their way even indoors, holds out more hope than they had yet received. By it, Christ established a close relation with them, and implied to them that He was willing to answer their cry. One can fancy how the poor blind faces would light up with a flush of eager expectation, and how swift would be the answer. The question is not cold or inquisitorial. It is more than half a promise, and a powerful aid to the faith which it requires.

There is something very beautiful and pathetic in the simple brevity of the unhesitating answer, ‘Yea, Lord.’ Sincerity needs few words. Faith can put an infinite deal of meaning into a monosyllable. Their eagerness to reach the goal made their answer brief. But it was enough. Again the hand which had clasped the maiden’s palm is put out and laid gently on the useless eyes, and the great word spoken, ‘According to your faith be it unto you.’ Their blindness made the touch peculiarly fitting in their case, as bringing evidence of sense to those who could not see the gracious pity of His looks. The word spoken was, like that to the centurion, a declaration of the power of faith, which determines the measure, and often the manner, of His gifts to us. The containing vessel not only settles the quantity of, but the shape assumed by, the water which is taken up in it from the sea. Faith, which keeps inside of Christ’s promises and what goes outside of them is not faith, decides how much of Christ we shall have for our very own. He condescends to run the molten gold of His mercies into the moulds which our faith prepares.

These two men, who had used their tongues so well in their persistent cry for healing, went away to make a worse use of them in telling everywhere of their cure. Jesus desired silence. Possibly He did not wish His reputation as a mere worker of miracles to be spread abroad. In all His earlier ministry He avoided publicity, singularly contrasting therein with the evident desire to make Himself the centre of observation which marks its close. He dreaded the smoky flame of popular excitement. His message was to individuals, not to crowds. It was a natural impulse to tell the benefits these two had received; but truer gratitude and deeper faith would have made them obey His lightest word, and have shut their mouths. We honour Christ most, not by taking our way of honouring Him, but by absolute obedience.

The final miracle of the nine or ten marshalled in long procession in Mat 8:1 – Mat 8:34 and Mat 9:1 – Mat 9:38 is told with singular brevity. There is nothing individual in our Lord’s treatment of the sufferer, as there was in the previous healing of the two blind men, and no details are given of either the appeal to His pity or the method of His cure. The dumb demoniac could lift no cry, nor exercise any faith, and all the petitions and hopes of his bearers were expressed in the act of bringing the sufferer thither, and silently setting him there before these eyes of universal pity. It was enough. With Jesus, to see was to compassionate, and to compassionate was to help. In the other instances of casting out demons, the method is an authoritative command, addressed not to the possessed, but to the alien personality that has seized on him, and we conclude that such was the method here. Jesus undoubtedly believed in demoniacal possession, if we can at all rely on the Gospel narratives; and it may be humbly suggested that there are dark depths in humanity, which had need to be fathomed more completely, before any one is warranted in dogmatically pronouncing that He was wrong in His diagnosis. There are ugly facts which should give pause to those who are inclined to say-’There are no demons, and if there were, they could not dominate a human consciousness.’

But the effects of the miracle are emphasised more than itself. They are two, neither of them what might or should have been. The dumb man is not said to have used his recovered speech to thank his deliverer, nor is there any sign that he clung to Him, either for fear of being captured again or in passionate gratitude. It looks as if he selfishly bore away his blessing and cared nothing for its giver. That is very human, and we all are too often guilty of the same sin. Nor was the effect on the multitudes much better, for they were only struck with vulgar wonder, which had no moral quality in it and led to nothing. They saw ‘the miracle,’ that is, the wonderfulness of the act made some dint even on their minds, but these were either too fluid to retain the impression, or too hard to let it be deep, and so it soon filled up again. We have to think of Christ’s deeds as ‘signs,’ not only as ‘wonders,’ or they will do little to draw us to Him. Wonder is a necessarily evanescent emotion, which may indeed set something better stirring in us, but is quite as likely to die barren.

The Pharisees did not wonder, and did look into the phenomenon with sharp eyes; and in so far, they were in advance of the gaping multitudes. They were much too superior persons to be astonished at anything, and they had already settled on a formula which was delightfully easy of application, and had the further advantage of turning the miracles into evidences that the doer of them was a child of the Devil. It appears to have been a well-worked formula too, for it is found again in Mat 12:24 , and in Luk 11:15 , in the account of another cure of a dumb demoniac. It is possible that the incident now before us may be the same as this, but there is nothing improbable in the occurrence of such a case twice, nor in the repetition of what had become the commonplace of the Pharisaic polemic. But what a piercing example that explanation is of the blinding power of prejudice, determined to hold on to a foregone conclusion, and not to see the sun at noon! Jesus in league with ‘the prince of the devils’! And that was gravely said by religious authorities! They saw the loveliness of His perfect life, His gentle goodness, His self-forgetting love, His swift-springing pity, and they set it all down to His commerce with the Evil One. He was so good that He must be more than humanly bad.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 9:18-19

18While He was saying these things to them, a synagogue official came and bowed down before Him, and said, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live.” 19Jesus got up and began to follow him, and so did His disciples.

Mat 9:18 “a synagogue official came and bowed down before Him” A much more detailed account is found in Mar 5:22-43 and Luk 8:41-56. The person was literally a “synagogue ruler” (cf. Mar 5:22; Joh 3:1). This was a man who was responsible for the physical condition of the synagogue as well as its regular activities. He acted in an uncharacteristic way by publicly running up to a controversial, unofficial rabbi such as Jesus and by falling at His feet. However, he was greatly concerned about the condition of his daughter, whom he loved. When one compares this passage with Mar 5:21 and Luk 8:42, there is some discrepancy as to whether the daughter was at the point of death or was already dead.

