“My child, get up”

Read Luke 8:49-56

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Meanwhile, news came that Jairus’s daughter had died, with the assumption that Jesus would not now be able to help (49). But the power of Jesus extends beyond death, and so he urged Jairus to “believe and she will be healed/saved” (50. As in 8:48 the Greek word is sozo, to save.)

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At the house they were greeted with the noisy sounds of grief (52). Professional mourners had already been employed (“flute-players” Mt.9:23) – there was no doubt that the girl was dead. So Jesus’s comment that she was “not dead but asleep” prompted ridicule (53). He wasn’t disagreeing with the diagnosis but saying that her death wasn’t permanent and she would awake from it. This is why Christians refer to death as ‘sleep’, for – because of Jesus – death is not final, and those who believe in him will wake from it (Acts 7:60; 1 Th.4:14, 5:10).

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Jesus and her parents then entered the room where her body lay, “took her by the hand” and raised her to life (54-56; Mk.5:40-43). Touching the corpse made Jesus himself unclean but “Jesus never hesitated to contact ritual defilement by touching a leper, or a bleeding woman, or the dead, precisely because it was his touch that cleansed and revived” (Cole).