Healed by Faith
Study Scripture: Matthew 9: 18 – 26
Background Scripture: Matthew 9: 18 – 26
Lesson 3 June 19, 2021
Key Verse
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.
Matthew 9:22
INTRODUCTION
Our Study has as its fundamental purpose a clear statement of the nature of Christ. It is vital that Christian believers understand that Jesus has two natures. He was born a man coming from the womb of the Virgin Mary and so He can stand for us, understanding us, and able to call us a brother or sister and a friend.
But at the same time true Christians accept and believe that Jesus existed fully as God in Heaven and therefore He is well able to save us.
This union of the two nature is quite mysterious but the Church has always accepted that each nature came together in one person, so that there is One Son and the only begotten of the Father, and He is called the Word of God.
These beliefs are crucial for Christians and mark them out as true believers. The Scriptures we quote make clear who Jesus is and it explains His behaviour and actions.
Jesus is therefore Lord and is to be worshipped. The Apostle Paul advised us when he declared his task stating
“Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God
Which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures,
Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh,
And declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead”.
Romans 1:1-4.
The book of Hebrews makes Jesus’ position in Heaven and His work of earth clear as follows:
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,
Has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
Whom being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high……..
But to the Son He says:
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;
A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of your Kingdom…
And:
You, LORD, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth,
And the heavens are the work of Your hands”.
Read Hebrews 1:1-12.
We are thus studying about the LORD who is the Master of Death and Sickness, but as well He is a Man of Feelings.
We therefore understand why when the disciple who Jesus loved was exiled on the isle of Patmos and saw in vision the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus laid His hand on him and said:
“Fear not, I am the first and the last; I am he that liveth, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forever more, amen, and have the keys of Hades and death”.
We are looking therefore at the manifestation of the Deity and the humanity of our Lord, who is the Master of death, the source of life for us. His sensitivity, compassion, and caring shine through brightly for those with whom He share His human nature.
It will help us greatly to now look at the world through the eyes of Jesus. When we do that we will see what God’s heart is for the world, for the Lord Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of the Promise to our first father and mother Adam and Eve, and to Abraham that the needs of all people from all nations of the world would be met.
The message of salvation though Jesus is what the whole world needs. One writer tells us plainly as he examines Matthew Chapter 9 and sees what Jesus saw:
“Jesus had been going from village to village teaching about the kingdom, healing people and ministering to them. Then in verse 36 it says, “Seeing the people….”. This word “seeing” means to notice something with perception. He noticed the reality of what was happening around him. As I said a moment ago, it is very difficult for us to do that.
We get so busy and caught up in what we’re doing that life happens around us and we don’t even notice. But Jesus paid attention to what was going on. And perceiving what was going on with the people, he was moved with compassion.
Compassion is a great word that comes from the same root as our word intestines. Down in his gut he had this incredible compassionate feeling about what he saw.
What was it Jesus saw? First of all, he saw hurting people. His compassion was poured out to them “because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd”.
The word distressed is derived from a word meaning to skin an animal. This word came to mean annoyed or bewildered or harassed, unable to make sense of what is happening to you and what life is all about. Probably most of the people Jesus encountered were relatively poor and somewhat socially disadvantaged in their society. They were living in a culture in which there was a great deal of manipulation by religious leaders. Beyond that, they were politically insignificant. We look at Palestine as being central to history as the place of Jesus’ earthy life, but from the human perspective of that time it was a little nothing province way out on the fringes of the Roman Empire.
The second word Jesus used, dispirited, originally meant to throw or cast down, and it came to mean discouraged or without support. Even in a highly communal culture, people had a sense of being discouraged and without support. So when Jesus looked around, he saw past the surface issues of life, even beyond the physical needs, deep into the heart of people. He saw people who were broken down and hurting, not able to answer questions about what life was all about, and feeling like they were in it all alone. That sounds like a picture of our world, doesn’t it?
But that’s not all Jesus saw. He also saw a bountiful harvest. Jesus was not overwhelmed by the sense of need, even though he was moved by it. He didn’t say, “This problem is too great. There’s nothing I can do”. He didn’t say, “I don’t really know these people”, or, “I’ve got another purpose in life, so I can’t really worry about that”. No, he looked at the hurting people around him and said, “There is a plentiful harvest!”
