Even while Jesus was speaking to the woman who had touched the hem of His garment, a messenger arrived from Jairus’s house with the sad tidings, “Thy daughter is dead, trouble not the Master.”
When Jesus heard it He said to Jairus, “Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made well”, but He let no one follow Him to the house excepting Peter and James and John.
When they arrived they found a crowd of noisy excited people gathered together. The friends and neighbors had come to show their sympathy by crying and making a great noise of weeping; someone had sent for the flute-players too, and they were playing mournful tunes and adding to the tumult.
And all the time, in one room of the house, the little daughter lay still and quiet in the solemn stillness of death. She was so still and quiet that when Jesus said, “Weep not, she is not dead, but [sleeps],” they laughed scornfully, knowing that she was dead. They did not know that the One who spoke to them was the Lord, God the Lord, to whom belong the issues of death, and they had forgotten that God’s word says, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding” (Prov. 3:55Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5)).
Never forget it, boys and girls, that when the Lord was here upon earth, there were some who laughed at Him and mocked Him because He said of that girl, “She is not dead, but [sleeps].” She lay so still, no breath came from her lips, her heart had ceased to beat, they could not wake her, they knew that she was dead.
Jesus had let no one go into the house with Him but Peter, James and John, and the father and mother of the maiden, and now He put all the other people out, and He entered into the room taking with Him those three disciples and the parents. “And He . . . took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise. And her spirit came again, and she arose [at once], and He commanded to give her [something to eat].”
Oh! how happy Jairus and his wife must have been to have their little daughter back again, and what joy it must have given them to see her enjoy the food they brought her in obedience to the Lord’s command.
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They were astonished, but Jesus charged them that they should tell no one what was done. Those who had laughed at Jesus and refused to believe His word, were not even to be told in what way He had aroused the dear little sleeper from the sleep of death.