NAMED, BUT UNKNOWN: JAIRUS

We know his name, and we know about his encounter with Jesus, but we are left to wonder about the days that followed that miraculous encounter. Surely, life was never the same again. Surely.

So, who was Jairus? He was a “synagogue leader” (Mark 5:22). As such, he was a teacher and defender of the Old Testament’s Mosaic law, and the many other religious dos and don’ts. When Jesus broke their rules, at least as they interpreted them, the Synagogue Rulers were outraged.

When Jesus healed a lady “who had been disabled by a spirit for over eighteen years” (Luke 13:11), they should have rejoiced. But Jesus’ demonstration of power and compassion was against their rules, because He did it on the Sabbath! “The leader of the synagogue (was) indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath” (Luke 13:14).

Again, when Jesus healed the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath, the religious rulers “went out and started plotting … against him, how they might kill him” (Mark 3:6).

Two chapters later … “One of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet and begged him earnestly, ‘My little daughter is dying. Come and lay your hands on her so that she can get well and live’ ”(Mark 5:22-23).

Had Mr. and Mrs. Jairus taken their “only daughter … about twelve years old” (Luke 8:42), to all the best doctors? Had Jairus exhausted every possibility, every medicine, every doctor, every hospital, and still, his sweet child was about to die? Desperate, humble, and hopeful, Jairus came to Jesus. The “leader of the synagogue … fell down at Jesus’s feet and pleaded with him” (Luke 8:41).

So, what do we learn? First, we learn how to approach Jesus. Desperate, humble, and hopeful…

Second, we learn that Jesus doesn’t hold a grudge. Jesus didn’t say, “You are one of those guys…”

In the Synagogue Leader’s home, Jesus “took the child by the hand and said to her, ‘Little girl, I say to you, get up.’ Immediately the girl got up and began to walk” (Mark 5:40–42).

Oh, how great is the grace of our God!!

“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).