Why would he say that? It’s because he understood that what these people needed was hope, a sense that there was something they could have faith in, something that could meet the deepest needs of their heart. That was the gospel of the kingdom. So there was hope to be given to hurting, downcast, distressed people, and the hope was in who he was—the Messiah, who had come to set people free from the bondage of sin”.
We now see caring, compassion, and concern for both the dispossessed and the well off. We see Jesus bringing hope to those in need. He is the only helper.
Chapters 8-9 therefore is a collection of miracle stories designed to demonstrate Jesus is Messiah operating by God’s power. He called Matthew from the despised, dishonouring job as a tax-collector which made the person unclean and a outcast, and healed a paralytic, another outcast.
THE TEXT
Verse 18.
In this verse we are introduced to a man named Jairus. It appears as though this man was a man of certain importance, in fact history seems to point out that he was a ruler or head of a synagogue in Capernaum, There seems to have been few synagogues in that place. He was not a member of the Sanhedrim. We can distinguish his service to the synagogue from other services to that institution. Jairus was one who looked after the everyday running of the synagogue as opposed to being a minister who actually went before the ark or pronouncing blessing, and other duties.
However the importance of this man cannot be understated, as he was a prominent individual and a man of responsibility known to many in Capernaum. As ruler of the synagogue he did not preach but he was responsible to manage and arrange every matters related to life in the synagogue, the central place of worship outside the Temple in Jerusalem. He arranged the preaching schedule, made sure services were conducted in orderly fashion, and would take the lead in inviting persons to speak whose talents and ability he recognized.
So for him to approach this young and controversial teacher the Lord Jesus Christ so openly was indeed telling. Of all the rulers that Jesus encountered, here was one, named as Jairus in the other gospels who did believe in Him. So much was he different from other persons of prominence that he sought out Jesus believing that only Jesus was capable helping his only daughter, doing the one act that only the Almighty God could do, bring back someone from the dead. So here we have the faith of this one ruler, condemning the unbelief of the rest of the rulers that Jesus had encountered.
His need determined his very risky action for the ruling religious rulers would not appreciate what he did. This ruler had a daughter, of twelve years old, just dead, and this breach made upon his family drove him to seek out the only person who could remedy this situation, Jesus Christ.
As believers in Christ, we should understand that we should visit God in times of loved ones passing, as only He can provide us with true comfort to ease the grief we feel in these times. This is how it can be made well with our souls, by engaging with God at these times.
The intensity of his despair showed in his meeting Jesus. We observe in this encounter that the man fell down and worshipped Christ.
As we learn from the history of Job, when grief hits a home, falling down and worshipping God is the only way that this grief can be abated, and joy has a chance of being restored, even though that loss might still exist.
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.
Now before continuing, a few things should be pointed out. This man worshipped Jesus and interestingly enough, Jesus received this worship. This would have been blasphemous if Jesus had not Himself been God. There are other instances in the Bible where worship was offered to a human (Acts10:25 – 26), or to an angel (Revelation 22: 8 – 9), and it is always immediately refused, so clearly this situation was a direct insight into who Jesus was, and perhaps the Holy Spirit allowed this man to see that and act accordingly towards God.
The next revelation allows us to contrast the reactions between Jairus and the Centurion of Matthew 8, which will be looked at momentarily. This ruler mentions to Jesus that his daughter has just died. Gospel writers Matthew, Mark and Luke all deal with this account with slight variations. For instance, in Luke the reference is to “his only daughter”, while in Mark he calls her his “little daughter” while both indicate the age of the child to be twelve. In Jewish canons a female of that age is typically referred to as a young woman, however, each gospel writer indicates the age of the young woman, but from the perspective of the father, Jairus, he would always see her as his “little daughter”. Each gospel writer clearly sees this bond differently.
