This was still early in our Lord’s ministry, but He had already testified of His deity with several mighty miracles. For example, He had made a great many people sick well – He healed some really sick individuals. With some sicknesses, it is possible to question the validity of either the disease or the miracle. So the Lord also healed people with obvious, well-known physical infirmities – blindness and paralysis. Early on, He had changed the properties of water into the finest wine. And not long before He raised this young lady from her death bed, he had cast out a great many demons. The Lord Jesus was quickly becoming famous, and people wanted more and more of His miracles. Some were so desperate that they were destroying private property and disrupting public meetings to get to Christ or to draw His attention. But of course there were the neigh-sayers who were criticizing every little thing that they could think of. So there was a mixed bag of people following the Lord – and even preceding and interrupting the Lord.
One of the people who had heard about Jesus was a man named JAIRUS.
He was the ruler of one of the synagogues in the town of Capernaum. Capernaum may have been large enough to have more than one, and he was the ruler of one of them. He was not a priest, and perhpas not even a Levite. You could say that he was in charge of the facility, and to some degree, he ruled the services. He was more than the pastor, he was the business manager. And particularly in that society, he was an important man.
But he was more than just important – this man was religious and perhaps even godly and spiritual. He was not one of those arrogant men who was king of a tiny fiefdom, ruling over it with an iron fist. He was vulnerable and helpless; dependent upon God, and willing to humbly submit himself to the Lord. Whether or not he believed that Jesus was the Christ, we don’t know, but he was willing to put Him to the test. So it’s quite possible that he was a man of the Word and of prayer. As a better than average Jew, he prayed for the peace of Israel and for the glory of the Lord. He prayed for his family and especially for his little girl. He was probably one of those people who believed his Bible. He may have believed that the Messiah was going to appear soon – just as we believe it today. He may have even believed, or at least hoped, that JESUS was the Messiah. Jairus may have been a good, kind, helpful, generous, thoughtful, hospitable, God-fearing man. But of course all of that is only speculation.
But if we assuming all this to be true, that didn’t mean that Jairus’ little girl couldn’t get sick and die. Good people often get hurt, or sick, or have other terrible things happen to them. Their comparatively good hearts are not able to keep bad things away – evil things – even Satanic things. The Bible doesn’t tell us whether or not this little girl had any brothers or sisters. It is possible that she was an only child and therefore intensely precious to her mother and Father. Or perhaps there were other children, who had been taken from them by this same malady. We can only speculate. But it is not speculation to say that terrible things can happen to good people, and even to the children of relatively good people.
What did Jairus do when the doctors and their medicines could not help his precious little girl? When he heard that Jesus was back in town, he joined the multitudes seeking His help. And when he got the opportunity, Jairus threw himself on the ground in front of Christ. He cast aside all his dignity and pride, and like a condemned man he pled for mercy from the King. He was hoping that the Lord Jesus would give him something which no ordinary man could give him. He was hoping for MERCY; he was hoping for a miracle. He had faith enough to believe that Jesus could do this – perhaps this Christ can do anything. He believed that Jesus could heal his dying daughter.
At just about that time, he found out that it was too late – His daughter had died. But this Father – this dad – this believer still trusted that Christ could do something about that. Luke’s account of this story is found in chapter 8, but in Luke 7 there is a little note about an event in Nain. Had this man had heard that one day the Lord Jesus was walking toward the little town of Nain? And about the time that He came to the city gate, it opened and out came a sad group of mourners? A young man had died, perhaps not much older than this man’s daughter. There were a group of people, including his mother, crying and moaning, weeping and groaning, as they went off to the cemetery to bury the body of a dead child. But Christ had stopped that sad little parade and had given the dead boy his life back again. Did Jairus know about that miracle? If the chronology of Luke is right, then this man probably did know, because this sort of news was spreading like wildfire. Jairus evidently believed, or at least hoped, that Jesus could heal his sick little girl. Perhaps he believed that Christ Jesus could even raise her from death. He valued the mercy and blessing of God enough to get on the ground and to beg for the Lord’s help.