Mat 9:19 “Jesus got up and began to follow him” Apparently this man’s faith was connected to (1) the physical presence of Jesus, (2) the act of laying on of hands, and (3) prayer. In Mat 11:5 the raising of the dead was one of the signs mentioned to John the Baptist to validate the Messianic ministry of Jesus. Whether this was truly an act of resuscitation or an act of healing from a coma is uncertain from the context.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

a certain = one. A Hebraism.

ruler = a civil ruler. Not the same miracle as that in Mar 5:22, and Luk 8:41. See App-138.

worshipped = began doing homage. App-137.

is even now dead = hath just now died.

live = come to life again. Especially to live again in resurrection. See Mar 16:11. Luk 24:5, Luk 24:23. Joh 11:25, Joh 11:26. Act 1:3; Act 9:41; Act 25:19. Rom 6:10. 2Co 13:4. Rev 1:18; Rev 2:8; Rev 13:14; Rev 20:4, Rev 20:5.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

18-26.] RAISING OF JAEIRUSS DAUGHTER, AND HEALING OF A WOMAN WITH AN ISSUE OF BLOOD. Mar 5:21-43. Luk 8:41-56. In Luke and Mark this miracle follows immediately after the casting out of the devils at Gadara, and our Lords recrossing the lake to Capernaum; but without any precise note of time as here. He may well have been by the sea (as seems implied by Mark and Luke), when the foregoing conversation with the disciples of John and the Pharisees took place. The account in the text is the most concise of the three; both Mark and Luke, but especially the latter, giving many additional particulars. The miracle forms a very instructive point of comparison between the three Gospels.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Mat 9:18. While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

This was grand faith on the rulers part, believing that the touch of Christs hand would raise his dead daughter to life; we do not wonder that the Saviour honoured such faith as that at once.

Mat 9:19-20. And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples. And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:

This was while he was on the way to the rulers house. Jesus Christ can work many miracles while he is on the way to work other miracles.

Mat 9:21. For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.

This also is wonderful faith again; in this chapter we get among the great believers. The man believes that the touch of Jesus can raise the dead the woman believes that the touch of his garment will make her whole

Mat 9:22. But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.

Christ never comes short of our faith, but he often goes beyond it.

Mat 9:23. And when Jesus came into the rulers house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise,

These were hired men and women who were brought in to act as mourners

Mat 9:24-25. He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. But when the people were put forth, he went in,

There is a good deal that has to be put forth before the Lord Jesus Christ will fully reveal his power to bless. He would have you put forth your doubts, your fears, your wandering thoughts, your self-trust, in fact, everything that is contrary to his righteous rule. When the people were put forth, he went in,

Mat 9:25-27. And took her by the hand, and the maid arose. And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land. And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou son of David, have mercy on us.

See how busy our Lord was, and how ready for every application that was made to him, and note how he adapted his power to every case that came before him. First he heals an issue of blood, then he raises the dead, and now he is ready to open blind eyes. I wish the Lord might have such blessed business among us here, and he may have, for, if thou wilt cry to him for thy child, dead in trespasses and sins, he will make her to live; if thou wilt bring thy blind eyes to him, he will open them; and if thou wilt come to him with a disease that is sapping thy very life, he will heal thee.

Give the Lord plenty of this holy work to do. Drawn wells, they say, are sweetest; and a Saviour who is constantly used is most enjoyed.

Mat 9:28. And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this?

That is the question the Lord puts to any who are in soul trouble. Believe ye that I am able to do this? to forgive your sins once for all, to give you a new nature at this very moment, to make you, a sinner, into a saint, to save you, not merely for the next few weeks, but to save you eternally so that you shall see my face in glory with exceeding joy; Believe ye that I am able to do this?

Mat 9:28-29. They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, according to your faith be it unto you.

That is what Jesus says to every person here, According to your faith be it unto you. If you believe Christ a little, he will bless you a little, but if you believe him up to the hilt, he will bless you to the full. Your faith shall never outrun the manifestations of divine love. Believest thou this? Then thou shalt see it. According to your faith be it unto you.

Mat 9:30-32. And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it. But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country. As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil.

These miracles were wrought so rapidly, and they concerned such different cases that, as we read of them, we rejoice to see how Christ Was ready for anything, and ready for everything. It did not matter what case was brought to him, he was never taken aback. Here he is just as fully prepared to heal the dumb as just now he was to cure the blind.

Mat 9:33. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake:

There is nothing like going at once to the root of the matter. Christ did not heal the dumb man, and leave the devil in him, but he first cast the devil out, and then the dumb spake. And this is his way of saving men. He renews them by his Spirit, he casts the devil out, and then their despair goes, their prayerlessness disappears, their love of vice is killed. All evil is expelled when once the root of the evil is pulled up. When the devil was cast out, the dumb spake:

Mat 9:33. And the multitudes marveled, saying, It was never before seen in lsrael.

Christ had wrought such miracles as the multitudes had never before seen, and they might well marvel.

