Mark 5:42 Commentary and Bible Study

‘Straightway’ – that’s a terrific word – ‘the damsel arose, and walked.’ Again the translation is literal. The Greek word is just ‘straight’; immediately, directly, without hesitation. If you come to Christ with a sincere heart, and you repent of your sin; if you feel your need, and you believe in what he has done on Calvary, and you give yourself to him and plead for salvation, then he saves you, and you’ll soon see the evidence, and you'll soon realise it. It's an immediate transaction. You don’t have not long to wait. ‘And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years.’ It is extraordinary to put this thoroughly down-to-earth explanation right next to this brief report of such an astounding miracle. Christ indeed is meek and lowly in heart, and the Scriptures record his mighty works with modesty and simplicity, so differently to the way boastful men would speak of such things if they could do them. We need this explanation because now the miracle is finished; she is fully restored. God does not do by miracle what can be done by perfectly natural means. She walked because she was old enough to walk; Christ’s miracle had raised her back to her normal life again as a twelve-year-old little girl. She did not need time to recover or recuperate: she walked.They were all amazed – ‘astonished with great astonishment’ – the parents, the servants, and all who had so recently poured scorn on the Lord’s statement that she was merely asleep. They were forced to re-evaluate Jesus and they noted his quiet claims, not with parading of self or in any anxiety that he was not believed, but with unshakeable confidence in the truth of what he had said, whether or not others believed him. They saw also his power and authority, a power and authority that he knew that he possessed but was in no hurry to display to them. He moved in a plain far above them and they now caught a glimpse of that realm and they were overcome with amazement.