Oh, how I wish I knew the rest of the story! What happened to Jairus? And, how about his daughter? After his dead daughter was restored to life, did Jairus, the leader of the synagogue, become a faithful follower of Jesus? Did his daughter grow up to become a Sunday School teacher or a missionary? Surely, they must never have grown weary of telling the story about the day that Jesus came to visit!
The Bible doesn’t give us many details. Jairus, “one of the synagogue leaders” (Mark 5:22), “fell down at Jesus’s feet and pleaded with him to come to his house, because he had an only daughter about twelve years old, and she was dying”(Luke 8:41–42).
Prior to his daughter’s sickness, was Jairus, the synagogue leader, with the “scribes” (Mark 2:6) when they questioned Jesus’ authority to forgive the sins of the paralytic? Was Jairus in league with the “scribes” and “Pharisees” (Mark 2:16) who rebuked Jesus for associating with Matthew and his tax collecting associates? Is it possible that Jesus was in Jairus’s synagogue when he healed the man with the withered hand? If so, did Jairus conspire with the Pharisees as they “started plotting with the Herodians against him, how they might kill him” (Mark 3:6)?
The Bible doesn’t answer these questions.
Regardless, the powerful and proud daddy of a very sick child was brough to his knees. His baby-girl was dying, and Jesus, the healer of multitudes, was his only hope.
And, just as important, Jesus didn’t refuse to help, but responded immediately to Jairus’s urgent plea. When the Master arrived at the synagogue leader’s home, even though the child’s life had slipped away, Jesus “took the child by the hand and said to her … ‘Little girl, I say to you, get up’. Immediately the girl got up” (Mark 5:41–42). Her life was miraculously restored.
The patience, kindness, and compassion of our Savior was mercifully extended to Jairus … and to guys like me!
“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).
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