And then Christ Jesus agreed to go with the man to dead bed of the sick child. Along the way they were interrupted by another person who needed a miracle from God. Jesus healed that lady, taking just a few minutes – it delayed them for a little while. And during that time more people came, telling the father to stop bothering Christ, because it was too late – the little girl had died. But that didn’t stop either Jairus or Jesus.
Now just a couple of words about the child.
She was only about twelve years old. I am more than 60 years old. I have lived five times as long as that little girl had lived – but she was dead, and I am still alive. Death can fall on young people, or even little children, just as it can on old grand-dads. A part of the doctrine of death is that it is not controlled by Satan, or by doctors or by chance. Death is one of those things which comes under the dominion of the sovereign God. We may not be able to explain, and we certainly may not like, the Lord’s decisions in this matter, but we need to acknowledge that Jehovah is ultimately the administrator of death.
Summarizing a much larger subject, people get sick and people die – because of sin. Sin is the cause of sickness and death, and God hates and judges sin.. Before there was sin in the world, no one ever died – nothing had ever died. Not a single bird, or fish, or bug, or flower had ever died before sin entered into the world. But now, sin has been here a very long, long time – 6,000 years or more. And people have been getting sick and dying throughout all of those years. “The wages of sin is death.” “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” “When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” Many of those who have died during those years were strong and healthy, and rarely got sick, but they died nevertheless – sometimes suddenly but sometime painfully slowly. Some people, like this little child, lived a relatively short time before they died. But every one of those people died because there was sin in their bodies – in their blood, and much deeper than that.
That is what the Bible tells us. It wasn’t that this child was an especially wicked girl, worse than all the other twelve-year-old girls in town. I would like to think that she was one of the really good girls, because she grew up attending the synagogue and learning about God. And when Jesus got to her house, there were a great many neighbors there, whose hearts were broken. They were crying, and fussing, and weeping and wailing like sick cats, because they loved this child. But it doesn’t matter whether our brothers or our neighbors think we are good or bad, we are all sinners. Every one of us are sinners, and as a result every one of us are going to die.
And that brings us more directly to the Doctrine of Death.
Remember that it was Jesus, the Son of God, who created the universe – by nothing more than speaking. For example He said, “Let there be light and there was light.” Do you think that He had to walk all the way to Jairus’ house to heal this little girl? He could have just spoken the word a thousand miles away, and she would have been alive – and happy and healthy. But apparently, Jesus wanted to test the faith of the little girl’s Dad, and to show something to the crowd. Oh, there were a lot of people who followed Jesus that day. The Bible says that there were so many people that they were jostling and bumping into each other as they walked along. Then Jesus was stopped by that other needy person, but after she was helped, they all went on.
As they came nearer to the house, word came again that the little girl had died. “While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further?” Then our Lord Jesus turned to Jairus and told him not to give up his trust – “Be not afraid, only believe.” Here is something worth remembering: When Jesus comes along good things happen. He might have said, “Do you think that my visit to your house is going a waste of time? No, it is not!” Then when they got home, Christ said something really strange – “Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.” “Why are you making all this fuss? This little girl isn’t dead; she is just sleeping.” When the visitors at the house heard this, they snickered, because they were absolutely sure that the girl had died – she was not asleep. The point is, they had never learned the Biblical doctrine of death. It may not be as clearly stated in the Old Testament as it is in the New, but they could have learned it.