The other slight variation in the story is how the gospels recount the state of the daughter. In Matthew we read that Jairus says she is dead and no earthly physician could help her only Jesus can save her. Both Mark and Luke indicate that the daughter was near death. However, as the accounts and the language goes, Jairus seemed to have left the house in search of Jesus and mostly likely knew that when he had found the Saviour, his daughter would have passed. But nevertheless, he understood that such a state means nothing to He who has life in Him, and so he did what he only could do to save his daughter’s life, seek out life, seek out Jesus Christ.
As mentioned previously, Jairus’ actions were different from the Centurions. Whether his faith was smaller than the Centurions’, that will be left to you to decide, but Jairus felt the need to come to Jesus and ask that (He) lay Your hand on her and she will live, whereas the Centurion understood Jesus had the authority to heal with a word, even at a great distance. Both knew that in Jesus Christ is life.
What about us? What level of faith would we display?
So here we have on this occasion, the ruler’s address to Christ. This is very significant, for most men in his position were generally most averse to Jesus. This ruler would have to abandon his pride. Jairus fell down and worshipped Him, if not as God, since as yet he might be ignorant of his deity, yet he behaved with the profoundest respect to Him, as a great man, and a prophet; so that he should come to Him when his child was past all hope of recovery. He had reason to believe she was actually dead by the time he had found Jesus, but 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.
Verse 19.
The Scriptures say to us that Jesus immediately left His company, following the ruler to his house, and was willing to grant him what he desired, in raising his daughter to life. This is the clear reward of they who believe and worship the Lord God, the rewards that will be imparted to believers, that of comfort, joy, hope and peace.
There are a variety of methods which Christ took in working His miracles and this perhaps is to be attributed to the different frame and temper of mind which those who approached Him were in. He searched their hearts, and accommodated Himself to it. Jesus knows what is in man, and what course to take with him.
We also see from the Scriptures that as Jesus left to follow the ruler, so too did His disciples, whom He had chosen for His constant companions. Christ did not forbid them in coming as they would serve as witnesses of the event, who would be able to use this moment later on in their lives when they would be preachers of His doctrine.
Verse 20.
As strange as it might seems we have another story inside a story already being told. But it is not too hard to imagine that once word spread of Jesus, His teachings and miracles, that He would be sought out by many people for many reasons. Also the Holy Spirit would be leading people to Him, for God’s glory.
First, there was an encounter with a woman who had an issue of blood and who had it for twelve years. This affliction had lasted for the same amount of time Jairus’ child had been alive for. I do not know if that is just coincidence, but since God controls everything I will leave it for the moment to address other issues.
The woman with the issue of the blood or an hemorrhage for twelve year is definitely a case for Jesus because her case was piteous. But not only that but because, she had most likely spent all possible resources upon physicians, for the cure of her distemper, and was never the better. This was a double aggravation of the misery of her condition, and that she had impoverished herself for the recovery of her health, and yet there had been no improvement in her health. In fact her health was no doubt worsening with each passing day as Mark’s gospel stated.
This woman was diseased with a constant issue of blood for twelve years. 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. This is no doubt one of the reasons she approached Christ in this manner. She came to Christ secretly, pushing through the crowd which would make those in contact with her unclean. But she had a great need she could not control and she was desperate to receive mercy from Him. She should have kept away from people but her hope of receiving healing made her push herself through the crowd and run the risk of someone in the community seeing her contaminate others (this would bring disastrous consequence for her) for she felt if only she could touch Jesus everything would be all right for she would be cured. .
As we shall soon see in the upcoming passages, Christ graciously is always considering our frame, and with sensitivity and concern attends to the case of believers.
Verse 21.
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 fullness 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 considered the raising of the dead man by the touch of Elisha’s bones, 2 Ki. 13:21, and thought Jesus was a great prophet such as Elisha from the stories heard about Him. But she likely had seen Jesus touch people and with His touch healed them. Jesus loved to touch the helpless and did so sometimes. At other times He simply spoke and the person was healed.
But what weakness of understanding there was in it, Christ was pleased to overlook, and to accept the sincerity and strength of her faith. She believed she should be healed if she did but touch the very hem of His garment, the very extremity of it.