Mat 9:34-35. But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils. And Jesus went about all the cities and villages,

What the Pharisees said was of such very small consequence that, for the time being, Christ vouchsafed them no answer but this, Jesus went about all the cities and villages. In like manner, it will be your best plan not to reply to slander. There are some lies that smell so strongly of the pit from which they came that everybody will recognize their origin, and therefore you need not take the trouble to point out that they are falsehoods. And the best reply to all scandal and slander is to go on with your work just as if you had never heard it. The Pharisees said that Christ cast out devils through the prince of the devils, and the very next sentence is, And Jesus went about all the cities and villages,

Mat 9:35-36. Teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them,

Yet Christ, while upon the earth in the flesh, never saw such multitudes as are gathered in London today, he never saw such multitudes as make up this nation; there never passed before the eyes of the Redeemer such multitudes as are crowded together in China and India today. No; the population of the world has wondrously increased since those days, so what must be the compassion of his heart when he sees the multitudes that are living in the world today! When he saw the multitudes he was moved in the original, this is a very striking word; it signifies that he trembled with emotion, his inmost powers were moved, his heart was stirred with compassion on them,

Mat 9:36-37. Because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;

Not the preachers, but the labourers are few; not the talkers, but the labourers, the patient, plodding, resolute, disinterested, industrious toilers who really go in for winning souls for Christ, the men and women who do real work for God, and do not play at Christian service as some do, making it a kind of amusement to go and do some little good now and then it is these labourers who are few. You know the difference between a dock labourer, or a farm labourer, and the gentleman who takes a tool in his hand just for a pastime now and then.

Mat 9:38. Pray ye therefore the lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

It is earnest workers that we are to pray God to thrust forth into his harvest, for still the harvest is plenteous, and the labourers are few.

Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

Mat 9:18. , worshipped) Although in outward appearance Jairus was greater than Jesus.-, is dead) Thus he said from conjecture, or after he had received intelligence of his daughters death, whom he, in the great strength of faith, had left at the point of death.-See Mar 5:23.-,[420] coming) cf. Joh 4:47.

[420] Lachm. with BCDabcd Vulg. Hil. reads , and with BLUabc Vulg. (accessit) . Tischend. has ; Beng and Griesb. . Both these last two readings are equally tenable, as the letters are not separated in different words in MSS.: CDX support either reading. Matth. often uses as = ; ch. Mat 8:19, Mat 19:6.-ED.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Mat 9:18-26

The Ruler’s Daughter and the Bloody Issue,

Mat 9:18-26. (Mar 5:22-43; Luk 8:41-56.)

J.W. McGarvey

18. a certain ruler.-Ruler of a synagogue. (Mar 5:22.) Even men of this class were ready to honor Jesus when they were in distress and wanted his aid. So it is with sinners generally.

even now dead.-On this expression see note on Mar 5:23.

20-22.-See for remarks on the cure of the bloody issue the notes on Mar 5:25-34, where the account is more elaborate than here. Matthew mentions it briefly as an instance of the cure of a chronic disease by merely touching the hem of the Savior’s garment.

23. saw the minstrels.-Minstrels in a house of mourning would be incongruous according to western taste. But among the Jews it had been customary for ages to call to their service, on funeral occasions, certain women who were professional mourners, and who, by continual wailing and plaintive instrumental music, intensified the grief of the family and friends of the deceased. (Comp. Jer 9:17-18; Amo 5:16; and see Smith’s Dictionary, Art. Mourning.)

24. not dead but sleepeth.-The maid was actually dead (Luk 8:53), but not, as the company thought, permanently so. She was about to be revived, and her death would then be more like sleep than death. The remark of Jesus was easily understood by the Jews after he had raised her to life, but before he did so it appeared so absurd that “they laughed him to scorn,” or derided him. This is the only instance given by Matthew of raising the dead. The account is singularly free from suspicion as to its authenticity. If it were a pretended death and revival, we would expect to see an anxiety on the part of Jesus to make it appear that the girl was dead, and a disposition on the part of the unbelievers present to question this fact. But the reverse is true: it is the unbelievers who insist that the girl is dead, while Jesus alone raises a question about it. Perhaps the chief object of the remark, “She is not dead, but sleepeth,” was to bring forth from the inmates of the house, who had the best opportunity to know the fact, a more emphatic affirmation that she was certainly dead.

For a more elaborate discussion of the details of this miracle, see the notes on Mar 5:22-43.

A Dead Girl and a Sick Woman – Mat 9:18-26

Open It

1. What epitaph would you like on your tombstone?

2. What punishment should be meted out to those who prey on weak or defenseless individuals?

3. What do you think about people who claim to have died and then come back to life?

Explore It

4. Who approached Jesus? (Mat 9:18)

5. What did the man do? (Mat 9:18)

6. With what startling situation and request did the man present Jesus? (Mat 9:18)

7. How did Jesus react? (Mat 9:19)

8. Who accompanied Jesus? (Mat 9:19)

9. While Jesus and the others made their way to the mans house, who touched Jesus cloak? (Mat 9:20)

10. From what kind of ailment did the woman suffer? (Mat 9:20)

11. What was the womans reasoning for touching Jesus cloak? (Mat 9:21)

12. What happened as the woman made contact with Jesus? (Mat 9:22)

13. What did Jesus do for the woman? (Mat 9:22)

14. Why was the woman healed? (Mat 9:22)

15. Upon arriving at the rulers house, what did Jesus say to the crowd? (Mat 9:24)

16. What was the crowds response to Jesus unexpected statement? (Mat 9:24)

17. What did Christ do after He put the crowd outside? (Mat 9:25)

18. What happened after Christ left? (Mat 9:26)

Get It

19. What personal encouragement and comfort do you find in Christs ability to heal the sick and raise the dead?

20. How is your faith challenged by the people in this story?

21. What are some ways we “laugh at Jesus” in our beliefs and behavior?

22. How do you think a twelve-year illness would affect your faith in God?

23. What does this passage teach you about Jesus sensitivity to the needs of a lonely, hurting individual?

24. What impossible situation are you facing?

25. How can we follow Jesus example?

Apply It

26. How can you trust God today to work in the impossible situation you are facing?

27. What act of kindness can you show this week to someone who is ill or grieving?

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Lord of Life and Death

Mat 9:18-26

No grief appeals to Christ in vain. He always arises to follow. Let us as His disciples ever follow where He leads. We are permitted to be His fellow-workers and to help by our sympathy, prayers, and faith.

