(9/9/07-9/10/07)

There really is no more for us to go on, when it comes to Jairus, than what is before us in this passage. We have this briefest of glimpses into his life by which to make whatever assessment we might make of the man. Yet, in that brief glimpse, our own human experience is sufficient to inform us how much he has gone through, and what sort of character he must have had to stand up so well in his circumstance.

Towards the end of the main study just completed, I began to take note of the fact that these events appear to have had a much greater significance to the ministry of Christ than appears on the surface. Jairus, then, was privileged to serve a greater purpose by far than merely the restoration of his daughter’s life. As I have noted, even this restoration of life, as powerful as it is to our senses, is but a fleeting thing. The grave still came for his daughter at some point, just as it came once again for Lazarus. Whether or not I have it right in seeing this as something of an official sanctioning of His ministry by somebody in authority within God’s house, I cannot say with certainty, but those three witnesses He brings along seem to indicate something of greater import than even this wonderful healing was happening.

Here, though, I seek to turn once again to this man, Jairus. Enough has probably been written already of his emotional ride through these events. I think I should prefer to focus on his unique position in the plan and purpose of God. You see, I can’t think of any other amongst the officers of the house of God who did what this man did. Others may have acknowledged the wisdom Jesus displayed. They could hardly deny completely the miracles He performed, however much they may have tried. Some even gave Him a degree of respect. But, Jairus, to the best of my knowledge, stands alone in having humbled himself before this Jesus, and submitted so thoroughly to His command.

Yes, there is Nicodemus, who came to visit Jesus. But, notice that he came in a fashion designed to avoid being seen! Neither do we ever find proof of his having accepted the invitation to rebirth that Jesus set forth. He may have shown some respect to this Man, but where is the submission? Where is the humbling of oneself before the Authority of Christ?

As I think on that, I think back to that encounter with the leper. Jesus had, as He always did, shown Himself submitted to the authority of the Church as it stood. He set Himself firmly beneath the Law Moses had passed down from God. The Law required an offering, and the representative of the Law had the function of assessing and proclaiming the cleansing of that one who had been made unclean by his leprosy. So we see that as God over creation, He was perfectly willing and able to overturn the order of creation in this man’s behalf. But, He would in no way overturn the heavenly order. The decree of God would stand undefiled wherever He had anything to do with it.

Now, He is come to Jairus, or rather, Jairus has come to Him. Here is a representative of God’s established order of the priesthood. Here is the Law’s representative come before the Lord of the Law. Notice the first thing we see Jairus doing as he comes before Jesus: he bows down in worship. Do you understand that it was unlawful to worship any person, any being of any sort other than God Himself? This has to be seen, I think, as a tacit acknowledgement of the Person of Jesus the Christ of God, God Incarnate. Either that, or Jairus had no business running the synagogue, for his actions would otherwise be seen as teaching disobedience to the Law that was taught in the synagogue.

Had that been the case, I am not at all sure that Jesus would have been so willing to help him. Perhaps He would, for He is One whose mercy rains on both the good and the evil. Yet, there was something in Jairus that commended him particularly to Jesus’ attention. I think it lay in that immediate humbling of himself, that laying down of his own position in recognition of Jesus’ position. From the outset, he is acknowledging that this One is his superior. From the outset, he is declaring by his actions that this One is not only his Superior, but that He is the Master of this servant. The servant presides over the synagogue at this One’s pleasure.

Did Jairus understand all this as he bowed down? I cannot say with certainty. I do think, however, that this was the reality of the situation whether he grasped it or not. So often, it seems, people may speak or do something utterly prophetic, something of great import to the kingdom of God, and yet, not have any idea what they have just said or done. Think of Caiaphas. The words he spoke in seeking to justify his murderous plot against Jesus were more true than he would ever understand. Yet, he was not really trying to be a prophet as he spoke. His tongue was used in spite of his character and his will. His intentions were wholly for evil, but God’s were for good.

It may be the same way with Jairus in this scene, but I think not. His behavior as the story unfolds, particularly in coming to the funeral proceedings in his own house, show that the submission displayed in his greeting to Jesus was real. Apart from that submission and acknowledgement of Authority, how could we think he would take this Man’s word for his daughter’s life in the face of the clear evidence to the contrary? Apart from that foundation, how can we think he would face the derision of the crowd at one word from Jesus, and chase them out of his house?

It needs to be said that the command to believe in spite of the evidence is probably the single, hardest command Jesus gives. Again, He doesn’t require Jairus to deny the evidence, only to defy it. That he is able to do so says quite a lot. I suppose we could write it off as desperation on his part, the delusion of one faced with trauma, but I don’t think that’s the case. Confidence that has no firmer foundation than delusion cannot be passed on, and he seems to have passed his confidence on to his wife, for she stands with him against the scornful crowd. Can you imagine having such confidence in this Jesus that you could go to your spouse with all the evidence against you and tell her it doesn’t matter, Jesus is going to take care of it? Can you imagine having such confidence in Jesus that your spouse would believe you when you said it?

Returning, though, to the key point I see in all this, he is submitted – wholly submitted to the command of Jesus. The chief authority in the local synagogue has bowed himself to this One, and accepted His command. He has worshiped this One in plain sight of one and all. In this, he has acknowledged Jesus as worthy of worship, which can only indicate that He is God, and acknowledged as God. That, I suspect, is the greatest significance of this whole story, more important in the end than the healing of his child. Yet, it is not the worship which is to be kept quiet, but the healing. There is something important there, in that healing of his daughter that needs to be understood.

