“Your daughter is dead” they said to Jairus “Why bother the teacher any more?” Ignoring what they said, Jesus told Jairus “Don’t be afraid: just believe.” Jesus then raised Jairus’ dead daughter. (Mark 5: 35b – 42)
Frank FainThe Gospel of Mark chapter 5 reveals Jesus is a miracle worker of the difficult events adults will suffer. In these verses, Jesus heals two very ill adults and he raises from the dead to life a twelve-year-old daughter.
This passage shows the commonality between the wealthiest and the poorest people in a society. The two adults Jesus cured were so poor they did not own homes and, in fact, their names are not recorded. Yet they reached out to Jesus and he responded by healing them.
The third adult was Jairus, a ruler of the community synagogue. He was well known, highly respected, a very important and wealthy man in this community. He had access to everything anyone in that society could get. Yet with all his wealth he could not secure healing for his dying daughter. So he reached out to Jesus and Jesus responded by raising his daughter from death.
One lesson from this Mark passage is no matter what our station is in life — whether we are wealthy, middle class or poor — all of us will suffer sickness. No matter who we are when we are attacked with sickness, Jesus is our best hope.
A second lesson is we adults must face the death of our family members and friends. If we are not a Christian we view death as the absolute end of a person’s existence.
As Christians we agree with Jesus who called death “sleep” because from sleep comes a person’s awakening. Miracle-worker Jesus woke up this daughter from death/sleep. Someday Jesus will wake up all Christians from our death/sleep.
Christians are sad and hurt during their Christian loved one’s funeral. But they also have a positive spirit because Jesus provides them comfort and confidence. For they know death is not the end of life for fellow Christians. Death is sleep that a Christian will awake and enter eternal life in heaven.
Do you view Jesus as your sickness and death miracle worker? I hope so because Jesus is truly Lord over sickness and death.
Frank Fain is director of educational services at The Baptist Home in Arcadia Valley, Mo.
