NOTES for Mar 5:35-6:1
There can hardly be any doubt that the raising of Jairus' daughter is yet another testimony to the nearness of the Kingdom, whose breath can not only heal a person from illness but also restore him to life if death has come prematurely even according to the laws of the untransformed world. The most interesting aspect of the account is that the raising depends entirely not so much on the faith of the dying girl as on Jairus' own faith, although his daughter was already at an age when one can speak seriously of faith. One might, of course, say that she may not have known—and most likely did not know—to whom her father had turned for help. Yet the fact that in this situation faith was required above all from Jairus himself allows us to see the Kingdom from a somewhat unexpected perspective: through the relationships of which it actually consists.
It is not by chance that the Savior speaks of love as a new commandment. Previously, love, like hatred, was only a characteristic of the quality of one's relationship with a neighbor; now, in the Kingdom, it becomes the spiritual environment that could, in a certain sense, be called the Kingdom's nature. Its structure is formed by the relationships that bind its inhabitants to God, to Christ, and to one another. The quality and intensity of these relationships determine the measure in which the fullness of the Kingdom is revealed in a particular place and at a particular time. Evidently, by the complete trust Jairus showed in the One who brought the Kingdom into the world, he not only entered into it himself but also brought into it those whom he loved and for whom he petitioned Jesus.
Of course, this in itself did not yet guarantee that the person for whom someone prayed would attain salvation and the fullness of life in the Kingdom into which another person's request had brought him. But in a special, extreme situation, the first step can evidently be taken in this way as well. The important thing is that it should not prove to be the only and final step.