The raising of Jairus' daughter, and the healing of the woman with an issue of blood (Mark 5:21; Luke 8:40). The most important point in the raising of Jairus' daughter is the reality of the death. This has been denied on account of our Lord's words, 'The maid is not dead, but sleepeth.' It is perfectly true that the mourners understood them in this sense, 'for they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead' (Lk), but inasmuch as the narrative comes from Peter himself, who was present, and is told as a miracle, it must be held that she was really dead, and that Jesus spoke of her as sleeping, because He was about to wake her. He used the same words of Lazarus, and on that occasion explained them (John 11:11).
Some who are able to credit the miracles of healing, find difficulties in crediting the miracles of resurrection. There is, however, no more real difficulty in believing the resurrection of Jairus' daughter than in believing that of Jesus Himself. The former illustrates the latter, and is rendered probable by it. It should be observed in this connexion, (1) That miracles of healing, important as they are as proofs of God's benevolence, are entirely inadequate to illustrate the cardinal doctrine of a future life (2) That Jesus Himself regarded raising the dead as part of His ordinary ministerial work (Matthew 11:5; Luke 7:22), and, according to St. Matthew, delegated the power to the Apostles (Matthew 10:8), in accordance with which St. Peter afterwards raised Tabitha (Acts 9:40).
Christ's three miracles of resurrection form a graduated series. In the case of Jairus' daughter the spirit had hardly fled. The widow's son (Luke 7:12) had been dead longer, but not more than twenty-four hours. Lazarus (John 11) had been dead four days, and decomposition had probably begun. Yet we are not to suppose that one miracle was more difficult than another to Him who is the Resurrection and the Life.
The healing of the woman with the issue is an example of the way in which Jesus accepted imperfect faith in order to render it perfect. The woman was superstitious. She thought that a kind of magical virtue resided in our Lord's body, ready to flow out to heal without any act of will on His part, or any act of faith on hers. All that she had to do was to touch, and in doing so she was careful to touch (Matthew 9:20) that portion of His garment which to a Jew was holiest, viz. the tassel, which, in accordance with Numbers 15:37, every Jew was required to wear on the four corners of his cloak to remind him of Jehovah's commands. But since there was real faith mingled with her superstition, Jesus allowed her to be healed, only calling her back afterwards to make her faith perfect. By saying 'Who touched me?' and insisting on a full confession, He made it clear to the woman and to others that He had healed her by His own deliberate act, and was fully aware of all the circumstances of the case. By saying 'Thy faith hath saved thee,' He reproved her superstition. Not the touch, nor the holy tassel, nor the supposed magic virtue had. healed her, but her faith.