In seeking a reason for Christ’s fixing the number of His disciples, some have found a fancied one in the twelve precious stones of Aaron’s breastplate.  The most precious stone would represent John, the chosen one of the Great High Priest.  In his own vision of the new Jerusalem “the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones.”  “And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb.”  It was that Lamb of God to which he had been pointed on the Jordan, and to which he points us as he beholds Him by the “glassy sea.”  As John read those names did he not recall the day when Jesus chose twelve whom “He named Apostles”?

CHAPTER XV

John in the Home of Jairus

     “He suffered no man to follow with Him, save Peter, and James, and
     John.  And they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue.”

“And taking the child by the hand, He saith unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel I say unto thee, Arise.  And straightway the damsel rose up, and walked.”—­Mark v. 37, 38, 41, 42.

The first scene in which we find John as one of the favored three is in the house of mourning.  It was the home of Jairus in Capernaum.  He was a ruler of the synagogue.  “He had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying.”  He hastened to Jesus, fell at His feet, worshiped Him, and besought Him saying, “Come and lay Thy hands on her that she may be healed; and she shall live.”

Did he not have in mind Peter’s wife’s mother, living in the same town, and how Jesus “came and took her by the hand and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her”?  Jesus started for the house, followed by a throng, some doubtless full of tender sympathy for their townsman, and some curious to see what the wonder-worker would do.

A messenger from Jairus’ home met him saying, “Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master.”  But the father’s faith in Jesus was not limited to the power to heal.  Could not the hand that had already touched the bier of the widow’s only son, be laid on his only daughter, with life-restoring power?  Could not the command spoken in Nain “I say unto thee, arise,” be repeated in Capernaum, and in like manner be obeyed?  Without heeding the messenger’s question about troubling the Master, he cried out yet more earnestly, “My daughter is even now dead; but lay Thy hand upon her, and she shall live.”  But the father’s entreaty was unnecessary, for Jesus was already responding to the messenger’s words as, turning to Jairus, He said, “Fear not, only believe.”

How eagerly the curious crowd hastened toward the ruler’s home, because of a possible miracle, even raising the dead.  But they were not to be witnesses of such display of Divine power.  Yet even if the throng be excluded, might not the Twelve, following close to Jairus and Jesus, expect admission to the home?  What was the surprise and disappointment of nine of them to be forbidden admission by Him whom they were following.  But so it was.  “When He came to the house He suffered not any man to enter in with Him, save Peter, and John and James, and the father of the maiden, and her mother.”