In regards to the matter of the hem of His garment,
which was the tuyu, or “fringes,” the Jews were obliged to wear upon the borders of their garments, and on it a ribbon of blue; see Numbers 15:38 in both which places Onkelos uses the word Nydpowrk, the same with kraspedon, used here, and in Mark 6:56 and rendered “hem.” The Jews placed much sanctity in the wear and use of these fringes; and the Pharisees, who pretended to more holiness than others, enlarged them beyond their common size; but it was not on account of any peculiar holiness in this part of Christ’s garment, that induced this poor woman to touch it; but this being behind him, and more easy to be come at, she therefore laid hold on it; for it was his garment, any part of it she concluded, if she could but touch, she should have a cure. However, we learn from hence, that Christ complied with the rites of the ceremonial law in apparel, as well as in other things.
Mark 5:21-43 and Luke 8:43-48 give a much fuller account of this miracle, but Matthew’s account is enough to show the compassion of Jesus and the fact that His power was not magical. Here we simply see the power of God responding to the faith of those who seek Him.
To the best of our knowledge, there was no promise or pattern that touching the garment of Jesus would bring healing. It seems that the woman believed this in a somewhat superstitious way. Yet even though her faith had elements of error and superstition, she believed in the healing power of Jesus and His garment served as a point of contact for that faith.
There are many things that we could find wrong with this woman’s faith. Yet her faith was in Jesus; and the object of faith is much more important than the quality or even quantity of faith.
Note, there is virtue in everything that belongs to Christ. The holy oil with which the High Priest was anointed, ran down to the skirts of his garments, Ps. 133:2. Such a fullness of grace is there in Christ, that from it we may all receive, John 1:16.
Verse 22.
“She was ignorant enough to think that healing went from Him unconsciously; yet her faith lived despite her ignorance, and triumphed despite her bashfulness.” (Spurgeon)
Christ knew what had been done behind Him, that virtue was gone out of Him, that the woman had touched Him, and was healed; which is a clear proof of His omniscience, and so of His deity. He was not angry with her for touching Him as others might have been in such a situation. Christ was not willing to let it alone, 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. So Christ turned to find the woman among all those around Him.
Jesus “saw” her. His ‘seeing you’ is fulfillment of a very significant promise. This is of great significance and of great encouragement to the humble Christian and to all believers as they who hide themselves from men are known to Christ, who sees in secret their applications to heaven when most private.
Never forget then that Jesus “sees” you with the eyes of God. He “sees” you with an eye of concern.
Why did Jesus stop to draw attention to this moment?
· He did it so she would know that she was healed, having heard an official declaration of it from Jesus.
· He did it so others would know she was healed, because her ailment was private in nature.
· He did it so she would know why she was healed, that it was by her faith and not because of a superstitious touch in and of itself.
· He did it so that she would not think she had stolen a blessing from Jesus, and so she would never feel that she needed to hide from Him.
· He did it so that the ruler of the synagogue would see the power of Jesus at work and therefore have more faith himself for his ill daughter.
· He did it so that He could bless her in a special way, giving her an honored title that we never see Jesus give to any other: daughter.
All these points are important so that we, as believers have a clearer picture of who Christ is, so that we can have a clearer belief and knowledge of Him, but also to defend Him through the leading of the Holy Spirit from any comparisons with pretenders.
This situation no doubt strengthened the faith of Jairus on many different levels.
Along with the disciples, Jairus saw the compassion of Jesus to all those who sought after Him.
Jairus saw that nothing escapes Jesus’ knowledge, as the woman learned.
Jesus addressed the woman as daughter to provide her with some comfort. He bade her to take heart and be of good cheer since He meant not to blame her for what she had done, but to commend her faith in Him, whereby she had received a cure.
We are told then in Luke 8, another gospel, that a messenger from Jairus’ house arrived and told Jairus in front of Jesus that he should not trouble the Master and longer for the girl had died.
Before Jairus could say anything Jesus encouraged him
“Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole”.
Verse 23.
When they arrived at the ruler’s house Christ saw the people and the minstrels, or musicians, making a noise. Everyone was busy doing something in this time of death. When it comes into a family, it seems that certain cares arise at such a time, when our dead are to be decently buried out of our sight.
