James Nisbet Commentary - Matthew 9:18 - 9:18

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James Nisbet Commentary - Matthew 9:18 - 9:18


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

THE RULER WHO PLEADED FOR HIS DAUGHTER

‘A certain ruler.’

Mat_9:18

We have in this incident an instance of a pious and good man trained and chastened by the Father of Spirits. All the interest of the story is centred in the father. We read of what he said, what he felt and suffered, what efforts he made to avert his daughter’s death, how deep was his affliction, and nothing at all of her.

I. A forgotten lesson.—We must regard this trial sent to Jairus as of the same class as that sent to David when his heart was so lifted up with the splendour of his military successes that he proposed to number the people. Thus we must think, then, of Jairus. An amiable, prosperous, easy-going man, whose lot had fallen to him in pleasant places, so pleasant as to render him indolent, and hinder his soul’s real life. He had come to love this present world; to enjoy its pleasures, and to cling to it more and more.

II. The trial.—To such a man it was that the trial came of the sudden illness and the rapidly approaching death of his only and idolised child. The man was shaken out of his accustomed decorum. There, on the open sea-beach, in the presence of the crowd, he flings himself down at Jesus’ feet, and embracing them, sobbed forth in hurried, broken sentences, his sorrow and his request. It is better to have real and deep feelings, though tumultuous, than a cold and selfish heart: and this was the lesson that he was being taught of God.

III. The sympathy of Jesus.—Such transport of parental love deserved, and was sure to receive from Jesus, full of sympathy and tenderness as He ever was, a merciful and gracious answer. And so our Lord seems to have got up at once, without question, and set off to the house of Jairus. The Providential discipline had done its appointed work.

IV. Is there amongst us a Jairus?—Is there any one, that is, who finds this life so pleasant and so sufficing, that he has no strong desire for the next, and only a very languid and tepid love for the ordinances and the practices of religion? Remember, vital religion and love of the world cannot co-exist. To such, who have fallen into Jairus’ error, may He give Jairus’ awakening.