The Story of Jairus' Daughter
Jairus is a character in the Gospel who, according to the evangelists, was neither a priest nor a Levite. He was a simple layman who had a daughter. She was very dear to him, but one day her illness severely constrained her, and the girl ended up in bed.
Resurrection of Jairus' Daughter
None of the doctors could help her. But one day a Man appeared in the city who could help him in his trouble. It was the Lord Jesus Christ and Jairus asked Him to lay His hands on his daughter to heal her from her illness. The Lord went to Jairus’s house to lay his hands on the dying woman, at his request.
On the way, one woman who had lost hope of ever being cured, when she saw the Savior, quietly approached Him and touched His clothes and received healing immediately. But according to the customs of the Jews, women with this disease (it bled for 12 years) are considered unclean and therefore must stay at home and by her behavior she committed a crime. Realizing that she could not hide it, she despaired. But the Lord told her: “... be brave, daughter! Your faith saved you. From that hour the woman became healthy.”
Daughter in this case means “faithful.” This shows that if the girl did not have faith, she would not be able to receive grace from the Lord.
At this time, Jairus' daughter died. At that time, everyone knew that Christ heals, but no one knew that he can bring people back to life. Everyone understands that this is simply impossible. But for the Lord nothing is impossible in this world.
The healing of the bleeding woman and the resurrection of the daughter of Jairus... (Matthew 9:18–26)
The Pharisees, in their pride, arrogantly condemned the Lord for His merciful treatment of sinners and publicans, and He shamed their hypocrisy, showing wondrous miracles of His mercy over all who flowed with faith and a humble heart to His ineffable love for mankind. He was still reclining at the table in the house of His newly called apostle Matthew and talking with the disciples of John the Baptist, when the crowd standing at the door respectfully parted: WHEN HE SPEAKED THIS TO THEM
- here he comes in -
A CERTAIN GOVERNOR APPROACHED HIM
, named Jairus, one of the leaders of the Capernaum synagogue, i.e. the chief elder of the parish, who enjoyed special respect among the Jews. Maybe it was one of those elders who came to the Savior on behalf of the centurion, the builder of the synagogue, with a request to heal his servant.
Now he had his own great grief: his dear daughter, his only child, about twelve years old, was dying; no means of the Capernaum doctors helped her; and so, the unfortunate father, knowing from experience the Divine power of Jesus Christ, in extreme excitement hurries to Him in the house of Matthew And
BOWING TO HIM
, not paying attention to the surrounding crowd, with great humility threw himself at His feet and began to beg Him,
SAYING : MY DAUGHTER IS NOW DYING
, maybe while I was walking here, she had already died;
BUT COME
,
LAY YOUR HAND ON HER
,
AND
I believe that by YOUR gracious power
SHE WILL BE ALIVE
.
“Those who ask for help,” says St. Chrysostom, “have the habit of exaggerating their misfortunes, so that it is all the more convenient to win over to the mercy of those from whom they ask for mercy.” “Evidently,” notes Blessed Theophylact, “Jairus had faith, but not much, because he asked Jesus not only to say a word, like the centurion, but also to come and lay his hand.” But the Lord tried to turn even the small spark of Jairus’ faith into a flame. He listened to the mournful cry of the unfortunate father: AND RISING
,
JESUS
(from behind the meal),
FOLLOWED HIM
.
DISCIPLES
went with Him .
Jairus's heart was so tormented with sorrow that it did not have sufficient strength to overcome all doubt and fear; Meanwhile, his weak faith would soon face a terrible temptation, which he was afraid of, but did not yet know that it was already close, that his daughter had actually died. It was necessary to support this faith, and this is what the wisdom of God does to strengthen his faith. The people pressed the Lord on all sides; everyone wanted to see what the extraordinary Teacher, the Wonderworker, would do with the sick woman. But in this crowded crowd there was one sick woman who had no time for idle curiosity. AND HERE
,
A WOMAN
,
WHO SUFFERED WITH BLEEDING FOR TWELVE YEARS
, she suffered a lot from many doctors, exhausted all her property on them, but did not receive any benefit, but ended up in an even worse state.
Having heard about Jesus Christ, this sufferer decided to resort to the help of the Divine Physician; with effort she made her way through the close crowd and, not daring, out of feminine modesty, to directly ask the Lord for the healing of her illness, not even daring to stop Him or touch His most pure hand, - only, COMING UP BEHIND
, with great faith and reverence,
she
invisibly
THE EDGE OF HIS CLOTHES
, to those white tassels on His clothes, which the Jews had to wear according to the law of Moses as a sign that they remember and fulfill the commandments of God. She touched precisely this “shrine” of His robe, attributing to it special holiness.