To understand what was happening it is important to learn about the traditional things done at the death of someone, for Jews had erected very high obligations of how mourning at death should be done. One writer explains the three customs mentioned. We should be careful in judging those eastern and Jewish customs for we today have all kinds of strange customs we observe at death. He states:
“There was the rending of garments. So, when a person died in a home, and the family were gathered about, there were actually no fewer than 39 rules and regulations that were to be carried out in connection with the rending of garments and other practices. For example, the rent was to be made while the person was standing. The clothes were to be rent to the heart, so that the skin was exposed. For a father or mother, the rent was exactly over the heart; for others, it was on the right side. The rent must be big enough for a fist to be inserted into it. For seven days, the rent must be left gaping open. For the next 30 days, it must be loosely stitched so it could be seen. This was one of the customs—and I’m sure you can picture what was transpiring in this home as the Lord Jesus arrived.
But not only that, there was wailing for the dead. The wailing for the dead was a professional kind of thing. In a house of grief, this incessant wailing was kept up, and it was done by professional wailing women, who were hired to wail. And they were remarkable people because since they were professional wailers, they knew all about the history of every person in the community, so that they were able to wail in such a way so as to cause others who were there to join them in their wailing….And so the noise that is referred to in Scripture when the Lord Jesus came and heard all the noise, it was the noise of wailing women and others who were joining in with them to wail over the fact that tragedy had come to the home.
And the third thing that accompanied the wailing was the playing of the flute. The music of the flute was especially associated with death. The Talmud lays it down. The husband is bound to bury his dead wife and to make loud lamentations and mourning for her. And also, the very poorest among the Israelites will not allow him less than two flutes and one wailing woman, so that it was required by law that if a wife died, no matter how poor a person was, that there should be two flutes players there and one wailing woman. But if he is rich, the rules go, let all things be done according to his qualities”.
I remember when I was growing up that there were women who went to every burial, dressed in all white with special headpieces. There was a band playing music and alcohol and food was served for days. There were all kind of ceremonies, some on the 3rd day and some at the 9th day period. Many similar and some different practices are followed today.
Of course, in our materialist society, some prefer to get it over with quickly with the least spending possible. There is often no sign of real mourning. Certainly nothing done today in our wealthier societies match the real grief done in the past.
Then people in the neighbourhood came together to console their friends on account of the loss, to comfort the parents, to prepare for, and attend on, the funeral, which the Jews were not the kind to defer long. The musicians were among them, according to the custom of both the Jews and the Gentiles, with their doleful, melancholy tunes, to increase the grief, and stir up the lamentations of those that attended on this occasion. This is somewhat different than what we see in ceremonies today when sending off the departed. Thus they indulged a passion that is apt enough of itself to grow intemperate, and affected to sorrow as those that had no hope.
However, religion provides cordials, where irreligion administers corrosives. Heathenism aggravates that grief which Christianity studies to assuage, seeing as there is hope for believers through God.
The parents, who were immediately touched with the affliction, were silent, while the people and minstrels, whose lamentations were forced, made such a noise. The loudest grief is not always the greatest. Sometimes 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.
Verse 24.
Jesus clearly means to do much for the ruler. Some of the people present clearly did not believe in Jesus to the extent that the ruler did and so, did not need to witness what would transpire.
Such is the loss for those who do not believe in Christ, to see God in all manner of His glory at work. Christ signifies as much, when he says, she “sleepeth”; a phrase that is often used in Talmudic writings, for one that is dead: but Christ’s meaning is, that she was not so dead as the company thought; as always to remain in the state of the dead, and not to be restored to life again: whereas our Lord signifies, it would be seen in a very little time, that she should be raised again, just as a person is awaked out of sleep; so that there was no occasion to make such funeral preparations as they did.
The Jews, and also many who believe call “death” but a sleep for those who trust in God. But some among them perhaps not knowing who Jesus was or not believing on Him like the ruler did, they laughed Him to scorn; they mocked at His words, and had Him in the utmost contempt, as a very weak silly man, taking Him either to be a madman, or a fool. They could only see and know that she was dead by human vision, and of which they had the evidence present before them.
