While he was yet speaking, comes some one from the ruler of the synagogue, saying to him, Thy daughter is dead; do not trouble the teacher.
Jesus is still speaking with the woman He has just healed. Then a runner arrives from the house of Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue. The girl has died, he says, so there is no point in troubling the Teacher any longer. The verse sets two things side by side: a delay that cost a father everything, and a human verdict on what Christ can do.
Jesus had stopped on the road, and the stop cost the man who was waiting on Him.
Yet this created a delay which must have tested the urgently pleading Jairus most severely. And while the Lord was still speaking to the healed woman, someone comes from the ruler's house saying, "Your daughter is dead: do not trouble the Teacher." But an answer came to feed his drooping faith: "Fear not; only believe, and she shall be made well."
The words sound considerate. Commentators read them as the crowd's plain common sense about death, and weigh what that politeness was worth.
They expressed what would be the practical, matter-of-fact opinion of the people, if not of the apostles too: "What could the prophet of Nazareth do when death had seized its prey?" Believing He could do nothing, they would trouble Him no further. But, as an old writer quaintly puts it: "Here were more manners than faith — 'Do not trouble the Master.' Unbelief is all for sparing trouble, and thinks every good work tiresome. What nature counts a burden is pleasing and delightful to grace. Is it any trouble for a hungry man to eat? Saviour, it was Your food and drink to do Your Father's will. And His will was that You should carry our griefs and take away our sorrows. Our coming to ask You again and again is our happiness; it cannot be Your trouble."
Behind the polite phrasing, one writer sees an enemy at work.
On this ground of unbelief, Satan soon sends in the verdict of hopelessness: "Why are you still troubling the Teacher?" It all had the mark of Israel, the world, and its worldly state... Now Jesus must act in resurrection or not at all. But He ministers in grace against the schemes of the enemy who suggests it was too late.
Luke does not soften the report. One writer points out that the Greek verb here is the exact one for a settled state of death.
Strictly, apethanen says only that someone died. Still, death is final for the present, so the word can stand for the condition of death, which it implies: if one died, one is dead. But where exact precision is intended, the perfect tense appears — as in Luke 8:49, "Your daughter is dead," tethneken.
That finality is the point. The messenger's reasoning is sound — for man.
But now the news is brought that the child is dead: why trouble the Teacher any more? Death, for man, is the end of hope; and, as far as he is concerned, it is meant to be so. For this very reason, it is here that God can show Himself where man is powerless. "Do not be afraid," says the Lord in answer to such a message; "only believe." Unbelief may claim its right to mourn and weep, unreal as much even of this is; but it is faith alone that can see the glory of God.
Notice, too, who speaks first.
Before Jairus could speak to the Lord, the Lord addressed him: "Fear not; only believe, and she will be well." What limit could be set to the power that answers faith?
One writer reads the scene as a picture of the nation the Lord came to. The case proves worse than anyone thought, and He is more than equal to it.
Such turns out to be the real condition of Israel — not sick only, but dead. But Jesus carried within Himself the secret of resurrection. He is equal to every emergency. He knew both the girl's need and His own mighty power infinitely better than they did. He did not come down to do what others might have done. An angel may stir the pool of Bethesda for a man not too weak to step in at once. The Son gives life to whom He will.
The interruption on the road belongs to the same picture, and reaches into the present.
We may trace here a likeness to the present ways of God. He is still on the way to raise the "daughter of Israel" up to life and blessing. Meanwhile others — and those mainly Gentiles — are giving the touch of faith and getting the blessing.
- Delay — The pause to bless the woman tested Jairus severely, and the news of death came during it.
- Message — "Do not trouble the Teacher" was courtesy without faith. Unbelief thinks every good work is a bother.
- Verdict — Luke's word is precise: she is dead. Death is the end of man's hope, and it was meant to be.
- Reversal — Where man is powerless, God shows Himself. The Lord speaks before the father can, and faith alone sees His glory.
