‘And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the flute-players, and the crowd making a tumult, he said, “Give place, for the damsel is not dead, but sleeps.” And they laughed him to scorn.'
On arriving at the ruler's house Jesus found that the funeral arrangements had already begun. The professional flute players had been called in (only Matthew mentions this) and official mourning was taking place. ‘Making a tumult.' It was the practise to wail loudly, led by professionals who were experienced at it. (Later the minimum requirement, even for the funeral of a poor man, would be two fluteplayers and one wailing woman).
But Jesus turns to them and tells them to leave quietly, for the girl is only asleep and they will wake her up. They simply looked at Him as if He was mad. He had only just arrived. What did He know about the facts? On the other hand they knew, for they had seen the little girl lying dead on her mattress. And they jeered at Him. These jeerers were probably the professional mourners. Here was this prophet come to do a miracle and so full of confidence, and He was too late. The genuine mourners would probably rather have tearfully assured Him that she was dead. It may be, however, that feelings were exacerbated by the thought that if only He had come earlier He might have saved her.
‘She sleeps.' There is no doubt that she was dead, and all knew it. But to Jesus it was only sleep because He knew that He was going to wake her, and He did not want everyone to know what He was accomplishing (see also John 11:11-14). Compare the use of ‘sleep' for death when someone was to be ‘awoken' from the dead in Daniel 12:2 (and see also 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14; 1 Thessalonians 5:10). That Matthew knew that she was dead comes out in that otherwise, if this was not a raising from he dead, he would not have given a full complement of miracles to satisfy Matthew 11:5. Luke makes it all quite clear.