Daily Devotional For Sunday, October 12, 2025
Good morning Southside. It’s Sunday. Please out of love for the Lord get up, get dressed and attend worship with other believers. I believe Jesus Christ is worth it. I hope you do too. We are making our way through the Gospel of Matthew. Yesterday, we wrapped up talking about Matthew 9:14-17. Today, we are going to look at a passage in two parts. Here is the Matthew 9:18-26:
“As Jesus was saying this, the leader of a synagogue came and knelt before Him. ‘My daughter has just died,’ he said, ‘but You can bring her back to life again if You just come and lay Your hand on her.” (19) So Jesus and His disciples got up and went with him. (20) Just then a woman who had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding came up behind Him. She touched the fringe of His robe, (21) for she thought,’“If I can just touch His robe, I will be healed.’ (22) Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, ‘Daughter, be encouraged! Your faith has made you well.’ And the woman was healed at that moment. (23) When Jesus arrived at the official’s home, He saw the noisy crowd and heard the funeral music. (24) ‘Get out!’ He told them. ‘The girl isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.’ But the crowd laughed at Him. (25) After the crowd was put outside, however, Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand, and she stood up! (26) The report of this miracle swept through the entire countryside” (NLT).
What is amazing to me is the love this father had for his daughter. Unfortunately, sons were prized over daughters in that day. The fact this father, who was a leader in a synagogue, came to Jesus for help shows both his faith in Jesus and his humility before Jesus. We learn his name is Jairus (Mark 5:22, Luke 8:41). As a leader in his synagogue, that means he was not a priest, but a lay person that helped in worship.
New Testament scholar Bruce B. Baton elaborates on what it meant for Jairus to a leader in his local synagogue: “The synagogue leaders were responsible for supervising worship services, caring for the scrolls, running the daily school, keeping the congregation faithful to the Law, distributing alms, administering the care of the building, and finding rabbis to teach on the Sabbath. The leader of the local synagogue exerted great influence in his community, yet he knelt before Jesus, indicating homage and courtesy as he came with his urgent request. Neither position nor pressure could stop Jairus from coming to the one man who could help his daughter. (Mark and Luke add that she was twelve years old—see Mark 5:42 and Luke 8:42; Luke also adds that this was his only daughter.) Matthew abbreviated this story by quoting the father as saying, “My daughter just died” (Source: Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary, “Matthew,” pp. 186-187).
Now while in enroute to Jairus house, Jesus will be interrupted. This part of the story we will look at tomorrow. For today, let’s look further at this story about Jairus and his deceased daughter. What I like is how Matthew consistently shows us how Jesus heals. With the Roman Centurion’s servant, Jesus simply spoke the word and the servant was healed (Matthew 8:5-13). Here Jairus requests that Jesus come to home and raise his daughter back from the dead. We have to wonder if other synagogue leaders were irked that Jairus had turned to Jesus. They may have viewed Jairus as a traitor.
The Bible does not tell us, but when you are a parent with a sick and dying child or a dead child and you have heard Jesus can raise the dead, do you really care what others think? Probably not. Jairus probably paid a price but to have his daughter back but it was worth it to him. Now what is interesting to me is that Jairus never doubts Jesus could do this, though other people did. Matthew shows us how people were constantly driven to Jesus. The Roman Centurion came to Jesus for his servant’s health. The woman (tomorrow’s devotional) came to Jesus to make her whole. Jairus could not think of losing his 12-year-old daughter and the woman (tomorrow’s devotional) could not wait to be healed of her 12-year bleeding issue.
In verse 23 when Jesus gets to the house of Jairus, He is informed that the girl is dead. Mark tells us that Jesus would only allow Peter, James and John to enter the house with Him (Mark 5:37). Jesus enters and He sees the flute players and the mourners. In those days, wealthier people hired professional mourners to scream, holler, yell, rip their robes and throw dust and ash on themselves. With this being Jairus' only child, the town came out in full to mourn.
Jesus tells the people the girl is sleeping, not dead. They laughed at Jesus thinking He must be stupid and cruel in His assessment of the situation. People back then knew what death looked like. Everyone knew the girl was dead, stone-cold dead. Jesus knew this also and His words pierced the doubt and lack of faith the town’s people had in Jesus to do this. When Jesus said the little girl was “asleep” when she was dead, was Jesus’ way of saying her condition was temporary, not permanent.
Unlike modern faith healers, there was no fanfare by Jesus. He simply took the girl by the hand and told this dead girl to get up, and raised her up. Luke’s Gospel says that as Jesus did this, her spirit immediately returned (Luke 8:54-55). Of all people, the disciples should not have been surprised or shocked that Jesus could raise this little girl from the dead since Jesus had previously raised the only son of a mother from the dead (Luke 7:11-15). We are not told the disciples’ reaction as when Jesus calmed the storm of the Sea of Galilee.
Assignment: How far are you willing to go to get Jesus to someone who is spiritually dying? Do you ever let what people think of you determine how freely you share your faith? Do you feel that people, even your peers, might think you are some king of “Jesus freak” for sharing your faith? If you do not share your faith, why?
Scripture To Meditate On: Matthew 10:33, “But everyone who denies Me here on earth, I will also deny before My Father in heaven” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, I do not want to appear that I am ashamed of You and the Gospel. Give me the courage to share freely and boldly to my lost friends and family. I fear more what You think than what others think. Use me today Lord to share You. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly