“While he was speaking these things to them, behold, a certain ruler came and worshipped him.” Or, “behold, a ruler came in and worshipped him” (ver. 18). This would seem exceptional. For we know that on one occasion, to the officers who had been sent to apprehend the Lord, and who had been too struck with the power of His words to do so, the scribes and Pharisees said, “Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers, and of the Pharisees believed on him?” (John 7:45-48). But here was one who had heard of Jesus, and who said, “My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.” From Luke we learn that she was his only daughter. We get the word “only” three times in Luke— “only” son (7: 12), “only” daughter (8:42), “only” child, or begotten (9:38).
It was quite in keeping with the Jewish character to desire the Lord's presence, and His hand upon her. A living Christ on earth is for the Jews. Jairus seems to have had the faith of Abraham—that faith in God Who raiseth the dead. You do not get much detail here, but the Lord responds, by rising and following him, and is on His way when He is interrupted. This is not an exceptional thing; and you often get interruptions in Matthew.
In the next chapter the gospel of the kingdom is sent out, and they are told, “Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.” But the testimony was interrupted by the rejection of Christ, and the cities will have to be inhabited again for that testimony to go on. Again, at the end of chap. 12, the Jewish testimony is set aside, and the whole of chap. 13 is taken up with what the Lord is doing now. But He breaks faith with nobody. If He could break His word with Israel, what have we got to trust in?
The Holy Spirit directs our special attention to the fact that, while He is on His way to raise the dead Jewess, “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” (vers. 20, 21). Another Gospel says, “she had heard of Jesus.” She had heard enough to lead her to the conclusion that could she but touch Him she would get the blessing, and this after “she had spent all.” While she had a halfpenny she kept away. But I think there is a practical lesson for us in this—that we do not make truth our own unless we practice it. If you have your head full of truths, and they are floating about in your brain like a lot of notions, it will do you no good. That sort of knowledge puffs up. We might be ever so orthodox, and yet know little or nothing of communion with the Lord Jesus. It is a state of soul one may well dread. We are not to be occupied with our communion. It is very blessed when one is so led along as to be oblivious or forgetful of self.
We need not go into the particulars given in the other Gospels, but we would look at it as presented here. The Lord Jesus recognized the touch of faith. He turned; and seeing her said, “Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.” “Daughter” was a term of endearment. Perhaps she was not conscious of her faith, but there it was, and it was right, for it was in Jesus. It is very necessary to see that her faith was in the person of Christ. Very strong faith in a wrong thing will not make the faith right nor the thing right. What gives faith its value is its object. Faith in Christ is always right. This incident is very encouraging for a poor sinner, and a great help to us in preaching the gospel.
What the Lord does is always worthy of Himself, and, like Himself, perfect. He is a divine person, and there was infinite fullness in Him to respond to all need. It was a puzzle to the disciples when He said “Who touched me?” It was such a throng that the question might rather have been, “Who did not touch me?” But this was a touch of faith and of need, and He never fails to respond to such. It is a very precious thing that we have this record, for He will never fail to respond to the faith that has to do with, and confides in, Him.
He arrives then at Jairus' house, where he finds mourners; no doubt paid mourners. “He said unto them, Give place; for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.” They would have lost their work, so to speak, if she was not dead; and their pay too would be gone. Man had introduced all that. All that was needed was, for them to give place if He was there. “Be silent, O all flesh before the Lord.”
On a later occasion we find the Lord speaking of Lazarus as “sleeping.” It was His way of speaking. He was going to raise Lazarus, and He was about now to raise this girl. He raised her, from her bed; the young man of Nain, from the bier; and Lazarus, from the grave. It required the same power for each case-the power of Him who is the Resurrection and the Life. Unbelieving man may be ready enough to explain this away, and say it was a trance. But the case of Lazarus gives the lie to any such supposition. Jesus allows only in the chamber the father and mother of the damsel and three favored disciples, Peter, James and John, who should be witnesses. How very awful that the minstrels and people laughed Him to scorn! They derided Him. That of itself was testimony that they thoroughly believed she was dead.
It is well indeed when enemies, in spite of themselves, become the witnesses. How very different is this case from the raising of Dorcas, or of the two children in the O.T. raised by Elijah and Elisha-each of them being a contrast to the way of the Lord! Not that He was not ever here the dependent One. Even where you have the divine side, as given in John, you have nevertheless His perfect dependence as Man. When about to raise Lazarus, He lifted up His eyes, and said, “Father, I thank thee,” etc.
