Mark 5:21-43

5:21-24 | Jairus was one of a group of laymen tasked with overseeing certain administrative details of running local synagogues. Though not a priest, he supervised the care and operation of the synagogue and its worship. On this day he fell at Jesus’ feet, taking the posture of a supplicant.

5:25-42 | Mark has shown Jesus’ power over natural forces and demonic forces. Now He shows His power over physical ailments and even death itself.

5:30-31 | Jesus ignored His disciple’s misguided response to the question about who touched Him. They did not understand that it was no ordinary touch, as occurs in the middle of a moving crowd. His wish to identify the person probably reflected His desire to bring the woman out of the crowd and into a public profession of faith.

5:32-34 | Jesus had no formula for who He would heal, and no one else should presume it either. Sometimes in Mark’s Gospel, Jeus healed or restored a person without reference to his or her faith and without expectation of the one healed (1:25, 31). Sometimes, as here, He healed because the person or their loved ones had faith in His power to heal (1:40; 2:5). When Jesus heals, He makes the person well – complete or whole. This same word is often translated “saved.” This woman’s healing led her to salvation.

5:35-36 | Although Jairus’ daughter had been reported dead, Jairus makes no effort to stop Jesus from going to his home, because – unlike his associates, who believed that death is final – he believed that Jesus could still help him. Because of Jesus, death never has the last word.

5:37 | Jesus only allowed His “inner circle” of Peter, James, and John to accompany Him. An extraordinary miracle like this was reserved for the special few who would also see Him transfigured (9:2-8; Matt. 17:1-9; Luke 9:28-36).

5:38 | Probably many of those weeping and wailing were either onlookers or paid mourners rather than genuine mourners, given how quickly they turned from tears to ridicule.

5:39-40 | For Jesus to say the girl was only sleeping is a veiled message that not even death is final, for Luke’s Gospel states that the girl had died; she was not merely in a comatose state (Luke 8:53-55).

5:43 | As a matter of practicality, Jesus instructed the witnesses to avoid talking about the incident with others (no doubt so that large crowds would not imped His ministry) and instructed the girl’s parents to give their daughter something to eat, both to relieve her hunger and to show that she was not a ghost.