There are any number of meanings one could seek to put upon that scene. I have already written of its being a parable of God’s people. Is it not also a testimony to Jairus that his worship has been rightly given? It is as though Jesus is saying, “Yes, I am the creator of life. Yes, it is I AM with you, you are quite right.” After all, the thing He does with these few witnesses gathered around is something utterly beyond the ability of any other healer. Apart from the very present power of God, it just wasn’t going to happen. Well, as I write that, I am forced to consider that both Peter and Paul would record their own occasions of raising the dead by the power of the Living God. So, I suppose we cannot take that as the mark of the Godhead incarnate, perhaps. Or, perhaps we can, given the indwelling and abiding presence of the Holy Spirit upon the people of God. Perhaps we can. Prior to that time of indwelling, though, I think my theory holds. No mere man could expect to raise the dead. This was reserved to God alone, and the fact that Jairus had just witnessed such an act was evidence to him of Who had performed that act.

I am left to wonder at how he and his wife managed to handle the command that followed: “Don’t tell anybody what happened.” If the command to believe was hard, this was equally so! People could hardly be expected to overlook the presence of his dead daughter at his side. They were not likely to let that pass without asking questions. How was he to answer, this servant of the God of Truth? Should he dissemble? Should he declare that Jesus was right, she hadn’t really been dead, just asleep? Perhaps we ought to realize that when Jesus spoke this, He was speaking truth. How could He do otherwise? Though it is death as our physical senses perceive it, yet on the heavenly scale, it is but sleep. It is not that second death which brings irrevocable separation from God. It is but an interim state of some sort, not a purgatory as some have believed, but not yet the final condition, either. Yes, she was but asleep. With the proper understanding, that could be spoken as truth. In the end, it would be more truthful than to try and plead ignorance as to what had happened.

Can you imagine, though, going through the next few years fully aware that the Son of God, God Himself, has done this incredible thing in your own home but unable to share it? Can you imagine what he must have been going through as he watched his own people reject the King of kings? And yet, he was constrained to silence by the very King they rejected. Can you imagine what he must have gone through as he watched his own superiors down there in the Temple destroy this One to save their own power and prestige? How I wish we had some glimpse of this man’s life in later years! It is all but unbelievable to me to think he would continue to accept the authority of the Sanhedrin after their destruction of the One they claimed to serve.

How would he respond? How would we respond? It is possible that he ranked his own service to the people he served as more important than the hierarchy over his head. It is possible that their oversight of his backwater community was so light that he could teach the truth of Christ without fear of reprisal. It is possible, yes, but as I consider the story of Saul’s efforts to cleanse the ancient faith of this heretical Way, it likely didn’t remain possible for very long. Did he join those who fled the region of Jerusalem to preserve life rather than to set aside their faith? We simply don’t know. I have to believe, though, that in some fashion or other, this man was to be found amongst the faithful.

If nothing else, there is this: Somebody was around for Luke to interview on this matter. Somebody still knew what had happened in detail, and I think, under the circumstances that the somebody we are talking about was not numbered amongst the Apostles. If Luke were being careful to check the veracity of all he had heard, I think he would be likely to have looked for somebody besides Peter, and John (for James was no longer available fore comment). I think he was able to track down either Jairus himself, or the daughter who was restored to him. For, I don’t imagine she was unaware of what had happened to her. She was certainly old enough to comprehend that whatever sleep she had just awakened from was not the usual sleep. Really, though, the detail of his report makes me think that it was Jairus himself that Luke interviewed. That cannot, of course, be said with certainty, but the detail leading up to her rebirth would not have been hers to know, except by having heard it (doubtless many a time) from her father.

It seems to me, then, that we have here yet another of the unsung heroes of the faith. Here is another of those who quietly believed and worked as they could for the kingdom. This moment with Jesus, brief as it is, is the whole of his record. He is not mentioned amongst all those others that the Apostles take note of in their letters. We don’t hear about him during the birth of the Church.

One thing that is worth noting, which I had missed, is that the synagogue in which Jairus served was the same one the centurion had built. Recall that there had been those from the synagogue who sought Jesus out on this man’s behalf because he was a God-fearer, and because he had paid for the building of that fine synagogue from his own proceeds. So, this wasn’t the first Jairus had heard of Jesus.

One other possible hint to the latter days of Jairus can be found in the text attributed to Nicodemus. That writing relays the events in the court of Caiaphas as they explored the testimony to the Ascension. One of those serving the court is a man named Jairus. Whether this is to be taken as the same man as we are considering here is open to debate. He is not specifically referred to with any reference to his daughter’s recovery. He is simply noted as a reader or a teacher. Yet, there is certainly a connection of that name to the region of Capernaum and its surrounds. There is also, as some meager support, the fact that he argues in favor of accepting the fact of the Ascension. He brings up the fact that no grave was ever found for Moses, either, let alone the case of Elijah. It may be that, like Nicodemus and certain others in the Sanhedrin, he sought to be a support to the Way from within the hierarchy. That is, of course, no more than speculation. What I believe I can say with certainty is that wherever he found himself serving, he served the Living King from that moment forward.