Now, at this point I’m going to get controversial, and I’ll let your pastor straighten you out later if he would like. But here is what I believe – man is in one way a tri-part being, and in other ways he has only two major parts to his being. We all have a physical nature and we have a spiritual nature. I believe that our spiritual natures are made up of soul and spirit, but not everyone agrees. But for the sake of this point, let’s all agree that within our bodies resides the real us, like a man living in a house or in a tent. With or without the fleshly tabernacle in which we live, our souls are eternal – they will never die. The Bible speaks about “the second death” which is described as “death and hell being cast into the lake of fire.” But another verse says, “the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
There are dozens, if not hundreds of scriptures, which speak about the dying going to be with their fathers. There are others which speak about dying saints going to be with Christ. In Luke 16 the Lord Jesus tells us about a man who dies and his body is buried, but his soul is instantly translated into Hades, a place of torment. He was both dead and alive at the same time – his physical body had stopped functioning but the spiritual part of his existence was still going strong. And the same was true of this little girl in our text – her body had died, as many people were saying. But they had the idea that was the end, or at least the end, as far as her family could help. But Christ declared just the opposite.
Here is something to always remember – The Lord Jesus knows things that you and I don’t. He is God, and God knows everything. He not only knows everything, but there is nothing He cannot do in regard to those things that He knows. People who die are someday going to live again – all of them – because God has promised it. And in this case, the girl had physically died, but Jesus knew what He was going to do next – give life back to her again – not tomorrow or some future day, but that very hour.
And something else to remember is that the Lord Jesus sometimes speaks differently than we do. When we think of someone “sleeping,” we think of snoring and dreaming and drooling and waking up. But when Jesus spoke of “sleeping” in this case, there was no snoring, or tossing, turning or pushing. The girl was “sleeping” – in the sense that Jesus was going to awaken her. Whatever caused that child to die was going to be reversed, and her life was going to be given back to her. And remember – why was it that she was sick, and what was it that caused her to die? It was because of the sin in which she was born – inherited from her father.
She died because in once sense – within her spirit – she was already dead – spiritually dead. That is the way that all of us come into this world – alive in our bodies, eternally alive in our souls, but dead in our spirits. Christ healed that little girl physically to show to us that He can heal our spirits. The Lord Jesus has the power to heal sickness – and to forgive sin – the cause of sickness and death. The Lord Jesus has the power and authority to raise the dead, because He can wash away our sins. I think that is the main reason that He raised this girl from death. He wants us all to know that He can deal with our sins, and our deadness, and give to us eternal life. That is the beautiful part of the doctrine of death.
Jairus believed God, and he believed what Christ had told him. Like him you and I must believe it as well. You are a sinner just like that child, and unless you trust the Lord’s Messiah, you will never awaken from your spiritual death. We all must throw ourselves into the dirt like Jairus did, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We don’t deserve to be raised from the dead, but we had better WANT to be. “Lord save me.”
One more thing before I let you go – What was it that the girl did when her life was given back to her? She hopped out of bed and began to walk around. She even awoke hungry and started to eat. When the Lord Jesus forgives us of our sins, restoring us to life, it will make us spiritually alive. We will be new creatures; we will be hungry for the things of God; we will want to serve the Lord. Jesus didn’t give her life back so that she could become a mean, wicked, nasty teenager. He saved her so that she could live in a way which thanked and glorified God – pleasing God. A few months earlier, when Christ Jesus healed Peter’s wife’s sick mother-in-law, that lady immediately hopped out of bed and began to do those things which helped the Lord Jesus. She fixed meals for Him, perhaps washing His clothes, and cleaning His room for Him. And you can be sure that she talked to others about what great things He had done for her. When people, are saved and healed of their sins, there will be changes in their lives. They will walk with the Lord; they will pray; they will be joyful; they will be helpful; and they will talk to others about what happened to them; they will serve God.
These are some of the lessons that we see in Jesus, Jairus and his daughter. These are some of the Biblical lessons about the doctrine of death. I am praying that each one of you either are like this girl, or will be like her after she met Jesus –alive in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. The doctrine of death is not going away simply because we choose to deny it. There is no fountain of youth and no physician can replace the omnipotent God. We all need to respectfully ask the Lord to save us from our sins, and then we need to believe that He has done exactly that – for us. The Lord Jesus is my Saviour – He has given me spiritual life where I used to be spiritually dead. Repent before God and put your trust in Christ Jesus.