This poor womans faith was very imperfect. She believed that there was virtue in His dress, as the ritualist in the emblems of His death. She cared more for her healing than for the healer. She was full of fear and trembling. But her touch was a magnificent evidence of her faith. It might be as slight as featherdown, but it was enough. Not grasping, but lightly touching!

The incident at first fretted Jairus by its delay; but afterward it helped him. Perhaps it was permitted in order to strengthen his faith and thus prepare him to meet the tidings then upon the way to him. He can awake a girl from death as easily as her mother from sleep at morning prime. Let Jesus take the tiny hands of your children in His. Summon them to life and love!

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

The King’s Dominion over Disease and Death

Mat 9:18-19. While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live. And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples.

Our Lord had better work to do than to be talking about meats and drinks, feastings and fastings: he is soon clear of that debate. The battle of life and death was raging, and he was needed in the fray.

Sorrow comes even to the families of the excellent of the earth. A ruler of the synagogue and a believer in Jesus has such sickness befallen his daughter that she is at death’s door, and is probably by this time actually dead. But the father has a grand faith. Even if she be dead, Jesus can restore her with a touch. Oh, that he would but come! He worships the Lord, and pleads with him: “Come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.” Have we such faith as this? After centuries of manifestation, is Jesus as well trusted as in the days of his flesh? Have we not those among us who have not yet learned the happy blend which we see in the ruler’s conduct? He came to Jesus, he worshipped him, he prayed to him, he trusted in him.

Our King, in whom is vested the power of life and death, yields at once to the petition of faith, and sets out for the ruler’s house. The Lord follows believers, for believers follow their Lord: such is the order of Mat 9:19. Jesus does as we pray, and we follow as he leads. The Preacher steps down from his pulpit, and becomes a visiting Surgeon, taking his rounds. From discussing Church questions our great Rabbi very readily turns aside to go and see a sick, nay, a dead girl. He is more at home in doing good than in anything else.

Mat 9:20-21. And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: for she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.

This is an incident on the road, a wonder by the way. While the Lord is moving towards the chamber of the ruler’s dying daughter, he works a miracle without a word. He was intent on his design to raise a girl; but without designing it he cures an older woman. The very spillings and overflowings of Christ’s power are precious.

Note the word “behold.” Here we have a notable circumstance. This afflicted woman had suffered from a weakening hemorrhage for “twelve years”, and had found no cure; but now she beheld the great Miracle-worker, and with a timid courage she pushed into the crowd, and touched the hem of his garment. Great fear kept her from facing him: great faith led her to believe that a touch of his robe behind him would cure her. She was ignorant enough to think that healing went from him unconsciously; but yet her faith lived despite her ignorance, and triumphed despite her bashfulness. It was her own idea to make a dash for it, and steal a cure: “She said within herself.” It was her wisdom that at once she carried out her resolve. Poor soul! it was her only chance, and she would not lose it. It happened that our Lord’s dress was drawn backward by the throng, and she was able with her finger to reach its hem. She believed that this would be enough, and so it proved. Oh, that we were as eager to be saved as she was to be healed! Oh, that we had such confidence in Jesus as to be sure that if we come into contact with him, even by the least promise, and the smallest faith, ho can and will save us!

My soul, when thou art in urgent need, be brave to come nigh unto thy Lord; for if a touch of his garment will heal, what virtue must lie in his own self!

Mat 9:22. But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.

We have not all the story here. It will be well to read it in Mark 5 and Luke 8. Jesus knew all that was going on behind him. If his back be towards us now, it need not always be; for he “turned him about.” Even when fear would hide from Jesus, he spies out the trembler. His eye found her speedily, for he knew where to look. “He saw her.” His voice cheered her with joyful tones of acceptance. He did not chide the blundering of her ignorance, but he commended the bravery of her faith, and consoled her trembling heart. A piece of fringe and a finger sufficed to form a contact between a believing sufferer and an Almighty Saviour. Along that line faith sent its message, and love returned the answer. She “was made whole “, and she knew it; but she feared when she was found out lest she should lose the blessing and earn a curse. This fear soon vanished: Jesus called her “daughter” He fathered her because he had created faith in her. He gave her “(good comfort “because she had good faith. It was his garment which she touched, but it was her faith which had touched it; therefore our Lord said, “Thy faith hath made thee whole “; and thus he put the crown upon the head of her faith, because her faith had. already set the crown on his head. The moment we touch Jesus we are made whole; yea, “from that hour” May we touch him now, and may this hour be as memorable to us as that hour was to her!

Mat 9:23-24. And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, he said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.

The funeral wailing had already begun: “the minstrels “had commenced their hideous discords. Mistrustful friends are eager to bury us before the due time; and we are ourselves too apt to fall into the same error about others. Unbelief calls in the undertakers and the hired mourners to bury those who will yet live for years. We give over to hopelessness those whom Jesus will save; or we begin “making a noise” where a gracious, silent work would be far better.

