Luke 8:50

But Jesus hearing it, answered him, Fear not: only believe, and she shall be made whole.

Only believe ... has no bearing whatever upon the great heresy of salvation by "faith only," referring, in this context, to the only option left to Jairus. He could either believe in Jesus and trust his power to raise the dead, or go about the sad business of burying his only child.

How dark was the alternative of turning away from Jesus. This man Jairus was a ruler of the synagogue, an office corresponding to "president"; and it may be assumed that wealth and social position were his. Life had dealt him flowers and sunshine until that sad day. His precious daughter, at the dawn of womanhood, lay a corpse; and what should have been the morning of life for the house of Jairus had suddenly become its night. He found the grace to believe in Jesus.

Nothing is more disgusting in the contemplation of such an event as Luke recorded here than the fanciful rationalizings of scholars professing to believe it, but actually denying it as anything remarkable. Thus, Barclay wrote:

They were sure that she was dead, but Jesus said that she was asleep. It is perfectly possible that Jesus meant this quite literally. It may well be that here we have a real miracle of diagnosis; and that Jesus saw that the girl was in a deep trance, and that she was just on the point of being buried alive.[24]

This, of course, is the same crass literalizing of Jesus' words indulged by his enemies who said, "Will he kill himself, that he saith, Wither I go, ye cannot come?" (John 8:22). The factual history of this instance of Jesus' raising the dead is attested by three Gospels, nor was it ever denied as a fact until long generations after the event. For a discussion of death as "sleep," see my Commentary on Matthew, Matthew 9:24; and for comment on the reasons why Jesus made a statement which he doubtless knew would afford the Pharisees a ground of denying his miracle, see my Commentary on Mark, Mark 5:39. It should be remembered, in this connection, that Jesus customarily spoke of death as a "sleep" (John 11:11), especially when he was about to raise the dead. Furthermore, the performance of so great a miracle under conditions where it could not be denied, was the trigger that set in motion his crucifixion. Here, Jesus was not ready for the crucifixion, which in its own time would take place, when his "hour" had come. That hour not having come at this time, Jesus freely provided his enemies with grounds of denying that any miracle had taken place, as in the next verses.