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Matthew 9:18-26 : Jesus Raises a Dead Girl and Heals a Sick Woman

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18 While He spoke these things to them, behold◦, a ruler coming worshiped Him, saying, My daughter is now dead; but come, lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

19 And Jesus arising followed him, and His disciples.

20 And behold◦, a woman who was diseased with an issue of blood for twelve years, coming from behind, touched the hem of His garment;

21 for◦ she said in herself, If I may only touch His garment, I shall be healed*.

22 And◦ Jesus turning and seeing◦ her, said◦, Have·​·confidence, daughter, thy faith has saved thee; and the woman was healed from that▵ hour.

23 And Jesus coming into the house of the ruler, and seeing◦ the flute·​·players, and the crowd making·​·an·​·uproar,

24 says to them, Depart; for◦ the damsel is· not ·dead, but sleeps; and they laughed·​·at Him.

25 But◦ when the crowd was cast out, entering in He took hold of her hand, and the damsel arose.

26 And this fame went·​·out▵ into that▵ whole land.

Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

Commentary

 

Raising Jairus's Daughter

By New Christian Bible Study Staff
Jesus raises Jairus's daughter.

The story of Jesus raising Jairus's daughter appears in three Gospels, Matthew 9:18-26, Mark 5:21-42, and in Luke 8:40-56.

The story opens, in each case, with people gathered to listen to Jesus. He's summoned to the bedside of a gravely ill girl, and on the way there, he heals a woman who had suffered a flow of blood for 12 years.

When the people are waiting for Jesus, it signifies a wish, a supplication, that the Church will gain an affection for truth that can lift it out of impure loves.

The Lord being amidst the crowd signifies that He receives this supplication, and flows in with spiritual love. This applies at a personal level, and at a church level.

In the story, the healing power comes when the struggling woman touches the hem of Jesus’s garment”. When we are struggling with our natural loves - some of which are evil - if we can reach out and touch the most exterior part of the Divine essence, we can receive spiritual influx, a love that can heal us.

The Lord senses when we make this connection; the Divine is omnipotent and omnipresent, but it’s not impersonal; on the contrary, the Lord knows us very well. When we admit our need, and confess it to the Lord, we can receive his love, and healing, and salvation, and peace.

The second vignette – the raising of Jairus’s daughter – is similar, and that's not a coincidence. This time, it’s not just a woman bleeding, but a girl who has already died. Sometimes, the church can seem to be so impure that it is spiritually dead. Or, at a personal level, we feel spiritually dead.

However, if there is belief in the Lord, then the Divine influence can work even when spiritual life appears to be dead.

Jesus puts everyone out of the house. This is an important step; it represents the removal of the spirit of unbelief – which blocks us from the Lord. Once unbelief has been gotten out of the house, then the Lord takes the girl's hand, speaks to her, and she arises. He directs that she be given food.

There’s power in the Lord’s hand, and truth in his voice. The girl’s spirit returns, and she arises, and then Jesus sees to it that she gets food – which corresponds to spiritual food, i.e. what feeds our state of love. It is the desire for good, the delight of being good, the understanding of what it is to be good and the knowledge of all that's true and leads to what is good.

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