“She did not yet have,” says St. Chrysostom, “a proper and perfect concept of Jesus; otherwise she would not have thought that she could hide from Him; but she did not doubt, and did not say to herself: will I be healed of the disease or not? but she approached with firm confidence that she would receive healing. FOR SHE SPEAK TO HERSELF:
apparently no one except Jesus will restore my health;
but how can I appear, how can I approach Him? The Law of Moses declares me unclean; if I prostrate myself before Jesus in front of all this people, then I will arouse universal disgust in people; if I touch His hand, I will defile Him Himself... What should I do? What should I do? But He did not disdain to enter the publican’s house; behold, various sinners follow Him and He does not drive them away from Himself... I, a sinner, will also go, even if I touch His robe: He is so merciful, so full of Divine power that with it, this gracious power, His very robe is watered, therefore IF JUST I TOUCH HIS CLOTHES
,
I WILL GET HEALTHY
. So a good hope appeared in her heart, and this hope did not put her to shame. Before the apostles themselves, she knew—not with her mind, but with her simple heart—the great truth that in Christ Jesus dwells “all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). Touching the hem of Christ's robe, she did not idolize it, but only expressed her strong faith in the omnipotence of Jesus Christ. So, subsequently, the sick were healed by the touch of the head heavy men and the Ubrists (Ubrusets (c.-sl.) - towel, narrow belt, scarf) of the Apostle Paul; Thus, according to the faith of the sick, one shadow of the Apostle Peter healed them. So now, by the grace of God, believers are healed by touching with faith miraculous icons, the relics of God’s saints, or by sanctifying themselves with the Sacraments of the Church. “For us, the sensual,” says St. Theophan the Recluse, “a sensual touch is necessary in order to receive insensible spiritual power. The Lord arranged it this way: His Holy Church has a visible structure: the grace-filled power of God is received through contact with faith in the Sacraments, in the shrines of God’s churches, in holy icons and relics. The Lord sees the faith of the one who touches him and in his own heart says to him: “Be brave, child!” “But among the multitude of people crowding around the Lord, there were probably others suffering from chronic illnesses; perhaps their body was even closer to the Heavenly Healer than the bleeding one, and yet they did not touch Him with the faith with which she touched him, and therefore remained unhealed. This is what happens in the Church of Christ: many call themselves Christians, those of Christ by name, participate in the Sacraments of the Church, but do not touch Christ, do not flow to Him with living, heartfelt faith, do not seek and therefore do not receive life and healing from Him through those grace-filled the means that the Holy Church offers them.
Feeling that she had become completely healthy, the woman hastily took refuge in the crowd. No one noticed this, but the Lord, the Knower of Hearts, saw everything, knew everything. For the sake of the glory of God and for the example of what the essence of humble saving faith consists of, He did not want to leave it in obscurity. In addition, to leave her healing as if unnoticed would mean to give reason to think that the garments of Christ have power in themselves. “Why didn’t the Lord leave her in obscurity? - asks Saint Chrysostom. – Does He really love glory, Who forbids others to speak, and Himself does not mention His countless miracles? But He, firstly, frees a woman from fear, so that she, pricked by her conscience, as a thief of a gift, does not spend her life in torment. Secondly, he corrects her, because she was in vain thinking about hiding. Thirdly, she reveals her faith to everyone, so that others may imitate her. Fourthly, to show His omniscience, which in itself is a great miracle. Finally, the leader of the synagogue, who could easily have lost his faith, and with it everything, is corrected by the example of his wife.” The holy evangelists Mark and Luke narrate that the Lord immediately stopped and turned to the people with the question: “Who touched Me?” When everyone denied it, the Apostle Peter, not understanding what was the matter, said to the Lord: “Master! the people surround you and crowd you in,” “and you ask: who touched me?” But the Lord said: “Someone touched Me, for I felt the power coming out of Me.” And Saint Matthew says in short: JESUS IS
TURNING
(looking around and fixing His Divine gaze on the healed woman)
AND SEEING HER
, with one glance of mercy he evoked recognition in her.
Wanting to make amends for her guilt, she forgot her feminine modesty, trembling with fear, fell before Him and before all the people, and told Him the whole truth. She was obviously afraid of His wrath, because the Law clearly stated that touching a woman with blood made a person unclean until the evening. She seemed to say: “Forgive me my daring, merciful Lord! For twelve whole years I suffered, unhappy; I spent everything on doctors without benefiting myself; I heard that others so easily receive help from You, the merciful Physician, they are honored with the happiness of receiving You in their home, but I, a sinner, do not dare to even dream about it - I just touched the crystal of the robes of Your saints and behold - I was healed... Do not consider my touch a desecration for You!” But the touch of the bleeding woman not only did not defile Him, but also cleansed her herself. And the Savior, with fatherly love, SAID
to her:
BE GOOD
,
DAUGHTER!
and in this kind word from the daughter forgiveness already sounded for her - dare, do not be afraid,
YOUR FAITH
has made you a child of God, it
SAVED YOU
, go in peace and be healthy from your illness. Marvelous is the humility of our Lord!
