A synagogue ruler was an important and highly respected person. This ruler’s attitude toward Jesus contrasts sharply with that of some others (cf. Luke 13:14) and the scribes and Pharisees in general. Whether or not he had had previous contact with Jesus, he believed that Jesus could and would heal his daughter.

Jairus saw beyond the outward poverty of Christ. He, a man of rank and position, prostrate before Christ, conscious of his own inferiority. No place on earth higher than the feet of Jesus. To fall is to rise. Those who lie at His feet shall hereafter sit on His right hand.

5:35 One gets the impression the friends and/or servants of the ruler were not enthusiastic about his coming to Jesus. Here Mark indicated they rather sarcastically urged him not to bother, or bother with, Jesus any further.

It is implied that death is incurable. Jesus, the Infallible Physician, can cure the disease of death. His power reaches to both sides of mortality—this and other side.

1. There is the human view—the child is dead, trouble not the Master. Men see the outside; they deal with facts rather than with principles; they see the circumference, not the centre. 2. There is Christ’s view—only believe; man is called beyond facts, he is called into the sanctuary of God’s secret. We often put the period where God Himself puts only a comma: we say “dead,” when God Himself says “sleepeth.”—J. Parker, D.D.

5:37 Peter, James, and John constitute the so-called “inner circle” of the disciples

The word of hope (v. 39). When Jesus and Jairus arrived at the house, they saw and heard the professional Jewish mourners who were always summoned when a death occurred. It was traditional for them to wail loudly, to weep, and to lead the family and friends in lamentation. The presence of the mourners in the home is proof that the girl was actually dead, for the family would not have called them if there had been even the slightest hope that the girl was still alive.

“The child is not dead but sleeps!” were our Lord’s words of hope to Jairus and his wife. To the believer, death is only sleep; for the body rests until the moment of resurrection (1 Thes. 4:13–18).

The Mishna (completed about A.D. 220) quotes Rabbi Judah that for a burial “even the poorest in Israel should hire not less than two flutes and one wailing woman.” Of course, the ruler of the synagogue was not likely a poor man.

5:40. The mourners’ laughter at this point seems out of place. If they were truly grieving and expressing concern for the family, we would expect them to be angry or outraged over the hurt being done to the family. But they laughed. It was the laugh of unbelief, and this unbelief kept them from witnessing Jesus’ great miracle. He ordered them all out of the house. Jesus never performed for the unbelieving crowds. The only ones who would witness this miracle were three of his disciples, Jairus, and Jairus’s wife.

The word of love and power (v. 41). Unbelief laughs at God’s Word, but faith lays hold of it and experiences the power of God. Jesus did not make a spectacle of this miracle. He was sensitive to the feelings of the parents and grieved by the scornful attitude of the mourners. Talitha cumi is Aramaic for “Little girl, get up!” Jesus added, “I say unto thee” (with the emphasis on the I), because it was by His authority that her spirit returned to her body (Luke 8:55). The words were not some magic formula that anybody might use to raise the dead.

Ver. 41. “Talitha cumi” was a common term of endearment, used by loving mothers to wake their children. The old familiar words were what Jesus used.

At once Jesus proved himself stronger than death. Other similar miracles involved the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:15) and Lazarus of Bethany (John 11:44), although neither is recorded in Mark.

Romans 4:17 says that God gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.