Jesus will have the death-music quieted; for it is premature, and even false in its significance. He says to the minstrels, “Give place.” Many things have to give place when Jesus comes on the scene; and he takes care that they shall give place; for he puts them out of the room. To him the maid is asleep rather than dead; for he is about to call her back to life. He sees the future as well as the present; and to him in that light “the maid is not dead, but sleepeth.” The Lord Jesus wants not pipers, flute-players, and wailers; his own still voice is more fit for work in the death-chamber with a young girl. Jesus is going to do wonders, and the hired performances of those who mimic woe are not in tune therewith.

When Jesus tells the hired performers that there will be no need to proceed with the funeral, for the girl will live, they answer with scoffs, for they are sure that she is dead. It is a shameful thing to laugh at Christ. Yet ” he endured such contradiction of sinners against himself”, and was not angry. We need not be dismayed when we are ridiculed; for “they laughed HIM to scorn.” Nor may wo stop our working because of derision; for Jesus went on with his resurrection work despite the mockers.

Mat 9:25. But token the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose.

It was not meet that a ribald throng should behold the majestic mystery of resurrection; they must be “put forth.” Moreover, the hideous noise of the funeral wailers was not a fit accompaniment of the Saviour’s word of power. The people were turned out, and then the Lord “went in “to work his miracle. He loves to work in quiet. There are directions in modern church life in which noise and popular excitement will have to come to an end before much is done by the Lord.

When we read, “He took her by the hand”, it reminds us of his touching Peter’s wife’s mother. He shows a sacred familiarity with those whom he saves. He is not said in this gospel to have spoken, and thus the contrast between empty noise and his mighty silence, is brought out clearly. Life was gone from the maiden; but the result was the same as in the case of Peter’s relative who was still alive: she arose. How much had taken place before a dead girl could rise! This is the first case of resurrection by our Lord: it was that of one who had but just died, and it is typical of the giving of spiritual life to persons who have not yet come to the stage of corruption which necessitates carrying them out, like the widow’s son; or of actual decay, which has led to burial, as in the case of Lazarus. In each case the miracle was the same; but the surroundings greatly differed, so that the instruction varied.

Lord, take our dear young children by the hand, and raise them up to everlasting life while they are children!

Mat 9:26. And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.

The news of the raising of the dead was sure to spread, especially as it was the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue. Where new life is bestowed, there will be no fear of its being unobserved. Jesus will have fame if we have life, and we should take care that it is so.

Fuente: Spurgeon’s The Gospel of the Kingdom

behold: Mar 5:22-43, Luk 8:41-56

ruler: Luk 8:49, Luk 13:14, Luk 18:18, Act 13:15

worshipped: Mat 8:2, Mat 14:33, Mat 15:25, Mat 17:14, Mat 20:20, Mat 28:17, Mar 5:22, Luk 17:15, Luk 17:16, Act 10:25, Act 10:26

My daughter: Mat 9:24, Mar 5:23, Luk 7:2, Luk 8:42, Luk 8:49, Joh 4:47-49

come: Mat 8:8, Mat 8:9, 2Ki 5:11, Joh 11:21, Joh 11:22, Joh 11:25, Joh 11:32

Reciprocal: Mat 8:7 – I will Mat 9:23 – into Joh 4:46 – whose Act 28:8 – laid

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

THE RULER WHO PLEADED FOR HIS DAUGHTER

A certain ruler.

Mat 9:18

We have in this incident an instance of a pious and good man trained and chastened by the Father of Spirits. All the interest of the story is centred in the father. We read of what he said, what he felt and suffered, what efforts he made to avert his daughters death, how deep was his affliction, and nothing at all of her.

I. A forgotten lesson.We must regard this trial sent to Jairus as of the same class as that sent to David when his heart was so lifted up with the splendour of his military successes that he proposed to number the people. Thus we must think, then, of Jairus. An amiable, prosperous, easy-going man, whose lot had fallen to him in pleasant places, so pleasant as to render him indolent, and hinder his souls real life. He had come to love this present world; to enjoy its pleasures, and to cling to it more and more.

II. The trial.To such a man it was that the trial came of the sudden illness and the rapidly approaching death of his only and idolised child. The man was shaken out of his accustomed decorum. There, on the open sea-beach, in the presence of the crowd, he flings himself down at Jesus feet, and embracing them, sobbed forth in hurried, broken sentences, his sorrow and his request. It is better to have real and deep feelings, though tumultuous, than a cold and selfish heart: and this was the lesson that he was being taught of God.

III. The sympathy of Jesus.Such transport of parental love deserved, and was sure to receive from Jesus, full of sympathy and tenderness as He ever was, a merciful and gracious answer. And so our Lord seems to have got up at once, without question, and set off to the house of Jairus. The Providential discipline had done its appointed work.

IV. Is there amongst us a Jairus?Is there any one, that is, who finds this life so pleasant and so sufficing, that he has no strong desire for the next, and only a very languid and tepid love for the ordinances and the practices of religion? Remember, vital religion and love of the world cannot co-exist. To such, who have fallen into Jairus error, may He give Jairus awakening.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

9:18

The word for ruler is defined by Thayer, “A ruler, commander, chief, leader.” The word could hence be applied to various persons, but in this verse it means, “of the officers presiding over the synagogues.” For a description of these synagogues and their uses see the comments at Mat-they 4:23. This man was a Jew and had learned enough about the work of Jesus to have the faith that he expressed. He was consistent in his attitude, for if a person has the power to perform other miracles he also can raise the dead. Modern professed miracle workers betray their fradulent practices by refusing even to try raising the dead, because they know they have no miraculous power.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

[Behold, a ruler.] Distinction is made between the bishop of the congregation; and the head of the congregation. For while the discourse is there of the high priest reading a certain portion of the law on the day of Expiation agreeable to the day, thus it is said, The bishop of the synagogue takes the book of the law, and gives it to the ruler of the synagogue. Where the Gloss thus, “The synagogue was in the mount of the Temple, near the court [which is worthy to be marked]: The Chazan [or bishop; or overseer] of the synagogue is the minister; and the ruler of the synagogue is he by whose command the affairs of the synagogue are appointed; namely, who shall read the prophet, who shall recite the phylacteries, who shall pass before the ark.”