Having performed a miracle, He attributes the healing to the healed faith: “Your faith has saved you!” Marvelous is the abundance of His grace: hastening to one work of mercy, He reveals His omnipotence in another. Marvelous is His wise mercy. He did not demand from the sufferer public recognition of her illness, which was considered unclean by the Law, before he healed her, and thus cleansed her of this uncleanness... THE WOMAN FROM THAT HOUR
, from the moment she touched the Savior’s robe,
she BECAME HEALTHY
. “Do you see,” says St. Chrysostom, “the superiority of a wife over the leader of the synagogue? She did not stop, did not ask her Husband, but with the edges of her finger she touched only His clothes, and coming last, she was the first to receive healing. The head of the synagogue brought the Doctor Himself into his house, and for her even one touch was enough.” This stop of the Lord, His conversation with the disciples, then with the woman - all this was a painful test for the grief-stricken father, when every minute was precious to him, when death quickly extinguished the last sparks of life in the suffering youth. This is how the faith of Martha and Mary was subsequently tested when they saw with pain in their hearts that their beloved brother Lazarus was approaching the grave, and the Lord, despite this, hesitated... But no matter how painful this test was for the father, we do not notice any signs of impatience, and this, no doubt, the Lord credited to him. Unhappy Jairus heard the woman’s story, and who better than him could take this event to heart? If the woman only touched His robe and was healed, then why should not his sick daughter receive healing? After all, Jesus did not refuse him - that’s why he was going to his house... But now a temptation was ready for him: the Savior had not yet finished His words to his wife, when they announced to Jairus: your daughter is already dead, do not worry the Teacher, the dead they don’t treat... But the Lord does not allow doubt to penetrate into the father’s soul, confused by this news. The Wonderworker at that very moment hastened to console him: “Don’t be afraid, just believe and you will live.” Dead - will be alive! Who could understand this? But there is a place for faith where the mind is perplexed. And faith did not leave Jairus: Christ walks slowly, talks a lot with the apostles and the woman in order to give time to the young woman to die and to those who announced her death to come. Christ wanted everyone to be convinced of the death of the young woman, so that later they could not doubt her resurrection. So He comes to Lazarus three days after his death. Finally, here is the house of the arch-synagogue. There could already be heard plaintive crying and noisy lamentations of hired mourners, whom the relatives of the dead had the custom of inviting at that time, and who, with noise and screaming, beat their chests and outraged their souls with feigned screams; there the funeral pipes were already making their sad sounds.
The body of the deceased had probably already been washed and prepared for burial, since in the East the dead are buried on the very day of death. A multitude of people relentlessly followed the Lord to the house of Jairus. AND WHEN JESUS CAME TO THE GUARD'S HOUSE
, approaching the door, he stopped, forbade the crowd to follow Him, entered the house only with the father of the deceased and with the three closest apostles, Peter, James and John,
AND SAW THE PIPE PLAYERS
(or musicians)
AND THE PEOPLE IN CONFUSION
, a noisy crowd of idle spectators near the deceased,
HE SAID TO THEM:
What is this confusion?
What are you crying about? Don't cry, COME OUT, FOR THE GIRL IS NOT DEAD
,
BUT IS SLEEPING
.
Thus, exhausting the dominion of death to the ground, He does not even leave it a name: “not dead, but sleeping!” “He did the same at the resurrection of Lazarus, saying: “Lazarus, our friend, fell asleep” (John 11:11), and at the same time he teaches us not to be afraid of death, for death is no longer death, but has become a dream. since He Himself had to die, then, by resurrecting others, He prepares His disciples in advance to endure it courageously and calmly, for after His coming death became a dream,” says St. Chrysostom. By calling death a sleep, the Lord once again reinforces the faith of the father of the deceased girl, for this faith, at the sight of signs of lamentation, at the sight of evidence that everything was over, could completely fade away. And so, the Lord of life omits the terrible word: “she died” and replaces it with a more meek one: “she is sleeping.” At the same time, in His holy humility, which prompts Him, whenever possible, to hide His wonderful deeds from observation, He, through this word, which has a double meaning, as if with a veil, hides from the eyes of the crowd the work that He intends to do. “And for this humility, for this loving consolation to mourning parents, the Heavenly Comforter Himself is subjected to ridicule: AND THEY LAUGHED AT HIM
. This is the pride of the mind without faith! What they don’t understand, they mock. That’s why they are unworthy to see the miracles of God’s omnipotence. However, it is also understandable that the hired musicians and mourners so easily moved from feigned tears to rude ridicule. But these same ridicule testified to a miracle: the death of the young woman was certified by everyone and no one could say that she only had a painful seizure or simply fainted,” says Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow. Jesus commanded that everyone be sent out. “He was not offended,” says St. Chrysostom, “by the fact that they did not believe the miracle that He intended to soon perform, and did not reproach those who were laughing, so that the laughter itself, and the pipes, and the cymbals, and everything else would testify to the death of the maiden.” . “Since people often do not believe miracles that have already happened, the Lord protects them in advance from such unbelief with their own answers.
