The Daughter of Jairus

“The damsel is not dead but sleepeth.”

Mark v. 39.

THIS miracle is one of the ‘^ twelve mighty works following immediately after the Sermon on the Mount by which the King anb 0tf)tx interpretations; demonstrated His power to deal with every consequence of sin, and to produce on the earth every aspect of kingdom blessing foretold by the prophets.

How many facets every gem of truth has! We see here the compassion of Jesus, His tirelessness in service, His gentleness, His divine power. His recognition of human need, even in the case of one upon whom a miracle has been wrought, the contrast of fear and faith, and the first great interpretation of the mystery of death. “The child is not dead [in your sense of that word, seeing only the grave,] but sleepeth.” Put this scene and these words over against the Old Testament reticence, and if there were nothing more to the same purpose in the New Testament, these alone interpret death and give the believer a sure hope. For sleep implies an awaking.

Isa. xi.
1-16.

Jer. xxiii.
5-8.

Ezk. xxxvii.
11-28.

Zech. xiv.
1-21.

The loveliness of
Christ,

Mark v.
30-34.

Matt, xxvii.
52.

John xi. II.

Acts xiii.
36.

I Cor. XV.
20, SI.

I Thess. iv.
14.

so

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The uses oj
miracle.

John iii. 2.

Rom. vi.
14.

Phil, iv.
13.

Rom. viii.
14-18.

Matt, v-vii.

Acts ii.
14-40.

Matt. V.
3-12.

It IS strange how completely the greater evidential purpose of the miracles of Christ has been overlooked. Nicodemus argued rightly, when he said ‘’ We know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him.” But the deeper spiritual purpose of His miracles was the demonstration of His power to reproduce His lofty ethic in the terms of human character and conduct. A high ethic without impartation of enabling power, would be a gospel of despair, mocking the weakness of man.

The two great sermons of Scripture, Christ’s Sermon on the Mount and Peter’s Pentecost sermon, are the two parts of a perfect whole. The precept, so high that no man may attain unto it, is in the former; the power which lifts man into it, is in the latter.

anb 0ttx Snterpretationai In the case of the centurion’s servant and the nobleman’s son the will of Christ heals without His personal presence. The daughter of the Syrophenician woman is another like instance. It is noteworthy that both the Syrophenician and the centurion were Gentiles, and that in both instances our Lord commended their faith.

The two contrasting principles of law and grace are finely illustrated in the two phrases ‘’ He was worthy for whom he should do this “and ‘’ Neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee.”

It is inveterately characteristic of the legal, self-righteous way of looking at religion that it cannot imagine God doing kindnesses except to those who have, by goodness, established a kind of claim upon Him. The inner unspoken thought is, God ought to be good to the good. And it is just as char-Matt, viii.

John iv.
46.

Mark vii.
24-30.

Law and
grace.

Luke vii. 4.
Luke vii. 7.

Mo iom in ttje 3nn

The one
barrier,

John ix.
39-41.

acteristic of the faith-way of looking at religion to find in God Himself a reason for expecting gracious kindnesses from Him, Legality looks at self and says, “I am good”; faith looks at God, and says, “He is good,”

The elders of the Jews stood upon the worthiness of the centurion. The centurion stood upon the power of Christ, and set himself utterly aside.

The barrier between Christ and a human heart is never human sinfulness, but human self-sufficiency. It was this which made the Jewish heart harder than the nether millstone, as it was the consciousness of sinfulness and need which, at the first, made the Gentile heart accessible to Christ.

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