They had no faith and having no faith at all in Him, and in His power to raise her from the dead, they were removed FROM His company and the company of the parents, a sign that those that do not believe in Jesus, in God, will be separated by Him at some point.
Verse 25.
The other Gospels tell us the language used by Jesus when he Heard the noise of the wailing and the flutes. The original Text tells us that He told the crowd to get out of the house. One writer explains:
“So He drove them out of the house. And you can see in this a rebuking on the part of the Lord Jesus of all the empire of disorder that is related, ultimately to Satan’’
So our Lord Jesus regarded all this that accompanied the death if an individual as part of the kingdom of disorder, and being part of the kingdom of disorder, it affected him, and he did not hesitate to be indignant with respect to it.
We are not inclined to think of the Lord Jesus as a person who was indignant. We are inclined to think a person who is indignant or angry that he has sinned, but that is not true. We read, concerning the Lord Jesus, in the 3rd chapter of the Gospel of Mark that when he went in the presence of unbelieving officials, he said, the Scriptures say, “He looked round about upon them with anger”.
There is a time when a believer should be indignant, and he should be indignant at untruth, at heresy. The Lord Jesus is indignant. It is, of course, characteristic of his human nature, and it is revealing of the fact that he was truly man apart from sin”.
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. In comparison, the widow’s son at Nain, and Lazarus were raised from the dead openly, but this young woman privately. It seems that Capernaum had slighted the lesser miracles of restoring health, and was unworthy to see the greater, of restoring life.
Christ went in to awaken her. He took her by the hand to raise her like only the High priest, that typified Christ is capable of doing does. Another priest wants to be apart from death, not touching it, but Christ who is life does not have that apprehension.
So easily, so effectually was the miracle wrought, not by prayer, as Elijah did (1 Ki. 17:21), and Elisha (2 Ki. 4:33), but by a touch. They did it as servants, he as a Son, as a God, to whom belong the issues Of death. Jesus Christ is the Lord of souls, He commands them forth, and commands them back, when and as He pleases.
Jesus holds the key to Hades and death. He is the Master of death.
Dead souls are not raised to spiritual life, unless Christ takes them by the hand; it is done in the day of His power for His glory.
Note carefully that the voice of Jesus penetrates the spirit world. Jesus divinely diagnosed the difficulty when He stated, She is not dead, but sleeping.
Jesus’ diagnosis was completely different from those who loudly insisted the little girl was dead, and never to be brought back to life.
Verse 26.
It is said that the fame of what was done went abroad into all that land. For though He strictly charged the parents, as the other evangelists say, that they should tell no man what was done, He is not seeking the applause of men, yet it was not possible the thing should be entirely concealed, since there was such a number of people, not only relations, but neighbours, who full well knew, and were assured she had been dead. When all these saw her alive, walk about, eat and drink, and conversed with them, they must have all been persuaded of the miracle, and related it wherever they came, so that the fame of it could not but be spread all over the country in which Capernaum was.
CONCLUSION
So we see Jesus. One Gospel tells us that when Jesus took the little girl by His arm and raised her up, He told the parents to give her something to eat. He was a man of feeling for He knew the needs of people.
The story shows the power of Jesus and His power to regenerate. He has the ability to penetrate the deadness and inability of men to come to Him and be given life. Jesus’ voice penetrated the spirit world to restore this 12 year old girl to life, just as He spoke the word to raise the 4 day old dead Lazarus to Come forth.
We are told therefore by the Apostle john
“Marvel not at this, the hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice”.
We have been shown an illustration of Resurrection power in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. He brought back the child and reunited her with her mother and father. Those in Christ will be resurrected, made whole, and will be reunited with the saints.
So be an effective witness to your family and friends so that they too will be in the resurrection of the Just, and will be reunited with you.
Remember that in those days women were not highly regarded. But here we see that Jesus highly regards and is concerned about women. Those that are outcasts that the society regard as unclean are precisely those He came to save.
So Cheer Up, says Jesus to the woman with the issue of blood.
He is saying the same to you.
There is no malady He cannot and will not cure if you only come to Him.
He is knocking at the Door. Come and join the “party” of believers and enjoy the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.