Of this order and function was Jairus, in the synagogue of Capernaum: so that the word ruler; being understood in this sense, admits of little obscurity, although one; or a certain; be not there: “he speaking these words, ‘Behold, the ruler of that synagogue,’ ” etc.

Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels

Mat 9:18. While he spake these things. Either in the house after the feast, or nigh unto the sea (Mar 5:21), where the conversation with Johns disciples may have taken place.There came. According to some authorities, came in. The character of the man who came in heightens the contrast

A ruler (named Jairus; Mark and Luke), i.e., the president of the synagogue, in virtue of his position as one of the Jewish elders. Therefore of the highest social rank in the city, as Matthew and his company were of the lowest.

Worshipped him. Fell at his feet (Mark and Luke).

My daughter even now died. Concise statement Mark and Luke give fuller details: the ruler says that she is at the point of death, and on the way news of her actual death arrives. He had some faith, but not that Jesus could heal with a word, so he asks: Come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Observe the humble posture in which this man came unto Christ, namely, falling at his foot and worshipping him; which was not only a sign of tender affection towards his daughter, but an evidence of his faith in our blessed Saviour; yet his confining Christ’s power to his bodily presence and to the touch of his hand, was a token of the weakness of his faith; come, says he, and lay thine hand upon her, and she shall live. As if Christ could not have cured her, without either coming to her, or laying his hand upon her.

Note here, That although all that come to Christ are not alike strong in faith, yet our blessed Redeemer refuses none that come unto him with a sincere faith, though in much weakness of faith. Jesus arose, and followed him.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Mat 9:18-19. While he spake these things Namely, in Matthews house, behold, there came a certain ruler The rulers, in general, were Christs bitterest enemies; yet there were some of them of a different character: Joh 12:42. In particular, this ruler must have had a very favourable opinion of Jesus, and indeed great faith in his power, else he would not have applied to him for help in the present extremity, nor have done him so much honour as to worship or fall down before him: saying, My daughter is even now dead Or, at the point of death: see Mar 5:23. But come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live This his faith was probably built on the miracles which he knew Jesus had performed, for our Lord had by this time resided in Capernaum several months. And Jesus arose, &c. No sooner had this ruler made his supplication, than Christ, ever ready to assist the afflicted, rose from table and went along with him, and so did his disciples. We learn from Mark and Luke, that much people also followed him, doubtless in hopes of seeing the miracle, and thronged him; that is, pressed upon him in such a manner that he could not walk without much difficulty.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

LVIII.

JAIRUS’ DAUGHTER AND THE INVALID WOMAN.

(Capernaum, same day as last.)

aMATT. IX. 18-26; bMARK V. 22-43; cLUKE VIII. 41-56.

