GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
MARK 5:21-24
21 And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered about him while he was at the seaside. 22 One of the synagogue rulers, a man named Jairus, came to him, and seeing him, he fell at his feet. 23 He pleaded earnestly with him, saying, “My little daughter is near death. Please come and lay your hands on her, so that she will be healed and live.” 24 Jesus went with him, and a large crowd followed him and gathered close around him.
After the destruction of the temple, the priesthood of the Jews was greatly diminished, and the authority of the Levites passed into groups of teachers who disagreed about their interpretation of the Old Testament Scriptures, usually for political reasons. The ordinary Jews, the people who believed in God and who went to worship every weekend, gathered in synagogues, the forerunner of the modern Christian church. They prayed together, they professed their faith, they sang hymns, and they listened to the Scriptures being read. There may have been a sermon given by a rabbi, or teacher. The men who looked after these synagogues were known as synagogue rulers. They were not usually rabbis themselves, but administrators and janitors. They were responsible for the building, for the smooth operation of worship, and for seeking rabbis to come and preach. They may also have taught children to read and write Hebrew, music, Bible history, and other things.
Jairus was such a man. Of all the rabbis and priests he knew, of all the Levites he had come into contact with, the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots, scribes, and teachers, he sought out Jesus. It wasn’t time for debate. It wasn’t time for an opinion. He needed the healing hand of God for his little daughter.
All kinds of sicknesses have come into the world as a result of sin. Some very serious illnesses, cancers, and diseases are also sent by the devil directly because he hates us and he wants to kill us, which is taught in Mark 9:22. Satan is the author of death, about which he constantly lies (Genesis 3:4). Also, Peter says that those who were oppressed by the devil were healed by Christ (Acts 10:38), and Jesus cured not only the demon-possessed and those oppressed by the devil, but also the paralyzed, the blind, the mute, the sick, lepers, and others (Mark 3:4-12; 8:22-25). So all dangerous illnesses are from the devil. But what about those things that the Lord permits to come to us, as he did with Job and with this little daughter of Jairus? In these cases, we see the hand of God moving among the fallen sinners of the world to turn them more directly to Christ and to true salvation. For when we are in true terror of our own lives, and the lives of our children, we seek God more earnestly and reach out for him (Acts 17:27).
This is why Jairus went to Jesus. He was groaning right along with the rest of creation under the burden of this terrible result of the fall (Romans 8:22). He came humbly to Jesus “in anguish of heart” (Psalm 38:8), his life consumed by anguish for his child (Psalm 31:10).
But what would coming to Jesus mean? He was a synagogue ruler, a man responsible for the doctrinal integrity and the content of the message of those who preached and taught in his synagogue. What would the leaders of the Jews think of him for reaching out to Jesus this way? For Jairus, this was the turning point. It was the life of his child, and so he turned to Jesus. He was going to learn a priceless lesson, for the thing that is as valuable as a human life is a human soul. Jesus said: “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, and yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). The result of this encounter with Jesus was going to change his attitude about the lives and the souls of the people in his synagogue.
Jesus went with him right away. There was a crowd, a great number of people of all kinds. Many of them were undoubtedly concerned about the man’s little girl; he was a prominent man in their city, and many of them probably had a genuine affection for the girl who was just about to enter her teen years. But some might have just wanted to see a miracle take place, or whether Jesus could do anything or not.
What none of them knew was that Jesus was going to be delayed, and what that delay would mean for Jairus, for his sick daughter, and for the faith of everyone there.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Mark 5:21-24 The sick girl