It is recorded in the Scriptures that once, as Jesus was journeying from place to place on his merciful ministry of healing and salvation, a certain ruler of the synagogue, Jairus, came to him and, kneeling in humility before him, implored him to come and heal his little daughter, who lay at home at the point of death. Lovingly Jesus started out with him. But we read in the Gospel of Mark (5:24), "Much people followed him, and thronged him." A woman among them who had been ill for many years came behind him and touched the hem of his garment, saying, "If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole." Jesus, knowing instantly that the healing had taken place, called her to him. "Daughter," he said to her, as tremblingly she told him of what had occurred, "thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague."
While he was speaking with her, a messenger came from Jairus' home with the report that the little daughter had died. "Be not afraid," Jesus assured Jairus, "only believe." And quietly, confidently, he proceeded with him on the way. When they reached the home, however, all the evidences of death were there, and the mourners had already gathered. But when Jesus entered into the room where the child lay, he took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha cumi," which means, "Damsel, I say unto thee, arise." And straightway, the Bible tells us, the child arose and walked.
Down through the ages these glorious words of life have come to us: "Talitha cumi, ... I say unto thee, arise." Not only to you but to me the Christ is speaking. To you and to me the command is given. Out of deathbeds of pain and fear, of sorrow and loneliness, of poverty, frustration, and doubt, the Christ bids us rise and be whole.
