The King Nobody Wanted Part 12

As their boat drew near to land, they saw a crowd standing on the sh.o.r.e. Everyone had been watching anxiously, waiting for Jesus to come.

When Jesus stepped ash.o.r.e, the waiting crowd made way for a man who was well known in the town. His name was Jairus, and he was the chief officer of the synagogue.

Jairus fell down at Jesus' feet and began to plead with him to come to his house at once:

"My little girl is dying. Please come and put your hands on her, and heal her, and make her live!"

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Jesus went with Jairus, and the whole crowd followed to see what he was going to do. As they walked along the street, with people pressing in on them from every side, Jesus suddenly stopped and said,

"Who touched my clothes?"

The disciples could not imagine what he was talking about. They said to him:

"Why, don't you see the crowd? Everybody is touching you! What do you mean by asking, 'Who touched my clothes?'"

But Jesus answered:

"There's someone in particular who touched me. I felt power going out of me."

With that, a poor woman came out of the crowd and fell down in front of Jesus. She was trembling with fear. She told him her whole story.

For twelve years she had been sick. She had spent all her money on doctors, and she never got any better. She thought that if only she could touch his clothes, without anyone seeing her, she would be made well.

Jesus looked at her kindly, and said:

"Your faith has made you well. Go in peace."

Meanwhile Jairus was waiting impatiently for Jesus to come along. Soon it might be too late!

At that very moment a message came from Jairus' house. The worst had happened. The little girl had died, and there was no use troubling Jesus. Already it was too late.

But before Jairus could speak, Jesus took him by the arm and said:

"Don't be afraid. Just keep on believing."

He sent the crowd away, and told the disciples that none of them could come with him except Simon and James and John.

Jairus led the way to his house. When they got there they found that the bad news was true. The little girl had really died. Already the flute players, who played at funerals in Palestine, had arrived.

Everyone was mourning and weeping.

Jesus spoke sharply to the mourners.

"Why are you making all this fuss?" he asked. "The little girl isn't dead. She is only sleeping."

Everyone laughed at him, as though he were a fool. "So he doesn't know the difference between being asleep and being dead," they said to themselves. But Jesus told them to get out of the house. When they were gone he took Jairus and his wife, and the three disciples, and went into the little girl's room.

There could be no doubt about it--the girl was dead. She was lying white and cold and still. No doctor in the world could ever help her again.

Jesus bent over the still body, and opened his mouth to speak. Simon and James and John held their breath. Not many hours before, they had heard him say to the sea, "Peace, be still." When he spoke, the sea obeyed him. They heard him speak to a madman, and after he spoke the man was in his right mind again. But what use would it be to speak to someone who was dead? The dead could not hear him!

Or could they hear him? Had Jesus not once told them, "The dead hear my voice"?

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The little girl did not know anything. She did not hear anything. She could not know or hear anything, for she was dead.

Then a voice came through the silence. The little girl began to hear someone talking. It was a man's voice, and it was saying the very words her mother used each morning to wake her up from sleep.

"Little girl, get up!" she heard.

She opened her eyes. She looked into the face of Jesus. He took her hand, and helped her to her feet. Her parents were there too. She went to them.

"Give her something to eat," said Jesus. "And say nothing about what has happened."

But no one could keep a secret like that. Soon everyone had heard the story. Everybody heard how Jesus spoke and brought the dead back to life.

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9. Refusing a Crown

Up until this time, Jesus had done all the preaching, and the disciples had listened. Jesus had healed the sick, and the disciples had watched. Now, however, Jesus told the disciples that it was time for them to work also. He called the twelve together, and said:

"I am going to send you out in my place. You are to divide up into pairs. Each pair will go and preach in the towns and villages. You will tell the people what you have heard me say--that G.o.d has come to the earth to rule over men's hearts. When you see people who are sick or out of their minds, you are to make them well, just as you have seen me do."

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He told them plainly what they were to do.

"Don't take any money with you," Jesus said, "and don't ask for money from anybody. Don't take many clothes, either; you are to travel quickly, and attend to your work, without worrying about money or clothes. You will be taken care of."

"When you go into a city or a village, find some family that will welcome a preacher; and stay in that home until you go to the next place. If n.o.body will listen to you, go somewhere else. But before you go, warn the people in the place which you are leaving that they have sinned by not paying attention to G.o.d's message."

So the disciples went out and preached as Jesus told them. They healed the sick, as Jesus did.

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The trip was a great success. After many days the disciples began to come back home, with many stories about their experiences. When they were all with Jesus again, they sat down and told him everything they had said and done.

Jesus listened to their stories, and then he said:

"It is time for you to take a rest. Come with me to some lonely place where n.o.body will disturb us for a while."

They got into their boat, and sailed up to a quiet place they knew of, near the town of Bethsaida. But they got no chance to rest after all, for the people at Capernaum saw them leaving.