“But when the people were put forth, He went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose.” A picture of what is going to take place in the coming day. That will be the condition of Israel when the Lord shall come to them. They will be raised out of their graves then, as in Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones—their national resurrection.
“And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.” That is very sweet, but that which is yet to be will go far beyond that land. Instead of great light, great darkness is coming first, and when the Light arises on them it will shine forth to all the world. “Arise, shine; for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising” (Isai. 60.). Such is the way. Things will never be right in this world till He comes whose right it is to reign, and Israel have then their place. God has not picked them up because of any superiority in them. “But, I have loved you, because I have loved you.” He retreats into Himself when giving a reason for His love. Israel has rejected their Messiah, but it is impossible for them to stop the flow of love from the heart of God, and in consequence, they have been kept distinct from, and not absorbed by, other nations. “This generation shall not pass till all these things be done.”
“And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying. Son of David, have mercy on us.” In each of the Synoptic Gospels we find the Lord, in His last journey to Jerusalem goes through Jericho, and heals Bartimus. Israel are blind as well as dead. “Blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.” So this is their condition, but God will give them sight by and by. A vail is on their heart now, but when it is taken away, “In thy light we shall see light.” Then they will appropriate the prophecy of Isai. 53. That will be the language of the future remnant For though we Gentiles may get the enjoyment of it for ourselves who now believe, it is really for Israel. They are blind to the glory of the Messiah, and that blinds them to everything else.
In Peter's First Epistle, where he is writing as the apostle of the circumcision to believing Jews, he speaks of them as “brought out of darkness into God's marvelous light.” That moral darkness was over the whole world. John's Gospel begins with it. “The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” It was more gross than the natural darkness of Gen. 1. We see distinctly the “Son of David” is a Jewish title. “Son of man” has a wider glory. If rejected as Son of David in Psa. 2, He gets the wider glory of Psa. 8, everything put under His feet. Of course it will be upon the ground of mercy that Israel will be blest by and by. You get that in Rom. 9-11, and its consequent burst of praise in the closing verses of chap. 11.
“Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this” (ver. 28)? They want mercy from Him, and believe He has got ability to meet their need. “Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith, be it unto you.” The first one they gazed upon was their Deliverer. It is very sweet for us to think of what is in store for Israel. The Lord had His own fitting reason for telling them not to advertise it (ver. 3o). But they were disobedient. Oftentimes you get a thing stated without any comment. An old writer has said of “straitly charged,” that He spoke to them in thunder, but we may dismiss this as chimerical. I judge the Lord's reason was that He knew He had come to that part of His ministry wherein He was rejected as Messiah. And just after, we get the rulers attributing His wondrous works to the devil himself; they could not deny them. Just to confirm this I was thinking of chap. 16, where the Lord charges the disciples that they should tell no man He was the Christ, and from that time forth began to speak of His sufferings and death.
Israel will not always be dumb as to the praise of Messiah. They will yet sing when that day comes. “Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, in Zion.” Many scriptures prove it. “Let Israel rejoice in him that made him. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their king” (Psa. 149). It will be quite in its place by and by for an earthly people to have the dance and the instrumental music. But we are “holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling,” and God has given us no warrant for such things now that the Holy Ghost is here since Pentecost, and we have the Holy Spirit indwelling the Christian, and the church. On the contrary, where singing in the assembly is spoken of, it is, “I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.” Do we want more?
The Pharisees said, “He casteth out the demons through the prince of the demons.” What an awful remark! We have it brought before us again in chap. 12. Chapters 8, 9 go together; chap. 10 has a place by itself, and then chaps. 11, 12 go together. Here we find this again.
“And Jesus went about... teaching... and preaching... and healing,” etc. But when He saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion. They were harassed or troubled; the word means tired or worn out. Their condition is brought before us to show the heart of the Lord toward them, so different to that of their religious leaders. They little understood the heart of this blessed One. In the two chapters we have had before us we get a cluster of miracles showing that He had a heart toward them, but they had no heart for Him, so He anticipates in the next chapter what He tells them to pray for here. He sends out the laborers into His vineyard. We get nothing like this prayer in the Epistles; evidently it was answered here. Everything we need now is given by an ascended Christ as head of His body the church, and the Holy Spirit dividing to every man severally as He will.