THIS account of the raising of the daughter of Jairus from the dead, and the healing of the women with menstrual bleeding for twelve years follows the teaching of the previous verses perfectly. Jesus was pointing out in these verses that the new way, which he brings in, makes the whole system of works in the Old Testament redundant. It is so hard for us to let go the idea that we have to earn or merit our salvation through living righteous lives. We know that we are saved through faith in Christ alone, but the idea that we must deserve to be saved keeps creeping back, and so we mix our efforts with our faith. Matthew was guided by the Holy Spirit to record these two acts of healing in the verses before us, and they are so appropriate because they show how helpless we are to achieve anything by our own effort, and how Jesus saves us completely when we come to him and trust him.

It is true that these two incidents of healing and saving are in the physical realm, but they illustrate what is true in the spiritual realm. The case of the daughter of Jairus being dead, illustrates the condition of us all as we are born into this world. We are dead spiritually in trespasses and sins, and if we are not made alive we shall end up in eternal death and hell. The case of the women with her bleeding illustrates the spiritual sickness of our sinful heart, which we can do nothing to heal however much we try.

The account of Matthew of these two saving acts of Jesus is much shorter than the accounts of either Luke or Mark, and so Matthew focuses on the chief facts which illustrate the message he has been inspired to convey. The message he conveys is twofold. There is the message of faith, and the message of Christ's power to save all who trust in him.

However there is one thing we all have to learn before we can benefit from the two lessons mentioned above, and this lesson is so clear in these two incidents. The lesson is our total impotence to heal ourselves. The women with bleeding had done everything she could over twelve years, and as the others accounts in Mark and Luke tell us, she had spent all the money she had on doctors to no avail. She was helpless. So we are totally helpless to heal the corruption of our nature within us. Jairus also knew he could do nothing for his daughter. Matthew emphasises this by simply saying the child was dead, rather than commencing with here being so sick that she was dying and so died. We have no answer to death, and however much medical knowledge advances, it can never stop death finally overtaking each one of us. In the spiritual and eternal realm this is also so true. We are dead in trespasses and sins, and nothing we can do can raise us to life, or save us from eternal death.

Both the women with her bleeding, and Jairus with his dead daughter, trusted in Jesus as their only hope. Notice carefully that this was not a faith of dispair as if they came to Jesus because they had no other option, and this was the last resort which might help, but probably would not. No! In both cases they came to Jesus with a confident faith. They brought their whole problem to Jesus in confidence that Jesus could and would heal. This point about faith is difficult to make clear - or at least I find it so. The faith these two people had was such that they brought their need to Jesus and trusted in him. The woman knew that if she touched his garment she would be healed. She had a confident faith. She was sure that Jesus would and could heal her. Jairus also had every confidence in Jesus, even when his daughter was dead. He did not say it is now hopeless, but followed Jesus to the bedside of his daughter.

When we are brought to desperation concerning our spiritual deadness and the awful destiny we have naturally because of our sins, we come to this understanding because God has worked in us and brought us to this wisdom and understanding. With this work of God comes also the faith in Jesus as the one who can truly save us, and so we place our trust in him. We look only to him for forgiveness and look to him only to raise us from our spiritual and eternal death. This is the faith that needs to be nurtured. When we believed first we believed with all our heart. As time goes by, then doubts come in. We must nurture our faith, and never let the devil in any way cause us to doubt. The only way we can keep our faith alive and growing, is to remind ourselves of the saving grace of Christ we have experienced, together with enhancing this knowledge with the Word of God, such as we have in this passage before us, so that we see more clearly that Jesus saves to the uttermost those who come to him, and that he has saved us and is saving us. Faith in Jesus is something we must nurture every day by communion with Jesus in prayer, worship and meditation in the Bible.

The other great lesson which these two incidences powerfully show us is the readiness that is in Jesus to respond to faith, and come and heal. Jesus got up and went with Jabirus (v.19). Jesus turned and saw her. "Take heart, daughter," he said, "your faith has healed you." Jesus was not saying he was rewarding her for her faith, but simply responding to her faith and giving her what she was trusting him for.

We need never fear as we believe. We do not doubt the power of Jesus. It is not the fact that Jesus raised to life this little girl who was dead, and healed the woman from her incurable desease, that we doubt. We know Jesus is God with all divine infinite power. The problem is whether he will exercise his power for us. The lesson of faith given to us in these verses is that Jesus is only to will to respond to our faith, and always does respond to the faith of those who come to him to be saved.