c41 And a18 While he spake these things unto them [while he talked about fasting at Matthew’s table], behold, there came, {bcometh} ca man named Jairus, {bJairus by name;} cand he was a ruler {bone of the rulers} of the synagogue [He was one of the board of elders which governed the synagogue at Capernaum. These elders were not necessarily old men– Mat 19:16-22, Luk 18:18-23], and seeing him, che fell {bfalleth} cdown at Jesus’ feet, aand worshipped him [It was a very lowly act for the ruler of a synagogue thus to bow before the Man of Nazareth. But the ruler was in trouble, and his needs were stronger than his pride], cand besought him to come into his house; 42 for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying. b23 and beseecheth him much, saying, My little daughter is at the point of death: ais even now dead [he left her dying, [352] and so stated his fears in the very strongest way]: but bI pray thee, that thou come and lay thy hands on {ahand upon} her, bthat she may be made whole, and live. aand she shall live. 19 And Jesus arose [From Matthew’s table. Jesus did not fast for form’s sake, but he was ever ready to leave a feast that he might confer a favor], and followed him, and so did his disciples. b24 And he went him; and a great multitude followed him [The ruler, of highest social rank in the city, found Jesus among the lowliest, and they were naturally curious to see what Jesus would do for this grandee], and they {cBut as he went the multitudes} thronged him. a20 And, behold, a woman, who had {chaving} an issue of blood twelve years, b26 and had suffered many things of many physicians, and cwho had spent ball that she had, call her living upon physicians, band was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, cand could not be healed of any [Medicine was not a science in that day. Diseases were not cured by medicine, but were exorcised by charms. The physician of Galilee in that age did not differ very widely from the medicine-man of the North American Indians. One in easy circumstances could readily spend all during twelve years of doctoring with such leeches.] b27 having heard the things concerning Jesus [her faith rested on hearing rather than on sight], came in the crowd behind, chim, and touched the border of his garment: a21 for she said within herself, If I do but touch his garment, {bgarments,} I shall be made whole. [The nature of her disease made her unclean ( Lev 15:26). Her consciousness of this made her, therefore, timidly approach Jesus from behind.] 29 And straightway {cimmediately} bthe fountain of her blood was dried up; cthe issue of her blood stanched. band she felt in her body that she was healed of her plague. [The feeble pulse of sickness gave way to the glow and thrill of health.] 30 And straightway Jesus, perceiving in himself that the power proceeding from him had gone forth, turned him about in the [353] crowd, and said, Who touched my garments? cWho is it that touched me? And when all denied, Peter and they bhis disciples cthat were with him, bsaid unto him, cMaster, the multitude press thee and crush thee, bThou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? c46 But Jesus said, Some one did touch me: for I perceived that power had gone forth from me. b32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. c47 And {b33 But} cwhen the woman saw that she was not hid, she came bfearing and trembling [because being unclean, any rabbi would have rebuked her severely for touching him], knowing what had been done to her, came and fell {cfalling} down before him band told him all the truth. cdeclared in the presence of all the people for what cause she touched him, and how she was healed immediately. [To have permitted the woman to depart without this exposure would have confirmed her in the mistaken notion that Jesus healed rather by his nature than by his will. Hence he questions her, not that he may obtain information, but rather as a means of imparting it. By his questions he reveals to her that no work of his is wrought without his consciousness, and that it was himself and not his garment which had blessed her.] a22 But Jesus turning and seeing her said, cunto her, aDaughter, be of good cheer [Faith gets a sweet welcome]; thy faith hath made thee whole. cgo in peace. band be whole of thy plague. [Be permanently whole: an assurance that relief was not temporal, but final.] aAnd the woman was made whole from that hour. [Faith healed her by causing her to so act as to obtain healing. Faith thus saves; not of itself, but by that which it causes us to do. It causes us to so run that we obtain.] b35 While he yet spake, they come from {cthere cometh one from} the ruler of the synagogue’s house, saying, Thy daughter is dead: bwhy troublest thou the Teacher any further? ctrouble not the Teacher. [The delay caused by healing this woman must have sorely tried the ruler’s patience, and the sad [354] news which followed it must have severely tested his faith; but we hear no word of murmuring or bitterness from him.] 50 But Jesus hearing it, bnot heeding the words spoken [not succumbing to the situation], canswered him, {bsaith unto the ruler of the synagogue,} Fear not, only believe. cand she shall be made whole. [Thus, with words of confidence and cheer, Jesus revived the ruler’s failing faith.] b37 And he suffered no man to follow with him [into the house with him], save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James. [These three were honored above their fellows by special privileges on several occasions, because their natures better fitted them to understand the work of Christ.] c51 And when he came to the house, he suffered not any man to enter in with him, save Peter and John, and James, and the father of the maiden and her mother. b38 And they come to the house of the ruler of the synagogue; a23 And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, bhe beholdeth a tumult, and many weeping and wailing greatly. aand saw the flute-players, and the crowd making a tumult, 24 he said, Give place [Mourning began at the moment of death, and continued without intermission until the burial, which usually took place on the day of the death. Even to this day Oriental funerals are characterized by noisy uproar and frantic demonstrations of sorrow, made by real and hired mourners. Flute-players, then as now, mingle the plaintive strains of their instruments with the piercing cries of those females who made mourning a profession]: c52 And all were weeping, and bewailing her: but he said, {bsaith} unto them, Why make ye a tumult, and weep? cWeep not; she bthe child athe damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. [Jesus used this figurative language with regard to Lazarus, and explained by this he meant death– Joh 11:14.] And they laughed him to scorn. cknowing that she was dead. [His words formed a criticism as to their judgment and experience as to death, and threatened to interrupt them in earning their funeral [355] dues.] a25 But when the crowd was put forth, bhe, having put them all forth [because their tumult was unsuited to the solemnity and sublimity of a resurrection. They were in the outer room–not in the room where the dead child lay], taketh the father of the child and her mother and them [the three] that were with him, and goeth in {ahe entered in,} bwhere the child was. [Jesus took with him five witnesses, because in the small space of the room few could see distinctly what happened, and those not seeing distinctly might circulate inaccurate reports and confused statements as to what occurred. Besides, Jesus worked his miracles as privately as possible in order to suppress undue excitement.] aand took {btaking} the child {cher} by the hand, called, saying, {bsaith} unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, {cMaiden,} bI say unto thee, Arise. [Mark gives the Aramaic words which Jesus used. They were the simple words with which anyone would awaken a child in the morning.] c55 And her spirit returned b42 And straightway the damsel rose up, {aarose.} cshe rose up immediately: band walked [her restoration was complete]; for she was twelve years old. cand he commanded that something bshould be given her to eat. [Her frame, emaciated by sickness, was to be invigorated by natural means.] c56 And her parents were amazed: bthey were amazed straightway with a great amazement. [Faith in God’s great promise is seldom so strong that fulfillment fails to waken astonishment.] 43 And {cbut} bhe charged them much cto tell no man what had been done. bthat no man should know this [A command given to keep down popular excitement. Moreover, Jesus did not wish to be importuned to raise the dead. He never was so importuned]: a26 And the fame hereof went forth into all that land.