- Picture — Israel is not sick only, but dead. He carries resurrection in Himself, and meanwhile faith's touch draws blessing on the way.
But Jesus, hearing it, answered him saying, Fear not only believe, and she shall be made well.
The child was dead. As far as men could see, that closed the case, and there was no reason to trouble the Teacher further. Jesus does not argue with the news. He gives Jairus something to stand on while it is still ringing in his ears.
The timing of the Lord's answer is part of the mercy. He does not wait for the father to react.
If a gracious Lord had not seen the danger and stopped his rising unbelief, perhaps the father's hope would have perished too. Then no room would have been left for this miracle, because faith, the necessary condition, would have been missing. "As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He says to the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe." There is something very gracious in that "as soon as." The Lord spoke at once. He left no time for a thought of unbelief to slip into the father's mind, much less to come out of his lips. Such a thought might have stood in the way of a cure altogether. Instead He filled his mind at once with words of encouragement and hope.
(That line is Mark 5:36 in an older wording. The ESV of Luke 8:50 reads, "Do not fear; only believe.")
The messengers reasoned about death the way everyone does.
Death, for man, is the end of hope; and, as far as he is concerned, it is designed to be so. For that very reason, this is where God can show Himself — where man is powerless. "Do not be afraid," says the Lord in answer to such a message; "only believe." Unbelief may claim its right to mourn and weep, though much even of that is unreal. But faith alone can see the glory of God.
Jairus had already believed one thing about Jesus; the news forced a larger question.
Jairus had been quite confident about His ability to heal; but now, what about death? — that was the great test of his faith, and of the power of Jesus. "Do not fear, only believe," was the word. Faith in Christ will remove the fear of death for us as well as for him.
The command has no object stated. Commentators fill it in from the One speaking.
Jesus, in comforting the poor father, tells him not to fear, but only to believe, and his daughter would be made whole. It is faith in His Person, in the divine power in Him, in the grace that comes to exercise it, that receives joy and deliverance.
Luke's account is noted for putting that Person forward more plainly than the parallel record in Mark.
"Only believe" carries faith in Himself, whose power is always involved in any question about it, and yet is only one element of it. But His Person as such is not so much in the forefront in Mark's Gospel as it is in Luke's.
The verse ends with a promise: "she will be well." The Greek word behind it also covers the woman healed just before this.
It is worth noticing that the word sozo is usually translated "save" in the New Testament. Here it is used in its general sense of deliverance, for the healing of this woman in all three accounts: Matthew 9:21-22; Mark 5:28, 34; Luke 8:48. It is also applied to the restoration of the daughter of Jairus, Mark 5:23; Luke 8:50... In these instances the Greek word is translated "made whole," or "healed."
Jairus had felt the delay. The Lord's answer met him there.
One can imagine the distressed anguish of Jairus in all of this, including his feeling that the Lord had not come quickly enough. How comforting then were the Lord's immediate words, "Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well" (v.50). As in the case of the woman, so here, the solid assurance of the word of the Lord Jesus is wonderful.
Kelly reads the dead child as a picture of Israel.
Such turns out to be the real condition of Israel — not sick only, but dead. But Jesus carried within Himself the secret of resurrection. He is equal to all emergencies. He knew both the girl's need and His own mighty power infinitely better than they did... The sick and now dead girl is the pledge of this. He who tells her father not to fear but to believe will redeem the pledge He gave long ago.
- Bad news comes first. The report from the house treats death as the end of the matter.
- His word comes faster. Jesus speaks the instant He hears, leaving no gap for unbelief to take root in the father's mind.
- His word names the real limit. Death is where man's hope stops. That is exactly where God shows Himself, and faith alone sees His glory.
- His word has an object. "Only believe" is not confidence in general. It is faith in His Person, in His divine power, and in the grace that puts that power to work.
- His word carries a promise. The word behind "she will be well" is the one usually translated "save." What He pledged to one father He still holds out to a whole nation.