The Raising of Jairus’ Daughter

Jesus was busy travelling around, teaching people about God. As he got out of a boat on the shore of a big lake a crowd of people gathered around him wanting to hear him teach but a man named Jairus arrived.

Jairus believed in God and was a leader of the synagogue where people worshiped God.

Jairus pushed his way through the crowd to get to Jesus, and fell down tired at Jesus’ feet.

“Jesus please you have to help me!” he begged desperately “My little girl is really ill and she’s going to die. Please come and lay your hands on her so you can heal her and she won’t die!”

Jesus agreed to go and help Jairus’ daughter, and began to follow him towards his house. The crowd of people who had come to hear Jesus’ teaching decided to follow him to see what he would do. It was busy and a bit chaotic.

 A woman in the crowd had come to see Jesus because she was sick too. For 12 years she had been bleeding, and people in her town thought that this sickness made her dirty. Her sickness meant that she didn’t have friends. This woman had tried everything to get better; she had been to many doctors, taken lots of different medicines and used all of her money paying people to try and heal her, but it hadn’t worked. She hadn’t got any better, in fact she had gotten worse.

Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.

She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe.  She thought, “If I can just touch his robe, I will get better.” She immediately felt better and knew she had been healed, but Jesus felt his healing power go out and he turned around to ask “Who touched my robe?”

 His friends said to him, “Look at this crowd, it’s so busy and there are so many people pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’”

Jesus kept on looking around to see who had done it.  The woman came forward, and fell onto her knees in front of Jesus and told him what she had done. Jesus said to her, “Your faith has made you well. Go in peace. You are better now.”

While all of this was going on, people came from Jairus’ house and told him “Your daughter is dead. There’s no point bothering Jesus now.”

But Jesus overheard them and said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.”

Jesus stopped the crowd and wouldn’t let anyone go with him except Peter, James, and John. They went to Jairus’ house and when they got there, there was a lot of crying, and screeching and running about.  He went inside and asked, “Why all this fussing and crying? The child isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.”

People laughed at him. but he made them all leave, and he took the girl’s father and mother and his three friend into the room where the girl was lying. Jesus held her hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means “Little girl, get up!” and the girl, who was twelve years old, immediately stood up and walked around! Everyone was amazed!