[FFG 352-356]

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

RESURRECTION OF JAIRUSS DAUGHTER

Mat 9:18-26; Mar 5:23-43; & Luk 8:41-56. Mark: And, behold, one of the chief rulers of the synagogue, by name Jairus, comes; and seeing Him, falls at His feet, and entreats Him much, saying, My little daughter is now at the point of death; having come, lay Your hands on her, in order that she may be saved, and shall live. And He went away with him, and a great multitude follows Him, even treading on Him. And He, still speaking, they come from the chief ruler of the synagogue, saying, Thy daughter is dead; why do you still trouble the Teacher? And Jesus, immediately hearing the word spoken, says to the chief ruler of the synagogue, Fear not; only believe. And He comes to the house of the chief ruler, and did not admit any one to follow Him, except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James, and He sees the uproar, the people weeping and wailing much. And coming in, He says to them, Why do you mourn and weep? The little child is not dead, but sleepeth. And they hooted at Him. And putting all out, He takes the father and mother of the little child, and those who are with Him, and goes in where the little child was lying. And taking the hand of the little child, says to her, Talitha cumi, which is interpreted, Little girl, I say unto thee, Arise. And immediately the little girl stood up, and began to walk round; for she was twelve years old. And they were delighted with great delight. And He commanded them much that no one should know it; and He said that something should be given to her to eat. There at Capernaum, His resident city, the home of Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew, and the scene of more miracles than any other city in the world thither the multitudes from all nations have come, bringing their sick, and laying them down at His feet, unutterably delighted to see the blind receive their sight; the deaf gloriously healed; the poor cripples, throwing away their crutches, and leaping exultantly; the paralyzed, lunatics, maniacs, demoniacs, and all sorts of epileptics, wonderfully and triumphantly healed, causing the surrounding mountains to echo and reverberate their stentorian shouts. Now He adds to the voluminous catalogue of these stupendous miracles the climax of all; i.e., the resurrection of the dead. Luke says that she was his only daughter, a lovely damsel of twelve years. We see He takes none with Him into the presence of the corpse except the father and mother, and Peter, James, and John. These three apostles, enjoying a deeper insight into spiritual things than the other nine, are not only thus honored on this notable occasion, but we find them His only concomitants on the Mount of Transfiguration, and also receiving His especial attention and confidence amid the agonies of Gethsemane. The Jews were accustomed to mourn for the dead seven days. In this mourning they blew on the pipe, producing a loud, shrill, solemn sound, which commingled with the bitter wailings of the mourners. The people in that country this day practice that same excessive weeping and mourning over the dead. E.V., Laughed Him to scorn, is not a good translation, as there was no laughing there. The idea is, they hooted at Him, thus ridiculing His assertion, She is not dead, but sleepeth. You will find the New Testament discarding that grievous word death, and substituting the mild and hygienical term sleep. This is in harmony with the great plan of salvation, which includes the body and mind, as well as the soul, contemplating complete and glorious restitution, recognizing the body immortal as the soul, which is certainly true, if we take in the resurrection.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Mat 9:18-26. Jairas Daughter and the Woman with Haemorrhage (Mar 5:21-43*, Luk 8:40-56).Mt. records in nine verses what Mk. takes twenty-three to tell. He again forsakes Mk.s order, postponing Mar 2:23 to Mar 4:34 till later (chs. 12, 10, 13). Despite his compression Mt. remarks that the woman (? Veronica) touched the sacred tassel (Num 15:38) of Jesus dress, and that the cure was immediate and permanent (from that hour). As with the paralytic (Mat 8:10), faith (not magic) expelled both the disease and the sin thought to be linked with it.

In the story of the ruler (i.e. supervisor of synagogue-worship; for other uses of the word see Luk 14:1; Luk 18:18; Joh 3:1; Act 4:5), Mt. alone mentions the flute-players among the crowd, which Jesus dismisses more authoritatively than in Mk. and Lk. like Mk., Mt. takes Jesus words, not dead but sleepeth, as literally true; Lk. alone clearly indicates a raising from death. The messengers (Mar 5:35), or Jairas himself (Mat 9:18), were mistaken. Mat 9:26 replaces the injunction to silence (cf. Mat 9:30) in Mk. and Lk.; that land (cf. Mat 9:31) is the district round Capernaum.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

9:18 {4} While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

(4) There is no evil so old, and incurable, which Christ cannot heal by and by, if he is touched with true faith, but lightly as it were with the hand.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

5. Jesus’ ability to restore 9:18-34

The two groups of miracles that Matthew presented so far demonstrated Jesus’ ability to heal (Mat 8:1-17) and to perform miracles with supernatural power (Mat 8:23 to Mat 9:8). This last cluster demonstrates His ability to restore. These miracles show that Jesus can restore all things, as the prophets predicted the Son of David would do. Furthermore, He can do this in spite of opposition.

The raising of Jairus’ daughter and the healing of a woman with a hemorrhage 9:18-26 (cf. Mar 5:21-43; Luk 8:40-56)

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

This incident evidently happened shortly after Jesus and His disciples returned from Gadara on the east side of the lake (cf. Mar 5:21-22; Luk 8:40-41). The name of this Capernaum synagogue ruler was Jairus (Mar 5:22). He was a Jew who enjoyed considerable prestige in his community. It is noteworthy that someone of his standing believed in Jesus. This ruler humbly knelt before Jesus with a request (cf. Mat 2:2; Mat 8:2). According to Matthew he announced that his daughter had just died. Mark and Luke have him saying that she was near death. Since she died before Jesus reached her, Matthew evidently condensed the story to present at the outset what was really true before Jesus reached his house. [Note: Carson, "Matthew," p. 230.]

The ruler had probably seen or heard of Jesus’ acts of healing with a touch (e.g., Mat 8:2; Mat 8:15). However, his faith was not as strong as the centurion’s who believed that Jesus could heal with a word (Mat 8:5-13). Jesus arose from reclining at the table and proceeded to follow the ruler to his house. Here is another instance where the verb akoloutheo, "to follow," does not imply discipleship (cf. Mat 8:23). Context must determine its meaning, not the word itself.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

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