The Ones in the Room With Jesus

I often wonder what it must have been like to walk and talk and be in ministry with Jesus when He was on earth. In hindsight it’s easy to think that we’d have faith enough to be among the Twelve. But would we? The Twelve didn’t have the benefit of evangelists on television or the benefit of the New Testament. And yet they were eventually faith giants.

In Mark 5:21-24, 35-43 there is the account of Jairus, the synagogue official, who came to Jesus because his twelve year old daughter was near death. Jairus was a desperate man. He humbled himself before Jesus, falling at His feet and earnestly entreating Jesus to go with him and lay His hands on his daughter. Could we do that? Probably. If we were afraid enough, if we were desperate enough? For our child? Yes. But would we really expect Jesus to leave where He was and follow us?

For Jairus Jesus did what Jairus asked. He left the crowd at the seashore and followed Jairus to his house. On the way, however, some people came from Jairus’ house to inform him that his daughter had died. More than likely, those people were men whose wives were back at the house with the mother of the little girl. Jesus heard this report and immediately told Jairus to "not be afraid any longer, only believe." The next sentence states that He allowed no one to follow with Him except Peter, James, and John. Why was that? I’m convinced it was because He wanted only people with faith in the room when He came to see her. He already knew that the people from the house believed she was dead. They told Jairus not to bother the Teacher anymore. But Jesus needed people who were not afraid in that room. Jesus did not want fear and unbelief to follow Him into the room.

When they arrived at the house, people were loudly weeping and wailing. Those people, probably the women, were afraid. They were hopeless. They had given up. Even when Jesus told them that the little girl was not dead, they laughed at him instead of believing what He said. Verse 40 says that "He put them all out." However, He did take the child’s father and mother with Him since He had already told Jairus not to be afraid. And he took His three disciples. Evidently fear had not griped them and driven out faith. Jesus drove out the unbelievers from His presence. The scripture doesn’t say that anyone in the room spoke except Jesus. Even Peter who usually has something to say stood silently by. In other words there were no words of doubt or unbelief spoken in the room. Only the words of Jesus. Only The Word standing there in the flesh spoke.

Jesus said, "Little girl, I say to you arise!" And she did! The people in the room were astonished but once again they didn’t say anything. Then He told them to give her something to eat. There must have been rejoicing and total gratefulness from these two parents. It is an amazing account of a miracle performed by Jesus. Would you have liked to have been in that room? I would have. I have to ask myself, "Would Jesus have been able to count on me to be one of the ones who had the faith to be there? If I had any doubts, would I have kept them to myself?" I pray that I would. Would you?

What does it take to be counted among the believers who have enough faith to raise the dead? I’m sure I don’t know all the things you need. But I know some: the anointing of the Holy Spirit to do it, the faith to believe that Jesus still heals and raises the dead, the calm demeanor to take on the task, the discernment to know who can be present and who can’t, and the ability to only speak words of faith. Yes, I would have liked to have been in that room. I would like to be counted among the ones with that much faith.