Matthew 9:25-26

Matthew 9:25-26. When the people were put forth Namely, the mourners, who, having expressed the dispositions mentioned above, were not worthy to behold the miracle; he went in Namely, into the chamber where the corpse was lying, accompanied by none but the three disciples above mentioned, and the father and mother of the damsel, they being of all persons the most proper witnesses of the miracle, which in reality suffered nothing by the absence of the rest. For, as they were all sensible that the child was dead, they could not but be certain of the miracle when they saw her alive again, though they might not know to whom the honour of her resurrection was due. And took her by the hand As if he had been going to awake her out of sleep: and, with a gentle voice, but such as the persons in the chamber could easily hear, he said, Talitha cumi, which is, Damsel, arise. See Mark. And the maid arose In an instant she revived and sat up, just like a person who, being called, awakes out of a soft sleep. Luke says, Her spirit came again; an expression which implies that she was really dead, and that the soul exists separately after the body dies; a truth very necessary to be asserted in those days, when it was denied by many. Withal, her flesh, her colour, and her strength returning in the twinkling of an eye, she was not in the weak, languishing condition of one who, being worn out with a disease, had given up the ghost; for she arose and walked, Mark 5:42, being of the age of twelve years. She was not even in the languishing condition of those who come to life after having fainted away, but was in a state of confirmed good health: for it appears she was hungry, and therefore Jesus commanded to give her meat, Luke 8:55. And her parents, seeing her flesh, and colour, and strength, and appetite returned thus suddenly with her life, were unmeasurably astonished at the miracle, Luke 8:56, as well they might. He charged them, however, that they should tell no man what was done, an injunction which could not mean that her parents were to keep the miracle a secret, which was impossible to be done; for as the whole family, their friends, and all the people collected together to mourn, were witnesses of her death, so her restoration to life could not be hid from them, nor from any that had communication with them. But he meant, that they should not officiously blaze it abroad, nor even indulge the inclination which they might feel to speak of a matter so astonishing. The reason was, the miracle spake sufficiently for itself. Accordingly Matthew here tells us, The fame of it went abroad into all that land Words which imply not only that the report of it was spread throughout that country, and that it was much spoken of, which, all circumstances considered, it could not fail to be, but that the truth of it was inquired into by many, and that upon inquiry the reality of the miracle was universally acknowledged; and, as this is the proper meaning of the observation concerning this or any other of our Lord’s miracles, (namely, that the fame of them went abroad,) so the evangelists, by thus openly and frequently appealing to the notoriety of the facts, have given us all the assurance possible of the reality of the miracles which they have recorded. See Macknight. It may not be improper to observe here that Christ raised three dead persons to life: this child, the widow’s son, and Lazarus; one newly departed, another on the bier, the third smelling in the grave: to show us that no degree of death is so desperate as to be past his help.