In this way those present at the resurrection of Lazarus were protected from unbelief; and then the Lord asked: “Where did they put him?” So that those who answered: “come and see” and “he already stinks, for he has been in the tomb for four days” (John 11:34-39), could no longer help but believe that He raised the dead,” says Philaret , Metropolitan of Moscow. “Even if only three of the apostles were worthy of witnessing the terrible Sacrament of the Resurrection, it was all the more inappropriate to throw the pearls of a sacred action, a miracle, before those who dared to ridicule the Wonderworker.” WHEN WERE THE PEOPLE EXPELLED
and silence was restored, HE took with Him only the parents of the girl and three chosen apostles, “the flower and crown of the apostolic host,” and quietly
ENTERING
the room where the deceased lay,
HE TOOK HER
, calmly and authoritatively,
BY THE
already cold
HAND
and, as the Lord of life and death, loudly uttered only two words: “talifa kumi” (youth or child), “get up!”
And
immediately
the GIRL Arose
, as if from sleep, and walked away... One can imagine the amazement and joy of the parents at the sight of such an amazing miracle of God's omnipotence!
“He did not put another soul into the deceased,” says St. Chrysostom, “but he returned the very one that had left her, and, as if he awakened the young woman from sleep. To further convince the audience, He takes her hand, in order to pave the way for faith in her resurrection. The Father told Him: lay your hand, but He does more: He does not lay His hand, but, taking the deceased by the hand, He resurrects her, showing that everything is easy for Him to do, and not only resurrects, but also orders to give her food, so that the created They did not consider a miracle to be a deception. And He Himself does not give her food, but commands the parents; just as he says about Lazarus: “untie him, let him go,” and then makes him a partaker of His meal. Then Christ commanded the parents not to tell anyone about this and, above all, to learn to be humble and not to be vain.” At the same time, by prohibiting the disclosure of the miracle, the Lord wanted to protect the work of God from rumors and human gossip, and also as a precaution, so as not to increase the anger of the enemies and not to arouse among the people dreamy ideas about the Kingdom of the Messiah. So later, when He performed the miracle of multiplying the loaves, the people wanted to take Him and forcibly declare Him King: the same could have happened now. And, however, despite the prohibition, THE RUMOR OF THIS SPREADED ALL OVER THAT LAND
, the miracle became known throughout Galilee and all of Palestine. This was the first manifestation of the Divine omnipotence of Christ the Savior over death, the first resurrection of the dead.
Having explained the Gospel story about the resurrection of Jairus’s daughter, St. John Chrysostom turns his word to parents grieving over the loss of their children: “Your child sleeps, and is not dead; rests and is not destroyed... It will be resurrected and receive eternal life, immortality and the angelic lot. Or do you not hear what the Psalmist says: “Return, my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has prospered you” (Ps. 115:7). God calls death a blessing, but you complain. What more would you do if you were the enemy of the deceased? If anyone should cry, then let the devil cry and weep because we are going to receive the highest blessings. Death is a quiet haven. About this life it is said: “In the world you will have sorrow,” and about the future: “sorrow and sighs will be removed” (John 16:33; Isa. 51:11)... There is a spiritual palace and bright lamps and heavenly life: what is it about? cry?.."
Jesus Christ resurrected the daughter of a local resident
Each evangelist tries to convey the father's reaction to the news that his daughter has died. This news shocked him greatly, but Jesus told him not to despair, but to keep the faith. After which He took with him his closest disciples (Peter, John and James) and went to the house of Jairus.
When Jesus and his disciples approached the house, the funeral ceremony had already begun. It was not at all like it is now, at the present time. There were mourners here, whose task was to set everyone up for an atmosphere of grief and lamentation.
Jesus told those in the house that the girl was not dead, she was just sleeping. Everyone saw that her soul had left her body, which means she couldn’t wake up. As it is said in the Gospel, many began to laugh at the words of the Lord, because they did not believe and could not believe in such a thing. The Lord ordered everyone to leave, leaving only his disciples and the parents of the deceased. Taking the girl by the hand, Jesus said: “Talitha is cumi,” which means: “Maiden, I tell you, get up!” and instantly resurrected her. The Lord told her parents to give her something to eat, since she had not eaten for quite a long time due to her illness.
The Gospel of Luke describes the resurrection of the girl a little differently.
