The miracles of Jesus - Classical Christian Literature by Athleo.net

JAIRUS' DAUGHTER 75
his prejudice would naturally be strong against Jesus
who was generally regarded as a teacher of heresy.
We all know how people, bound together by virtue
of belonging to the same class or holding the same
office, are apt to think and act together. It requires
considerable boldness on the part of a physician, for
example, to go out of the track of ordinary and
orthodox treatment; and much the same may be
said of those who are religious teachers.
Now all of
those associated with Jairus probably were antagonistic
to our Lord's teaching and claims, and some
of them attributed His miracles to an evil source,
and all of them sought to disparage His authority.
Yet this one man among them had faith enough in
Jesus of Nazareth to win a blessing for himself and
for his home. How often it is true that some whom
we regard as the least likely are the most fully
blessed ! The appeal which is unheeded by those
brought up in Christian homes, may sometimes
effectively touch some poor waif who has drifted
in from a sea of iniquity and may bring peace to
his troubled heart. As Jesus put it,
" Many will
come from the east and from the west to sit down
in the kingdom of God," whilst those who, in
opportunity, have been far more favoured, will be
shut
out.
2. The faith of this ruler germinated in his grief.
He had been shut up with his little daughter
when she lay ill, and was probably for a time cut
off from his ordinary duties and associations. We
can imagine him sitting there, holding her little
hand in his, while she, having heard something of
Jesus, as every child in Capernaum must have done,